JOURNEYS FOR TRANSFORMING ECOSOCIAL LEADERSHIP
STUDENT GUIDEBOOK
Journeys for Transforming Ecosocial Leadership: Student Guidebook is a textbook/student workbook that is suitable for a wide range of coursework in the areas of leadership, sustainability, environmental and social justice, peace studies, personal growth and social change. The guidebook is intended for a semester or year-long elective for upper class high school students through university graduate students and uses Ecosocial Literacy and Deep Ecology as central organizing and pedagogical models.
The material that students explore in the course is transdisciplinary connecting a wide range of disciplines from cosmology and astronomy to ecology, palaeogeology, neurobiology, indigenous wisdom, creativity and co-creative dialogue. Further, every aspect of the course informs and deepens every other – everything is interconnected – and nothing is intended to stand alone. The course uses the metaphor of a journey. As a result, traditional “chapters” are replaced by “destinations” to emphasize flexibility in sequencing as well as the all-important process of personal transformation, which often requires a process of journeying. While there is a typical sequence, by drawing on their own order of destinations, instructors are able to tailor the material to match their specific needs and areas of expertise or emphasis.
– Chris Zorn – Author
CONCEPT
The design concept is based off of the art of lauhala weaving. The Hawaiian word “lau” directly translates to leaf and lauhala means leaves of the Hala tree. The Hala tree provided bountiful resources for Hawaiians, playing an important role in cultural growth.
Lauhala weaving has been a long-standing traditional art practice passed on for many generations. It not only shares and preserves the knowledge and history of the practice, but allows future weavers to develop their own unique style, continuing to expand and spread the custom.
Applying the definition of interconnectedness, I used the art of lauhala to “weave” the different parts of nature together.
Geometric and abstract forms of nature substitute the lauhala pattern, and the use of location points indicate the different destinations of the journey. Just as weavers will tell stories from their ancestors and masters, they will take those experiences and tell their own unique tales.
