Entanglements of matter and meaning: The importance of the philosophy of Karen Barad for environmental education

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shae L. Brown ◽  
Lisa Siegel ◽  
Simone M. Blom
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Agential Realism ◽  
Australian Association ◽  
Powerful Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
Karen Barad ◽  
Environmental Educators ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Knowledge Communication

AbstractThe rich and innovative ideas of quantum physicist and feminist theorist Karen Barad have much to offer environmental educators in terms of practical theories for teaching and learning. This article shares insights gained from a facilitated conversation at the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) Conference Research Symposium, and offers an introduction to Barad’s theories for environmental educators. At this time of challenging planetary imperatives, environmental education is increasingly called upon to contribute to students’ understanding of connectedness, and Barad’s theory of agential realism provides a way to think about, articulate and engage with connectedness as inherent within the world rather than something we need to create. By considering entanglement as a fundamental state, we understand that separateness is not the original state of being. This shift in perspective supports a subtle yet powerful approach to knowledge, communication and collaboration, understanding difference as integral within the world’s entangled becoming. The convened conversation sought to explore Barad’s thinking by defining and discussing the concepts of agential realism, intra-action, material-discursivity, phenomena and diffraction. Barad’s ideas were used to collectively explore what it means to be intraconnected and entangled in today’s world, and specifically how these concepts and experiences relate to our work and lives as environmental educators and researchers.

scholarly journals Videography as Refrain

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-137
Author(s):  
Theresa Giorza
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Inner City ◽  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
Public Park ◽  
Video Footage ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Agential Realism ◽  
The World ◽  
Karen Barad

A public park adjacent to an inner-city preschool invites children and their teacher into new encounters with the world, literacy and themselves. The park and preschool are situated in the inner-city of Johannesburg, South Africa. In this article, the researcher performs as mutated-modest-witness of events that unfold in lively materialdiscursive encounters between children, grass, friendship, a pen, cement table, sand, sticks, the alphabet and daylight. The agential realism of Karen Barad and the nomadic thinking of Deleuze and Guattari offer ways of re-imagining ‘the child in the park’. Diffracting with repeated viewings of video clips the researcher finds that forward and reverse movement and stops in different moments throughout repeated viewings of the same video footage produces different and new ‘stories’ about the events and the children involved. Conceptions of ‘child’ as literacy learner and of researcher-as-writer mutate through this diffraction which instantiates a non-representational videography practice.

Hyperobjects, Media, and Assemblages of Collective Living: Playing With Ontology as Environmental Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-221
Author(s):  
Jesse Bazzul
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Ecological Awareness ◽  
Creative Thought ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences ◽  
Environmental Educators

AbstractThis article emphasises the importance of creative thought for environmental education through a discussion of the ontologically rich work of Anna Tsing, Timothy Morton and John Peters. The recent turn toward ontology in the humanities and social sciences has consequently led to diverse theories about ‘how things are’, and some of these concepts might assist justice-oriented environmental educators in raising ecological awareness in a time of crisis. Using assemblages, media and hyperobjects as concepts to (re)imagine the the world(s) of the Anthropocene, this article promotes a practice of ontic-play, a constantly changing engagement with ontological thought. To think through ecological crisis means moving towards philosophy as creation or art. In other words, engaging thought from the future.

scholarly journals Special Issue Dedicated to Professor Frank Fisher (1943–2012): A Courageous Life

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. iii-iii
Author(s):  
James Tonson ◽  
Sarah Houseman
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Teaching Approach ◽  
Electrical Engineer ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Australian Association ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Sustainability Program

In 2007 Professor Frank Fisher was named Australia's inaugural Environmental Educator of the Year (by the Australian Association for Environmental Education). Frank lived a life driven by a determination to engage fully with the world around him. As a young electrical engineer, Frank became convinced of the need for education and research about how we shape the world around us, and contributed to the establishment of the first Australian Masters of Sustainability program at Monash University in 1973. Typified by exercises such as taking students to sit in the middle of major roads, Frank's teaching approach aimed to help students understand the social systems that shape our understanding of and impact on the world around us.

Playing With the Planet: Environmental Education and Entertainment Software

1996 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 35-40
Author(s):  
Kathleen Gray ◽  
Michael Nott
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Computer Software ◽  
Applied Ecology ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
The Future ◽  
Environmental Educators ◽  
Future Direction

ABSTRACTA genre of computer software with which users simulate designing and managing natural resources and ecosystems deserves critical attention from environmental educators. Such software encourages users to develop their understanding of theoretical and applied ecology by manipulating virtual environmental forces in imaginative ways. This paper refers readers to a directory of software titles in thie genre. It argues that there is significant social and educational momentum toward increased use of such resources for teaching and learning about the environment. It presents some reservations about the nature and purpose of this genre of software, and outlines ethical, economic and experiential questions about it which have implications for the future direction of environmental education.

scholarly journals The Arts and New Materialism: A Call to Stewardship through Mercy, Grace, and Hope

Humanities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Nicholas Leonard
Keyword(s):  
New Materialism ◽  
Agential Realism ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The World ◽  
Karen Barad ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
Materialist Theory

During highly polarized times, issues are quickly addressed in ways that emphasize divisions. To support the healing of our polarized culture through art, new materialist theory as presented by Karen Barad and Rosi Braidotti will be entangled with art and artmaking according to Dennis Atkinson and Makoto Fujimura to argue for art as an act of environmental and cultural stewardship, creating new possibilities and differences in the virtual that are merciful, graceful, and hopeful. To form this argument, first a summary of new materialism and ethics through Agential Realism and Affirmative Ethics is addressed. Next, a cartography including scientific and theological perspectives is presented for a diffractive reading regarding the concepts of mercy, grace, and hope to develop a new materialist understanding through a philosophy of immanence to counter the circular perpetuation of violence. These concepts are then individually addressed through the proposed new materialist framework to further break from material-discursive dualistic thought. This approach is then explored through various artworks to investigate the co-constructing material-discursive nature of art to create new relations and possibilities in the world. Finally, an in-depth study of the artworks Becoming Us by Megan Constance Altieri and Teeter-Totter Wall by Ronald Rael are addressed to detail how a new materialist approach to art that focuses on the concepts of mercy, grace, and hope can position art as an act of stewardship.

Childrens' Conceptions of Nature

1998 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 19-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip Payne
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Teaching And Learning Strategies ◽  
Practice Gap ◽  
Environmental Educators ◽  
Theory Practice Gap ◽  
Children’S Conceptions

ABSTRACTThis paper describes a study of sixth grade children's conceptions of nature and the environment. In so doing, it asks that environmental educators pay more attention to children's preconceived notions of environment and nature. Should this occur the theory-practice gap in environmental education may be diminished. Learners' concepts of ‘nature’ and the ‘environment’ provide a needed perspective for the development of individually and contextually appropriate teaching and learning strategies in environmental education. Without knowledge of them it is not clear whose version of environment it is which the learner is being educated ‘in’, ‘about’, ‘with’ or ‘for’.

The Quantum Dance and the World's ‘Extraordinary Liveliness’: Refiguring Corporeal Ethics in Karen Barad's Agential Realism

Somatechnics ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peta Hinton
Keyword(s):  
Human Subject ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Bodily Integrity ◽  
Agential Realism ◽  
Experimental Apparatus ◽  
The World ◽  
Quantum Universe ◽  
Karen Barad ◽  
The Universe

In her 2007 monograph Meeting the Universe Halfway, Karen Barad introduces her reader to a world of movement and flux, where bodies ceaselessly participate in their own material configuration, where bodily integrity and identity is entangled in the dynamic materialisation of its social and political significance, and where processes of understanding and meaning making are bound up in ‘an ongoing performance of the world in its differential dance of intelligibility and unintelligibility’ (2007: 149). Through her reading of Niels Bohr's ‘philosophy-physics’, Barad introduces us to a quantum universe that poses some counterintuitive challenges to the modernist worldview which understands matter to be determinate and measurable, or that may quietly preserve something of matter's evidence against culture's symbolic dexterity. In advancing her agential realist account, Baradmoves beyond anthropocentric constraints to conceive of the world in its ‘extraordinary liveliness’ (2007: 91), an enlarged and productive scene of agency engaged in an ongoing performance of its own intelligibility, articulating itself differently. With the suggestion that agency is extended beyond the framework that assigns it to the intentions and accountability of the human subject, Barad offers a powerful rethinking of the politics and ethics of identity in her claim that the ethical call is ‘embodied in the very worlding of the world’ (2007: 160). In this paper I undertake a close reading of Barad's argument to consider its implications for how we might conceive a corporeal ethics that accounts for the production of inequalities and exclusions within the very becoming of the world, and becoming embodied. In the process, I argue that through asomatechnical unfolding of matter, the experimental apparatus, and concept, Barad prompts some challenging considerations for feminist approaches to what ‘the ethical’ constitutes or should achieve.

From Wilderness to the Educational Heart: A Tasmanian Story of Place

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Green
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Educational Tool ◽  
The World ◽  
School And Community ◽  
Environmental Projects ◽  
Place Based Education

AbstractThis paper discusses the emerging field of place-based education or place-based pedagogy - an approach that seeks to enhance childrens perspective of ‘place’ via school and community related environmental projects. Place-based education is proposed as an approach that enables students to establish a connection to a place, its people, and to the world beyond the school gate. Through initiating teaching and learning experiences that respond to the unique and local places where children live, play and go to school, place-based education is notable as a significant educational tool. Gregory Smith's place-based framework (2002) and a Tasmanian case study are put forward to highlight the significance of place-based pedagogy for environmental education.

scholarly journals Earth system sciences and permaculture: contributions to environmental

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-368
Author(s):  
Eliza C. Wenceslau ◽  
Joseli M. Piranha
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Educational Policies ◽  
Earth System ◽  
The World ◽  
Complex Relationships ◽  
Systemic Understanding ◽  
The Way

In view of the environmental crisis that plagues the world today, resulting from the dissociation of man and environment and the low effectiveness of educational policies, especially regarding Environmental Education, the need for a paradigm shift is evident, transforming the way of teaching and thinking about Environmental Education. In that respect, it is believed that the concepts advocated by Earth System Sciences, applied to Permaculture, can contribute to the development of a more humanistic and respectful culture, besides providing man with a new outlook on the environment. Thus, the present work exposes the foundations of these two theoretical references (Earth System Sciences and Permaculture), aiming to contribute to the reform in thought, and allowing the teaching and learning process in Environmental Education to be more effective and consistent. While Earth System Sciences allow the systemic understanding of the planet as well as the complex relationships between its various constituents, Permaculture seeks a harmonious coexistence of man and the environment. They value, in an analogous way, the interrelations between the constituents of the system, revealing alternatives that enable changes in the way the natural environment is occupied, making it more sustainable and raising consciousness.

scholarly journals Relaciones entre el conocimiento didáctico del contenido en la formación de educadores ambientales: una interpretación de contextos / Relations between Pedagogical Content Knowledge in the Formation of Environmental Educators: an Interpretation the Context

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
Leidy Gabriela Ariza Ariza ◽  
José Vicente de Freitas
Keyword(s):  
Distance Learning ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Pedagogical Content Knowledge ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Graduate Courses ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Environmental Criteria ◽  
Textual Representation ◽  
Environmental Educators

RESUMENEl presente artículo relaciona el conocimiento didáctico del contenido (CDC) en la formación de educadores ambientales desde el análisis del contexto de enseñanza y aprendizaje de tres cursos de posgrado en Educación Ambiental en modalidad a distancia en Brasil. Con el objetivo de identificar elementos de diálogo entre el CDC y la representación textual en las intencionalidades de enseñanza, a partir de la interpretación de documentos curriculares, políticas nacionales y el contexto virtual. Con el aporte hacia la formación de educadores ambientales en la subjetividad de los criterios socioambiéntales presentes en estructuras curriculares.ABSTRACT This article relates the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in the formation of environmental educators from the analysis of the context of teaching and learning three graduate courses in Environmental Education in distance learning in Brazil. In order to identify elements of dialogue between the PCK and the textual representation of intentions of teaching, from the interpretation of curriculum documents, national policies and context virtual.  With the contribution towards the training of environmental educators in the subjectivity of socio-environmental criteria present in curricular structures 

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