How to Overcome the Stagnation of the Anthropocene? About Polish Language Education in the Time of Climate Crisis. Review: M. Ochwat (2025). “More-Than-Human Lessons in the Polish Language: Polish Education in Times of the Climate Crisis”. Katowice: Silesia University Press, pp. 320

Abstract

This article is a review of Magdalena Ochwat’s monograph on Polish language education in the context of the climate crisis. The book consists of five chapters, referred to by the author as lessons. In the first three chapters, Ochwat introduces the reader to the latest trends in the broadly understood environmental humanities and introduces the term “symbiocene”, which, unlike the Anthropocene, does not evoke negative emotions. Instead, it conveys an optimistic idea that encourages the rebuilding of community and cooperation in the face of the climate crisis. In the final two chapters, Ochwat demonstrates, using specific examples from primary school reading materials, how the latest trends in the green humanities can be incorporated into Polish language lessons. The author does not reject current models of interpretation, but calls for a different perspective, as the humanities assume a polyphony of voices in discussion. Shifting the perspective from an anthropocentric to a biocentric description of reality may help students realize that the world resembles a large network in which people, animals, plants, and other forms of life coexist. Striving for symbiosis and cooperation therefore plays a key role in educating homo ecologicus: an empathetic individual who is sensitive to the suffering of others and committed to addressing the problems of the modern world.