Geography and responsability in the anthropocene - Didacticization of ethical questions of the anthropocene in geography lessons
The question of dealing responsibly with people and the environment is of particular importance due to the enormous consequences of actions and the global threat to (human) life (Jonas 1979). In various pedagogical approaches, such as education for sustainable development, “responsible action” by students is a prominent pedagogical goal. Responsibility has also advanced to become a new basic concept, a new key category of ethics (Nida-Rümelin 2011). Geographical education within the framework of the Anthropocene concept aims individuals to act responsibly for the environment and society (Laub 2021), as this is also emphasized in philosophical concepts of responsibility (Jonas 1979). For geography education, this creates a starting point for the integration of a reflected pedagogical concept of responsibility within the concept of transformational education, which makes it possible to counteract the danger of functionalist reduction (Laub 2021) of ethical topics in the classroom. Questions about the significance of climate change, social processes, the question of how the relationship between man and nature and between people show a double complexity (Bögeholz & Barkmann 2005). They are complex both in terms of content and ethically (Ulrich-Riedhammer 2017) and require a reflective approach to the normative-ethical dimension of the human-environment relationship (Laub 2021). Starting from a theoretical consideration of the concept of responsibility, the article wants to look at the didactic potentials and challenges associated with integration in the Anthropocene also in regard to empirical results.
Keywords: Anthropocene|Ethical Judgement|Moral education|Didactic of Geography|ESD
A105137JL