Abstract

Environmental stewardship is a key concept in campaigns for environmental sustainability in schools. This concept is foundational to an articulation of human responses to global environmental issues like climate change. This article discusses the preliminary conceptual basis for identifying “pamagmasabal” as a prospective local appropriation of environmental stewardship from Pampanga in the northern Philippines. Using de Mesa’s Thematic Cultural Analysis (TCA) as an analytical framework, our investigation argues that peculiar differing regional notions of stewardship uniquely influence localized worldviews and behaviors. We primarily source our analysis from relevant local and foreign literature. From our analysis, preliminary thematic sets reveal meanings attuned to “pamagmasabal” as an appropriate notion for interpreting environmental stewardship for the Kapampangan audience. This study is proposed as an example of the need to appropriate Western concepts using cultural categories embedded in local language.