Ecoliteracy and the narratives of ecological discourse

Abstract This dissertation focuses on the ways in which we use language to construct the natural world and respond to environmental issues. It introduces the concept of Restorative Literacy and extends the concept of ecoliteracy to include the ways we read, write, and think about the environment. The research incorporates the way individuals and groups have historically framed the conversation about the environment and extends that thinking to include the ways we are currently entering ecological discourses. This is represented in the circular Continuum of Perspectives on Nature which plots some of the major cultural, social, and political perspectives on the environment and repositions the way in which we plot and prioritize those perspectives. The study focuses on the concept of "whereness" or place as the guiding factor to one's ecological identity and as a portal to the language of place. It discusses the ways in which our relationships to place are mediated by language.;The research also highlights the three modes of discourse associated with the ways in which we enter the ecological or natural discourses. They are: Discourse without Action: Circling the Events; Discourse with Action: Entering the Public Discourse; Restorative Discourse: Healing and Restoring in the Aftermath. Each mode of discourse is situated in specific events which determine the ways in which we enter and negotiate environmental discourses in order to effect change.