Anthropocentrism is the view that humans are the only creatures that have intrinsic value, which means that they matter more than other animals. Anthropocentrism is viewed as on the rise in Western culture, and some environmental philosophers blame this way of thinking for many environmental issues. Thus, changing those patterns of thought could begin to help people think about the environment more inclusively and potentially motivate conservation. Dualisms are a way of understanding the world by dividing it into two opposing entities, such as male/female, nature/culture, and self/other. Shifting to empathy and a more complex view of the world, researchers suggest, will help lead to a set of ethics based on interconnectedness and will improve the environment. This study sought to better understand how certain guided experiences can begin to shift students away from anthropocentrism and dualisms. Specifically, the authors looked at students' growth in terms of empathy and complexity when students were engaged in a group minded, community focused, outdoor education course.
The data in the study was collected from five years of offering a field philosophy course in Isle Royale National Park in Michigan. The authors also taught the course, and field philosophy is a framework in which students engage in philosophical thinking while immersed in an outdoor experience. The course included readings and response essays during a one-week camping experience, which included a variety of outdoor activities ranging from individual to group exercises.
The participants in this study were 25 students, which included all of the students who participated in the course in the first three years it was offered. The researchers did not include student work from the final two years of the course. The number of students in the course each year varied, though never exceeded 11 participants. Students were typically aged 19-22 years. Most of the students studied environmental science, and a few came from the social sciences or humanities. None of the students had formal environmental learning or ethical training, though many had participated in group outdoor activities previously. Data were collected through various writing assignments. Students were required to submit short reading responses on readings completed before the course, handwritten journals containing reflections completed during the course, and one 3-page reflection completed after the course ended.
The data in this study were analyzed throughout the five years the course was offered. As a result, the data likely influenced researchers, students, educators, and participants in the course as they were creating meaning from the data. Researchers identified emergent themes in students' writing and compared those themes to growth within a student's individual portfolio, across students, and across themes. The researchers explored whether students' shifted from seeing the world in dualisms to a more complex and nuanced understanding.
The researchers found that the results showed students following a path beginning with individual development, followed by social learning, curriculum engagement, and finally empathic awareness and complexity. First, self-awareness (individual development) made students able to fully participate in meaningful community. Second, this community in turn was able to cultivate further self-awareness and empathy (social learning). Curriculum engagement was the third step the researchers found and was the step that specifically began to integrate the environment into a student's burgeoning understanding of self and community. As students were able to engage in their own emotional reactions to place as well as to course material and each other, they gained an expanded sense of empathy.
The findings in this study may not be the same in other field philosophy courses. The participants in this study are limited to those who were accepted into the course, and those who have already had some environmental experience, though not necessarily ethical or philosophical experience. A more generalizable conclusion could be reached with greater and more varied sample sizes. The authors specifically recommend further research in different contexts, and in contexts that can pertain to broader audiences.
The results of this study indicate that engaging in self-reflection while on community focused outdoor trips can enhance both what a student experiences during the trip, and also promote growth that lasts afterwards. Journals and self-reflection create a better understanding of a student's place in a group, and in the landscape. As a result, the students gain an awareness of the intersectionality of identity and environment, and that morality exists on a spectrum that should be applied not just to our interactions with other human beings. The clear recommendation from these results is to help students engage in both structured and unstructured reflective exercises.
The Bottom Line
Field philosophy and group courses may help educators inspire greater empathy and care for ecosystems and our environment. Within courses like these, and when given space for reflection, researchers found that students grow more self-aware and vulnerable. With an environmental curriculum, the vulnerability can be followed by awe and further emotional responses that lead to empathy and a sense of complexity surrounding ethics and morals. Students in this study participated in college-level field philosophy course, and were observed to become more empathetic and more able to inhabit a grey area of morality. Students moved beyond a dualistic point of view, one that sees the world in contrasting alternatives (mind/body, self/other), to a more nuanced understanding of their surroundings and relationships with the environment and each other.