Education As Ecology

Ecology is the most resilient and stable system known to us. Ecosystems are self-replicating, self-propagating, and self-maintaining. Natural systems increase in complexity and resiliency over time and use resources effectively by cycling them through tens of thousands of interconnections. The connections in an ecological network are similar to the synaptic connections in the brain, networks within a city, and the links between curricular outcomes or ties within social networks, communities, gardens, and schools. Ecological education is about creating systems that reflect the patterns and principles of nature, social systems, ecology, and the mind.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.

John Muir

Expanding The Adjacent Possible

Stop for a second and imagine a list of possible actions you could do at this exact moment – among them, you might decide to close this browser, share this article with a friend, or stand up and dance. Let’s define this list of possible actions as your personal adjacent possible. In contrast, there’s a list of things that are beyond your grasp (at least for now) – we could say these are beyond your adjacent possible.

In his book Where Good Ideas Come From, polymath Steven Johnson discusses the importance of expanding the adjacent possible. Actions that expand the adjacent possible open doors – that is to say, they increase choices, abundance, and the potential futures in front of us.

Natural systems (like forests) expand their adjacent possibilities in a process called succession, a step-by-step process in which each stage uses existing connections to create the conditions for future growth. The root word of successions is success. Ecologically speaking, success is the act of using what’s available to you to expand your adjacent possible. Expanding the adjacent possible is how parking lots turn into forests.

From an educational perspective, we want students to succeed. That’s to say, we want students to expand their potential futures – we want to increase their options and potential. We want students to be forests.

Connections Strengthen Systems

In ecological systems, the end of every process lays the foundation for the beginning of another. Every organism depends on countless others and, in turn, relies upon the whole. From this lens, the goal of education is not the acquisition of knowledge but the intertwining of it. An ecological education approach aims to create students capable of applying knowledge from multiple domains in new and novel situations. Creative problem-solving is seeing or combining previously disconnected concepts in new novel ways.

Characteristics of Ecological Education

• (Success)ion. Knowledge and skills are learned by linking new outcomes to previously mastered ones.
  
• Resiliency. Resiliency is a function of how interconnected a system, idea, or skill is to the whole. Ecological Education emphasizes the links between curricular outcomes rather than memorization of specific outcomes in isolation.
  
• The Adjacent Possible. The role of education is to create as many an abundance of vibrant futures for each student.
  
• Ecotones. The number of potential connections is greatest at the intersection of two separate systems, e.g. where a forest meets a lake. Interdisciplinary approaches to equations are educational ecotones. Schools’ physical structure/layout would help facilitate cross-curricular initiatives by encouraging exploration and dialogue between teachers of different disciplines. The physical space ought to be self-similar to the webs and connections within ecosystems and the mind.
  
• Creativity. Creativity is defined as a student’s ability to combine curricular outcomes in novel ways and scenarios.
  
• Diversity Over Uniformity. The more different the elements within a system are, the more opportunities there are for connections within the system. An ecological approach to equations emphasizes developing each student’s unique traits, skills, and interests rather than uniform learners entering a uniform workforce.

Ecological Education and The Resilient Learner

A resilient student’s adjacent possible is so vast that they have a seemingly unlimited number of paths. Throughout their education (formal or otherwise), a resilient student has had the opportunity to gather so many ideas, concepts, and experiences that they view their future as abundant. As noted by educational theorist Sir Ken Robinson, we are preparing students for a future that we do not know; the resilient student is one whose adjacent possible is the widest.