We should all in part be naturalists’
Critical environmental philosophy and environmental education policy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11952437 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert Booth (0000-0001-7089-8301, Liverpool Hope University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 1-22 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-20 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Philosophy of Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0309-8249 • E-ISSN: 1467-9752 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jopedu/qhaf034 |
| OpenAlex | W4410530830 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 29 |
In response to a worsening of the climate and ecological crisis, the UK Department for Education (DfE) recently published a policy strategy which intends to facilitate transformational behavioural change via reforms which inculcate in pupils a lasting and action-orientated ‘awe and wonder’ about the natural world. Its approach attempts to link increased sustainability and climate literacy with transformational change via satisfaction of two aspects of effective environmental education: the ontological aspect, by which pupils better grasp ‘their place in nature’; and the affective aspect, by which pupils are motivated to protect and value nature. Here, with the help of critical environmental philosophers, I argue that the strategy inadvertently reveals a lacuna in environmental education policy, whereby relatively uncritical commitment to a strong ontological naturalism unduly limits critical reflection upon the more problematic affect- and action-guiding assumptions underlying the entities that mainstream science reveals. I end by suggesting some modest remedial measures and highlighting some broader questions that the foregoing raises about what environmental education ought to be
Economics · Environmental education · Environmental ethics · Environmental policy · Environmental resource management · Epistemology · Higher education · Pedagogy · Philosophy of education · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Climate Change and Geoengineering · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics · Law · Philosophy
Ethical Responses to Nature’s Call
The Natural Alien
What Should We Teach as Controversial? A Defense of the Epistemic Criterion
Prompts for eco-social transformation
From Mastery to Mystery
The shallow and the deep, long‐range ecology movement. A summary∗
Releasing education into the wild
Educating in and for uncertainty . climate science, human evolution and the legacy of Arne Naess as guidance for ecological practice
A review of the foundational processes that influence beliefs in climate change
Ecosystem services and ethics
Taking stock of environmental education policy in England – the what, the where and the why
Environmental consciousness, nature, and the philosophy of education
Non‐Human Animals and Educational Policy
Environmental Ethics and Ontologies
Transactive Teaching in a Time of Climate Crisis
Education and Public Attitudes toward Science
Two Distinctions in Goodness
Ecofeminism and the Eating of Animals
Gynocentric Eco-Logics
The Anthropocene
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |