The Anthropocene puts schools to the test? – Anthropo-cene-scolaire

The starting point for this research is a paradoxical observation that raises questions about the relationship between schools and contemporary societies: the Anthropocene is now talked about almost everywhere, except at schools, which are supposed to be preparing young people for the challenges of tomorrow. Proposed in 2000 by Paul Crutzen, the Anthropocene refers to a new geological epoch characterised by a lasting change in the conditions in which the Earth is habitable as a result of human activity. The concept of the Anthropocene is omnipresent in the media, but is not actually on the school program.
At a time when the balance of the Earth system is looming large, schools are still using the concept of development. Breaking with the linear and continuist paradigm that organises the body of disciplinary knowledge in schools, the Anthropocene paradigm, on the other hand, relies on rupture to articulate the complexity of knowledge relating to the climate, the biosphere and societies: tomorrow is not an extension of today, and sudden and irreversible ruptures with no possible way back may be ahead of us.
In view of the socio-political consequences of the biogeophysical transformations underway, but also of the socio-political power relations at the root of contemporary biogeophysical transformations, we can hypothesise that the non-integration of the Anthropocene concept into school curricula is linked to various obstacles (socio-political, ideological, ethical, epistemic, didactic, psychological, scientific), which this project aims to clarify.
This project proposes to identify each of these obstacles based on a large-scale curriculum study. This project studies the presence or absence of the Anthropocene concept and its attributes based on complex and contradictory multidisciplinary scientific debates. It focuses on the curricula for education on climate change (ECC), sustainable development (EDD), biodiversity (EB), socially sensitive issues (EQSV), moral and civic education (EMC) based on a curricular analysis of identified subject areas (HGGSP, history-geography, SES, physics-chemistry, SVT). The project focuses on secondary school, when pupils explore global issues and gain an in-depth understanding of the complexity of physical and social phenomena. Seven areas have been selected (Lyon, St-Etienne, Montpellier, Marseille, Corsica, Angers and Caen) which include urban, peri-urban and rural areas. The selected establishments are located in geosociological regions (Pays-de-Loire, Normandy, Occitanie, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Corsica, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) where the territories have contrasting meteorological conditions (e.g. heat waves, rainfall) and are culturally different. Comparisons between urban, peri-urban and rural territories in these regions will be investigated.
This project aims to develop a strategy for the critical didacticisation and pedagogisation of this concept.