ABSTRACT

As educators, we recognize that teaching sustainability is not something that needs to be limited to environmental studies and business courses. I suggest that the integration of sustainability into diversity courses is not only appropriate, but necessary. Understanding sustainability as a wicked problem, and recognizing how an egoist ethic otherizes the environment and is thus in large part responsible for the abuses that have led to a number of current environmental and social problems, are central to the resolution of this pressing situation. While it is certainly the case that most general education courses have something valuable to say about the issues surrounding sustainability, I focus here on the learning outcomes of integrating sustainability into diversity education. This smaller scope reflects both the limits of time and space here and my own experience teaching diversity issues as connected to issues of sustainability.