Writing Instruction and Sustainable Development: Colorado State University Composition Program Curriculum and the Imperative of Local Context
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Abstract
This article discusses how the Colorado State University Composition Program developed a rhetorically-based curriculum that teaches principles of sustainable development at the same time as it offers basic writing instruction. Two United Nations initiatives-the Decade of Literacy and the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development-overlapped in 2005-2012 and highlighted the need for writing curriculum and instruction to focus on sustainable development. A curriculum entitled "The Rhetoric of Green" is Colorado State University's response to the United Nations' initiatives, a response that likewise recognizes the importance of being sensitive to local contexts in curriculum design and teaching practices. Offering a thorough description of the Colorado State University curriculum, the article illustrates one way of heeding the admonitions of Jaya Graves (2002), Konai Helu Thaman (2010), Debby Cotton, Ian Baily, Martyn Warren and Susie Bissell (2009), to respect local contexts and use interdisciplinary teaching approaches to afford change in the area of sustainable development.
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References
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