Configurations and Meanings of Environmental Knowledge: Transitions from the Subjective Experience of Students towards the Intersubjective Experience of Us

Environmental-related education has inherited the concepts of complexity and uncertainty from environmental science. However, these concepts still refer to the environment as an “object” that is separate from the knowing “subject,” and not as a phenomenon always inserted into a specific context. With the aim of contributing to generating contextualized environmental knowledge, this article explores the knowledge configuration itinerary regarding environmental issues that was developed by vulnerable students in public secondary schools located in peripheral municipalities of Santiago, Chile. The theoretical framework of complex thinking provides an epistemological opportunity to “read” and understand environmental knowledge within a web of co-determined spheres of social and community knowledge via the transition from “subjective understanding” to “intersubjective knowledge.” The knowledge configuration itinerary regarding the environment describes a transition from the sphere of the “self” towards an emplaced “us.” It was discussed that the incorporation of place in education is not only a pedagogical means, but also functions as an axis of meaning that highlights the multisemic nature of the environment in its different configurations. It was concluded that an educational project relevant to a global community must be founded upon those differences, as they provide opportunities for configuring knowledge as action and meaning.