Aportaciones de una perspectiva integral de la Eco-ética a la Educación Ambiental

Resumen

This research assumes that the basis of our socio-ecological crisis lies in the «intentional» assumptions of our contemporary culture. It is therefore in the field of consciousness and culture where we must operate the first transformations. This is an educational mission that Environmental Education (EE) takes on in an original and distinctive form in contrast to other related educational movements. It shows how this education could be rethought in depth from the contributions of those radically «ecological» currents of thought: ecophilosophies and integral ecologies; and a coherent synthesis of these currents is proposed based on the organizing criterion of their educational value. This thesis argues that this "education" must question the worldview on which the fundamentally anti-ecological "purposes" of the modern world have been built, and it must get rid of the basic categories and operations of thought that sustain this worldview. Edgar Morin's complex perspective is exposed, which describes the attributes of this paradigmatic thinking under the label of «simplifying thinking»; and it is also assumed the perspective of others, such as Leonardo Boff or Thomas Berrry, who have conclusively established the limitations and perversions of the anthropocentric (and androcentric) content of our current worldview. It is proposed, then, that to overcome "simplifying thinking" we must embrace a "complex thinking" within an "integral vision". On the other hand, it is shown how overcoming anthropocentrism requires assuming a committed ecocentric perspective. The basic argument of this work insists on the deep philosophical consequences of this integral and ecocentric synthesis, and points out its hopeful potentialities. Furthermore, it is justified that the transition from one worldview to other integral and ecocentric worldviews implies a transformative approach to education. To do this, it is first necessary to reconcepturalize some basic pedagogical categories under this integral and ecocentric prism. Without this "ecological" interpretation of certain educational principles, an understanding of our subsequent educational proposals would be "flat." Indeed, this work considers how to facilitate the learning of integral and ecocentric worldviews by the singular communities, respecting their diversity and from a participatory approach. This implies a criticism of the exclusively closed and programmatic approaches to EE. In contrast, this thesis simply proposes an inspiring and empowering minimal generative elements. Thus, a set of virtues/cares is proposed in correspondence with the fundamental dimensions of a possible ecocentric and integral worldview, and updateable based on those ecocentric and integral educational principles sketched in the research. It is argued that this minimum set of virtues/cares has a generative value for the development of new ecocentric senses in the various specific communities. It is explained the poly-competence that educational institutions and their communities need for all this: the «integral pedagogical imagination». Eco-centric and integral EE would critically and transdisciplinarily embrace the resources of EE's rich tradition to make them creatively available to each educational community. These, as communities of inquiry, would organize their practice based on the development of their singular integral pedagogical imagination. Finally, it is explained how to understand this "imagination" and outlining the conditions for its development.