Education as if People and Planet Matter

As long as we live, breathe and experience; we learn. We’re incredible creatures that way - coupled with our environment improvising the best we can - things happen and we adapt. An endless dance with our changing exterior worlds; parts of a whole, inseparable from our biosphere and doing our best to thrive. Despite our clumsiness, we are creatures that continuously learn.

Why then does education matter? Stemming from the verb educe, which means to bring out or develop, one definition of education is the giving of social, moral or intellectual instruction to someone. Sounds important right? Naturally whatever’s “brought out” can be gifts or curses depending on context and situation. Semantics aside though, let’s simply accept that education is something formative and clearly of importance.

A number of considerations arise at this point: What should such education be in service of? Why? And for whom? Trying to answer these questions for myself; the only ethical response that answers all three questions seems to be that education should be in service of people and planet.

Can education be used to raise the agency of those its forming, while helping them to navigate and steward the worlds increasing complexity (without externalising ones cost onto others and the environment)? If not, education is simply indoctrination into the values and beliefs of others - no matter how benevolent. It’s a monoculture.

“Facilitating emergence means creating conditions rather than giving directions, and it also means using the power of authority to empower others.” - Fritjof Capra

Assuming we don’t want a monoculture, then we have to accept that people are complex and learn in different ways. One size does not fit all. What then, is an appropriate lens to look at education through? The conception will need to be systemic.

The most comprehensive approach I’m personally aware of is work by Dr. Clare Graves - a now deceased psychology professor from New York - who created the evidence based framework known as Emergent Cyclical Theory; a systems approach to psychology and learning.

Emergent Cyclical Theory covers a LOT of ground - the majority of which will be left out of this essay. We’ll briefly cover the conceptions and modalities however as they have implications for designing a wholistic curriculum. One that serves people and planet in an ethical way.

The theory posits that from the moment we are born we emerge into a generative dialectic between the environment and ourselves. Existential conditions and the response-abilities we’ve learnt.

In Emergent Cyclical Theory, how we learn is considered to be a attribute of our current psychological conception; at the subsistence levels of existence there are six primary conceptions which encompasses the six learning modalities. These are notated by ascending letter pairings which split the alphabet from [AN] to [FS]. Here’s a brief description of each:

• The [AN] conception of ‘express self according to the dictates of one’s imperative periodic physiological needs’ is barely found in industrialised cultures any more. This cohort is generally occupied by infants, Alzheimer’s patients and drug addicts. The learning style is habitual.
• The [BO] conception of ‘sacrifice self to the traditions of one’s elders, one’s ancestors’ is also quite rare except in small children. The learning style is Pavlovian.
• The [CP] conception of ‘express self and to hell with the consequences, lest one suffer the torment of unbearable shame’ is more prevalent in the modern world. An egocentric existence who’s learning style is Operant.
• The [DQ] conception of ‘deny self now in order to receive reward later’ is largely about doing things by the book or protocol without deviation. The learning style is avoidancy conditioning.
• The [ER] conception of ‘express self for what self desires, but in a fashion calculated not to bring down the wrath of others’ is extremely prevalent in today’s “individualistic culture” and is focused on scientific materialism where the only right way to do things is dispassionately and at a distance. Learning is through expectancy.
• The [FS] conception of ‘deny self now in order to get acceptance now, in order for all to get now’ is becoming more prevalent in today’s society. It’s a generally socio-centric perspective and learns through observation.

All of these conceptions have additional detail worth discovering yourself of course, but for the sake of brevity I’m only providing outlines for our particular case of interest. If your interested in diving deeper, here be treasure!

At this point it’s worth asserting that the current educational system is - generically - a projection (and consequentially a limitation) of what particular psychological conceptions think it should be. - a paradigm. More specifically the modality is lying somewhere in the gap between a righteously moralistic and technologically objectivistic world view - the [DQ] and [ER] conceptions.

A more holistic re-imagination of this system is of course possible and aligns pretty well with our introductory claim that education should be in service of people and planet. Learning should be geared to an individuals stage of development, the teacher bringing out more complex forms of the student by meeting and engaging with them at their level.

This would have massive knock on effects as the rising tide raises all boats. As conceptions mature, so does our humanity. According to Graves - if we can get the majority of humanity past the [ER] conception it’s likely that the human behaviours of war and homicide would disappear.

It also seems that as ones conceptions mature; concerns for the planet and society as a whole does as well. Assuming this effect cascades, education may be one of the fastest ways to lift the world out of poverty and it’s environmental tail spin! As you probably know already; poverty and the environment are caught in a vicious cycle.

“The economic and political dynamics creating climate change are the same as the ones creating the inequality” ~[[Fritjof Capra]]

So what are these dynamics?

• Poverty often causes people to put pressure on their environment; they need to externalise their costs just to survive. Examples might include: increased pressure on depleted lands to meet nourishment needs, exploitation of natural resources, deforestation, burning waste materials, improper sewage disposal etc. None of this is good for the people or planet.
• These people are however the most effected by such environmental problems, only adding to their misery. Land degradation and soil depletion lead to a decline in food production, resource shortage from over exploitation contributes to inflation and improper waste disposal directly impacts the health of those most at risk.

Concern for people IS concern for planet; a holistic education is key!