Currently reading Ahlberg et al. (2025) on “The Magic of Inclusion: Transformative Action for Sustainability Education”
Preparing for a presentation that Terese and I will be giving soon at the “Inclusive Lund University” conference on how the inclusion and sustainability communities very much want the same thing and therefore should cooperate much more than they currently do, I came across the book “All means all” and the chapter on “The Magic of Inclusion: Transformative Action for Sustainability Education”, by Ahlberg, Kennon, and Rončević (2025).
They also discuss the topic in a video (hosted on the same page) and I found it so inspiring! They suggest many reflection questions and an exercise for becoming aware of the space we are teaching in (similar to the start of my “walking thought the future in the present” exercise), and write “We call for the magic of inclusion in the sense that no line of enquiry is omitted simply because it seems impossible or irrational or does not fulfil some established criteria of feasibility“. I love the focus on dreaming big first and then dealing with the limiting reality and how to get from the latter to the former later! And also the focus on community and how we can change together: “As we know, learning always involves change. When a student gains an insight, masters a concept or acquires a new skill, they do not just become better equipped at dealing with reality, as well they become capable of creating their reality. Moreover, when collaborative and literacy skills are built into everything they learn, then they are able to enlist others in creating worlds they can share.”
Only one thing I found disappointing: They uncritically use a model of sustainability that “considers the three dimensions – economically efficient, socially just, and ecologically viable – on an equal footing“, which I find quite problematic because there is no actual basis for thinking that those three are equally important or even align-able, and which also does not seem to fit with the rest of what they write. If we are dreaming big, why not there, too?
Ahlberg, S., Kennon, P., & Rončević, K. (2025). The Magic of Inclusion: Transformative Action for Sustainability Education. All means all!-OpenTextbook for diversity in education. https://book.all-means-all.education/