Guest Editor: Dr Sayan Dey
Concept Note:
The alarming rise in climate and environmental catastrophes has been consistently reminding us that transformation initiatives at the level of institutional policy making and radical governmentalities are not sufficient. Also, what is widely observed is that at times the policies are often fraudulent in nature, because in the name of building ecological consciousness, they often end up appeasing the self-profiting desires of blindfolded capitalistic enterprises. For instance, false reports of ecological safety and security were prepared by the then Indian government and a US-based organization to establish a carbide gas plant in Bhopal (the capital city of Madhya Pradesh), which eventually leaked in 1984 and generated a devastative impact on both the humans and the natural environment. In the name of development, growth and ecological balance, through compromising with the forest and environmental laws, several forest lands have been confiscated by local governing bodies and private organizations for constructing factories and industries in Odisha, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh and various other parts of India. In 2022, with due permission of the local government, Shell wanted to conduct seismic survey in the coastal regions of Cape Town in South Africa to see the possibility of constructing oil and gas pipelines below the sea. Though, with the intervention of various environmental and coastal communities the survey was stalled by court order, yet, what was alarming was how much effort it took to make Shell, the government, and other profitmaking enterprises understand the disastrous ecological consequences of conducting such experiments. These scenarios provoke us to explore the various ways in which these issues can be addressed at varied grassroot levels and one of the many ways of doing is to dismantle the capitalistic curriculums and pedagogies and co-build green curricular and pedagogical spaces.
To explain further, it is crucial for the educational institutions to generate curricular and pedagogical changes in such ways so that the teachers and the learners can integrate indigenous eco-centric knowledge values, not just as text books in syllabuses, but also in practical ways through hands-on-experience. In fact, many educational initiatives like the Green School Education System in Bhutan, Kaupapa Maori education system in New Zealand, Happiness Curriculum in New Delhi, the green educational systems in Kenya, and others have been forging curriculums and pedagogies that gives first-hand teaching-learning experiences with (and also within) the natural environment. However, there is still a lack of a planetary collaboration to introduce such systems of knowledge production because of lack of realizations, socioeconomic skepticisms, dictatorial functional procedures of academic and other knowledge producing institutions, and the surveillance and censorships of capitalistic governmentalities.
With respect to these arguments, the special issue looks forward to receive praxis-based research articles on the following subthemes (not limited to):
- Indigenous knowledge systems and curriculum building: The contribution of indigenous knowledge systems towards present-day curriculum-making procedures.
- Decentralizing curriculums and pedagogies: Decentralizing curriculums and pedagogies in schools and higher education institutions with respect to the knowledge-making patterns of the natural environment.
- Activisms and praxis-based learning systems: The roles that activists and indigenous community elders can play towards shaping praxis-based eco-centric education systems across the globe.
- Artificial Intelligence and eco-centric knowledge systems: The possibilities that Artificial Intelligence can play towards rebuilding the collaborative knowledge-making systems between human and more-than-human-beings.
- Anthropocentrism, posthumanism and eco-centric pedagogies: The ways in which the paradigms of anthropocentrism and posthumanism may contribute towards shaping the planetary consciousness of building environment friendly curriculums and pedagogies.
- Natural environment as a pedagogical site: Trying to think through natural components like oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, forests, animals, plants, and seasons as possible agencies of building nature-based teaching and learning systems.
- Eco-centric educational infrastructures – Challenges and Possibilities: Engaging with the infrastructural capacities of different educational institutions to engage with eco-centric praxis-based education system and what are the underlying possibilities and challenges.
- Building eco-centric pedagogies across disciplines: Understanding the different possibilities of building eco-centric pedagogies across diverse disciplines through institution-based case studies.
- Science and Technology Studies and Eco-centrism: Analyzing the different theories and methods through which the knowledge-making systems of sciences and technologies can be co-developed with the functional patterns of the natural environment, rather than destroying, expropriating and erasing them.
Timelines of Submissions:
Abstract: 31st March 2024 (250-300 words)
Decision on abstracts: 15th May 2024
Full paper submission: 31st August 2024 (5000-7000 words)
Double-bind peer review (tentative): 30th November 2024
Revised paper submission: 31st January 2025
Publication (tentative): 30th April 2025
Please note that publication confirmation will only be given to the contributors, once all the internal and external reviews are completed and a favorable decision is reached.