Environmental Consciousness, Nature and the Philosophy of Education

175 Pages·2020·1.446 MB·English

by  Michael Bonnett

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS,
NATURE AND THE PHILOSOPHY
OF EDUCATION
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.
Research and Teaching in Environmental Studies
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.
Titles in this series include:
Sustainable Energy Education in the Arctic
The Role of Higher Education
Gisele Arruda
Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Failures
Lessons Learned from Cautionary Tales
Edited by Dena Fam and Michael O’Rourke
Environmental Consciousness, Nature and the Philosophy of Education
Ecologizing Education
Michael Bonnett
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Research-
and-Teaching-in-Environmental-Studies/book-series/RTES
ENVIRONMENTAL
CONSCIOUSNESS,
NATURE AND THE
PHILOSOPHY OF
EDUCATION
Ecologizing Education
Michael Bonnett
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Michael Bonnett
The right of Michael Bonnett to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
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registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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ISBN: 978-0-367-37343-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-37344-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-35322-2 (ebk)
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CONTENTS
Preface vi
Acknowledgements viii
1 Normalizing catastrophe: a backdrop to environmental issues 1
2 A phenomenology of nature: the “occurring” of things
in nature 21
3 Transcendent nature and its enemies 41
4 Environmental consciousness: intentionality and ecstasy
at the centre of human being 60
5 Anthropocentrism, ecological justice, and population growth 80
6 Listening to nature: ecological truth and systemic wisdom 104
7 Ecologizing education 129
Bibliography 153
Index 159
PREFACE
A central theme developed in this book is that our efforts to address the environ-
mental crisis that now besets us frequently have been stymied by the kind of think-
ing that has become dominant in Western culture and policymaking. This thinking
essentially regards nature purely as a resource. It is argued that we need to understand
the philosophical sources and fuller character of this kind of orientation in order
to clear a space for a different relationship with nature: one that will enable us to
approach environmental issues in a way that is better informed and more truthful.
Elucidating the character of this way of experiencing nature promises to reveal
extensive implications for how we think of human flourishing and education. In
many respects, this endeavour represents a continuation of a project that I began
in a previous book (Retrieving Nature: Education for a Post-humanist Age, 2004) and
some of the arguments presented in the current work build on ideas that were set
out in that book. Where this is the case, I give sufficient explanation for the current
account to be “stand-alone”. The current work takes the opportunity to bring into
one narrative – and to extend – ideas that I have presented in a variety of research
journals and edited collections over the last 15 years or so.
With regard to the way that arguments are developed, it might be helpful to
mention that their structure is “spiral” rather than purely linear. This is to say that
rather than being set out in a series of completed steps, key ideas frequently are
revisited and further elaborated as the narrative proceeds, responding to the invita-
tions and demands of evolving contexts. While it would be incorrect to say that
this was inspired by the advocacy of a “spiral curriculum” by the influential edu-
cational psychologist Jerome Bruner in his classic The Process of Education (1963),
it is certainly consistent with this idea. Also, it occurs to me that this form of
argument reflects better the way that nature reveals itself, and the way in which
we learn most from it. Things in the natural world do not show themselves all
at once. On any one viewing the countenances that they present hide others.
Preface vii
Our understanding of nature grows not by attempting to derive it from one experi-
ence and to encapsulate this in one description that is taken to be definitional, but
rather by revisiting the phenomenon under consideration on numerous occasions
and varying circumstances and contexts, and being prepared to hold a multidimen-
sional perspective. In this way, we can develop a growing feel for the myriad and
complex interrelationships in which things in nature are embedded. Indeed, it is
argued that in an important sense, it is these relationships that constitute things in
nature. Finally, while some of the philosophical content is demanding, my inten-
tion has been to ensure that ideas and any special terminology are sufficiently
explained and illustrated so as to produce an account that is accessible to those
without specialist knowledge of environmental philosophy.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Parts of this book draw on work that I have previously published and I am grateful
for publishers’ permissions to use this material. The articles from which material is
drawn and the chapters to which this material contributes are as follows:
Chapter 1
Bonnett, M. (2013) Sustainable development, environmental education, and the significance
of being in place, Curriculum Journal, 24(2), pp. 250–271. Copyright 2013 British Cur-
riculum Foundation, permission given by Taylor & Francis www.tandfonline.com on
behalf of British Curriculum Foundation.
Chapter 2
Bonnett, M. (2007) Environmental education and the issue of nature, Journal of Curriculum
Studies, 39(6), pp. 707–721. Taylor & Francis www.tandfonline.com.
Chapter 3
Bonnett, M. (2013) Normalizing catastrophe: Sustainability and scientism, Environmental
Education Research, 19(2), pp. 187–197. Taylor & Francis www.tandfonline.com.
Bonnett, M. (2009) Systemic wisdom, the ‘selving’ of nature, and knowledge transforma-
tion: Education for the ‘greater whole’, Studies in Philosophy and Education, 28, pp. 39–49.
Springer Nature.
Chapter 4
Bonnett, M. (2017) Environmental Consciousness, sustainability, and the character of phi-
losophy of education, Studies in Philosophy and Education, 36(3), pp. 333–347. Springer
Nature.
Acknowledgements ix
Bonnett, M. (2009) Schools as places of unselving: An educational pathology? In G.
Dall’Alba (ed.) Exploring Education Through Phenomenology: Diverse Approaches (Chiches-
ter, John Wiley & Sons).
Bonnett, M. (2013) Normalizing catastrophe: Sustainability and scientism, Environmental
Education Research, 19(2), pp. 187–197. Taylor & Francis www.tandfonline.com.
Chapter 6
Bonnett, M. (2015) Transcendental nature and the character of truth and knowledge in
education, in P. Kemp and S. Frolund (eds.) Nature in Education (Zurich, LIT-Verlag).
Bonnett, M. (2009) Systemic wisdom, the ‘selving’ of nature, and knowledge transforma-
tion: Education for the ‘greater whole’, Studies in Philosophy and Education, 28, pp. 39–49.
Springer Nature.
Bonnett, M. (2013) Self, environment, and education: normative arisings, in M. Brody, J.
Dillon and R. Stevenson (eds.) International Handbook of Research on Environmental Educa-
tion (New York, Routledge). Reproduced by permission of Taylor and Francis Group,
LLC, a division of Informa plc.
Chapter 7
Bonnett, M. (2007) Environmental education and the issue of nature, Journal of Curriculum
Studies, 39(6), pp. 707–721. Taylor & Francis www.tandfonline.com.
Bonnett, M. (2012) Environmental concern, moral education, and our place in nature, Jour-
nal of Moral Education, 41(3), pp. 285–300. Copyright 2012 Journal of Moral Education
Ltd, permission given by Taylor & Francis www.tandfonline.com on behalf of Journal of
Moral Education Ltd.