Conference Program

The social, ecological, and spatial inequalities that increasingly characterize contemporary educational contexts call for a critical reconsideration of how educational spaces are conceived, organized, and inhabited. Within this perspective, this contribution presents an ongoing research project situated at the intersection of ecopedagogy, ecological education, and new materialist approaches. It builds on the premise that educational environments should not be understood merely as containers of learning, but rather as relational ecosystems in which human subjects, materials, spaces, plants, and other living beings actively co-participate in educational processes (Barad, 2007; Haraway, 2016; Murris, 2022).
The research, currently under development within a postgraduate Master’s programme dedicated to the design of educational environments at the intersection of pedagogy, architecture, and design, explores how an interdisciplinary pedagogical pathway can foster the development of competencies oriented toward the design of educational spaces that are accessible, shared, and inclusive for all living beings. The project adopts a perspective grounded in ecological justice and multispecies conviviality. The theoretical framework integrates contributions from critical ecopedagogy (Freire, 1968/2018; Misiaszek, 2020) and transformative approaches to sustainability education (Sterling, 2001; Wiek et al., 2011).
Methodologically, the study is designed as an exploratory case study with a qualitative orientation, complemented by elements of mixed methods (Yin, 2017; Guetterman & Fetters, 2018). The case is represented by a course within the Master’s programme conceived as a privileged setting for observing the emergence of interdisciplinary learning processes among pedagogy, architecture, and design. The educational pathway is structured in a blended format and includes dialogic lectures, case study analysis, design workshops, and in-person discussion sessions. Within this environment, students are invited to develop proposals for green curricula and spatial-material devices capable of activating meaningful relationships between the human and the more-than-human world.
Data collection will involve multiple sources, including the analysis of design artefacts produced during the course—such as conceptual maps, curriculum proposals, spatial concepts, and educational devices—as well as individual reflective journals documenting transformations in educational imaginaries, professional perspectives, and representations of the relationship between education, space, and the more-than-human world. Data analysis will follow an interpretive thematic approach focusing on the development of ecological, design-oriented, and collaborative competencies.
The study aims to contribute to current debates on the role of higher education in fostering innovative practices of educational design oriented toward multispecies conviviality, reimagining educational environments as spaces of cohabitation, care, and shared responsibility