Overpopulation, overexploitation of natural resources, overconsumerism, the predictions of environmental experts do not bode well for us. What can we do? In her thought-provoking study, Redefining Moral Education, Kathryn Wayne explores the role of education in developing a new ecological morality. Using two novels by Ursula Le Guin, The Word for World Is Forest (1972) and Always Coming Home (1985), Wayne explores how language plays an essential part in our apprehension of the relationship between nature and culture. Wayne analyzes how Le Guin's work relates to recent works by deep ecologists, social ecologists, and ecofeminists, as well as leading influences in moral theory and education - Kohlberg, Gilligan, Rogers, and Noddings - and how Le Guin uses language to highlight cultural behaviors and practices that can be held as an example from which we can redefine morality in terms of our environment. Redefining Moral Education provides a groundbreaking analysis of the relationship between rhetorical and environmental practices, of importance not simply to educators, but to all of us.
