Endorsing Gert Biesta’s concept of pedagogy as “educative participation”, we understand it as participation that transforms the views and human conduct of all who participate in it. Therefore, this essay is an attempt at reading the second volume of Lewis Carroll’s Alice books and Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince as texts which can provide us with an illuminating insight into the ways of, first, critically observing and then, second, improving our perceptions of nature, swerving them toward cooperation with rather than a mere use of. Andrzej Nowak’s term “ontological imagination” turns out helpful in understanding the world as an intricate and ever-growing network of human and non-human connections forming oikos, space which not only provides living conditions but is itself alive. Hence, we propose a geo-logical pedagogy, that serves oikos, overcoming the limitations of pedagogy based on a libidinal desire for domination, as well as that rooted in an equally libidinal desire for possession.

The article is an attempt to look at the challenges of reading literature at school in the era of the Anthropocene from the perspective of philosophical assumptions about the subjectivity of the student and the teacher’s actions that allow for the realization of this subjectivity, as well as a proposal to translate these theoretical assumptions into specific teaching solutions. In the introduction, the state of research on the activities undertaken within the teaching of Polish literature in the Anthropocene era is presented. In the next section, the author introduces the reader to the issues pertaining to this era and the related crisis of imagination. Then, she extensively discusses Gert Biesta’s concept of world-centred education. In the last part, she presents a proposal for a cycle of lessons that makes these theoretical assumptions a reality.

The article concerns the issues of contemporary children’s literature in the context of the images of the Anthropocene and ecological phenomena it contains. The author emphasized the need to include children as a community cooperating with adults in designing a vision of the future of the world. The text draws attention to the ecological dimension of Maria Terlikowska’s story entitled Drzewo do samego nieba (1975) and the anthropocentric attitude to the surroundings on the example of the interpretation of Jan Bliźniak’s novel entitled Śrubek i tajemnice Maszynerii (2022). By juxtaposing these two literary works, the author presents the situation of children’s literature recipients living in the second half of the 20th century and in the 2020s as those who have a chance to create a society that cares about the future of the globe. She emphasizes the importance of people noticing human relationships with other (non-human) beings, and builds a reflection on the role of literature in shaping the worldviews of its young readers. The author underlines an optimistic tone of literary texts addressed to children, and indicates the area of children’s literature as an important place for
creating a constructive dialogue between the world of adults, children and the components of nature.

The article is an analysis and interpretation of Jacqueline Kelly’s novel The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (situated in the context of the writer’s work and, more broadly, the trend of retro youth novels). Referring to the concept of catharsis constitutive of Greek tragedy (offered to the recipient to experience pity and fear), I would like to present The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate as a work that offers compassion, sadness and hope – a “weak” version of catharsis, adjusted to the sensitivity of the young reader, and, at the same time, not distorting the difficult truth about the world. Above all, the category of weakness, common to people and other human beings have been highlighted. The primary goal of the article is, therefore, to extract the axiological message of the novel. To do so, a compilation of various methodologies (comparative studies, ecocriticism, feminist criticism), and a research tool have been used.

The aim of the article is to present the short story Cud kwitnących sadów (1987) by Wanda Osuchowska-Orłowska and the novels Ostatnie drzewo na Ziemi (2021) by Małgorzata Kur and A kiedy zniknie pustynia (2020, Polish edition 2022) by Marie Pavlenko, addressed to young readers. These stories, subjected to an ecocritical reading, can help in repairing the future thanks to new, better stories about it, as postulated by Marcin Napiórkowski. All of the above-mentioned texts analyzed in the article are intended to make the recipient aware of the consequences that threaten the human species if all trees disappear from the Earth. These are fantasy stories set in the near future. They all bring hope that even damaged ecosystems can be rebuilt, and the key to this is the personal involvement of people – scientists, but above all, children characters – in saving trees. This personal involvement is made possible by building a personal relationship with trees. This bond in turn, is created thanks to stories passed down from generation to generation.

The article analyzes Michel Piquemal’s book Philosophical Tales: How to Live on Earth? (2015) from an ecological perspective. The Philosophical Tales series, initiated in 2003, has gained a wide recognition worldwide and in Poland, includes tales and other cultural texts from various cultures and historical periods. The third part of the series, entitled How to live on Earth?, focuses on the human – nature – planet relationship, highlighting the need for harmony between people and nature and the ecological responsibility of contemporary society. It draws attention to urgent ecological issues such as environmental pollution, global warming, natural disasters, species extinction, and the overproduction of toxic waste. The questions and comments in the Philosopher’s Workshop modules help readers understand the deeper meanings of the texts and stimulate reflection on contemporary ecological challenges. Michel Piquemal emphasizes that ecology, as an Earth science, includes the understanding of the consequences of human actions on the environment while the tales in this collection aim to educate young people about ecology and inspire actions for environmental protection. This part of Philosophical Tales is not only a literary introduction to ecological issues but also an encouragement for critical thinking about the climate crisis. The book shows how tales from different cultures can educate people about biodiversity, sustainable development, collective responsibility, and nature conservation. In How to Live on Earth? Michel Piquemal strives to raise ecological
awareness and promote pro-ecological attitudes, especially among the students of the Anthropocene epoch.

The subject of the article is an attempt to read the trilogy “Lord of the Rings” in the context of the idea of the ecological turn using the methodological apparatus of ecocriticism. The author suggests introducing into Polish language lessons motifs related to environmental protection revealed at different levels of a literary work according to Grzegorz Trębicki’s typology: from the ontology and eschatology of the secondary world, through entanglement in myths, topoi and literary tradition, to poetic tropes and character creations. Starting from the concept of a tender narrator (Tokarczuk), he searches primarily for figures of empathy (i.e. prosopopeia, uppersonification). The topics of deforestation and threats arising from the aggressive development of mining are complemented by the proposal of a didactic exercise at the level of secondary school. In reference to avant-garde practices (Queneau), the students are invited to play with the silvity, intertextuality and transmediality of literature – creating a literary collage of “Lord of the Rings” verse fragments, works of Polish poets and mass media texts.

The result of the search for the function of language which could enrich the expression of man cultivating the field of experiencing him/herself and those around him/her, is silence out loud – the evidence of deep thoughtfulness. It is the expression of reflection, creating an inner environment in which a person becomes a “witness of him/herself ”, his/her being, his/her conscience, his/her own and other people’s guilt, including the possibility of its redemption. The article attempts to describe not only the state of being a witness to oneself, but also of being a witness to one’s abuser. The scene of this drama, which is a perceptible contemporary consequence of the post-war trauma of the ancestors, begins with an innocent conversation between a girl of several years and her mother (in turn, grandmother and great-grandmother) in the environment of nature, where a person stands “naked” in the face of the depths of “nature-word”. An attempt was made to pose the question of the forest as a pedagogical medium that allows, on the one hand, to conduct a therapeutic dialogue, and, on the other, to withdraw from the rituals of ordinary contemporary everyday life. This condition is exemplified by the title metaphors: seedlings of thought and flames of hope, rendered in the form of photographs of a mother and daughter holding handmade olive lamps and talking to each other surrounded by trees. We do not learn the details of the conversation – it is too personal, we only
know that it initiated a self-therapeutic intergenerational understanding. The text was written on the grounds of ecologically inspired forest pedagogy and deep competences.

The article analyzes pseudo-feminist ways of creating female characters and the world presented in the novel Cinderella Is Dead (2022) by Kalynn Bayron, which is a reinterpretation of Cinderella. By transforming a known history, the authoress wants to participate in discourses calling for inclusiveness and equality of worldviews. To do so, she introduces various refractions: emphasizes women’s agency and their pursuit of self-determination, and changes the protagonist’s skin color and sexual orientation. She exposes features commonly associated with feminism, which often has the opposite effect, and the work itself can be interpreted as pseudo-feminist. This is particularly visible in measures such as demonizing men or the lack of positive male figures, as well as superficial and instrumental treatment of issues important to feminism. Attention was also paid to the phenomenon of blackwashing, which in the novel is primarily a marketing trick and an expression of cultural fashion.

The latest children’s literature is becoming not only an insightful observer of the modern world, but also increasingly assumes the role of commentator and translator of social and cultural phenomena. It is also controversial and defined in society as taboo. This trend is part of the writing of the British writer David Walliams, whose texts break down linguistic, mental, narrative and genre barriers, thus introducing new possibilities in the art of the word dedicated to the adult audience. The concept of crossing boundaries in the analyzed readings is considered in the presented sketch about the linguistic taboo defined by Zenon Leszczynski and the cultural taboo in the sense of Sigmund Freud. The aim of these actions is to try to determine the scope of current changes in the literary way of talking to a child about man in the real and imagined world.

The article presents the project Dawne i współczesne pejzaże dźwiękowe w literaturze dziecięcej i młodzieżowej – ekokrytyczne analizy i interpretacje w świetle ekologii akustycznej i edukacji ekologicznej [Past and Contemporary Soundscapes in Children’s and Young Adult Literature – Ecocritical Analyses and Interpretations in the Light of Acoustic Ecology and Environmental Education], funded under the “Green University of Warsaw – 2nd Edition” action (IV.3.1) within the “Excellence Initiative – Research University (2020–2026)” program. The text presents the methodological basis of the project – along with the key concepts of ecocriticism, acoustic ecology, soundscape, and sound studies – as well as its assumptions, goals, individual elements, and preliminary results of the research conducted.