Transcendence of Anthropocentrism in Education: A Historical and Theoretical Analysis of a Nonhuman World and the Decolonization of Interspecies Education
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The history of education structurally examines how pedagogical processes configure human relations with the wider, nonhuman world. School textbooks operate as institutional mechanisms and "technologies of normalization" that actively construct ontologies and regulate human-animal relations. This paper examines representative cases of the anthropocentric fundamentals of Greek education in the field of Natural History during the period 1938–1990 and suggests a transformative, post-humanist pedagogical paradigm for their transcendence. To address these planetary and educational impasses, we present the conceptual and practical architecture of the "Interspecies School" (also referred to as the "Multispecies School"). This paradigm decentralizes the human-centered orientation through relationalism, applying innovative curriculum areas, such as interspecies biology, soil studies, and ecological history, along with non-extractive methods, including Slow Pedagogy and Observation-With. For this reason, this approach goes beyond strict cognitivism by integrating sensory knowledge, cultural sensitivities, and emotional attunement into posthumanist discourse. At the end, this paper argues for an ethical shift towards interdisciplinary justice, ecocentric values, and a responsible, embodied symbiotic coexistence on a planetary scale.
Source: Qeios
DOI: 10.32388/e8qk9f.3
Author: Antonis Hourdakis
Institution: University of Crete
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7203598048