In the Company of the Unknown: Cultivating Curiosity for Ecological Renewal

This article argues that environmental education must move beyond knowledge transmission to become a transformative, psychological, and relational practice. Rooted in the One Health framework, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, and ecological well-being, this article positions...

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Main Author: Dragana Favre
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Challenges
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/16/2/25
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author Dragana Favre
author_facet Dragana Favre
author_sort Dragana Favre
collection DOAJ
description This article argues that environmental education must move beyond knowledge transmission to become a transformative, psychological, and relational practice. Rooted in the One Health framework, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, and ecological well-being, this article positions curiosity as a central catalyst for ecological and psychological integration. While this article specifically engages with the One Health framework, the same integrative principles apply equally to the closely related Planetary Health perspective, emphasizing interconnected human, ecological, and planetary well-being. Drawing from Jungian and post-Jungian psychology, ecopsychology, and educational theory, it redefines curiosity as a symbolic, ethical, and affective mode of engagement with the Other, both within the psyche and in the more-than-human world. Through boredom, dialogue, narrative, and embodied practices, curiosity creates space for inner movement, narrative reconfiguration, and a relational mode of knowing that can confront ecological crises with imagination, patience, and integrity. This article offers pedagogical strategies to cultivate this deeper form of curiosity as a foundation for lifelong ecological engagement.
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spelling doaj-art-afb89dec2f5a4211a9f0cfe0bda8f3342025-08-20T03:26:26ZengMDPI AGChallenges2078-15472025-05-011622510.3390/challe16020025In the Company of the Unknown: Cultivating Curiosity for Ecological RenewalDragana Favre0Antenne Romande, C.G. Jung Institute Zürich, CH-8700 Küsnacht, SwitzerlandThis article argues that environmental education must move beyond knowledge transmission to become a transformative, psychological, and relational practice. Rooted in the One Health framework, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, and ecological well-being, this article positions curiosity as a central catalyst for ecological and psychological integration. While this article specifically engages with the One Health framework, the same integrative principles apply equally to the closely related Planetary Health perspective, emphasizing interconnected human, ecological, and planetary well-being. Drawing from Jungian and post-Jungian psychology, ecopsychology, and educational theory, it redefines curiosity as a symbolic, ethical, and affective mode of engagement with the Other, both within the psyche and in the more-than-human world. Through boredom, dialogue, narrative, and embodied practices, curiosity creates space for inner movement, narrative reconfiguration, and a relational mode of knowing that can confront ecological crises with imagination, patience, and integrity. This article offers pedagogical strategies to cultivate this deeper form of curiosity as a foundation for lifelong ecological engagement.https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/16/2/25curiosityOne Healthenvironmental educationJungian psychologyecopsychology
spellingShingle Dragana Favre
In the Company of the Unknown: Cultivating Curiosity for Ecological Renewal
Challenges
curiosity
One Health
environmental education
Jungian psychology
ecopsychology
title In the Company of the Unknown: Cultivating Curiosity for Ecological Renewal
title_full In the Company of the Unknown: Cultivating Curiosity for Ecological Renewal
title_fullStr In the Company of the Unknown: Cultivating Curiosity for Ecological Renewal
title_full_unstemmed In the Company of the Unknown: Cultivating Curiosity for Ecological Renewal
title_short In the Company of the Unknown: Cultivating Curiosity for Ecological Renewal
title_sort in the company of the unknown cultivating curiosity for ecological renewal
topic curiosity
One Health
environmental education
Jungian psychology
ecopsychology
url https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/16/2/25
work_keys_str_mv AT draganafavre inthecompanyoftheunknowncultivatingcuriosityforecologicalrenewal