Decolonizing Higher Education through Ecocentrism: Exercises in Environmental Justice

The Earth is confronting pressing climate, biodiversity, and ecological health collapses, deeply connected to justice and equity, which demand the higher education community's attention.This article presents A Walk in the Park for Environmental Justice: New York City, a collection of free online guided tours of green spaces, with options for people with disabilities.Set in a globally significant urban center whose diverse public parks embody the complexities, challenges, and opportunities of environmental justice, these audio-guided walks engage participants in active, experiential learning as they explore the city's green spaces.Furthermore, participants may employ the user-friendly platforms and materials as models to create their own tours for any site they may choose, whether local, iconic, complex, or otherwise of interest.Each tour lasts about an hour and includes ten stops that take participants through history, from ancient Earth to the Indigenous era, colonization, enslavement, industrialization, park establishment, and the present day.Along the way, learners engage with site-specific information, such as the history of the African American Seneca Village community displaced to make space for Central Park in the 19th century.These elements are explored through the lenses of environmental justice, biodiversity, ecological health, climate change, and just sustainability.Each tour offers wildlife observation opportunities and thought-provoking reflection questions.The visits intentionally counter the exclusionary and elitist history of many parks, instead embracing an ecocentric perspective that amplifies historically underrepresented human and nonhuman voices, aiming to empower all users in pursuit of a universally just and sustainable future.