Wilding Pedagogies. Exploring More-than-Human Ecologies of Learning for Deep Environmental Care

Contemporary socio-ecological crises increasingly expose the fractures of a human-dominated worldview reflected in the human-centered assumptions embedded within many societal institutions. This dissertation critically examines these assumptions in the context of higher education and proposes a wilding of pedagogies as a way of learning in, with, through, and for the more-than-human world. Drawing on participatory immersion, reflective inquiry, and place-responsive walking interviews, the research explores how wild pedagogies can be conceptualized, enacted, and investigated within Western higher education contexts. Findings suggest that wild pedagogies foster relational awareness, generate new understandings of more-than-human worlds, and strengthen connections with oneself, other humans, and the more-than-human world. They also invite renewed reflection on purpose, responsibility, and agency within relational ways of being. Deep environmental care emerges as an integral aspect of relational becoming, grounded in lived experiences of interdependence and entanglement. The dissertation argues that wilding pedagogies offer a promising educational pathway for nurturing more caring, hopeful, and environmentally responsive futures.