This article contrasts predominant epistemologies and goals of American higher education with alternate ones that would better serve the sustainability of both humans and nature. The author advocates using educational processes articulated by Paulo Freire as a vehicle for making higher education itself an embodiment of sustainability-oriented social change. The author advocates socio-ecologically sustainable pedagogical processes in which students are called upon to identify and critique overarching social themes that act as pillars of a given social order. This process of social critique then serves as a platform for engaging in praxis oriented toward socio-ecological sustainability.