Dialogue as a basis for the design of environmental pedagogies (original) (raw)

Philosophical Hermeneutics and Critical Pedagogy in Environmental Education Research and Practice

The contributions and challenges of Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics and Freire's critical pedagogy to research and practice in environmental education are considered. We present the authors' main concepts and relate them to the principles of critical environmental education that have guided our work in Bra-zil. Although a raft of current non-anthropocentric theories question the pivotal role of language in representing experience, our purpose is to outline a critical dialogical perspective suitable for particular education contexts. The respect for the otherness of nature implicit in this process can lead to the recognition and acceptance of our own selves and new forms of solidarity and respect for others, including nonhuman nature. Our interpretive-pedagogical approach informs some of the underlying principles or practices of the critical dimension of environmental education and its research. Résumé Les contributions et défis de l'herméneutique philosophique de Gadamer et de la pédagogie critique de Freire quant à la recherche et la pratique en éducation environnementale sont examinés. Nous présentons les principaux concepts de ces auteurs et les associons aux principes d'éducation environnementale critique qui ont orienté nos travaux au Brésil. Bien qu'un ensemble de théories non anthropocentriques ayant actuellement cours mettent en question le rôle essentiel de la langue dans la représentation de l'expérience, notre objectif consiste à énoncer une perspective dialogique critique destinée aux contextes d'enseignement particuliers. Le respect du caractère unique de la nature inhérent à ce processus peut mener à la reconnaissance et à l'acceptation de soi-même et à de nouvelles formes de solidarité et de respect pour autrui, y compris pour la nature non humaine. Notre approche interprétative et pédagogique est à la base de certains des principes ou pratiques sous-jacents de la dimension critique de l'éducation environnementale et de la recherche dans le domaine.

Environmental Identity and Natural Resources: A Dialogical Learning Process

In this article, we elaborate on the role of dialogical learning in identity formation in the context of environmental education. First, we distinguish this kind of learning from conditioning and reproductive learning. We also show that identity learning is not self-evident and we point out the role of emotions. Using Dialogical Self Theory, we then suggest that individuals do not have an " identity hierarchy " but a dialogical self that attaches meaning to experiences in both conscious and unconscious ways. We describe the learning process that enables the dialogical self to develop itself, and we elaborate on the characteristics of a good dialogue. We conclude with some remarks expanding room for a dialogue that would foster identity learning.

Ecological Identity through Dialogue

Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 2011

Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue offers an epistemic and ontological orientation upon which an ecological identity can be established as part of an integrated, environmental education. I consider here the significance of a relational self in establishing this ecological identity, as well as the benefits of doing so. This relational, dialogical self is developed through a comprehensive, integrated approach of nurturing dialogical capacities: becoming aware by confirmation of the other, and empathic inclusion. In turn, these capacities can be developed through a praxis of dialogue that includes artistic, contemplative, and relational pedagogical practices.

Encountering Paradigmatic Tensions and Shifts in Environmental Education

Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 2005

In response to environmental degradation, the Lesotho government, in collaboration with the Danish government, introduced an Environmental Education Support Project in schools in 2001. In order to optimise the achievement of the project goals the, Monitoring and Research Team was established to formatively evaluate the project as it unfolded. The principles of action research were to guide the monitoring process. The paper discusses the findings of the early phase of the monitoring process with reference to the project's epistemological commitment to initiate paradigmatic shift, in the context of conceptualizing environmental education and the associated learning theories and teaching approaches through workshops with relevant stakeholders in the school curricula development. It is illustrated that the workshops initiated cognitive tensions and shifts amongst the participants, and that their occurrence was indicative of the interrogation of the positivist paradigm underpinning the education system in Lesotho. Résumé En réponse à la dégradation environnementale, le gouvernement du Lesotho, en collaboration avec le gouvernement danois, a introduit un projet d'appui à l'éducation environnementale dans les écoles, en 2001. En vue d'optimiser les accomplissements des buts du projet, on a monté une équipe de recherche et d'observation pour faire une évaluation formative du projet au fur et à mesure qu'il se déroulait. Les principes de recherche active devaient guider le processus de contrôle. Le texte discute des observations de la phase initiale du processus de surveillance en référence à l'engagement épistémologique du projet qui est d'initier un changement paradigmatique et ce, dans le contexte de la conceptualisation de l'éducation environnementale, des théories d'apprentissage et des approches pédagogiques qui y sont associées, par des ateliers donnés par des partenaires compétents dans le développement des programmes d'études des écoles. On y montre que les ateliers ont initié des tensions et des changements cognitifs entre les participants et que leur occurrence reflétait les interrogations du paradigme positiviste soutenant le système d'éducation du Lesotho.

Two-Eyed Seeing into Environmental Education: Revealing its “Natural” Readiness to Indigenize

Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 2012

Recent visions for environmental education now include a foundational acknowledgement that the well-being of humans and the environment are inseparable. This vision of environmental education, with a focus on interconnectedness as well as concepts of transformation, holism, caring, and responsibility, rooted in experiences of nature, community, and land and communicated through storytelling, has been the domain and foundation of Indigenous education models for millennia. It is time for the environmental education field to turn to Indigenous education to enrich, renew, and re-focus its goals and core concepts. Using Two-Eyed Seeing as an integrative framework, this paper argues that current pivotal ideas in environmental education such as systems theory, ecological literacy, biophilia, and place-based education can benefit from and connect to foundational values of Indigenous education. Résumé Les conceptions récentes de l'éducation environnementale sont dorénavant fondées sur le principe que le bien-être des humains et l'environnement sont indissociables. Ce point de vue de l'éducation environnementale, qui met l'accent sur les liens réciproques ainsi que les concepts de la transformation, le holisme, la bienveillance et la responsabilisation, qui tient son origine dans les expériences mettant en jeu la nature, la collectivité et la terre, et qui a été transmis par le récit oral, a constitué le domaine et la base des modèles d'éducation autochtones pendant des millénaires. L'heure est venue d'aligner l'éducation environnementale sur l'éducation autochtone afin d'en enrichir, renouveler et réorienter les objectifs et les concepts fondamentaux. Ayant pour schéma global l'Etuaptmumk, soit l' « apprentissage dualiste », le présent article avance que les idées fondamentales circulant actuellement en éducation environnementale, telles que la théorie des systèmes, la maîtrise des notions environnementales, la biophilie et l'éducation locale, peuvent profiter des valeurs de l'éducation autochtone et y tisser des liens

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”...

The Democratic Classroom Discussion in The Critical Zone: Pedagogy Towards Natural Communities

2024

What role can teachers play in the fragility of democracy? What role in the shifts in environmental balance? Since teachers are given the task of mentoring future generations, these questions are highly important. This text proposes beginning with viewing all members of the Critical Zone (the swath enveloping the earth where all life, including humans, as we know it has lived and died. Three guides are proposed. Alain Badiou for the primacy of truths and infinite worlds, Bruno Latour for decentering humans to a community of actants, and Jacques Lacan for discourses of power that obscure revealing truths. This text proposes that these are addressed in classroom democratic discussions and deliberations To get there, teachers reflect on their personal heaven and hells and the political nature of their work to better ground themselves in the work. The difference between educating and learning, between being and educator as opposed to a teacher are part of the work. This text includes a way to design a curriculum story that incorporates addressing multiple nonhuman actants in democratic discussions followed by navigating these discussions using extended claim testers that include Lacan's four discourses. The conclusion proposes modified definitions of education and learning revisiting the work of Alain Badiou.

Coming to Age: experiences in (environmental) education

2019

In this time of ours we definitely need to multiply the approaches, linkages, connectedness, cross-boundaries gatherings and holistic views as soon as we talk about environmental education. Environmental education came to age integrating diversity and complexity, promoting meetings in multilevel ways, namely with other species, weaving bonds of communication and pushing thought in direct experience with the natural world. Replying to that challenges, the ID-NATURA project encourages multi-meetings between pupils of all school levels (kindergarten, elementary, secondary), teachers and researchers from different disciplinary areas and among those and the natural world, specifically the "river of my village... ". This paper is inspired by J. W. Goethe's methodology of knowing nature, the delicate empiricism; Goethe's approach to nature is valued, as a way to educate for sustainability, and some important results this project are presented through pupils' voices.

Dialogue Method: A Proposal to Foster Intra- and Inter-community Dialogic En- gagement

2021

How can we learn and experience dialogue within and between communities? Inspired by the methodological ideas of David Bohm, William Isaacs and Paulo Freire, as well as by the professional experiences of the rst author of this article in the eld of education and the environment, our aim in the present text is to present in detail a method, which has been developed, tested, and analysed in recent years, to learn and experiment dialogue, which can be used within and between communities. e method is composed of two major interdependent cycles that alternate. e rst is a re exive one, without agenda, composed of four practices that constitute a junction and a transformation of the procedures of suspension of assumptions, by Bohm and Isaacs, and codi cation and decodi cation, by Freire, with the purpose of stimulating interpersonal understanding and connection. e second is a deliberative one, with agenda, inspired by Freire's ideas of dialogic collaboration and the principles of educative intervention for sustainability, as suggested by several authors in the eld of education for sustainability and social learning, with the purpose of promoting structural changes. We recognise that there is still a long way to go to verify the e ciency of the proposed method, and that numerous research and experience reports are needed based on its application.