Dissecting the ethics of choreographed encounters with animal death in the zoo: A posthumanist lens on dark pedagogy

TY - JOUR

T1 - Dissecting the ethics of choreographed encounters with animal death in the zoo

T2 - A posthumanist lens on dark pedagogy

AU - Mc Loughlin, Eimear Theresa

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Choreographed encounters with death in Copenhagen Zoo, such as school and public dissections, emphasize the importance of touch and are underpinned by the moral imperative to understand the nature of life and death. Such encounters are framed by zoo educators as contributing to a deeper environmental awareness. Taking the role of dead animals in the educational activities of Copenhagen Zoo as the focus, this article examines the underpinning ideology of choreographed encounters with animal death through participant observation of school and public dissections and carcass feeding, in addition to semi-structured open interviews with educational staff. Advancing literature on the pedagogy of death and the role of animals in education, this analysis illustrates how anthropocentric conceptualizations of nature as a resource to be exploited, protected, and saved infuse the pedagogy of dissection. Taking the stickiness of these encounters seriously, a posthuman lens reveals the problematic attachments and violent detachments that touching animal flesh in out-of-school contexts produces.

AB - Choreographed encounters with death in Copenhagen Zoo, such as school and public dissections, emphasize the importance of touch and are underpinned by the moral imperative to understand the nature of life and death. Such encounters are framed by zoo educators as contributing to a deeper environmental awareness. Taking the role of dead animals in the educational activities of Copenhagen Zoo as the focus, this article examines the underpinning ideology of choreographed encounters with animal death through participant observation of school and public dissections and carcass feeding, in addition to semi-structured open interviews with educational staff. Advancing literature on the pedagogy of death and the role of animals in education, this analysis illustrates how anthropocentric conceptualizations of nature as a resource to be exploited, protected, and saved infuse the pedagogy of dissection. Taking the stickiness of these encounters seriously, a posthuman lens reveals the problematic attachments and violent detachments that touching animal flesh in out-of-school contexts produces.

KW - Affect

KW - Environmental and sustainability education

KW - Hidden curriculum

KW - Human-animal relations

KW - Posthumanism

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85178217171&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/13504622.2023.2286931

DO - 10.1080/13504622.2023.2286931

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1350-4622

VL - 30

SP - 1061

EP - 1075

JO - Environmental Education Research

JF - Environmental Education Research

IS - 7

ER -