Eco-Rational Education

‘At the core of Simone Thornton’s concerns is the development of eco-rational thinking as central to environmental education aimed at purposeful engagement in identity formation towards ecological citizenship. Eco-Rational Education: An Educational Response to Environmental Crisis innovatively addresses complex concepts and pressing issues and provides a compelling argument for dialogic education that engages students with Indigenous and non-indigenous socio-political concepts to open conversation on diverse ways of knowing and being in the world. Eloquently written, Thornton offers a pedagogical framework that challenges educators to reposition environmental education as a cross-curriculum learning priority for synthesising curriculum with place-responsive practice and, as such, has published a very timely book that makes a significant contribution to re-visioning education as the socio-cultural reconstruction of the greater community.’ Gilbert Burgh, Honorary Associate Professor in Philosophy, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland, Australia. ‘Thornton’s ground-breaking Eco-Rational Education: An Educational Response to Environmental Crisis provides a compelling account of why we must upend some deep-seated philosophical and educational assumptions in order to implement effective environmental education in schools. By skilfully interconnecting the ideas of a surprisingly diverse range of scholars, including Albert Camus, Val Plumwood, Mary Graham, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Plato, and James Baldwin, Thornton argues that educational institutions must reject the notion that a key aim of education is the development of individuals with a rational capacity that enables them to dominate nature and ‘the other’—a form of epistemic violence. Thornton’s book is not merely a critique. It also offers an innovative and practical alternative, namely a type of eco-rational education, which draws on ideas from pragmatism, Philosophy for Children, and place-based learning to provide teachers with specific methods they can use to foster transformative environmental education.’ Jennifer Bleazby, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Society and Culture, Monash University, Australia.