Cultivating Wisdom for an Ecological Civilization
摘要
The vision of an ecological civilization can draw inspiration from diverse sources including systems thinking, the Earth Charter, the Andean concept of “living well,” Daoism, and permaculture. These portray a society where all beings can flourish in ways that widen diversity, deepen communion and symbiosis, promote creativity and self-organization, and respect natural life cycles, balance, and subsidiarity. To promote an ecological civilization, education should focus on cultivating ecological wisdom—a wisdom rooted in the lived experience of the interconnection and intrinsic value of all life. This wisdom consists of the diverse modalities of perception and consciousness—together with the knowledge, skills, and emotional intelligence—that enable humans to listen to, learn from, and attune to Earth’s wisdom; recover a sense of the sacred in life; and discern and embody actions that enable humans to “live well” in harmony with each other and other species; respect, protect, and cooperate with life in all its diversity; safeguard the well-being of future generations; move toward ever greater justice and equity; and find satisfaction, fulfillment, and meaning beyond the quest for acquisition and consumption (Hathaway 2018). Drawing on insights from transformative learning, this chapter explores concrete implications for reimagining education for an ecological civilization, building on O’Sullivan’s (1999) framework of survive, critique, and create. Key themes include the importance of learning to attend to and connect with others, to imagine and to enstory regenerative lifeways, to cocreate with other members of the Earth community, and to develop practical skills to live well.