Allen Hill

The impact of professional development on early childhood educators’ confidence, understanding and knowledge of education for sustainability

In recent times, Australia has recognised and enacted a range of initiatives at service, system and community levels that seek to embed sustainability into the early childhood sector. This paper explores the impact of a professional development (PD) session that provided opportunities for early childhood educators to learn and share ideas about the theory and practice of sustainability generally and early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) specifically. The PD was entitled ‘Living and Learning about Sustainability in the Early Years’ and was offered on three occasions across Tasmania. A total of 99 participants attended the three PD sessions (one 5 hour; two 2 hour). The participants had varying levels of experience and included early childhood teachers, centre based educators and preservice teachers. At the start and end of the PD, participants were invited to complete a questionnaire that contained a series of likert scale questions that explored their content knowledge, level of understanding and confidence in regards to ECEfS. Participants were also asked at the start and end of the PD to ‘list five words you think of when you consider the word sustainability.’ A model of teacher professional growth was used to conceptualise the results related to the changes in knowledge, understanding and confidence (personal domain) as a result of the PD related to ECEfS (external domain). The likert-scale questions on the questionnaire revealed significant positive changes in levels of knowledge, understanding and confidence from the start to the end of the PD. Differences as a function of length of PD, level of experience and role are presented and discussed. The ‘5 words’ question showed that participants widened their understandings of ECEfS from a narrow environmental focus to a broader understanding of the social, political and economic dimensions. The early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector has been characterised as having a pedagogical advantage for EfS suggesting that early childhood educators are well placed to engage with EfS more readily than might educators in other education sectors. This article argues that PD is necessary to develop capability in educators in order to meet the imperatives around sustainability outlined in educational policy and curriculum documents in ECEC.

Reflections on Beliefs and Practices from New Zealand Outdoor Educators: Consistencies and Conflicts

This article draws from a research project in 2007 with a small group of New Zealand outdoor educators. The purpose of the project was to examine teacher beliefs about outdoor education and explore the complex relationships between beliefs, values, and self-perceptions of pedagogical practice. Of specific interest was how theories of consistency and inconsistency (Fang, 1996) related to teachers’ experiences. Findings revealed themes where there was consistency between teachers’ beliefs and their practices, particularly environmental awareness and care, personal and social development, social action, skill development, and curriculum enrichment. Three themes highlighted inconsistency or conflict between teacher beliefs and educational systems and institutions. These included: tensions between values and practice, resource constraints, and assessment and curriculum pressures of secondary schools.

Sustainability as a Cross-Curricular Priority in the Australian Curriculum: A Tasmanian Investigation.

In this paper, we report on an investigation into sustainability education in schools in the Australian state of Tasmania following the implementation of the Australian Curriculum. Sustainability is one of three cross-curriculum priorities in the new national curriculum and is the focus of this research (sustainability cross-curriculum priority (CCP)). Principals and Curriculum Leaders (PCLs) from all schools in Tasmania were invited to complete a survey that asked them about their understanding of various aspects of sustainability and how the sustainability CCP was integrated across learning areas. Sixty-eight PCLs (24%) responded to the survey. They reported generally good understandings of sustainability and education for sustainability, but lesser understandings of the sustainability CCP and the nine organising ideas. Respondents’ understandings of sustainability were dominated by an environmental focus. The PCLs’ responses in relation to sustainability implementation across learning areas gave insights into ways that the sustainability CCP can serve as a pivot for cross-curricular teaching and learning, which is strongly advocated for achieving transformative sustainability education. We conclude this paper with a discussion of how the sustainability CCP is an important asset in the necessary reorientation of the Australian formal education system for a more sustainable future. We note the importance of professional support so that educators may better understand sustainability and its complexity as a cross-curricular priority and envision ways in which the sustainability CCP can be realised within education.

Developing Approaches to Outdoor Education that Promote Sustainability Education.

Social, economic, and environmental issues facing 21st century societies compel a transformative shift towards sustainability in all spheres of life, including education. The challenges this holds for outdoor education programs and practices is significant. If outdoor education theory and practice is to make a greater contribution to sustainability education it must explore both alternatives and alterations to approaches based on adventure pursuit activities and personal development doctrines. For over a decade there have been calls from across the world to include greater emphasis on human/nature relationships, place, social justice, and ecological perspectives in outdoor education. This article adds to those calls through advocating for a pedagogical approach to outdoor education that promotes sustainability education. Drawing from recent doctoral research this article introduces a model which describes a change process towards sustainability focused pedagogy. The model suggests change can take place in three areas for educators: first, in philosophy, values, and understandings, second, in infrastructure, resource use, and programming, and third, in teaching and learning strategies. It is at the nexus of these three areas that the most effective pedagogical change can be found.

Intersections between place, sustainability and transformative outdoor experiences

Engaging students in positive experiences in and for the natural world is perhaps one of the most pressing issues for educators today. The challenges presented by unsustainable practices require reflection on how transformation, of individuals and of communities, might lead to a more sustainable future. In this article we explore intersections between transformation, sustainability and place, and we examine outdoor learning experiences that might assist in the promotion of sustainability. The paper is framed by three guiding questions: what are the goals of transformation and which/whose standards determine such goals; how can principles of sustainability act as a guiding framework for transformation; and what types of outdoor experiences might meaningfully contribute to such sustainability-focused transformation? This article draws on teachers’ perspectives concerning the value of place(s) in outdoor learning. The authors suggest that the use of a framework of sustainability may facilitate greater intentionality, on the part of place-responsive educators, thus improving the opportunities for improved human–nature relations.

Construction and validation of a survey instrument to determine the gender-related challenges faced by pre-service male primary teachers

The gender-related challenges facing males entering the primary-school teaching profession have been well documented in the academic literature over recent decades. The majority of these data have come about through qualitative reports. Whilst qualitative methods provide important perspectives into these issues, the use of valid and reliable quantitative survey tools has received less attention. This paper discusses the construction, piloting, and subsequent tests for reliability and validity involved in developing a robust survey tool to measure the gender-related challenges faced by pre-service male primary teachers during their university study and professional experience in schools. Utilizing Senocaks four stages of survey development and Rasch modelling techniques, data analysis showed high levels of validity and reliability for the survey tool.

‘You want us to teach outdoor education where?’ Reflections on teaching outdoor education online

ABSTRACT This article reports on the experiences of two lecturers working at the University of Tasmania required to teach outdoor and sustainability education (O&SE) courses online. Using an (auto)ethonographic case-study approach, the lecturers were interviewed with a view to exploring their perceptions, challenges, ethical dilemmas, tensions, opportunities and experiences in this space. A number of themes emerged, including commitment to quality teaching and learning, the role of experience, and experiential learning, in the online space, the challenge of fostering a connection to place, difficulties faced when trying to develop a learning community, and the role of professional learning and support in terms of pedagogy and technology in the online space. These themes, and their implications for teaching and learning in higher education both generally, and specifically in O&SE, are discussed in light of what is a mounting body of literature exploring the move to online delivery in higher education.

Intersections of Indigenous Knowledge and Place Based Education: Possibilities for New Visions of Sustainability Education in Uganda

What is an appropriate structure for reporting a study of Indigenous Knowledge and place based education, following the critical paradigm, and adopting participatory action research?

Education, Arts and Sustainability

This book addresses this challenge by proposing an integration of sustainability and arts education in both principle and practice. In a global context of intensifying social, economic and environmental crises, education is key to raising awareness and motivating individuals and communities to act in sustaining life in our more-than-human world. But how is this done when the complexity and need for change becomes overwhelming, and schooling systems become complicit in supporting the status quo? Drawing on critical education theory and precepts of creativity, curiosity and change, it documents a series of case examples that demonstrate how five principles of Education for Sustainability - critical thinking, systems thinking, community partnership, participation, and envisioning better futures - are found at the heart of much arts practice in schools. Featuring the creative work and voices of teachers working in arts-based enquiry and diverse community-engaged contexts, the book investigates how sustainability principles are embedded in contemporary arts education thinking and pedagogy. The authors are unapologetically optimistic in forming an alliance of arts and sustainability education as a creative response to the challenge of our times, arguing that while they may have operated on the margins of conventional pedagogy and curriculum, they have more than marginal impact.

Action Research and Criticality: Working Out the Stone in Your Shoe

The action research tradition in Australia has been heavily influenced by critical work of Steven Kemmis and the school of researchers he inspired, as well as by the British tradition inspired by Lawrence Stenhouse and others. These chapters illustrate the close alliance between educational research and the ordinary practice of working educators, which is a particular feature of Anglo-American traditions of inquiry inspired both by pragmatism and by critical theory, both of which demand of research an active engagement in intentional change process. Work in this section is developed out of this action research tradition and takes the form of analyses of practice with an eye to improving the way that practice is accomplished. In some cases, this means a critical interrogation of the effectiveness of the work of an educator/researcher, while in other cases, the analysis of practice from a socially critical perspective is the central focus of the work. What draws these disparate studies together is a central focus on practice.