Learning Nature in Schools: Benjamin Contra Dietzgen on Nature's 'Free Gifts'

Autor/in	Boxley, Simon
Titel	Learning Nature in Schools: Benjamin Contra Dietzgen on Nature's 'Free Gifts'
Quelle	In: Policy Futures in Education, 17 (2019) 3, S.339-354 (16 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1478-2103
DOI	10.1177/1478210318824248
Schlagwörter	Stellungnahme; Natural Resources; Ecology; Foreign Countries; Environmental Education; Climate; Social Attitudes; Democracy; United Kingdom + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Natural Ressource; Natürliche Ressource; Ökologie; Ausland; Umweltbildung; Umwelterziehung; Umweltpädagogik; Klima; Social attidude; Soziale Einstellung; Demokratie; Großbritannien
Abstract	When we "learn nature," do we encounter her as 'free' in the sense of having neither cost nor price? Is she something 'given'? And is that which nature offers us 'gratis'? In the UK, many schoolchildren have been encouraged to 'give thanks' for nature's gifts. But why, if she is free, give thanks; and thanks to whom? If one learns to encounter nature as 'free', is she then really free for the taking? Walter Benjamin notably derided Joseph Dietzgen for regarding what nature supplies to humanity as 'gratis', and long argument has continued among Marxists since Benjamin's time concerning how we regard nature's 'gifts'. This paper addresses the ideological appropriation of nature, and makes this a pedagogical question best approached through readings of Benjamin and Dietzgen. It does so in a context where education policy reflects little if any concern with the acquisition of a disposition towards nature among children. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01