Pedagogy in the Anthropocene: Re-Wilding Education for a New Earth (Palgrave Studies in Educational Futures)

This book explores new pedagogical challenges and potentials of the Anthropocene era. The authors argue that this new epoch, with an unstable climate, new kinds of globally spreading viruses, and new knowledges, calls for a new way of educating and an alertness to new philosophies of education and pedagogical imaginations, thoughts, and practices. Addressing the linkages between the Anthropocene and Pedagogy across a broad pedagogical spectrum that is both formal and informal, the editors and their contributors emphasize a re-imagining of education that serves to deepen our understanding of the capacities and values of life. Preface Praise for Pedagogy in the Anthropocene Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures List of Boxes Chapter 1: A Critical Introduction Integrated Pedagogy The Anthropocene The Contested Anthropocene Controversy # 1: When Did It All Start? Controversy # 2: The Name of the Game Controversy # 3: A Narrow or Broad Controversy # 4: A Good or Bad Anthropocene—or, Does It Ever End? Structure of the Book A Non-conclusive Conclusion: The Diversity of Anthropocene Pedagogies References Part I: Wild Pedagogies Chapter 2: Wild Pedagogies: Opportunities and Challenges for Practice Introduction Educational Responses: A Scholarly Ethos Wild Pedagogies Wilderness, Wilding, and Will Wilding of Pedagogy Touchstones Touchstone #1: Nature as Co-teacher Touchstone #2: Complexity, the Unknown, and Spontaneity Touchstone #3: Locating the Wild Touchstone #4: Time and Practice Touchstone #5: Socio-cultural Change Touchstone #6: Building Alliances and the Human Community Touchstone #7: The Imagination—Limits and Possibilities Considering Wild Pedagogies in Practice Vignette #1 Vignette #2 Concluding Thoughts References Chapter 3: The Epistemological Possibilities of Love: Relearning the Love of Land Prelude: Learning to Walk in the Dark Ontology of the Isolated Individual and the Limits of Standard Education Can Land Love? Definition of Relational Ontology Relational Ontologies in Educational Alternatives Standard Education Actively Discourages Relational Ontologies The Way Forward: An Ontological Shift in Education References Chapter 4: How Might Self-guided and Instructor-Led Nature Education Serve as a Gateway to Appreciating Non-human Agency and Values? Introduction Structure of the Chapter Self-directed Nature Education Instructor-Led Nature Education Choice of Language Concluding Remarks References Chapter 5: Where the Children Are Writing as a Method Keyholes First Keyhole: Excited by the (Seemingly) Unexciting Reflections from Marianne Reflections from Marcus Reflections from Sean Reflections from Bob Second Keyhole: A Squirrel Isn’t Enough Reflections from Marianne Reflections from Marcus Reflections from Sean Reflections from Bob Resonances and Dissonances A Wonder/Wander What If the Children Have Other Knowledges? A Gestalt of Knowing Knowing with/in the World Bildung with/in the World What If We Were to Support This Different/Other Knowledges in Education? Play as Encounter Paying Attention/Orienting to the World Wildness and Education References Part II: Dark Pedagogies Chapter 6: Action Incontinence: Action and Competence in Dark Pedagogy Introduction The Action Competence Tradition Participatory Democratic Education The Notions of Action and Competence Educational Spatiality, Temporality and Causality in the Anthropocene Action Incontinence: Dark Pedagogy in the Anthropocene References Chapter 7: Dark Labour Educational Monopolies The Facticity of Production in Education The Transmutation of Production and Negation of the Negative Education in the Mirror of Production Production’s Role in the Making of the ‘Educacene’ On the Nightside of Production Inhuman Reversal The Inhuman Transmutation of the Educational Real Conclusion: ‘But What Will We Do?’ References Chapter 8: Cosmology and the Anthropocene: Speculative-Educative-Artistic Practices for a Planetary Consciousness Ecomodernist Humanism Posthumanist and Posthuman Tensions Cosmology Contemporary Cosmic Artisans of the Anthropocene: Culling a Pedagogy ... of Sorts Sequel to Come? References Chapter 9: Lying on the Ground: Aesthetic Learning Processes in the Anthropocene Prologue Introduction Presentation of the Chapter I. Aesthetic Learning Processes in Scandinavian Education ALPs as a Mode of Production ALPs as a Mode of Reception II. Aesthetic Learning Processes as Attunement: Lying on the Ground The Bodies The Little Death of the Self Attunement as an Aesthetic Mode of Connecting ALPs as a Mode of Attunement III. Proposition for Aesthetic Learning Processes in the Anthropocene Propositions Conclusion References Part III: Interspecies Inclusion and Environmental Literacy Chapter 10: Embodying the Earth: Environmental Pedagogy, Re-wilding Waterscapes and Human Consciousness Embodying Knowledge: An Introduction Locating Time, Place, Water Literacy and Posthumanism From Wild, to Tame to Re-wilding Student Participatory Engagement: Concepts, Context and Practice Conclusion References Chapter 11: To Love and Be Loved in Return: Toward a Post-Anthropocene Pedagogy and Humanity Introduction Part I: What Is Most Lacking in the Anthropocene Two Understandings of the Anthropocene Two Responses Assessment of the Two Responses What Has Been Forgotten in Holocene Earth-Forgetfulness Part II: Conceptualization of Interspecies Life Communities and Dialogical Relations Between Humans and More-Than-Humans Part III: Toward a Dialogical and Zoëlogical Understanding of the School Conclusions References Chapter 12: Planetarianism Now: On Anticipatory Imagination, Young People’s Literature, and Hope for the Planet Dreaming Despair: The Present Moment and the Rise of Dystopia Dreaming Hope: Planetarianism and the Way Forward Planetarianism NOW References Chapter 13: To Learn a World: Human-Machine Entanglements as Pedagogy for the Anthropocene Artificial Intelligence as a Metaphysically Subversive Figure Science Fiction as Pedagogy for Worlding Suggested Corpus of AI Fictions The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (2019) “Warmth” by Geoff Ryman (2005) Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021) Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson (2015) Conclusion References Part IV: Critical Rethinking and Future Practices Chapter 14: Ethical Grounding of Critical Place-Based Education in the Anthropocene Critical Thinking—An Issue of Skills or Normativity? The Bowers–Greenwood Exchange Critical Thinking in Greenwood’s Critical Pedagogy of Place Critical Thinking in Bowers’ Account Why Ask for Ethical Grounding? Normative Foundations of Critique Within Critical Theory Immanent Critique Communicative Rationality Relations and Connectedness #Fridays for Future Climate Strikes Concluding Remarks References Chapter 15: Educating for Sustainability in an Anti-education State: Critical Thinking in a Rural Science Classroom Introduction Rural Geographies Rural Education in the United States Climate in the Classroom Pivot Toward Opportunities Conclusion References Legislation Cited Chapter 16: Ecopedagogy in the Anthropocene: A Defence of the Classical Paideia Introduction The Ecopedagogical Movement Ecology and Classical Antiquity What Is Classical Paideia? Conclusion References Chapter 17: Sowing the Seeds of the Pollination Academy: Exploring Mycelic Pedagogies in the Anthropocene Introduction: Inhabiting the Critical Zone Around an Inverted (Anthropocene) Vortex Map.Learn.Repeat. Based on Depression Education Always Happens in Places: Learning Is Always an Agential Apparatus in the Wound of the World (Even in an Old Reworked and Buried Swamp) The ‘People’: We Never Know Who We Are; We’re Many More Participation: Every Time You Think You Know How to Participate in Learning, Ask Again Entanglement Is Fiery; Fire Is Passion and Grows in the Encounter: As Do Ghosts Discussion: Value (Prosperity) Is Always an Ontological—and Political—Question Concluding Remarks References Websites and Blogs Chapter 18: Outro Outro 1: Somebody Save Us!? Outro 2: Live Life! Outro 3: Nothing Changes If Nothing Changes Index "Much has been written about the Anthropocene but surprising little about its implications for education. This book tackles that fundamental issue head-on. The definitions and interpretations of the Anthropocene are vast, but they all point towards the same formidable challenge - we need to examine who we are and what relationship we should have with the rest of the planet. The next generations will feel the full force of the Anthropocene, so there is nothing more important than preparing them for the uncertain future of the human epoch." --Will Steffen, Emeritus Professor, The Australian National University, Canberra "This book charts critical pedagogical pathways for an unknown future. Its offerings range from those who believe the future is dark yet holds a flickering torch of hope for the future, and others that believe that the hope for the future lies in our ability to re-wild and re-pair the extraordinary damage we have done to the planet, through re-vitalized consciousness and connections. --Makere Stewart-Harawira, Professor, University of Alberta, Canada This book confronts new pedagogical challenges of the Anthropocene era. The authors argue that this new epoch, with an unstable climate and new varieties of globally spreading viruses, calls for a re-invigoration in education and an alertness to new philosophies of education, pedagogical imaginations, thoughts and practices. Addressing the linkages between the Anthropocene and Pedagogy across a broad pedagogical and cultural spectrum that is both formal and informal, the editors and their contributors emphasize a re-imagining of education that is alive, and serves to deepen our understandings of the capacities and values of all planetary life. Michael Paulsen is Associate Professor and Head of Intercultural Pedagogy Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. jan jagodzinski is Professor of Visual Art and Media Education at the University of Alberta, Canada. Shé M. Hawke is Assistant Professor and Head of the Mediterranean Institute for Environmental Studies (2019-2021), Science and Research Centre, Koper, Slovenia. She is also an Honorary Associate in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney, Australia This book charts critical pedagogical pathways for an unknown future. Its offerings range from those who believe the future is dark yet holds a flickering torch of hope for the future, and others that believe that the hope for the future lies in our ability to re-wild and re-pair the extraordinary damage we have done to the planet, through re-vitalized consciousness and connections. Makere StewartHarawira, Professor, University of Alberta, Canada This book confronts new pedagogical challenges of the Anthropocene era. The authors argue that this new epoch, with an unstable climate and new varieties of globally spreading viruses, calls for a re-invigoration in education and an alertness to new philosophies of education, pedagogical imaginations, thoughts and practices. Addressing the linkages between the Anthropocene and Pedagogy across a broad pedagogical and cultural spectrum that is both formal and informal, the editors and their contributors emphasize a re-imagining of education that is alive, and serves to deepen our understandings of the capacities and values of all planetary life. Michael Paulsen is Associate Professor and Head of Intercultural Pedagogy Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. jan jagodzinski is Professor of Visual Art and Media Education at the University of Alberta, Canada. She M. Hawke is Assistant Professor and Head of the Mediterranean Institute for Environmental Studies (2019-2021), Science and Research Centre, Koper, Slovenia. She is also an Honoray Associate in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney, Australia