Walk to learn, learn to walk: an educational practice to reconnect geology with sustainability

Despite the fact that, at the dawn of XXIst century, many scholars were predicting a central role of earth sciences (ES) in the education for future citizens (Orion, 2007) and in the scientific inquiries (King, 2008), the geology community has almost missed the opportunity to have a real impact in societal problems and to be considered at the centre of a new kind of education, where the geoscientists skills could be helpful to prepare for the future. In particular, the sustainability wave seemed to leave ES behind (Fildani & Hessler, 2021), as it’s easy to understand considering the deep lack of geology classes in high ranked degrees and the decreasing number of students that applied for ES in the last years. Surely there’s a problem with geosciences education in national curricula: nonetheless, it’s time to change our approach as educators and give more importance to the complex and systemic abilities that we can develop. ES education needs a shift to move towards a sustainable, transdisciplinary and more experiential approach. Walking can be a good starting point. If “educate”, referring to the original Latin educere, means to experience “outside” in the world (Masschelein, 2010), it means also to be able to discover a territory with a sensorial approach. Geoscientists know, more than others, the importance of reading a territory as a complex system, where geological aspects are connected with others. Furthermore, the experience of crossing a territory in a group allows to go beyond the classic one-way transmission of notions and leads to a mutual exchange of shared knowledge on the same experiential level. During may 2021 we propose to students a two-day workshop called Walking hills. The workshop consists in two different treks in Turin: the first one is a round-trip around Superga; the second in Western Monferrato, headed to the romanesque Abbazia di Vezzolano. During these two days we move on a territory with a high geological richness, where students can observe different typologies of outcrops. Nevertheless, we explore the historical and artistic landscape of the area. This workshop is an experience of a transdisciplinary educational project based on a systemic approach, to promote education as the discovery of interactions, a place where teachers and learners try to break conventional boundaries between scientific and humanistic approach, nature and culture, even body and mind.