To heal the planetary community in terms of humans listening to non-humans, it is essential to become aware of the symbiotic bond that interconnects them. Environmental historian Linda Lear, in the introduction to Rachel Carson's book “The Sense of Wonder. A celebration of nature for parents and children” (2017), reminds us that “the child intuitively apprehends the truth that most adults have forgotten – we are all part of the natural world” (p.9). The awareness of being what Clement calls symbiotic man, i.e. the perception of oneself as part of the environment, requires the creation of a virtuous circle: activating the sense of being part of a system of relationships in order to become conscious of one’s symbiosis with the system itself. This circle is the prerequisite for the growth of ecological intelligence (Goleman, 2009), namely the ability to behave for the well-being of ecosystems. These considerations lead to reflect on the importance of promoting teaching practices rooted in the concept of sustainability, defined as the ability to listen to all forms of life, and oriented towards the promotion of planetary citizenship (Bianchi et al., 2022). UNESCO (2022) urges tertiary education to work in interdisciplinary manners in response to complex phenomena such as Plant Blindness, which undermine the achievement of the 2030 Agenda goals (Amprazis, Papadopoulou, 2020). Consequently, the research is characterized by an interdisciplinary ecological framework (Wernli, Darbellay, 2016; Bateson, 2000; Bronfenbrenner, 1986), which places eco-pedagogy (Misisaszek, 2021) and eco-didactics (Strongoli, 2021) in dialogue with anthropology and psychology.

While anthropological inquiries underline the relational structure of our thinking, psychological ones emphasize nature-based interventions – i.e. activities aimed at modifying the living/working environment or changing people's behavior (Shanahan D., et al.,2019). Particularly stimulating is research in higher education aimed at investigating the benefits of actively experiencing indoor green environments (Van de Bogerd et al, 2020). The world of education has the responsibility to investigate the contribution that the plant world, as a pedagogical entity, can offer to the development of such citizenship and, in turn, the contribution that this can offer to the non-human. The research places the university learning environment at the center, investigated as an ecosystem (Niemi, 2021) of teacher-student, human-plant relationships. Its objective is to examine how the formation of indoor educational environments through interaction with plants, which is conveyed by an interdisciplinary (Holley,2017), green, co-constructed curriculum, can foster the development of GreenComp (Bianchi et al,2022).

The main research question is whether is it possible to foster the development of 'GreenComp' in initial teacher education (ITE) students by setting up plant-rich educational environments and by formulating an interdisciplinary green curriculum. Three specific questions stem from this general question.

Q1. How does the presence of plants in tertiary education contexts affect the well-being and place attachment of professors and ITE students?

Q2. How can a model of interdisciplinary green curriculum for higher education focused on the relationship between humans and the plant world be developed participatively?

Q3. How can plant-rich academic teaching spaces and activities facilitate the development of “GreenComp in ITE students?

The hypothesis guiding the research is that educational environments with plants, considered in their dimensions of well-being, place attachment, and interdisciplinary educational and didactic actions, foster the development of GreenComp. These are defined as the ability to identify sustainable values, imagine sustainable futures, embrace complexity in sustainability, and, thus, behave for sustainability. The presence of green classrooms and the establishment of a curriculum, which involve students in active, emotional, embodied, and plant-based learning will mediate the relationship between these skills and the aforementioned concepts

This research takes the socio-cultural constructivist paradigm as its reference (Varisco, 2002). Its design is a multiple descriptive case study (Yin, 2018) referring to the legislative and educational records of South Tyrol and Italian-speaking Switzerland, and aims at understanding the two realities in which the investigation will be carried out. The case study will be conducted with a mixed methods approach (Creswell, Plano Clark, 2018) consisting of a "parallel" architecture and the strategy of triangulation that allows observation of the aspects under investigation from different points of view. The decision to use such a design and approach is attributable to the following: the innovative scope of the study, from which unexpected data may emerge; the fact that, by involving people from different realities, the variables become valuable elements because of the pedagogical nature of the research; and the possibility of using both qualitative and quantitative techniques and tools. The latter factor will make it possible to generalize and derive data in depth, in order to create a wealth of pedagogically valuable knowledge in multiple contexts. The study will be longitudinal and lecturers and ITE students from the two universities will be involved in the research for eighteen months. Two lines of work are being developed concurrently, the first aimed at the ongoing monitoring of the well-being and place attachment of the students and professors who attend plant classrooms; the second aimed at the participatory development and testing of the interdisciplinary green curriculum. The first line, designed to respond to Q1, involves the use of a questionnaire aimed to investigate well-being and place attachment, and semi-structured interviews to investigate quantitative data. In the second line, related to Q.2, three focus groups for each university are planned, which will flow into the interdisciplinary curriculum proposal. The two lines of work will be crossed at the end of the project to answer Q.3 through a triangulation process conducted through the use of pre and post qualitative-quantitative questionnaires to investigate both processes and results for students and teachers, focus groups with students, and participant observation. The involvement of students takes place in top-down and bottom-up modes: top-down because they are involved in activities prepared by professors, bottom-up because the voices of the students are considered during a sit-in to request their ideas for direct involvement in the EDENLab projects.

The project concretely intends to nurture an emotionally and socially oriented eco-education thanks to joint actions: the creation of educational settings with plants and the implementation of an interdisciplinary curriculum for ITE that supports the systematic development of the ecological intelligence of planetary citizens (Morin, Ciurana, Motta, 2002). Through the formation of educational environments with plants engaging the head, the hands, and the heart (Sipos, Battisti, Grimm, 2008), it aims to operate transversally in the development of the GreenComp. Firstly, it is expected that there will be an improvement in the state of well-being and place attachment perceived by the project participants. Secondly, the dialogue between different disciplines and epistemologies may lead to the co-construction of a curriculum hypothesis, centered on plant-human relationships and capable of promoting ecological sustainability. Lastly, it is expected that GreenComp will develop as a result of the increase in well-being and place attachment combined with the innovative plant-based teaching activity. If these results were to be achieved, the theoretical-conceptual framework would be confirmed, thus offering a concrete model for designing educational environments informed by eco-pedagogy and eco-didactics, oriented towards developing empathy for the plants. Sustainability, defined as listening to every entity, with an understanding of how the plant world sustains life, would become an everyday practice. This contribution presents the results of the first operational phase of the research: first, questionnaires on well-being and attachment to green classrooms; second, focus groups conducted with professors from the two TE Faculties involved and oriented towards the development of the curriculum hypothesis. This hypothesis is based on the needs identified with the survey on the initial GreenComp of ITE students.

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