Reinventing Education for an Ecological Civilization: A Whiteheadian Approach.

This paper reinvents education through Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy to address the failures of modern pedagogy in the face of ecological collapse. Critiquing Cartesian dualism and industrial-era schooling, the author argues that education must shift from mechanistic knowledge-transfer to cultivating eco-persons -- beings attuned to ecological interdependence. Three transformative shifts are proposed: (1) reconceiving students as living organisms ("I prehend, therefore I am") rather than passive learners; (2) expanding classrooms into learning ecosystems integrating nature and community; and (3) redesigning curricula around wisdom and sustainability, structured by Whitehead's rhythmic stages (romance- precision -generalization). The proposed eco-curriculum prioritizes vernacular knowledge, systems thinking, and ethical action to equip students for climate crises. By grounding education in Whitehead's ontology of relational becoming, this framework aligns pedagogy with the urgent needs of ecological civilization, offering an alternative to the anthropocentric paradigms accelerating planetary destruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]