What is rewilding?

Rewilding is a pioneering way of helping the living world to thrive. It is an increasingly popular concept which, put simply, is about understanding how ecosystems have been damaged by human intervention and proactively finding ways to help nature to flourish. Even though the approaches of some rewilders are controversial - such as reintroducing wolves – rewilding has started to dramatically transform some areas of land and sea. 

There are two main approaches to rewilding. One is proactive and includes re-introducing species such as wolves, beavers, lynx, white stork, or water vole to landscapes, with the intention of restoring a healthier balance and a more sustainable ecosystem. The second is more passive and involves stepping back and enabling nature to grow back and thrive, with a trust that nature can be trusted to self-manage in freer and wilder way.

At Rewilding Education, we are not focussing on rewilding land and sea nor in exploring how people could learn about rewilding.

We are striving to rewild education itself.

We are using the concept of rewilding as a metaphor to investigate whether the processes involved in rewilding land and sea could have the same dramatic impact if introduced to education. We believe they can.

Metaphors of introducing wolves and beavers to change systems from the top-down and stepping back to let things develop naturally from the ground-up can help us see education through a completely new lens.

We want educational ecosystems to be healthy, in balance, and self-sustaining. What would that look like, in your context? What could be introduced (the equivalent of the wolf or the water vole) that would help bring about this sense of balance? How would new dynamics of relationships emerge, such as those between teachers and students, which would reflect these changes?