2024

Aaltonen, Valtteri A.; Hiljanen, Mikko; Layne, Heidi; Lehtonen, Anna; Löyttyniemi, Meri; Mykrä, Niina; Virtanen, Anu S.; Heikkinen, Hannu L.T.

The aim of this chapter is to present how education can promote planetary well-being as well as what the adoption of the planetary well-being means for education. The main objective is to explore theoretical perspectives on the new concept education for planetary well-being by examining its underlying philosophical assumptions and by introducing related approaches in the field of education. There exist several initiatives and frameworks that have aimed to make education more sustainable and just, but many of these are based on the concept of sustainable development and have considerable limitations regarding their potential to address the ecological crisis and bring about urgently needed societal changes. Some of these frameworks, however, offer significant resources and are fruitful starting points for interrogating education for planetary well-being as a concept. Essential to education for planetary well-being is the concept of dialogue, which we examine both as an ontological principle and as a pedagogical practice. As a conclusion, education for planetary well-being is argued to be a pathway for replacing the traditional anthropocentric humanism with a wiser form of humanity.