Radical Nature Connection is underpinned by approaches to ecological learning that aim to empower and sustain collective action for socio-ecological transformation.
During 2021-23 the Ulex Project worked with three partners (Wandelwerk, Vedegylet, and Transformative Education CIC) to develop research and learning resources aimed at motivating and equiping people to take collective action in defense of the earth and social justice.
We believe that to tackle the core social and ecological crises of our times, collective action is needed. We recognise that to help address the socio-ecological crises we face today, we need more people who are inspired to invest time and energy in socially transformative strategies that can challenge the dynamics of power and injustice that sit beneath these crises.
We believe that ecological education can be designed to effectively motivate and empower the community-based initiatives, collective forms of action and activism needed to meet the scale of the problems we face. The Radical Ecological Pedagogies project aim to help inspire and empower those collective initiatives.
The work seeks to address two key aims:
1. To integrate a critical power analysis and theories of social change within ecological learning – to enable it to grow beyond merely promoting individualised responses and inspire collective action.
2. To apply insights and practices from the sphere of ecological education to enhance social change practice in ways that can empower it with ecological ways of seeing and being in the world.
The results of that project can be found here. They include:
– research on the psychology of collective environmental action
– a learing framework and curriculum
– a trainers manual
– online resoutrces and learning activites.
The project was supported by funding from the EU Erasmus Plus Programme, through a KA2 Strategic Partnership Grant. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
