ABSTRACT
Since the 1930s, the emergence of social foundations of education as an academic discipline has focused on developing interpretative, normative, and critical perspectives concerning the interrelationships between educational ideas, practices, and policies and their cultural, economic, historical, legal, and political contexts. As an overarching interdisciplinary inquiry, social foundations of education is grounded in a belief that contextual analyses of education can facilitate professional educators’ developing and carrying out their moral commitment to human equality and social justice. However, social foundations of education from its inception has not been known for studying the ecological context of education. The historical omission or marginalization of ecological issues within the field of social foundations of education reflects a prevalent assumption that social issues (e.g., poverty) are to be distinguished from ecological issues (e.g., air and water pollution). Yet, in the age of globalization, it has become especially clear that social issues and ecological issues are interrelated. The pursuit of human equality and social justice can no longer avoid addressing and redressing ecological problems.
