Nature as a peace educator: Toward inner peace through learning and being in natural environments

AbstractToday the hope for education goes well beyond a reductionist and modernist approach of knowledge transfer. This research suggests that the experience of being immersed in natural environments can lead to embodied ways of learning and being beyond the Anthropocene and can shape children’s innate relationship with nature. We bring together two ethnographic case studies – in India and Germany - in alternative schools, which actively incorporate nature in their learning processes for children aged 6–13 years old. We find that, across both contexts, nature is considered as a peace educator: teaching key concepts and skills, promoting ecological ways of living and being, enabling conditions for wellbeing and inner-peace, and a reciprocal student-nature relationship of care. We call for an ontological and epistemological shift where nature is not just instrumentalized, but rather to recognize the intrinsic value for children being in nature, learning with and from nature rather than about it.Keywords: Peace educationnature educationinner peaceecocentric pedagogiescross-cultural ethnographies AcknowledgmentsWe are grateful to all the participants for their openness and willingness to share their insights, stories and time with us. Additionally, we appreciate Professor Hilary Cremin’s guidance, support, and dedication towards rewilding education . Furthermore, the support of the Cambridge Trust, the Economic Social Research Council (ESRC) UK, and the Stiftung der Deutschen Wirtschaft (sdw) are gratefully acknowledged.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 In line with Southern epistemology and ethics the research participants were given the option of being named or kept anonymous. Robinson-Pant (Citation2005) and Patel (Citation2023) provide cross-cultural perspectives, especially in the context of the global south, and recognize the contentious nature of using anonymization. In line with the schools and participants choice, data from Indian contexts has not been anonymized.2 The researcher, in discussion with school leaders and participants, decided to anonymize all data. Thus, Malaya school is a pseudonym and all participants’ names from the German context have been changed.