What could existentialism -­- an ostensibly eclipsed intellectual movement from a bygone era -­- possibly offer education in today's world of ecological emergency? We suggest looking to the pedagogical possibilities of an eco-existentialism -- most notably the works of Arendt, Camus, Sartre and Buber. The existentialists provide the philosophical…

Preamble: Singers gathering on stage. This is a paper for three voices. An attempt at a philosophic experience in the symphonic form. The first voice carries the tune and holds the shape of the paper as it focuses on Baudrillard and proposes that public education in Canada today is in fact a simulacra. The second voice has more room to roam,…

This paper takes the academically unorthodox form of personal correspondence. This method, of letters between two educators writing to one another across the distance of two continents and different experiences, seeks to create an inclusive, confessional tone, one that invites the reader to get closer to the lived experience of those struggling…

In this paper, Cassandra's role in the ancient Greek myth of the fall of Troy, as one given the gift of prophesy but cursed to be disbelieved, is explored with a view to understanding the apparently powerless position of climate justice and environmental activism to change public policy. To make this case, we re-interpret the myth of Cassandra to…

This paper begins with a very short overview of the environmental and educational challenges that exist today. It proceeds through three pedagogical strands -- the relational, the critical, and the existential -- that have been woven through the practices of many outdoor and environmental educators for the last 60 years. After each strand is…

The first climate change conference was held in 1979 in Geneva and sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization. Since then there have been many other initiatives and accords along the way. Each report appears to present an evermore grim picture than the previous one. Cumulatively, we have had more than enough science to know what to do, and…

In this paper, we attempt to do a kind of theorizing that we think is compatible with new materialisms. To do this we explore the idea of what it might be to separate "ontos-" from "-logos," and give suggestions to readers for ways of experiencing this idea. We posit that it is not only possible to make diffractive…

This article is a small piece of a much larger and still evolving project. Herein we focus on six touchstones for wild pedagogies. The article begins with a short orientation to the larger ideas behind the project and then focuses on exploring six current touchstones with a view towards early childhood environmental educators. The six explored…

This paper begins with a recognition that questions of climate change, environmental degradation, and our relations to the natural world are increasingly significant and requiring of a response not only as philosophers of education but also as citizens of the planet. As such the paper explores five of the key journals in philosophy of education in…

This article shares three vignettes, drawn from the life experience of its authors and five years of research at two schools, to illustrate the "choice" many males are forced to make between normalized "masculine" indifference and a stigmatized caring relationship with the natural world. We suggest this dissociation results,…

This article uses an unconventional format to explore the role of parent and nature and the development of a young child's ecological identity. It follows journal entries from a mother observing her young son, Julian, as he explores, interacts with, and learns from the Stawamus River on the west coast of British Columbia. By creating questions,…

This paper begins with two parallel, although not identical, images. The first is of Ota Benga, a Congolese "pygmy" brought to the St. Louis World Fair in 1904 and displayed in a cage for the entertainment of the visiting public. The second is of a Red Maple tree in a large concrete pot on the campus of Simon Fraser University on the…

This paper, based upon our experiences starting a school, is part dialogue and part theory. The three authors have all played important roles in the design, creation, and ongoing support of an innovative public elementary school. The first part of the paper describes the impetus behind the creation of this "buildingless," environmentally…

This paper begins by exploring the anti-colonial work of Tunisian scholar Albert Memmi in his classic book "The Colonizer and the Colonized" and determining whether the characteristics of colonization that he names can be successfully applied to the current relationship between modern humans and the "natural world". After…

The institutionalization of neoliberal reforms that began to take hold in the 1970s were by and large "common-sense governance" by the 1990s. While the growing predominance of neoliberal discourse and marginalization of alternatives in environmental education is disconcerting on the level of policy, this paper explores an equally…