Being a child and becoming an adult is a process of socialization, subjectification and qualification, in which learning experiences take place in different contexts (Biesta, 2014, 2020), inside and outside educational institutions, in interaction with people but also in relationship and interaction with the more-than-human world, represented by both animate beings and inanimate things.

The out-of-school experience is not just about interactions between teachers and children, but about a complex web of interactions, relationships and connections between people, animals, plants, artefacts and other natural elements.

The data used for this paper was collected using the phenomenological vignette (Schratz et al., 2012), a qualitative research tool that has proven effective in exploring and making children´s experiences visible.

This research tool captures moments of experience in short written narratives, drawing inspiration from Husserl's (1983) descriptive phenomenology and Merleau-Ponty's (1962) phenomenology of the body. As dense descriptions of experiences (Schratz et al., 2012), vignettes go beyond what is said and make the atmosphere tangible. Consequently, they not only describe the researchers’ experiences but also make them perceptible, raising awareness of bodily articulations and enabling a reflexive approach to them.

After a brief introduction of an exemplary vignette, this paper presents a selected vignette reading (analysis) that describes the experience between a child and the more-than-human world: As the vignette shows, a relational quality can develop between children and the entities of the more-than-human-world in which it is not only central what the children do with them, treating them as objects of observation, reflection and manipulation, but also that the children respond to the “claims” (Waldenfels, 2011, p. 37) of that world. In their responses, children immerse themselves in the more-than-human, realizing that “things are not things” (Morin, 2007, p. 42), but rather that they are with the things, which become a source of discovery, relationship and creativity. Children's creative and physical responses to the claims of the world arise from their being affected and part of it, from their involvement and sense of wonder, so that a new horizon can open up by grasping something specific as something new or different (Meyer-Drawe, 2012). A new understanding of the self, the other and the world emerges, as does an attitude of receptivity, listening and looking.

Environmental education is intercultural in nature, and it leads to the recognition of variety and diversity as values that should be respected and promoted. On the one hand, it raises awareness of the importance of respecting and valuing natural biodiversity and the interconnections that maintain ecological balances; on the other, it promotes the establishment of relationships founded on mutual support and the recognition of different perspectives. Hence, a comprehensive understanding of the biological mechanisms operating in nature highlights positive instances of essential interconnections, patterns of social behaviour, and reciprocal growth. It also enables the establishment of a distinctive connection between safeguarding the environment, intellectual advancement, and the cultural heritage of individuals (Bridgewater & Rotherham, 2019; Cortes-Capano et al., 2022; Lenzi et al., 2023).

The concept of biodiversity, in particular, effectively shows the intricate nature of reality and systematic planning inherent in life and the environment. This notion stimulates research and enhances comprehension of the relationships and interactions among various components, phenomena, and fields of study. Indeed, the theme of biodiversity enables the connection between environmental education and intercultural education, as there seems to be a strong correlation between understanding others and acknowledging differences. Integrating biodiversity and intercultural aspects entails prioritizing ecology, connections, links, and relationships as the focal point (Shiva, 1993; Bateson, 2002; Elamè, 2002; Calvano, 2014; Tomarchio, D’Aprile & La Rosa, 2018).

This contribution presents a critical and reflective analysis of a training experience involving 250 students who attended the "Intercultural Pedagogy with Laboratory" course (Bachelor’s in educational sciences) during the academic year 2022/2023. The course included workshop activities developed by the “Green Education Lab”, which is part of the Department of Educational Sciences at the University of Catania (D'Aprile & Bufalino, 2022). Using the expressive and symbolic features of photography as a research tool, the participants engaged in didactic visits to the Botanical Garden of the University of Catania. They explored the notion of plant "biodiversity" and its importance in the natural world, as well as the complex network of connections that supports an "ecosystem" - a truly intercultural system. This study utilizes an inductive thematic analysis to identify the underlying themes that link environmental education and intercultural education. The students' photographic and reflexive investigations clearly demonstrate these interconnecting themes. The objective is to showcase ecologically ways of thinking and comprehending, through the utilization of systemic methodologies and perspectives. From this point of view, environmental education can be understood as an educational approach that emphasizes the inherent qualities of human beings, their connection to nature, and the distinct experience of being a human within the natural environment.

This paper lays the groundwork for a theoretical project that explores the strangeness of ‘educational life’, and the personal, political, and ecological importance of coming to grips with the weird nature of a life spent working within educational institutions. The paper addresses the very strange predicament of being an educator in modern institutions that must promote the imperatives of advanced capitalism and a colonial world order. Survival here means literally surviving a life of working within educational institutions, but also to draw attention to the fact that education, the way it is currently structured and conceived, is unable to contend with the large-scale economic, spiritual, sociopolitical, and ecological changes needed for multispecies flourishing (Haraway, 2016). Explorations into the strangeness of educational life can expose the perplexing contradictions and pleasurable aporias that characterize a life working in educational institutions. To explore this strangeness I draw from contemporary philosophy, educational theory, social theory and labour studies, as well as my experience as an elementary school teacher and professor in a Faculty of Education in Canada. Most people living in modern industrialized nations have experienced the strangeness of educational life, however all of us have quite a different understanding of what this strangeness entails. It is time to speak more openly about this strangeness as an educational community.

This paper follows three separate theoretical trajectories into the strangeness of educational life. The first trajectory involves exploring ‘ecological strangeness’ using the work of ecological philosopher Timothy Morton. Essentially, to ‘exist’ is to always already be ontologically strange, withdrawn, yet shimmering. In order to move past Anthropocentrism and engage the climate crisis (certain) human beings must learn to look beyond human-human relations and realize that most of the wondrous ecological relationships that sustain life are nonhuman-nonhuman relationships (Morton 2016). Educators of all callings and backgrounds stand to deepen their ecological awareness by embracing this strangeness. The second trajectory has to do with the strangeness of institutional life: drawing from labour studies and educational philosophy I highlight the fact that institutions inevitably alienate all those who labour and exist within them. What makes this alienation incredibly strange is that strong, functioning institutions are absolutely necessary to engage our shared ecological crisis. The third trajectory involves looking at how educators might begin to embody this strangeness pedagogically in the everyday work they do (beier 2023). How indeed, when the industry of education has its practitioners and researchers invest in the capitalist/colonial goals and imperatives? How might educators acknowledge and nurture this necessary strangeness as we move toward ecological and social justice?

While the topic of this paper/presentation is somewhat wide open and grand, it’s usefulness lies precisely in what it allows other educators to think about the strangeness of education life (as they see it), and how thinking with this strangeness is essential for fostering ecological awareness and justice.

The ecological crisis and increasingly self-evident social injustices, which are spreading globally and which we have been witnessing for quite some time, warn us that we live in a more-than-human world.

For more than two decades, scholars from different fields have been reporting a conceptual (Neil, 2021), material-discursive (Barad, 2003) shift that, for those who are inclined, does not allow us to continue to think of the world in terms of ordered and separate substances, essences, static, and objects – of which the human being is in control. Rather, we live in uncertain realities: indeterminate outcomes of unstoppable processes, events, and transformations.

If we are to continue to live on Earth, a complex and intricate ecosystem, the result of interactions between agent and heterogeneous elements, new wor(l)ds, research, and actions in everyday work and private life are not only necessary but urgent – even for educational practitioners to continue to set up educational experiences for possible future Earth societies and subjectivities. Therefore, how do we re-think and enact sustainable and ecological ways of inhabiting the Earth? How can we initiate those changes that would provide the well-being and prosperity of human and nonhuman life on the planet on which we live, considering ourselves as always and already part of nature (Barad, 2003)? How can we shift from ego-centric to eco-centric thinking and acting?

In the paper, we will see how some theories and research help, more than others, to move in that direction. Namely, Sociomaterial approaches to research – ANT in particular (Latour, 2005; Fenwick and Edwards, 2010) – and the theories of scholars such as Deleuze and Guattari, Braidotti, and Haraway (to name a few), help to rethink and transform how, in the field of education, research, educational experiences and subjects are crafted. Through unusual wor(l)ds and lenses, educational subjectivities and practices, in fact, are re-read and enacted as heterogeneous and complex events, associations, and assemblages, neither inert and unchangeable, nor finite and rationalizable in taxonomic arrangements and predefined and applicable techniques, but the outcome of the combination of a myriad of human and non-human intra-acting elements (Barad, 2003).

The challenge, then, even in education, becomes to create new ways of being in the world, transforming human beings’ ways of being and existing in relationship with themselves, other critters (Haraway, 2016), and the Planet that will be not only life-sustaining but also life-enhancing (Plotkin, 2021). Achieving this requires learning to stay with the trouble (Haraway, 2016) in a non-ideological but radical way (Braidotti, 2019) and putting at the center of educational pedagogical research the sociomaterial connections that create what we call educational experience. That is to say, it is about «finding an order that the multiplicity really does» (Deleuze and Guattari, 2017 p. 62, translation modified). It is about learning how to move by «imperceptible cracks rather than by meaningful cuts» (Ibid., p. 65). It is about replacing progress that changes nothing with new possibilities in the form of «new precarious and pragmatic scaffolding» (Ibid).

Despite the urgent need to envision the interdependence between humans and the planet through the lenses of sustainability, a dualistic view of such a relationship is still rooted in our society. Therefore, pedagogical research can help restore our connections with the more-than-human by developing novel curricula and educational environments aimed at overcoming this dualism (Wals et al., 2022).
Consequently, the study relies on an interdisciplinary framework that places education in dialogue with psychology, geography, critical plant studies, and architecture.
This doctoral study aims to establish active relationships between pre-service teachers and plants by designing a curriculum for initial teacher education (ITE) that fosters their GreenComp (GC) (Bianchi, Pisiotis, & Cabrera, 2022). The concept of educational environments, operationalized as a physical, relational, and activity space, informs the creation of three university classrooms with plants needed to further develop the curriculum. The research builds on the theory of transformative learning, draws from recent studies on ITE (Bamber, 2020), and is oriented by the general questions: “How is it possible to foster the development of GC in pre-service teachers by setting up educational environments with plants and formulating an interdisciplinary co-constructed green curriculum (IGCC)? The design and methodology align with the state of the art on curriculum development and EfS in tertiary education (Pritchard et al., 2018): the case study is multiple, vertical, and descriptive and is conducted through a mixed-method approach. Students and professors from two Universities participate in the study for eighteen months. The output of the project is a tool that supports the creation of interspecies educational environments in which plants represent the living variable in the physical, relational, and curriculum spaces. Timothy Morton, a radical philosopher, points out how “Se c’è qualcosa che siete in grado di comprendere, allora ne siete responsabili” (If there is something you can understand, then you are responsible for it) (Morton, 2019, p. 25). Through contact with plants, supported by their presence in educational spaces and curricula, the study promotes a re-acknowledge of these living beings, the development of new relationships, and, therefore, the assumption of responsibility towards them. One moves, hence, from a generic 'green' to a 'you-alterity' that I respect and to which I listen.
In the doctoral research outlined above, the researcher tried to keep her perspective decentralized from her everyday cognitive, affective, and moral habitus. Overcoming such habitus to create studies that truly support alternative and sustainable visions is not easy. Therefore, this paper presents an eco-critical reflection (Herbrechter et al., 2022) on the research process to uncover the hidden figures of thought (Garrard, 2012) that may have influenced this ecological education project.