Ecofeminist pedagogy in literary learning to cultivate environmental ethics awareness

Abstract

Most countries in the world have experienced environmental disasters. To ameliorate environmental disasters everyone must take part, including those in schools and universities. The aim of the study was to instil and develop ecofeminism awareness by means of ecofeminist pedagogy in the literature class. The study involved students and lecturers of the three universities in the cities of Yogyakarta and Surakarta, Indonesia. The study was conducted in two semesters (February -May and September -November 2018). The findings show that the ecofeminist pedagogical model of learning was able to cultivate and elevate students' ecofeminism awareness as indicated by their willingness to be involved in taking care of and preserving the environment in their daily life activities, individually or in groups. This attitude was evident in the lecturers' and students' knowledge and skills in reading, selecting, and interpreting literary works that raise ecofeminism issues as source texts revealed in the essays that were written and compiled in book form. Publication of this book was one of the efforts to disseminate the ideas and knowledge of ecofeminism. Finally, after attending the ecofeminist pedagogical classes, students were also expected to take part in and be responsible for the preservation of the environment and Earth and appreciate gender equality. These findings can be used as a model for learning other subjects, especially at universities that have a green campus vision.Wiyatmi, Suryaman, Sari & Dewi, 2023 253 nature and the repression of women. Ecofeminism claims that nature and women in the patriarchal system are regarded as objects and property to be exploited (Warren & Chaney, 1991;Candraningrum, 2013). Ecofeminism was born as a social movement to struggle against the exploitation of both nature and women (Warren & Chaney, 1991; Harvester & Blenkinsopp, 2010;Tong, 2013). According to this paradigm, the subjugation of women and nature go hand-in-hand. Indeed, gender bias permeates in all walks of life including education. To quote but two studies, sexism is often perpetuated in education as proven by school textbooks (Papadakis, 2018;Papadakis et al., 2018). It is important to deconstruct gender stereotypes along with advocacy for environmental protection at the earliest age.At the present time, numerous countries around the world including Indonesia are faced with critical ecological conditions (