Western contemporary educational systems tend to re-produce, and thus maintain, the existent non-sustainable social structures, failing to live up to the present critical times. Their aim is confined to preparation for financial “success,” whereas they disregard the imminence of environmental crises and global social shifts and are rooted in the human sense of superiority over nature, that is, anthropocentrism. The present article acknowledges the need for reconsideration of humans’ place and role in the ecosystem and focuses on the importance of a more ecocentric pedagogy. A holistic in-service teacher training was designed and implemented in Greece, inspired by the wild pedagogies touchstones, mainly the notion of nature as co-teacher. Twelve participants met for the course of a year to immerse themselves in nature-centred, affective, relational, “wild” experiences. Changes were recorded using pre/post-semi-structured interviews to inquire into participants’ perceptions of self versus Self (i.e. acknowledging oneself as part of a larger whole) and perceptions of (environmental) education. It appears that deep, relational nature experiences (a) can shift the perception of individualised self towards Self, (b) can shift the perception of teacher identity towards that of a change agent and (c) can set ethics and values education as a priority among trainee-teacher participants.

Much ecological thought today turns to Japan's past for inspiration. The reason, according to conservative Japanese ecologists, deep ecologists, and environmental philosophers, is that Japan's history of aesthetic “oneness” with nature provides a model for the world to emulate as it addresses the global environmental crisis. I critique this view by showing that conservative, or more accurately, reactionary ecology in Japan is closely intertwined with ethnic communitarianism, Japan's wartime ideology of the 1930s, and deep ecology. I suggest that these forms of reactionary ecology reflect a fascist desire to create or rely upon a nationalistic narrative of Japanese cultural uniqueness that conceals the excesses of capitalism and operates to sustain the socio-economic order that is today generating ecological catastrophe.

This article introduces an intuitive conservation dilemma called the Canyon Dilemma: Is it possible to condemn the mining of the Grand Canyon, even by a poor generation, while also permitting this generation’s mining of an unremarkable small canyon? It then argues that not one of several prominent theories of environmental justice, including various forms of egalitarianism, welfarism, deep-ecological theories, communitarianism and free-market environmentalism, can navigate this dilemma. The article concludes by highlighting the dilemma-navigating potential of the equal-claims idea – the idea that the natural world is something to which every human being, present and future, has an equal, substantive claim.

Drawing on a posthuman lens we walk — with Deborah Bird Rose and her conceptual framing of shimmer. We explore shimmering as incorporating a sensorial richness, as beauty and grandeur, as constantly in flux, moving between past, future and back again. Shimmering has potentiality in a posthuman context in its encompassing of spiritual and ancestral energies and illumination of the human (settler) story of exceptionalism. By theorising shimmer with this posthuman lens, we acknowledge and honour the eco-ethico consciousness raised by Australian ecophilosophers and ecofeminists such as Deborah Bird Rose and Val Plumwood, and the social ecologists who have continued to walk with them. In order to disrupt anthropocentricism and present a moral wake-up call that glows from dull to brilliance in these precarious times, we bring to environmental education the potential of holding the shimmering past tracings of theory along with us on our journeys.

The ecological crisis has been traced to a rupture in the human-nature relationship, which sees the natural world as inert materials that serve human utility. This prevailing sense of separation is thoroughly embedded in Western culture through engrained metaphors that reinforce a view of the Earth as a subject of human mastery. To counter the disjuncture between humans and nature, some theorists have suggested a unitive view of nature, while others have argued for more expansive forms of identification that engender a more responsive ecological ethics. Despite these efforts, the human-nature dichotomy remains a perennial issue of debate, especially for environmental educators who strive to cultivate a more harmonious relationship with the earth. This article examines the Zen Koan (case or example) as a pedagogical innovation that hones the learner’s ability to entertain opposing propositions. Humans are both united with and separate from nature at the same time. The Koan encourages an epistemological fluidity and openness to ambiguity that can enrich and deepen inquiry. In the context of environmental education, this contemplative approach to investigation can complement immersive pedagogies that enjoin somatic and sensory experience in explorations of the natural world.

This study of Naessian ecocentrism and anthropocentrism in three environment club coordinators/science teachers, their colleagues and some parents at three secondary schools uses deep ecology and relational fields as primary frameworks for open-ended interviews. The findings reveal new insights into the affective, cognitive and behavioural characteristics of coordinators who enhance environmental education in their schools. The work presents preliminary data on leadership among sustainability coordinators who run environment clubs. It fills a gap in the literature by showing that in addition to environmental educators requiring knowledge and attitudes regarding sustainability practices, affective qualities like connectedness and love for the environment may be important to their success as sustainability exemplars. Teachers emerge as sustainability exemplars in a relational field to implement sustainability across the secondary curriculum, galvanise students, teachers and parents to connect to the Earth, and help students, teachers and parents move away from anthropocentrism. Findings suggest that if schools commit resources and time to the coordinator’s role, students experience significant benefits by becoming closer to the Earth and more empowered to act for the environment in ways consistent with deep ecology.

If the dawn of the Anthropocene heralds the collapse of the natural and social sciences into a single geostory, then why not also a radical synthesis of the anthropocentrism of Marxist theorising with the biocentrism of Deep Ecology? This article proposes just such a unification for theorising education. First, those on the educational left who wish to develop a fundamental unity between red and green should perhaps unearth the roots of Deep Ecological thinking and delve into the long and manifold history of socialist movements, with the aim of identifying where, between the deep red and deep green, might lie some shared origins in common ground. The flawed but nevertheless distinctive monism of the first philosopher of Marxism, Joseph Dietzgen, offers a philosophy that both prefigures the cosmology of Deep Ecology and suggests means of reconciling the narrative of human toil and ‘progress’ with that of human ‘nestedness’. The task facing the socialist looking to explore such a possibility needs to be located principally at the level of ‘cosmic’, rather than ‘social’ ontology, and this article sketches the outlines of such a unity project. Second, from this synthesis flows a set of implications for education and human growth. As the article explains, themes such as alienation and subjectification that cross-pollinate the theoretical perspectives might serve as central motifs in a red biocentric educational project fit for the Anthropocene. It is not solely environmental education, but approaches to education more broadly that require reconceptualisation for the Anthropocene.