Educating Ecological Citizens of The Blue Planet

Abstract

This paper explores the implications of a renewed model of citizenship and citizenship education developed on the principles of ecology and ecological interdependence. By reframing our community from a human polity to a biotic community, the scope of our citizenship responsibilities shift. While expanding to encompass a global context, this new vision of citizenship deepens our ability to respond—that is, our "response-abilities"—to relationships excluded by the Western Enlightenment tradition of citizenship. Accordingly, drawing back to the Stoics (via Nussbaum) and even beyond Western civilization to Buddhist concepts of universal responsibility, the author presents a program for global ecological citizenship education based on a renewed global form of liberal education; ecological values and ethics; interdisciplinary inquiry; and reflexive practice within a pedagogy of compassion.