Abstract

Overwhelming evidence suggests we are currently facing a climate crisis due to human impacts on essential planetary processes. At the same time, Wales is currently implementing significant curriculum reform. As part of the reform, the Welsh word, cynefin, appears in the Curriculum for Wales guidance. This paper analyses how an over-emphasis on limited epistemological and ontological viewpoints in education has helped to create an impoverished view of the self that has exacerbated our unhealthy relationship with nature. It is proposed that the word cynefin could be used conceptually to point towards alternative states of being and ways of knowing that involve an enhanced sense of self. It is suggested that children can engage with the natural world through heightened ontological perspectives whilst exploring ways of knowing that are normally marginalised in the mainstream classroom. This is much needed as creating opportunities for children to attune to their interrelated participation with the more-than-human world could nurture a replenished and restorative relationship with nature. Moreover, it could enable the experience of expanded existential understandings.

PRACTICAL ABSTRACT

This paper explores how the Welsh word cynefin could provide impetus for education in Wales to not only address the demands of the climate crisis, but enable a way of understanding human beings’ sense of place and interrelatedness with the natural world. Wales is currently implementing significant curriculum reform. As part of the reform, the Welsh word, cynefin, appears in the Curriculum for Wales guidance. Cynefin is defined in the curriculum guidance as ‘the historic, cultural, and social place which has shaped and continues to shape the community which inhabits it’ (Welsh Government, 2021). However, the word cynefin can also be understood to describe one’s feeling of a sense of homeliness in places in the natural world. Therefore, the word cynefin could be used by educators to emphasise the importance of valuing a sense of community in and with the natural world. This paper argues that these enhanced understandings are important as research shows that before we ask children to save the natural world, they need to experience a sense of connection with it. Moreover, this Welsh word, that cannot be easily translated into English, can give voice to a way of seeing and experiencing the world that is too often neglected in traditional schooling.

Keywords: Ontology, Epistemology, Nature, Education, Cynefin, Curriculum

How to Cite:

Adams, D. & Beauchamp, G., (2022) “A loss of “cynefin” – losing our place, losing our home, losing our self”, Wales Journal of Education 24(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16922/wje.24.1.2