Abstract

In the challenges of the Anthropocene, peace education has yet to fully address and analyze the linked violences of gender and the earth. This thesis will explore those shortcomings, as well as make an ecofeminist ontological offering that extends peace education to address these issues. An ecofeminist offering includes a critique of capitalist patriarchy and colonial structures that subjugate women and the earth along various intersections, linking sociological and ecological destruction; posits an interconnected world of humans and non-humans; and presses toward caring ways of being that focus on dismantling structural violences for the sake of communal flourishing that includes humans and non-humans. Using a post-oppositional framework this thesis will extend peace education using ecofeminist theory and specifically address educational sites and narratives within Hickory County, Missouri using this pedagogical practice.