What if world politicians knew as much as children about ‘common worlding’ in the Anthropocene?
SHARED BY IVETA SILOVA
What if world politicians knew as much as children about ‘common worlding’ in the Anthropocene? This is neither a rhetorical question nor a speculative thought experiment. This is a pedagogical experiment, which will take place at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow on November 1-12, 2021. Mobilizing the power of socially engaged art to ‘move’ people into action, this experiment aims to ‘move’ politicians into a different state of thinking and being: from the human-centric impulse to ‘save’ the world through techno-scientific solutions toward the praxis of ‘common worlding’ that refuses human exceptionalism on a damaged Earth. At the center of this intervention is one of the oldest and most basic learning tools – a deck of educational flashcards – but this particular deck comes with some twists and turns! Called “Turn It Around!”, the deck is designed to activate three major “turns.” First, it aims to “turn around” the hierarchical direction of the learning process: unlike the traditional flashcards designed by all-knowing adults to teach basic facts to children, this deck will be developed by children to teach the basics of “common worlding” to the adult policymakers. Second, the deck will make a pedagogical “turn” – its content will not only help policy-makers to learn about “common worlding” with their minds but also to feel it emotionally and physically – in their bodies. Finally, the third turn has to do with activating a cultural shift where “common worlding” is at the core of all education systems that extend beyond humans and include the Earth’s broader ecological community.
We are calling children and youth under the age of 25 years old to share their visions by submitting their artwork and short written responses to prompts using here. The deadline has been extended to July 30th! If you are older than 25 years old, please spread the word through your networks and don’t hesitate to share your visions with us too! Let’s turn it around!
References
Common Worlds Research Collective (2020). Learning to become with the world: Education for future survival.Education Research and Foresight Working Paper 28. Paris, UNESCO
Taylor, Affrica (2017). Beyond stewardship: Common world pedagogies for the Anthropocene. Environmental Education Research, 23(10), 1448-1461.
