How to Approach Sustainability and Inclusion in Environmental Education?
NEPC presents the first article in the edufocus series, a dynamic educational content platform that provides resources on various current topics in education. The topic chosen for the first series of articles is environmental education. With the help of several renowned experts we hope to rethink how we teach about the environment and reevaluate our position in the natural world.
This first article was written by our member and colleague Burcu Meltem Arık of the Education Reform Initiative at Sabancı University, Türkiye. Burcu Meltem Arik is an expert on sustainability and ecological literacy, a nature enthusiast and bird watcher. Her writings
The article deals with the way environmental education is approached within the educational system, challenging perspectives that dominate the way we teach learners about the planet and the relationship between humans and nature. These perspectives shape the collective attitude towards the concepts of both sustainability and inclusion, limiting their scope and excluding the very world we inhabit. Ecological justice, a philosophy introduced in the article, bridges social justice and environmental protection through humankind’s innate capacity to connect to nature. Dive into the topic and rethink the way you approach sustainability through edufocus!
Written as part of the project “Lead for EcoJustice!”, the article introduces ecological justice as a framework connecting social justice and environmental protection, focusing on important concepts such as multispecies justice, polycentrism and the notion of inextricable connection between humans and the natural world.
edufocus: Reconstructing Sustainability and Inclusion in Environmental Education; Burcu Meltem Arık
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