Education for Planetary Futures (Part 1): Decolonial Portals, Marginalized Scholarship, and More-than-human Methodologies

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The series of two panels will explore decolonial, future-oriented, post-digital, just, and sustainable alternatives in education. By bringing together diverse approaches, geographies, and school settings, the session aims to reimagine and resituate knowledge production and education within the broader context of climate change. To envision alternative futures, it is essential to critically reexamine and reconfigure the foundational assumptions of the current dominant educational paradigm, including its cultural, neoliberal, and political underpinnings (Silova, 2021; Sterling, 2010; UNESCO, 2021; Weinberg et al., 2021). This process involves challenging mainstream Western ideologies (e.g., human exceptionalism, neoliberal individualism, competition, universality, etc.) and the ways they are manifest in education systems, and fostering collaborative, co-designed approaches to education that prioritize interdependence and ethically informed collective action (Tannock, 2021; Wiseman, 2021a; Wiseman, 2021b).
To envision socially just alternative futures and integrate them into our education systems, two critical ideas need further development, particularly in light of the current environmental degradation. First, the relationship between humans and the planet is often shaped by the notion of human exceptionalism, leading to a disconnect between human actions and ecological consequences. Second, there is a prevailing inability to imagine possible, alternative, sustainable, and just futures (Cork et al., 2023). These futures must be grounded in multiple knowledges, philosophies, and worldviews that challenge the dominance of universal (Western) paradigms. Escobar (2018) addresses this through the concept of pluriversality, which “is about building the possibility of a world in which many worlds fit... it entails an ontological opening for the enactment of alternative futures that reject the modernist logic of one-world designs” (p. 23). By embracing pluriversality, we can attend to the “systemic conditions of structured unsustainability that eliminate possible futures” (p. 16) and foster the imagination of futures that are rooted in diverse ways of knowing and being.
From the theoretical stance of pluriversality, these diverse presentations create new opportunities to rethink current educational practices by exploring formal, informal, and nonformal forms of learning. This approach challenges traditional, frequently singular educational frameworks by embracing a plurality of worldviews and modes of knowing. This makes room for inclusive and diverse pedagogical practices that more accurately represent the diversity of knowledge systems and lived experiences.
In our session, we will share several approaches to imagining and enacting these alternatives. First, we will explore how to conceptually delink from mainstream ideologies by centering diverse languages and local knowledges, challenging the dominance of Western frameworks and rediscovering non-hierarchical, culturally grounded perspectives. Second, we will examine public pedagogy, particularly through social media, where learners turn to co-sense and make sense of climate crises, such as wildfires, that impact their lived experiences. Finally, we will challenge formal schooling by making climate change a transdisciplinary focus, empowering learners with choice, voice, and opportunities to co-design their learning experiences. These approaches collectively push the boundaries of how education can evolve in response to the urgent demands of climate change and the need for decolonial practices.
The presentations will explore how diverse approaches can contribute to a more just, sustainable, and equitable world. The first presentation, “Delinking from Mainstream Knowledge Production: Elevating Marginalized Decolonial Scholarship in Spanish, Russian, and Central Asian Languages,” critically examines the role of language in decolonizing knowledge production. It explores how non-Western scholarship from the Global South, particularly in Spanish, Russian, and Central Asian languages, challenges the dominance of Western ideologies in academia. By highlighting contributions from local theorizing scholars and practitioners in Latin America and post-Soviet spaces, the presentation aims to rediscover and focus on diverse, non-hierarchical, Indigenous knowledges that have been muted. In this way, this paper argues for alternative educational approaches, by promoting educational transformation through the elevation of marginalized, non-Western scholarship, thereby challenging Western academic dominance and fostering social equity.
Next, the second presentation, “Decolonial Portals: What if… and Other Speculative Fabulations about Learning for Planetary Survival,” examines how higher education, which has played a key role in the climate crisis, can be reimagined. By delving into speculative thought experiments and drawing on decolonial, ecofeminist, post-human, and Indigenous literature, the presentation introduces the concept of ‘decolonial portals’ as gateways that enable us to see or create openings within the existing structures of higher education. Through 'what if' inquiries, the authors uncover new ways of knowing and being that challenge current educational frameworks and envision a future where academia contributes positively to both people and the planet.
Finally, the third presentation, “Social Media and the Aesthetic Public Pedagogy of Wildfires,” investigates the role of social media as a site of aesthetic public pedagogy, focusing on how visual representations of wildfires shape public understanding and engagement with climate crises. By employing post-digital, arts-based methods, the presentation calls for a deeper exploration of the social media surrounding environmental disasters. It discusses how learners interact with these mediatized images on platforms like Instagram, sharing and reacting to the visual narratives of wildfires that challenge formal educational silences about climate change. Through a blend of critical geography and arts-based research, this study uses “hybrid drawings” to analyze and interpret the entangled social, epistemological, and political dimensions of wildfires, offering insights into how art and digital media can foster a politically and aesthetically informed climate justice education.
In conclusion, the presenters will critically address how education can be used to reimagine and reshape our approach to climate change and sustainability. Mainstream education could contribute to radical cultural, economic, and political shifts by learning from alternatives and reorienting teaching/learning away from the notions of human exceptionalism, neoliberal individualism, and capitalist growth toward more ecologically attuned and socially just alternatives (Silova, 2020; Turner, 2010; Rose & Rose, 1993, Rose, 2011; LeGrange, 2018, TallBear, 2019; Tuhiwai Smith et, 2021). By exploring these alternatives through presentations that highlight marginalized decolonial scholarship, speculative educational futures, and the role of social media in public pedagogy, we seek to challenge and reconfigure the dominant ontological paradigms. Thus, these sessions will offer new pathways for education to address the urgent demands of our climate crisis and work towards a more just and sustainable world.

Sub Unit

• 21st Century Educational Alternatives: Confronting Racial Capitalism, Patriarchy, Militarism, and the Climate Crisis

Organizer

• Dilraba Anayatova, Arizona State University

Chair

• Iveta Silova, Arizona State University

Individual Presentations

• Delinking from mainstream knowledge production by elevating marginalized decolonial scholarship in Spanish, Russian, and Central Asian languages - Victoria Desimoni, Arizona State University; Dilraba Anayatova, Arizona State University

• Decolonial Portals: What if… and Other Speculative Fabulations about Learning for Planetary Survival - Iveta Silova, Arizona State University; Victoria Desimoni, Arizona State University; Beatriz Rodriguez-Fransen, Arizona State University

• Social media and the aesthetic public pedagogy of wildfires - Carrie Karsgaard, Cape Breton University

Discussant

• Marcia McKenzie, University of Melbourne