Conference Program

In an era characterized by urgent environmental challenges, ecology education (eco-literacy) emerges as a fundamental area to promote active and responsible citizenship towards the environment.

The link between eco-literacy and a reflection on the human and the post-human is rooted in the need to rethink the role and identity of man in the era of ecological crisis and growing interaction with a new "history of things". This connection highlights a paradigm shift in how we understand ourselves and our place in the world, prompting a reconsideration of the boundaries between the human, the non-human, and the post-human.

Eco-literacy challenges anthropocentrism, the conception that sees man at the center of the universe, proposing a more holistic and integrated approach that recognizes the interdependence of all living beings and systems. This perspective is in line with post-human thinking, which criticizes human hegemony and promotes a more inclusive view of ethical action, extending it to non-humans and ecological systems. Both eco-literacy and post-human thinking promote the understanding of more fluid and dynamic identities, which transcend the dichotomies human/non-human, nature/culture, physical/virtual. This vision encourages greater responsibility towards the environment and an awareness of the complex networks of relationships that define existence on the planet.

With this in mind, the study aims to explore the integration between theory and practice in ecological education through the analysis of the theoretical framework of reference and the experience of FIERI (Fabbrica Interculturale Ecosostenibile del Riuso, Eco-sustainable Intercultural Factory of Reuse ), a project launched in Catania to promote eco-literacy in suburban neighborhoods. Through a qualitative approach that includes interviews, participant observations and analysis of documents, the work investigates how FIERI has translated the theoretical principles of eco-literacy into concrete educational practices, involving the local community in experiential learning activities.

The FIERI project stands out for its holistic approach to environmental education, which integrates the understanding of ecological issues with the development of practical skills and ethical values. Key initiatives included recycling workshops, educational gardens, and citizen science projects, which allowed students to explore sustainability through direct experiences, fostering an emotional and responsible connection to the environment.

The analysis of the results highlights significant impacts on students' perceptions and behaviors regarding sustainability, demonstrating how eco-literacy can foster greater environmental awareness and action. In addition, FIERI's experience illustrates the importance of collaboration between associations and local communities in promoting environmental education, emphasizing the key role of educators as mediators between ecological theory and educational practice.

This study contributes to the debate on eco-literacy, offering insights on how environmental education theories can be effectively implemented in pedagogical practice, and suggesting strategies to strengthen the integration between learning and community engagement towards sustainability. FIERI's experience in Catania represents a replicable model that highlights the potential of ecology education to transform environmental awareness into concrete action, thus contributing to the construction of more sustainable and resilient societies.

Science communication is essential in fostering inclusion and social justice, creating a fair and sustainable future for all children, including those from minority backgrounds that often face marginalization and discrimination due to cultural and social stereotypes and prejudices [1]. Effective science communication can help challenge these stereotypes and promote equal opportunities that are accessible to all, regardless of cultural, linguistic, or technological barriers.
To ensure that children feel accepted and able to reach their full potential, it is crucial to foster a sense of inclusion [2]. This necessitates the flexibility of thought and active listening skills to understand and welcome the needs and aspirations of the younger generation. Recognizing that their perspectives hold unique value, children are the key to building an inspired future [3].
The Reggio Emilia Approach emphasizes the importance of teachers recognizing children's potential for development, their ability to learn through different forms of communication and their inclination to develop relationships with others [4]. This philosophy promotes a collaborative relationship between teachers and students, characterized by active listening and practical experimentation [5].
Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) is recognized as an inclusive method for sustainable and effective science communication [6], fostering a direct and playful approach to scientific concepts while promoting exploration and understanding based on evidence [7].
Introducing playful activities in contact with nature is crucial in facilitating children's learning [8], since they can enhance intellectual capacity and engage young students in scientific investigation [9], not only linking formal and informal education but also enhancing visual literacy and critical thinking skills, enabling a better understanding of the world [10]. Such activities allow children to actively play, explore, learn and develop enthusiasm for natural sciences [11] and ecology; this emotional engagement helps children understand the importance of respecting and preserving nature, thus promoting environmental justice [12].
By actively participating in environmental initiatives, children can enhance their visualization abilities, which are crucial in interpreting and comprehending visual information, essential to construct meaning and make sense of the surroundings [13]. The development of visual literacy skills can greatly assist learners who struggle with spoken or written language comprehension [14]; this is particularly true for individuals facing language barriers or those with specific learning disorders [15].
This ongoing research aims to explore how methods and strategies of science communication [16] can promote social and environmental justice. The objective is to focus on strategies that encourage children's engagement with nature and scientific topics through play [17], as well as facilitate participation from diverse marginalized groups, including those with special educational needs, specific learning disorders and diverse ethnic backgrounds. The research goal is to understand how it would be possible to sensitize a wider audience to ecological issues, with a change of the narration but not of the contents.

Several international and European organizations have highlighted the role of universities in promoting ESD : UNESCO, the European Commission, the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), the European Association for International Education (EAIE), the Association of European Universities (CRE), and the International Association of Universities (IAU). Most of them have issued reports and guidelines outlining the importance of ESD in higher education and how universities can take the lead in promoting sustainable development. All reports stated the need to address existing challenges European universities face in promoting ESD. But is it really about the tools, instruments and engineered solutions?

Using Carrol Bacchi framework WPR ( Bacchi 2012) we would like to interrogate and analyze, how is the problem (of universities lagging behind ESD efforts) represented to be ‘ in educational policies in Sweden and Poland. Through problem representation we will try to grasp the process of forming ‘realities’ through which universities are governed in their attempts of tackling sustainability challenges. Data used has been gathered as a part of international project ESDEUS, European Universities as Community Leaders of the Education for Sustainable Development , funded by Erasmus + (2023-1-PL01-KA220-HED-000156638). We believe that the academic and social debate on the notion of sustainable development is the necessary condition for the critical thinking and informed actions.

There are many controversies and discords around the term sustainable development and its companion, ESD, to begin with, and those are silenced and tamed for the purpose of building consensus and allowing for actions to take place. The need to act is being prioritize, without reflecting on who is expected to act in a first place and who will benefit from it? Depoliticizing the problem produces new type of governmentality, where moral responsibility has been shifted from states and systems and bestowed upon individuals, a process called responsibilization, where the individual subject is expected to fin individual solutions to structural problems and contradictions by means of consumer choice, self-regulation, and mobilization of entrepreneurial competence( Knutsson, 2013p. 108).

So, one may ask, to what extend universities see themselves as allies in the task of shaping such responsibilization? Or can they move beyond engineered, instrumental solutions to tackle the crisis we are collectively facing as humanity in a discursive and political way? Can the debate on the notion of SD and ESD be revive or is it a futile enterprise, if we accept that as concluded by Helena Kopnina and Frans Meijers (2014), ESD became mainly a policy project, unable to let go the mantra of ‘constant development’ and tainted with neoliberal agenda? Following Sheila Jasanoff, one may ask, is there actual space for universities to engage in the normative questions such as concern for the social determinants of inequality and injustice ( Jasanoff 2021, p. 36)? What realities for universities’ engagement has been shaped by policies? We will compare the Bacchi’s problematization in policy of Swedish and Polish partners of the ESDEUS project, to explore these questions.

The historical and social conjuncture we are experiencing makes visible all the limits of the anthropocentrism that has determined the characteristics of an "age of human". However, it is very different from that envisioned by humanism because what we are experiencing is the anthropocene as an ecological and life-form disaster (Crutzen & Stoermer, 2000). Scientific perspectives inspired by the principles of rationality and progress do not prove effective in outlining epistemological frameworks and practices that can ensure understanding of these scenarios with a very high complexity (Morin, 1977; 1986). In these scenarios of sharing the state of vulnerability between human and non-human, the essay aims to investigate some of the lines of continuity between two different perspectives that define the need to downsize the role of humanity: socio-materialism (Gamble et. al., 2019; Fenwick, Edwards & Sawchuk, 2011) and posthumanism (Braidotti, 2014).

The research adopts an analytical educational method of inquiry for investigates the dynamics between human and nonhuman in educational contexts with the perspective of social materialism; in particular, the research investigates educational aspects related to the grounding of knowledge and learning in action and also with respect to the importance of material, as a set of documents, objects, tools, technologies and spaces (Massa, 2002; Ferrante, 2006). The fact that subjects are not to be considered at the center of the educational situation is the element that links the analysis of social materialism with the instances of posthumanism; the second is considered as a deconstructive paradigm of separations also in a feminist sense. Based on these elements, the research conducts an analysis of the scientific literature on plant intelligences (Mancuso & Viola, 2013) and gender representations (Llyod, 1984; D'Eaubonne, 1974; Mies & Shiva, 2014) to show how the tendency toward separation presents both conceptual and procedural limitations that dictate its rejection in an ecological education in a systemic sense (Bateson, 1972; 1979).

The analysis and identification of the points of contact between sociomaterialism and posthumanism in education leads to the proposed design of educational practices and of relational learning environments (Strongoli, 2023) that can foster the connection between human beings and the rest of the world through the primacy of relationship and interdependence. In particular, the essay defines the contribution that the ecodidactic perspective (Strongoli, 2021) can make to the methodological and didactic shift from function to transactional and symmetrical relationality.