Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Mikhail Bakhtin in dialogue: pedagogy for a spatial literacy of ecological selfhood

This article considers the philosophies of unknown Japanese educator Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871–1944) and his Russian contemporary Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975) as an Asian-Pacific pedagogical foundation for addressing the fierce urgency of human-induced environmental destruction and global climate shock. Specifically, the author compares Makiguchi's philosophy of geography with Bakhtin's views of chronotope, the other, and architectonics as a means of fostering ecological selfhood. The comparison raises awareness of Makiguchian philosophy, which the author argues anticipated, strengthens, and expands Bakhtin's discussed ideas in an educational context, while it simultaneously recasts Bakhtin's well-established ideas in light of environmental education. The author concludes by contextualizing these convergences in current pedagogical needs vis-à-vis the changing environmental and political nature of the world and multiliteracies education.