This report describes the interweaving of sustainability issues into the English Language curriculum using the lens of the ‘stories we live by’. The accumulating evidence of destruction of the ecosystems that life depends on calls into question some of the key stories that our civilisation is built on such as unlimited economic growth technological progress or the conquering of nature. Students use discourse analysis to expose the stories that structure the unsustainable society around them and search for new stories to live by. This process requires both technical skill in analysing linguistic features to reveal stories and self-reflection to build an ecological framework to judge those stories against. The report concludes that while this approach can introduce students to the literacy skills they need to read and re-write the society they are part of there are many other necessary skills that are hard to gain in a classroom-based and discipline-based educational system.
