The term “Wild Pedagogies” introduced in this theoretical paper refers to both a project and a concept. As a project, Wild Pedagogies represents the on-going work of a broad cross-section of international scholars looking to education as a change agent in these times of heightened ecological awareness. The paper presents a brief description of the project along with a set of initial guiding principles for practice. These principles are referred to as “touchstones”. Pedagogy refers to theories and practices used by teachers. There is power in pedagogy in that it informs teachers' judgements, decisions, and actions. In a broader way, pedagogy also relates to theories of knowing and ways of being in the world. The plural form – “pedagogies” – is used to acknowledge multiple ways of applying the touchstones to practice.
The word “wild” was chosen, in part, because of its historical association with “will,” as in being self-willed. In educational practice, this could mean that learners need to assume responsibility for change within themselves. “In a wild pedagogy the subject matter includes the subjects themselves.” Wild pedagogies is designed for far more than passive learning or the transmission of taken-for-granted assumptions and ideas. Wild pedagogies calls for reclamation, reimagination, and reintroduction. As a concept, wild pedagogies is intended to challenge “dominant cultural ideas about control — of each other, of nature, of education, and of learning.”
The touchstones presented in this paper are offered as “points of departure and places to return.” They relate to questions about wildness and control, about core elements that can be meaningful across disciplines and inclusive of the more-than-humans across ecosystems. They invite a different way of being in the world. Areas addressed by the six touchstones include: (1) agency and the role of nature as co-teacher; (2) wildness and challenging ideas of control; (3) complexity, the unknown, and spontaneity; (4) locating the wild; (5) time and practice; and (6) cultural change. Embedded in these touchstones is the need to recognize nature's agency and the more-than-humans as a part of the pedagogical team, playing an active role in teaching and learning. A focus is on learning with rather than just about the natural world. Unfortunately, current educational approaches and structures of schools tend to draw students away from the wild, painting a picture of the world where humans are dominant and in control.
The touchstones are offered as supports to challenging the current educational system and becoming “better educators and allies of, for, with, and in the more-than-human world”.
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