Pedagogy of Sustainability

Semester 1-2 · 56004 · Master 2nd level EDENSPACES - Designing Educational Landscapes: A Dialogue Between Pedagogy, Architecture, Design and Nature" · 3CP · IT

The course explores sustainability as an educational paradigm, intertwining pedagogy, ethics, and ecology.
It explores critical perspectives on the relationship between humans and the environment, from Deep Ecology to contemporary ecological thought.

Lecturers: Monica Adriana Parricchi, Michele Cagol

Teaching Hours: 18
Lab Hours: 0
Mandatory Attendance: As per the master's regulations

Course Topics
Part 1 1. Education for sustainability: from the anthropocentric to the ecocentric paradigm. 2. The ecology of educational and care contexts: nature, culture, and responsibility. 3. Sustainability as a pedagogical attitude. 4. Inhabiting sustainability. Part 2 1. Introduction: The significance of building a cabin. Wittgenstein, Naess, Thoreau, Leopold 2. Ethics and ecology: Biocentrism and ecocentrism, Arne Næss, Deep Ecology, and some radical environmental ethics 3. Not everything is sustainable: Timothy Morton and ecological thinking 4. Environmental education or ecological education? Relationality and wonder

Teaching format
Short lectures; participatory lessons; group work; authentic tasks.

Educational objectives
The course aims to develop a critical understanding of ecological and ethical paradigms applied to education, overcoming an anthropocentric view of sustainability. By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze educational contexts from an ecocentric perspective, integrate philosophical and pedagogical approaches to ecology, and design educational practices oriented toward responsibility, relationality, and care for the world.

Assessment
as per the master's regulations

Evaluation criteria
as per the master's regulations

Required readings

Birbes C Bornatici S. La Terra che unisce. Lineamenti di pedagogia dell'ambiente Mondadori 2023
Parricchi M (2023) Dalla complessità al paradigma ecologico per un domani dell’umanità, Lifelong, Lifewide Learning LLL, pp. 32-41.
Parricchi M. (2020). Dall’abitare la natura alla cultura della sostenibilità: sentieri pedagogici in Parricchi M., Bocchi B., Lelli C. (a cura di) Abitare la sostenibilità. Riflessioni e percorsi di educazione alla natura. Bergamo: Zeroseiup.
Cagol, M. (2020). Una maniera di essere umani. Osservazioni per una pedagogia dell’ecologia. In: M. Cagol, G. Calvano, & C. Lelli (Eds.), Esperire l’ambiente. Tra natura e contesti di vita (pp. 13–20). Zeroseiup.
Cagol, M. (2023). Wonder and Pedagogy. In: R. Casadei (Ed.), Education: Questions and Dialogues (at) Work(pp. 143–154). ETS.
Mortari, L. (2020). Educazione ecologica. Laterza.
Morton, T. (2019a). Come un’ombra dal futuro. Per un nuovo pensiero ecologico. Aboca. (Original work published 2010)
Morton, T. (2019b). Cosa sosteniamo? Pensare la natura al tempo della catastrofe. Aboca.
Næss, A. (2015). I fondamenti del movimento dell’ecologia profonda. In: A. Næss (2015). Introduzione all’ecologia (pp. 39-53). ETS.

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Sustainable Development Goals
This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the following Sustainable Development Goals.

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