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Thinking differently: An education for the Anthropocene from Uttarakhand, India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2019

Susan Germein Open the ORCID record for Susan Germein [Opens in a new window]  and
Neema Vaishnava
Susan Germein*
Affiliation:
Centre for Educational Research, Western Sydney University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Neema Vaishnava
Affiliation:
Lakshmi Ashram, Uttarakhand, India
*
*Corresponding author. Email: susangermein@gmail.com
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Abstract

Theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of education and activism in the Anthropocene will be enriched by an embrace of non-hegemonic thinking. Lakshmi Ashram, a small girls’ school in the Himalayan mountains of Uttarakhand, India, provides an object lesson in thinking differently: in an imbrication of education/research/activism. This article acknowledges a continuing lack of attention in the literature to local, cultural and place-based diversity in transformative learning for sustainable community. However, the central story in this article is not one of critique, but rather one of a Himalayan approach to creating the pedagogical conditions for transformation in thinking and behaviour, in a connected socio-ecological community. Writing across an intercultural space, the two authors describe their ethnographic methodologies, exploring the long-term impact of a Lakshmi Ashram education on students and inhabiting the pedagogical experience of the school. A seamless flow of socio-material practice between pedagogy, research and activism in the school’s educational approach speaks to a Gandhian philosophy-in-action that is worth considering as a contribution to global educational praxis in the Anthropocene. In telling this tale of one small school’s pedagogical philosophy, the authors aim not towards ideological posturing, but towards creating further openings in thinking differently in education.

Keywords

AnthropoceneGandhian thinkingnew materialismposthumanismethnographysocio-ecological communitynatureculture
Type
Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , November 2019 , pp. 250 - 261
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Cambridge University Press

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