Ecoportraiture

Ecoportraiture is an way of thinking about and practicing research in the context of place- and nature-based education. It arose out of the work of CIRCE-affiliated researchers with eco-schools, especially the Maple Ridge Environmental School. Looking to understand the distinctive features of teaching and learning in outdoor settings, we found ourselves drawn towards an earlier tradition of educational research known as “portraiture.” Eventually, we put together a collection of essays and studies that together map the emerging terrain of eco-portraiture—portraiture that explicitly includes the voices, perspectives and interests of the more-than-human world.

We have summarized some of the key ideas of ecoportraiture in these pages. We hope that they will pique your interest and persuade you to get hold of the book itself. Our intention was not to offer a how-to guide, although you can certainly find practical guidance and inspiration in the studies it contains. Rather we wanted to show researchers some of the forms ecoportraiture can take and invite them to join us in this broad and varied field of inquiry. We haven’t spent a lot of time on making connections to our other work on imagination, but one way of putting it is to say that ecoportraiture takes place “at the crossroads” between humans and the more-than-human world. In Greek mythology, the presiding deity of such places is Hermes, the trickster god of commerce and of thievery, long associated with the boundary-crossing capacities of the imagination. One of Hermes’ roles is to keep things lively, and we think ecoportraiture can contribute to re-enlivening our understanding of what learning and teaching can become if we loosen the grip of anthropocentrism on our imaginations.

Although the terms “research” and “researcher” may suggest this work is aimed only at academics, that isn’t quite accurate. We did have our colleagues and graduate students in mind, but we also have a sense that ecoportraiture could be helpful for anyone who wants to explore their own relationship to nature and place. It points to a way of listening, of paying attention, and of using writing to think more deeply into your reciprocal entwinement with the more-than-human world. For more on this, follow our blog!