51社区黑料

The opening words of this introduction to Sean Blenkinsop and Estella C. Kuchta鈥檚 book (2024) take us into the heart of an 鈥渆cologizing school鈥� on the edge of the Alouette River. As a philosopher of education, Dr. Blenkinsop has focused his research and teaching on a range of areas that intersect with ecologizing education鈥攏otably the role of imagination in teaching and learning, ecology, theories of place, and experiential and outdoor education. With these commitments in mind, Drs. Blenkinsop and Kuchta emphasize that this book 鈥渞esides on the premise that there is a moral imperative to do what we can to change and heal this alienated and rapacious cultural relationship to the earth and to seek greater balance.鈥�

Mainstream education contributes to the 鈥淐apitalocene鈥濃�攁 dichotomous, instrumental relation with nature that has alienated 鈥渨ealthy societies of the Global North from the living world.鈥� This concern grounds Mark Fettes鈥檚 and Sean Blenkinsop鈥檚 co-authored book (2023), which calls for 鈥渁 radical transformation of education to focus on the mutual flourishing of human societies with the rest of life on Earth.鈥� Describing the changes needed to Western culture and recommending 鈥渟tances鈥� and practices for educators to enable an 鈥渆thos of change,鈥� this book also provides a broad context for the 2024 article 鈥�.鈥� Here, Drs. Fettes and Blenkinsop, with third author Lindsay Cole, call for a systemic change in educational practices, a "transformative design鈥� to engage with the more-than-human world and foster eco-social change.

Toward that end, the authors present six design 鈥減rompts鈥� for transformative environmental education practice: relationality and reciprocity, reflectivity, willingness to embrace uncertainty, community belonging, integrating past wisdom with future-oriented education, and embracing ambiguity鈥攅ven conflict. With new tools and perspectives for engaging with the environment, educators may be better prepared for the urgent task of 鈥渇inding a way out of the Capitalocene.鈥�

For Gillian Judson, emotional and imaginative engagement with the natural world is also essential: merely being outdoors isn鈥檛 enough. Dr. Judson has authored and co-authored a wide range of publications focusing on the role of imagination in education and cognition, including the development of 鈥渨alking curricula.鈥� Early in her teaching career, Dr. Judson noticed how 鈥渄isaffected鈥� her students seemed about climate issues. This prompted her to research how imagination and emotion forge connections to nature and place.

In 鈥溾�� (2024), Dr. Judson proposes Imaginative Ecological Education (IEE)鈥攁n 鈥渆merging pedagogical approach鈥� that seeks to address the limitations of place-based learning. With IEE, learning develops not only ecological understanding but also imagination, which is essential for learning and for empathy. In that way, IEE holds the promise of being transformative鈥攁ble to support 鈥渁n ontological shift, a new understanding of human being.鈥�

For Celeste Snowber, 鈥渂eing a child raised on the edge of the sea and schooled in the curriculum of nature鈥� fostered a lifelong creative and physical involvement with the natural environment. In her book (2022), she describes how arts-based research, curriculum theory, and embodied ways of inquiry inspired not only her work as a place-based performance artist but her approach as an arts educator who sees place as pedagogy鈥攁 physical embodiment of inquiry, learning, and knowing.

Dr. Snowber exemplifies this approach in 鈥溾�� (2024), which explores the interrelationships of sea, land, and ecology through several textual poems and one 鈥渧ideo-danced鈥� poem. Through these media, she seeks to expand our ways of knowing and learning in a range of fields, from curriculum theory to poetic inquiry, through engaging the body. The poems embody a 鈥渧isceral intimacy鈥� with ecology and the climate crisis as a way to shift our relationship to the ecology and climate crisis. Perhaps, as Dr. Snowber hopes, 鈥減aying attention to what we care for now will lead us into a future we desire.鈥�