Planty Childhoods: Theorising with a Vegetal Ontology in Environmental Education Research
This paper explores the potential for extending relational ontologies to include a specific focus on human-plant relations. We theorise the emergence of a vegetal ontology, as a novel way of working and remaking theories around human-plant relations that can be applied to the field of environmental...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2024-04-01
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| Series: | Australian Journal of Environmental Education |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0814062624000296/type/journal_article |
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| author | Sneha Parmar Karen Malone Tracy Charlotte Young |
| author_facet | Sneha Parmar Karen Malone Tracy Charlotte Young |
| author_sort | Sneha Parmar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper explores the potential for extending relational ontologies to include a specific focus on human-plant relations. We theorise the emergence of a vegetal ontology, as a novel way of working and remaking theories around human-plant relations that can be applied to the field of environmental education. A vegetal ontological approach, as applied in the environmental education research project that informs this article, abandons hierarchical comparisons of plants, which are often historically positioned as “lesser species,” mere “objects” and “resources” even. We start our paper with a modest review of key theoretical approaches informing past and recent environmental education studies on child-plant relations. We then return to the discussion started within the introduction to the paper on how we have theorised a vegetal ontology as a mode of a relational ontology focussing particularly on human-plant relations and drawing on posthumanist, new materialist and Indigenous approaches. To conclude the paper, we then put this newly named vegetal ontology to work. We apply it to a recent study on childhood-plant encounters where researchers engaged with young children and their families in a botanical garden setting and a group of environmental education elders reflected on the significance of plant relations in their childhoods. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-01692d3a256d40e2a1e29082a3434c6e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0814-0626 2049-775X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-04-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Australian Journal of Environmental Education |
| spelling | doaj-art-01692d3a256d40e2a1e29082a3434c6e2025-08-20T04:02:37ZengCambridge University PressAustralian Journal of Environmental Education0814-06262049-775X2024-04-014024325710.1017/aee.2024.29Planty Childhoods: Theorising with a Vegetal Ontology in Environmental Education ResearchSneha Parmar0https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6885-3313Karen Malone1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9904-7081Tracy Charlotte Young2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8039-9458Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, AustraliaSwinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, AustraliaDepartment of Education and Social Sciences, Faculty of Education, Southern Cross University, Tweed Heads, NSW, AustraliaThis paper explores the potential for extending relational ontologies to include a specific focus on human-plant relations. We theorise the emergence of a vegetal ontology, as a novel way of working and remaking theories around human-plant relations that can be applied to the field of environmental education. A vegetal ontological approach, as applied in the environmental education research project that informs this article, abandons hierarchical comparisons of plants, which are often historically positioned as “lesser species,” mere “objects” and “resources” even. We start our paper with a modest review of key theoretical approaches informing past and recent environmental education studies on child-plant relations. We then return to the discussion started within the introduction to the paper on how we have theorised a vegetal ontology as a mode of a relational ontology focussing particularly on human-plant relations and drawing on posthumanist, new materialist and Indigenous approaches. To conclude the paper, we then put this newly named vegetal ontology to work. We apply it to a recent study on childhood-plant encounters where researchers engaged with young children and their families in a botanical garden setting and a group of environmental education elders reflected on the significance of plant relations in their childhoods.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0814062624000296/type/journal_articleIndigenous approachesnew materialismplant-childhoodsposthumanismvegetal |
| spellingShingle | Sneha Parmar Karen Malone Tracy Charlotte Young Planty Childhoods: Theorising with a Vegetal Ontology in Environmental Education Research Australian Journal of Environmental Education Indigenous approaches new materialism plant-childhoods posthumanism vegetal |
| title | Planty Childhoods: Theorising with a Vegetal Ontology in Environmental Education Research |
| title_full | Planty Childhoods: Theorising with a Vegetal Ontology in Environmental Education Research |
| title_fullStr | Planty Childhoods: Theorising with a Vegetal Ontology in Environmental Education Research |
| title_full_unstemmed | Planty Childhoods: Theorising with a Vegetal Ontology in Environmental Education Research |
| title_short | Planty Childhoods: Theorising with a Vegetal Ontology in Environmental Education Research |
| title_sort | planty childhoods theorising with a vegetal ontology in environmental education research |
| topic | Indigenous approaches new materialism plant-childhoods posthumanism vegetal |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0814062624000296/type/journal_article |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT snehaparmar plantychildhoodstheorisingwithavegetalontologyinenvironmentaleducationresearch AT karenmalone plantychildhoodstheorisingwithavegetalontologyinenvironmentaleducationresearch AT tracycharlotteyoung plantychildhoodstheorisingwithavegetalontologyinenvironmentaleducationresearch |