An Archetypal Ecology of Learning: Engaging Ecological Emotions, Place, and Ethical Action in Outdoor and Environmental Education

Abstract Outdoor and environmental education increasingly recognizes that ecological crises are experienced not only as biophysical disruptions but also as relational, emotional, and ethical challenges that shape how learners connect with the more-than-human world. Yet persistent gaps between environmental awareness and sustained ethical action suggest the need for conceptual frameworks that integrate ecological knowledge with lived experience, ecological emotions, and place-based responsibility. This conceptual paper develops an archetypal ecology of learning by bringing together holistic ecological literacy, nature relatedness, environmental identity, Jungian archetypal theory, narrative pedagogy, ecopsychology, and ecojustice-oriented education. Focusing on three archetypal narratives from Clarissa Pinkola Estés’s Women Who Run with the Wolves —Vasalisa the Wise, Skeleton Woman, and La Loba—the paper offers a comparative archetypal–ecopsychological analysis structured around shared analytical dimensions: core outdoor encounter, dominant ecological emotions, ecological literacy capacity, and pedagogical implications for outdoor and environmental education. The analysis proposes that Vasalisa supports attunement and orientation in uncertain environments, Skeleton Woman legitimizes encounters with ecological loss and cyclical change, and La Loba foregrounds restorative ethical action grounded in care for damaged places. The paper discusses how this framework advances environmental education beyond knowledge transmission, extends ecoliteracy by integrating emotion, identity, and ethics, and offers practice-relevant implications for outdoor educators, including attentiveness-based entry practices, reflective dialogue at damaged sites, and place-responsive stewardship or community-engaged restoration. The article concludes by outlining how the proposed heuristic framework can guide future empirical research on narrative, ecological emotions, and learning outdoors.