Ecological discourses in comparative education research: Russian Noospherism, Korean Neo-Confucianism, and Western Sustainability

Ecological discourses have been offering insightful policy perspectives and promising methodological avenues to educational researchers for over 60 years. Resulted from a rise of ecology as scientific discipline and a demand for international sustainability–oriented policies, ecological discourses display a broad array of evaluative and normative variations. However, ecological discourse as a research method and a policy-driving concept, are often misinterpreted in comparative education studies due to two reasons: first, researchers employ an outdated ‘static’ ecosystem approach and, second, apply culturally irrelevant policy measures. The presentation will bring you up to speed with ‘dynamic’ ecology, situate western ecological discourse of sustainability in Asian and Eurasian cultures, and discuss their potential to enrich educational methods and policies with new perspectives.