Wild Pedagogies

This book explores why the concept of wild pedagogy is an essential aspect of education in these times; a re-negotiated education that acknowledges the necessity of listening to voices in a more than human world, and (re)learning how to dwell in a place. As the geological epoch inexorably shifts to the Anthropocene, the authors argue that learning to live in and engage with the world is increasingly crucial in such times of uncertainty. The editors and contributors examine what wild pedagogy can truly become, and how it can be relevant across disciplinary boundaries: offering six touchstones as working tools to help educators forge an onward path. This collaborative work will be of interest to students and scholars of wild pedagogies, alternative education and the Anthropocene, and for all those engaged in re-wilding education.

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.

In a world struggling with environmental and social problems resistant to current solutions, education needs to explore ways to ‘enlarge the space of the possible’ rather than only ‘replicate the existing possible’. To respond to this challenge, this book troubles dominant Western philosophical conceptions which continue to have wide-ranging influence in education worldwide and which limit more sustainable ways to be in the world together. It argues for the importance of opening spaces in and through which unique subjects can emerge, bringing potential for new ways of being and as yet unimagined futures. The book makes a valuable contribution to international growing interest in Arendtian thinking, complexity and emergence, feminist thinking, the emerging field of anticipation studies, the posthuman and engagement with Indigenous scholarship and practices in ways which attempt to be non-appropriating. Sustainability continues to be a vital theme in education, and the book responds to a desire to encourage education which invites more sustainable processes and ways of being in addition to education which limits itself to teaching about, or for, sustainability. Sustainable and Democratic Education will be of great interest to academics and practitioners working with sustainability, Indigenous scholarship, complexity theory and the posthuman and what these ideas can mean in and for education.

Social Ecology and Education addresses "ecological understanding" as a transformative educational issue: a learning response to emerging insights into social-ecological relationships and the future of life on our planet. In the face of the existential threats posed by climate change, loss of biodiversity, pandemids and the associated ecological and social challenges; there is a need to extend our responses beyond scientific inquiry and technological initiatives. This book seeks to move the dialogue towards a deeper and broader understanding of the complexities of the issues involved. To achieve this, the book discusses issues rarely addressed through programs in "Education for Sustainability" and "Environmental Education," such as student defined knowledge systems, deep engagement with the implications of indigenous understandings, climate change as symptomatic of broad epistemological problems, social disengagement and differentiated barriers to meaningful change. This work is enriched by its focus on the learning and the learning systems that have led to our current predicament. This book seeks to initiate considerations of this kind, to invigorate education for sustainable, equitable, healthy and meaningful futures. As such, this book will be of great interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students in a range of education and environmental courses.

This book brings together an international group of authors to discuss the outdoor environmental education (OEE) theory and practice that educators can use to support teaching and learning in higher education. The book contents are organised around a recently established list of threshold concepts that can be used to describe the knowledge and skills that university students would develop if they complete a major in outdoor education. There are six key sections: the theoretical foundations and philosophies of OEE; the pedagogical approaches and issues involved in teaching OEE; the ways in which OEE is a social, cultural and environmental endeavour; how outdoor educators can advocate for social justice; key approaches to safety management; and the need for on-going professional practice. The threshold concepts that form the premise of the book describe outdoor educators as creating opportunities for experiential learning using pedagogies that align their programme’s purpose and practice. Outdoor educators are place-responsive, and see their work as a social, cultural and environmental endeavour. They advocate for social and environmental justice, and they understand and apply safety principles and routinely engage in reflective practice. This book will provide clarity and direction for emerging and established outdoor educators around the world and will also be relevant to students and professionals working in related fields such as environmental education, adventure therapy, and outdoor recreation.

Just being outside doesn’t always guarantee a connection to the natural world. An awareness of the environment needs to be embedded within the curriculum, and with climate change and sustainability being such important and urgent issues, this book is a timely and much needed resource for early years and primary educators. Introducing nature pedagogy - an approach that seeks to respect and support the rights of children and the planet together. Nature pedagogy encourages all educators to embrace eco-logical choices and to use nature as the location, resource and context for learning. The author draws on international research and case studies to offer a way forward, to embed green teaching and a nature-based pedagogy in practice and transform teaching with young children.

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.