White Paper Concerning Philosophy of Education and Environment (original) (raw)
Related papers
Environmental consciousness, nature, and the philosophy of education: some key themes
Environmental Education Research, 2021
This book explores alternative ways of understanding our environmental situation by challenging the Western view of nature as purely a resource for humans. Environmental Consciousness, Nature and the Philosophy of Education asserts that we need to retrieve a thinking that expresses a different relationship with nature: one that celebrates nature's otherness and is attuned to its intrinsic integrity, agency, normativity, and worth. Through such receptivity to nature's address, we can develop a sense of our own being-in-nature that provides a positive orientation towards the problems we now face. Michael Bonnett argues that this reframing and rethinking of our place in nature has fundamental implications for education as a whole, questioning the idea of human "stewardship" of nature and developing the idea of moral education in a world of alterity and non-rational agents. Drawing on and revising work published by the author over the last 15 years, this book will be essential reading for students and scholars of environmental studies, environmental education, and the philosophy of education. Michael Bonnett has published widely in the field of philosophy of education, giving particular attention to ideas of learning, thinking, personal authenticity, and the character of the teacher-pupil relationship in education. His book Children's Thinking: Promoting Understanding in the Primary School (1994) explored the importance of poetic thinking for education. More recently, his focus has been on aspects of sustainability and environmental education, including developing a phenomenology of nature and exploring ways in which human consciousness is inherently environmental. His book Retrieving Nature: Education for a Post-Humanist Age was published in 2004, and his edited collection Moral Education and Environmental Concern was published in 2014 by Routledge. ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS, NATURE AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION This series brings together international educators and researchers working from a variety of perspectives to explore and present best practice for research and teaching in environmental studies. Given the urgency of environmental problems, our approach to the research and teaching of environmental studies is crucial. Reflecting on examples of success and failure within the field, this collection showcases authors from a diverse range of environmental disciplines including climate change, environmental communication and sustainable development. Lessons learned from interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research are presented, as well as teaching and classroom methodology for specific countries and disciplines.
Introduction to ecologizing philosophy of education
Studies in Philosophy and Education
We proposed this special issue of Studies in Philosophy and Education to help mend the gap we see in the philosophy of education community with respect to the ecological crisis. In 1972 the United Nations recognized that virtually every living system on Earth was in decline, putting at risk countless species including humans. Nearly half a century later, the situation is much more precarious. Since humans are immersed in, responsible to, and reliant upon the world around us, we, as educators, philosophers, and living beings, are called upon to take substantive action. Our question is how?
Environmental Consciousness, Sustainability, and the Character of Philosophy of Education
Studies in Philosophy and Education, 2016
This paper argues that education itself, properly understood, is intimately concerned with an individual's being in the world, and therefore is ineluctably environmental. This is guaranteed by the ecstatic nature of consciousness. Furthermore, it is argued that a central dimension of this environment with which ecstatic human consciousness is engaged, is that of nature understood as the 'self-arising'. Nature, so conceived, is essentially other and is epistemologically mysterious, possessing its own normativity, agency, and intrinsic value. As such, engagement with nature presents opportunities for consciousness quintessentially to go beyond itself, to be inspired and refreshed, and to receive non-anthropogenic standards in the form of intimations of what is fitting and what is not. It will be argued that these are fundamental to the orientation of human being, providing primordial intimations of the nature of reality and truth. Given their centrality to the idea of a person's becoming educated, the elucidation of these and the issues to which they give rise must be central to the philosophy of education and in this sense it becomes deeply ecological.
Educational philosophy, ecology and the Anthropocene
Educational Philosophy and Theory
The Anthropocene is a much talked about epoch in the geological history of planet Earth. The impact that ‘advanced’ civilisation has had on the planet has led many scientists to argue that planet Earth has now left the stable climate of the Holocene epoch and entered into a more uncertain future. Evidence for our uncertain future has been collected across a range of planetary boundaries, including climate change, ocean acidification and biodiversity loss (mass extinction) (Steffen, Grinevald, Crutzen, & McNeill, 2011; Steffen et al., 2015; Zalasiewicz, Williams, Steffen, & Crutzen, 2010). While in a narrow technical sense the Anthropocene marks a geological transition, it is also being used by critical thinkers to reconceptualise the relationship between human society and the planet (see for example Hamilton, Gemenne, & Bonneuil, 2015). From this critical perspective the Anthropocene is, as much as anything, a crisis in the individualistic and anthropocentric assumptions underpinning our economic and social structures (see also Brown & Timmerman, 2015). In more straight forward terms, the Anthropocene is a crisis in the way we think. Linked to this idea is the emerging realisation that humanity has much more responsibility for the health of the planet than it has traditionally assumed. Somewhat ironically, just as we are realising that we are facing a more uncertain future, one in which we cannot easily predict, manage or control, it is also clear that we need to improve the quality of our stewardship (Affifi, Blenkinsop, Humphreys, & Joldersma, 2017; Laird, 2017). And in the process of more carefully considering our interconnected natural, social and intellectual systems, it seems likely that new approaches to education need to be part of this process.
Current Challenges of Environmental Philosophy Contents
It is extremely difficult to seek new paths in the twilight of our former idols, ideals and visions of a happy and successful life. The authors of the book invite the reader to embark on this journey in a free-spirited manner and to look at the challenges posed by the new climate regime from different perspectives. Whether one accepts the concept of the Anthropocene as a starting point, or rather as an opportunity for constructive criticism, readers will be fully engaged by thinking through historical-philosophical, scientific, political, social, as well as educational problems.
Environmental education : possibilities and constraints *
2002
Over the last 30 years, those involved in environmental education have gradually become aware of the richness and breadth of the educational project they have contributed to build. They have realised that the environment is not merely a subject to be studied or a theme to be analysed among others; nor is it only the necessary constraint of a development we want to be sustainable. The weft of the environment is life itself, at the interface between nature and culture; the environment is the crucible in which our identities, our relations with others and our “being-in-the-world” are formed. Environmental education is therefore not a “form” of education (an “education for ...”) among many others; it is not simply a tool for environmental problem-solving or management. It is a essential dimension of basic education focused on a sphere of interaction that lies at the root of personal and social development1: the sphere of relationships with our environment, with our common “home of life”...
Interdisciplinary Research in Counseling, Ethics and Philosophy - IRCEP
Children today face a different reality from those a few years ago. Environmental changes are being very transparent because of the rapid transmission of information on one hand and the direct access that most people are entitled to from various sources on the other hand. However, it is vital for the current and future democracy, of citizens of all generations, to be able to filter, distinguish, critically reflect, and further communicate the ethical concerns of human actions especially regarding the environment and our responsibilities to it. Considering the duty of the human community to prepare the younger people and to transform the perceptions of the older ones, philosophical inquiry and reinforcing critical thinking within the school and home through reflective dialogue is suggested through Philosophy for Parents (P4P), for the purpose of bridging a now widely recognized gap in communication and collaboration between parents and teachers, and hence in potential educational eff...
IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES ON EDUCATION
Anu Books, 2022
Environmental change and related issues are seen as important aspects of education. This paper details the possible impacts of climate change and associated environmental degradation on education and sets out associated responses. It argues that although the role of education in addressing environmental challenges is being increasingly recognized, the capacity of education to contribute to adaptation and mitigation measures has yet to penetrate mainstream development thinking. An attempt has been made to improve stakeholders' understanding of the relationship between environmental change and education. The challenges of environmental change require all concerned to look to fundamentals and examine the degree to which existing educational provision is adapted to and prepares people for radically different futures. Some recommendations are made in terms of making the teaching of environmental change explicit in the curricula and moving beyond a basic understanding of how the climate system works.