Chet Bowers
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest of the United States where there is a greater sensitivity to social justice issues and an awareness of the environment that is only shared by the New England states. I did my graduate studies at the University of California in what turned out to be an interdisciplinary course of study, which accounts for why I tend to frame educational reform issues in ways that draw upon a variety of disciplines. My first university position was at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada where I learned about agrarian socialism and began to introduce into the current educational discourse issues related to the colonizing nature of universalizing Western metaphors about the nature of freedom, democracy, individualism, progress, and so forth. After spending 4 years on the Canadian prairie I took a position at the University of Oregon where I taught for 25 years before moving to Portland State University where I initiated a masters specialization in education, culture, and ecology. Another important influence on my thinking and writing was being invited to participate in the group of Deep Ecology thinkers who met twice yearly over a five year period. It was my writings on the importance of the cultural commons to reducing the human ecological footprint that led me to start putting my article and books online and thus as part of the non-monetized commons. Recent books includes: Educating for an Ecologically Sustainable Culture and Rethinking Moral Education (see my Website).
