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Caring for the Environment: Challenges from Notions of Caring

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Peter Martin
Peter Martin*
Affiliation:
La Trobe University
*
†School of Outdoor Education and Environment, La Trobe University, Bendigo, Victoria 3552. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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In 2003 John Fien presented an argument for environmental education to encompass deep and wide caring for human and nonhuman nature (Fien, 2003). His philosophical discussion of care outlined work by Nel Noddings (1984; 1992). In this paper I continue that project by indicating how Noddings' work provides signposts for environmental educators to think about their students' relationships with the nonhuman natural world. I argue that one consequence of Noddings' conception of care is that advocacy for considering humans to be a part of nature might be counterproductive to developing a student's capacity to understand a caring relationship with nature. In conclusion I draw on the structure of a care ethic to suggest practical implications for environmental education and the development of a relational self.

Keywords

Environmental caringrelatednessreciprocity; relational self
Type
Research Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 23 , 2007 , pp. 57 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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