Onderwijs als filosofisch strijdperk: Van polarisatie naar pluralisme en planetair bewustzijn

In an era marked by ecological crises and rising inequality, education has become a contested ideological space. This article argues that education is not merely a site of knowledge transmission but a philosophical battleground where competing worldviews and concepts of justice, humanity and our relationship to the Earth collide. Analyzing the discursive entanglement of anti-woke rhetoric, climate skepticism, and nationalist educational agendas, the article discusses how these narratives construct exclusionary identities and oppose pluralist reform efforts. Drawing on Appadurai’s globalization theory, decolonial thinkers such as Mbembe and Mignolo, and the philosopher Latour’s critique of modernity, I propose to reimagine education as a space for epistemic justice, ethical awareness, and ecological entanglement. Through three practice-based case studies, a Latour-inspired Atelier, the ‘Woke and Resistance’ project at the University of Humanistic Studies in the Netherlands, and a South African citizen science on water, the article explores how education can resist polarizing logics and instead cultivate relational, inclusive, and situated learning. It concludes by advocating a pedagogy of epistemic humility and pluralism by positioning education as key to navigate complexity and co-flourishing in the Anthropocene.