1st Edition
Encountering Education through Existential Challenges and Community Re-connection and Renewal for an Ecologically based Future
Directly inspired by Indian British activist Satish Kumar’s 2013 seminal work ‘Soil, Soul and Society’, this book rethinks education in line with thoughts around the current climate crisis, the purpose of education in a post-pandemic world, and the mental health of children, teachers and youth across societies.
Acknowledging the realities of a world battling with the after effects of COVID-19, the author envisions a future for education that realises real-world solutions to contemporary existential, ecological and societal challenges that might otherwise be limited to an imaginary or idealist space. Offering a novel approach through a combination of narrative-based inquiry and auto-ethnographic study, the book provides a synthesis of ideas from both Kumar and political philosopher Hannah Arendt not usually linked to debates in sustainability education.
Ultimately providing a critique of a predominantly Western-orientated, global education movement, this interdisciplinary book will appeal to scholars, researchers, and post-graduate students involved in education theory and the philosophy of education, as well as indigenous and sustainability education more broadly.
Arrival 1. A critique of product orientated education and a rationale for an alternative vision incorporating sufficiency, homonomy and emancipation: Walking the Land 2. The importance of an ecological-phenomenological perspective in the educational encounter: From the Margins 3. Natality, subjectification and the function of physis in education: Arrival 4. Liminality, place-based education and the role of myth and story: Beyond Arrival 5. The act of teaching, ‘grown-up-ness' and eldership in the educational encounter: To Whom does the student arrive? 6. Implications for an education orientated toward connection with the existential, social and ecological domains: For Whom is the Harvest? Coda
Biography
Giles Barrow is a self-employed teacher, trainer, consultant and ecologist.
