TEACHING AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT
The Deep Teaching Process
by Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

During my doctoral work, I developed a process for teaching environmental studies that is based on active engagement and participation with the world around us.

In particular, the importance of recognizing our intimate connection to the natural world is stressed as an effective tool to learn about humans' role in the environment. Understanding our place in the natural world may be a pivotal awareness that must be developed if we are to heal the many wounds we are experiencing today.

The deep teaching process is an approach to teaching that is based on critical thinking, problem solving, and nonlinear, non-patriarchal approaches to thinking, reasoning, and learning. With these tools, a learner is challenged to think and to understand diverse cultural, social, and intellectual perspectives and to perceive the natural world as an intimate and integral part of our lives.

This Deep Teaching Process is drawn from many elements including deep ecology, ecofeminism, despairwork, spiritual ecology, bioregionalism, critical thinking, movement therapy, and my own teaching experience with learners of all ages.

I have also developed or adapted a number of experienttial learning experiences to enhance the teaching of our relationship to the natural world. These experiences move the body and activate the creative impulses.

The deep teaching process is a process to reawaken our senses. A reawakening of the senses and an intimate awareness of our connections to the natural world and the web of life may be the primary goal of any educator in these troubled times.

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