ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 defines the Approach-in-Dimension as the planning and evaluation tool for Environmental Liberation Education. This big-picture rubric assists educators to make decisions about six approaches to humanity in five education dimensions. The chapter explains that the Approach-in-Dimension provides diversity, equity, inclusion, and sustainability criteria for educators to change assimilation and segregation at school. It describes how to determine a clear-eyed philosophy of education to reflect professional passion, subject requirements, and site cultures. It shows how to compare philosophical intentions to cultural data and achievement results from change activities. It details how to design and assess space, time, materials, and learning environments in classrooms, labs, and meeting rooms for holistic sustainability experiences. It attributes the Approach-in-Dimension to the multicultural education scholarship of James A. Banks, who wrote about two models: four approaches and five dimensions. It describes how the Approach-in-Dimension reconceives Banks’s models by synthesizing them, inserting “Mainstream” as the first approach, and “Environmental Liberation Education” as the last. It relates the Approach-in-Dimension to the “deep diversity” paradigm. The chapter presents Multicultural Mindfulness Activities and one journal question: Healthy Multicultural Identity Quest, Superdiverse Biodiverse Me Turtle, and What’s the Approach-in-Dimension?
