The Ecosocial World of Education: Perception and Interaction in Multispecies Society

The recognition of human-caused environmental crises has increased the need to think and act in a way that bridges the ecosocial realities of humans and the rest of nature. Therefore, this theoretical article challenges the anthropocentric assumption of human social life and communication. We formulate an educational philosophy on the nature of sociality, that recognizes the intertwining of human and other realities, and we ask how this kind of multispecies approach can guide education towards an eco-socially sustainable transformation. Based on biological and phenomenological perspectives, we describe the multispecies social community through three concepts: holobiont, flesh, and umwelt. First, human sociality must be understood in a multispecies context. Second, the ontological intertwining of humans and other living beings forms an interdependent and non-hierarchical web of life. Third, the social interaction in this multispecies society must begin by recognizing different perceptual realities. The inability to interact and participate amid different perceptual realities within the same flesh of the world with other species has proved destructive to both fellow living beings and humans. Thus, we conclude that bringing different perceptual realities to education could make learners more sensitive to different manifestations of life and create aptitudes for living together in a more-than-human world.