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Reflecting on place: environmental education as decolonisation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2020

Simone Thornton Open the ORCID record for Simone Thornton [Opens in a new window] ,
Mary Graham  and
Gilbert Burgh
Simone Thornton*
Affiliation:
School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Mary Graham
Affiliation:
School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Gilbert Burgh
Affiliation:
School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: simone.thornton@uqconnect.edu.au
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Abstract

We argue that to face climate change, all education, from kindergarten to tertiary, needs to be underpinned by environmental education. Moreover, as a site of reframing, education when coupled with philosophy is a possible site of influencing societal reframing in order to re-examine our relations to nature or our natural environment. However, we contend that as philosophy has been largely absent from curricula, it is vital to redress this issue. Further, the environment cannot be viewed simply as subject matter for study but, reconceptualised in the Indigenous sense as Place. Only in this way can we overcome the human-nature divide. We conclude that educators must look for what Plumwood calls ‘experiences that do not fit the dominant story’ to disrupt an important link in the chain of climate change by developing ‘traitorous identities’ able to challenge the dominant culture.

Keywords

Climate changeeco-feminismenvironmental philosophyIndigenous knowledgephilosophyplaceenvironmental education
Type
Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , November 2019 , pp. 239 - 249
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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