Ecosophy and Pedagogy for a Sustainable World
Scott Blair, Content Development Editor, Sulitest Impact
May 2026
I love everything about maps—their visual beauty, functional diversity, dense structuring of facts into spatial relationships, and the accordion-like challenge of folding them back into place. Gazing over maps old or new, large or small, paper or digital—I can spend hours poring over them in search of all the amazing meaning, context, and insight they contain. I have box upon box of them at home and always travel “map inhand,” especially when flying. I even experimented in teaching with maps in a courseI taught a while back on (of all things) human rights. (Long story short—I sentmy students out into the streets of Paris to map all matter of things theycould find related to political, social, and economic rights won via past popularstruggles and social reform movements.)
What I like most about maps is the big picture they present, their bird’s eye view and panoramic gaze over big conceptual landscapes. They reveal from “above” what is hard to see “on the ground.” And it’s this perspective that inspired me when, a few years back, I happily bumped into Arran Stibbe’s delightful concept map of ecological philosophies that he developed as a tool to help his students think about their own eco-beliefs and values, an ecological worldview that Stibbe calls an ecosophy. (You can read about Stibbe’s work around storytelling and his amazing teaching strategies for sustainability here along with his original concept map.)
At the time, I was writing a Sulitest White Paper on pedagogy that I ended up calling Situating PRME’s Impactful Five (i5) in the Landscape of Higher Education Pedagogy – Bridging Theories, Principles, and Practices. In the process, I thought it might be instructive to project the i5 framework onto Stibbe’s ecosophy map, along with the ten additional pedagogies I treated in the White Paper. The result you can see just below as Figure1. (What I said about the positioning of the i5 framework upon Stibbe’s Ecosophy map you can read in the original White Paper here.)
What I didn’t have space for in the White Paper was a more general discussion of the placements I chose on Stibbe’s map for the other ten pedagogies I explored, four of which—by the way—are largely agnostic on the Earth crisis (i.e., experiential education, constructivist pedagogy, feminist pedagogy, and the Socratic Method) but six of which are more or less eco-aware (i.e., Indigenous pedagogy, critical ecopedagogy, environmental education, education for sustainable development, outdoor education, and global citizen education. (Again, see the White Paper for my discussion of all ten of these pedagogies as they relate to the i5framework.) What I also didn’t have space for was a fuller discussion of all the other concepts and ecosophy movements Stibbe listed on his original map. All of this I put into a glossary I relegated to the Appendix that you can find on page 62 of the White Paper. (Yes, it’s a long article.) But I reproduce this glossary down below so that you have everything you need to understand what’s on this adapted concept map I created.
So, as a quick recap and to better decode this map, recall that Stibbe (back in 2019) plots twelve environmental constructs, ideologies, approaches, or movements across an X-axis of conservativism vs. transformative change, and a Y-axis of anthropocentrism vs. ecocentrism. In addition, he indicates the extent to which these various “movements” express a future-oriented worldview that tends towards the optimistic, neutral, or pessimistic vis-à-vis the outcome of humanity’s interaction with the planet. Onto this map, I then (back in 2024)plotted out the i5 framework (i.e., the 6 connected colored boxes) and the 10additional pedagogies I addressed in the White Paper (i.e., the ten green- or grey-shaded boxes).
So, what’s the use of doing all this and how might educators use this map to improve teaching and learning around sustainability. Let’s limit ourselves here to a single point—imagining the future.
As such, this map reveals jus s tell ourselves about our interaction with the planet; just how many beliefs we embrace about how (and how much) the planet provides; and just how many values there are out there about who the primary beneficiary is (or should be) of Earth’s great cornucopian splendor. Indeed, each of the ecosophies and pedagogies listed here has its own narrative, world view, and story-to-tell of what’s important to know and value and do while alive here on this amazing and delicately-balanced blue-green planet. (Again, see the White Paper.)
On the map, in the optimistic corner of anthropocentric and conservative values, for example, we tell ourselves the story of material progress, life-affirming technology, economic growth, and resource husbandry all structured and articulated to benefit the chosen species—humankind. In the opposite and pessimistic corner of ecocentric and transformative values, the stories we tell are radical, dark, and troubling, recounting as they do a narrative of exhaustion, collapse, survivalism, and possible(or even desirable) extinction should humans continue their business-as-usual ways. Stibbe explains why he placed the ecosophies where he did, as do I with mine, implicitly, in the White Paper. Indeed, Stibbe says some pretty interesting things about teaching sustainability, and I encourage you to take a look.
But it’s not the precise“geo-locating” of ecosophies on the map that’s important. What’s important is that students know about them; can critically evaluate them; can situate themselves among them; can cobble together from them their own personal ecosophy; and can, crucially, recognize that each one describes a pathway to a different possible future. Indeed, anticipatory or futures-thinking is a recognized key competency in sustainability education. It’s one of the more important onesamong the eight now “officially” recognized. And it’s a map like this that helps both students and educators explore and navigate through this rich philosophical and pedagogical landscape—and this in order to help determine how one chooses to use his or her own agency to define and build(individually and collectively) a desired future.
In short, this map says: “Let me help you imagine the landscape of our possible futures. Some futures will find us living in harmony with Natue. Others will find us a lone species. Some futures are transformative and resilient. Others offer business-as-usual habits that doesn’t work.” This maps also says: “Plus, here are some teaching and learning methods you can use to build consensus and agency as you start building your desired future. Choose a method that aligns best to your vision: ecocentric vs. anthropocentric, and transformative vs. conservative. Mix and match pedagogies in ways that have the greates t impact. Why not, for example, synthesize the Socratic Method and the timeless spirit of Indigenous Pedagogy? Who knows what future that mixture might bring about!”
Maps are amazing because they tell a story in visual language. The story of our future is one we write everyday via the things we choose to know, value, do, and see on a planet we know we have made fragile and put under stress. That future is not yet determined, at least not fully. We can still build a sustainable future, but only if we start imagining it differently—by telling ourselves a different story, by developing a different ecosophy, and by using a different pedagogy. If only we had a map!
Glossary for Figure 1.
N.B. Full bibliographical references can be viewed and accessed within the original 2024White Paper.
Anthropocentrism — In its original connotation in environmental ethics, Anthropocentrism is the belief that value is human-centered and that all other beings are means to human ends (Kopnina etal., 2018).
Cornucopianism — A belief system affirming that Earth provides humanity with abundance and infinite resources and that human technological ingenuity is capable of resolving any environmental or social issue (Jonsson, 2014).
Conservative — As applied to societal change, the notion of conservative refers to processes that are historically inherited, preserve traditional authority, institutions, customs, and values, and which are incremental, prudent, and tested by time (Burke,1790; Kirk, 1953; Nash, 2023).
Dark Mountain Project — An international cultural movement that responds to the current declining state of the world and biosphere through creative, artistic, and imaginative cultural means (Hine& Kingsnorth, 2010; Dark Mountain, n.d.).
Deep Adaptation — A concept, program, and social movement for developing “collapse-readiness” (i.e.,creating a system for fair distribution of life essentials such as food, water, energy, and health care) and “collapse-transcendence” (fostering psycho-social-spiritual-cultural shifts to accept and live through collapse with some composure and stability) (Bendell, 2018).
Deep Ecology — An environmental belief system affirming the inherent value of all lifeforms, ecosystems, and living environments regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs(Sessions, 1987; Naess, 2005; Ambrosius, 2005; Rothenberg, 2012).
Deep Green Resistance — A radical, US-based environmental movement that believes industrial civilization constitutes an existential threat to natural environments; calls for its dismantlement; and seeks to return to pre-agricultural levels of technology (Jensen et al., 2011;LeVasseur, 2017).
Earth Charter — An international people’s declaration of environmental values and ethical principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century (Weakland & Corcoran, 2009).
Ecocentrism — A belief system premised upon valuing nature for its own sake apart from any utilitarian value to human need and aspiration. (Thompson & Barton, 1994; Taylor et al.,2020).
Ecofeminism — A belief system affirming that the domination of women and the degradation of the environment are the consequences of patriarchy and capitalism (Buckingham, 2015; Gough etal., 2024).
Ecological Modernization —A belief system affirming that humans can sustain economic growth and manage ecological impact through political, economic, and social rationalization (Hajer, 1995; Hanf,2003).
Environmental Ethics — Environmental ethics is the discipline in philosophy that studies the moral relationship of human beings to—and the value and moral status of—the environment and its non-human contents (Brennan & Lo, 2021).
Extinction Rebellion — ExtinctionRebellion is a decentralized, international, and politically non-partisan movement using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly on the climate and ecological emergency (ExtinctionRebellion, n.d.; Hayes et al., 2024).
Neoliberalism — A belief system affirming that optimal public decisions and resource allocations are best achieved through the workings of private and unregulated markets (Navarro,2007; Vallier, 2021).
Social Ecology — The study of how humans interact with natural environments and how such interaction influences social structures and power hierarchies which creates or exacerbates environmental and social problems (Bookchin, 2005; Brown et al., 2013).
Transformative — As applied to societal change, the notion of transformative refers to a fundamental, intentional, system-wide reorganization across political, technological, economic, and social factors, including paradigms and models, social norms and practices, goals and values, and policies and laws. Transformative change achieves outcomes at scale and embodies the concept of institutionally sustained results, i.e., consistency of achievement over time that excludes short-term, transitory impact (IPBES, 2022).
Transition Towns — A social movement dedicated to helping towns and communities transition to self-reliance, sustainability, and resilience in the face of peak oil and climate change(Hopkins, 2008; Connors & McDonald, 2010).
VHEMT — The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement is a radical environmental project calling for people to abstain from reproduction in order to cause the gradual voluntary extinction of humankind and thus save planet Earth from the degradations of Homosapiens (TVHEM, n.d., Johnson, 2020).
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