Hilary Whitehouse

The generic skills debate in research higher degrees

Generic or transferable skills as outcomes of research higher degrees have been the subject of considerable development and debate in universities in recent times. The development of generic skills has been motivated by the belief that there are skills which all graduates should possess, and which would be applicable to a wide range of tasks and contexts beyond the university setting. This paper reviews these developments and debates drawing on a literature from the USA, the UK, with particular reference to Australia. It cites examples of generic skills programs and considers evidence of students’ responses to them. Reviewing criticisms which have been levelled at the idea of generic skills in research higher degrees, the discussion identifies a number of questions which need to be addressed if this development is to succeed.

Barriers, Successes and Enabling Practices of Education for Sustainability in Far North Queensland Schools: A Case Study

There are many documented barriers to implementing school-based sustainability. This article examines a) the barriers faced by principals and staff in two regional primary schools in Far North Queensland, Australia, well known for their exemplary practice, and b) ways the barriers were overcome. Through interviews conducted with principals and key staff, the authors found lack of time, direct funding for innovation, teacher conceptual understanding, resistance from some fellow staff to sustainability education, and being positioned as a “greenie” were presented as barriers to effective practice. The research reveals how innovation, determination, trust, and active principal support enabled the teachers to push ahead. Other educators experiencing difficulties with implementing sustainability education will likely find the discussion useful.

Sea Country: navigating Indigenous and colonial ontologies in Australian environmental education

In this paper, we contribute to land education research by focusing on the Torres Strait Islands in the Coral Sea at the far north of tip of Cape York, Australia. We describe the Torres Strait Islander concept of Sea Country and Torres Strait Ailan Kastom (translated as ‘Island Custom’). We then analyse some of the ways in which settler colonisation has challenged these ways of knowing and being. Our inquiry looks at how Sea Country is positioned within two contemporary Australian examples of environmental education: firstly, within the new Australian Curriculum cross-curriculum priorities that mandate that special attention be given to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures and also to the concept of sustainability; and secondly, within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s Sea Country Guardians programme This analysis of environmental education curriculum and practice identifies the ways in which the concept of Sea Country and the Indigenous cosmology it represents are simultaneously supported and ignored in the current Australian environmental education context.

'EE in Cyberspace, Why Not?' : Teaching, Learning and Researching Tertiary Pre-service and In-service Teacher Environmental Education Online

Information communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to enable intending and in-service teachers in regional, rural and remote regions greater access to tertiary education. This paper describes how a fourth year environmental education subject has been successfully delivered wholly online for several years and how pre-service and in-service teachers have responded to learning through an online platform. Research indicates the necessity to create a social learning space in cyberspace to support learning; as well as the importance of building flexible learning opportunities and offline assessment tasks to generate meaningful learning experiences related to local places. Teaching environmental education online may initially create the dilemma of how to engage meaningfully with place-based learning through the no-place of cyberspace. However, carefully designed, online learning can and does support positive learning outcomes. While there are limitations to online study, well-conceived, web-based delivery is certainly no barrier to teaching and learning environmental education in the tertiary sector.

Men on the boundaries: Landscapes and seascapes

Abstract This study explores the intricate layers of meanings lived out by men in tropical environments. These men, having adopted positions as ‘environmentalists’, see themselves more in tune with ‘nature’ than with ‘culture’. The paper documents some of the discursive strategies used to disrupt, momentarily, the deep intractable culture‐nature binary that characterises western thought about, and within, landscapes. The project of these male environmentalists is to redefine themselves as beings within landscapes, as knowers and lovers, not exploiters and abusers of landscapes. The text of the mens talk about their embodied selves holds revolutionary possibilities in that it tells of linkages and connections, of action in and of the world, through which new alignments can be glimpsed.

Moving gender from margin to center in environmental education

For the past 30 years or so, a small group of environmental education scholars have attended to gender and promoted feminist theories and methodologies (e.g., Barrett,2005; Barron,1995; Davies,2013; DiChiro,1987; Fawcett,2000; Fontes,2002; Gough,1999a,1999b,2004; Gough & Whitehouse,2003;Gray,2016; Hallen,2000; Harvester & Blenkinsop, 2010; Li,2007; Lloro-Bidart,2016; Martusewicz,2013; McKenzie,2004,2005; Newbery,2003; Russell & Bell,1996; Russell & Semenko,2016; Sakellari & Skanavis,2013; Storey, DaCruz & Camargo,1998; Stovall, Baker-Sperry, & Dallinger,2015; Wane & Chandler,2002; Warren,1996; Whitehouse,2012; Whitehouse & Taylor,1996).1Historically, this scholarship has remained somewhat on the margins of the field (A.Gough,2013,in press; Russell &Fawcett,2013), however, it is time for renewal. This special issue of The Journal of Environmental Education is devoted to the topic of gender and environmental education. The issue brings together an international group of scholars who share a common dedication to promoting social equity and gender equality in environmental education and beyond. Including research reports, theoretical inquiry, autobiographical explorations, and creative assemblages, collectively the articles demonstrate the exciting possibilities that come with bringing gender from margin to center (see hooks,1984).

A gender inclusive curriculum model for environmental studies

This paper presents a gender inclusive curriculum model for environmental studies at the senior secondary level. The curriculum model is based on three sources of information about gender and environmental studies: ecofeminist theory concerning Western constructions of the humanity–nature relation, socialist feminist critique of academic and professional practice in the environmental disciplines, and an analysis of syllabus documents produced for senior secondary environmental studies courses in South Australia and Victoria. The model induces recommendations concerning the representation of the concept ‘environment’ in the syllabus, the portrayal of women in the syllabus, and the pedagogic and assessment strategies promoted in the syllabus.

Questions of Ecopedagogy in Tropical OceanScapes in the Age of Coral Ecocide: An Autoethnographic Description.

ABSTRACT OceanScaping/scoping and the ecopedagogy of snorkeling are not well documented in the environmental education literature. This article focuses on the educative value of immersive saltwater experiences as pedagogical experience/s within coral reefs offshore from the tropical Australian city of Cairns. Drawing on a series of autoethnographic accounts of snorkeling journeys undertaken over the period 2015–2017, the article describes educators experiencing changes on coral reefs, temporally and spatially, during a time of reef ecocide. The author argues that offshore immersive learning enables a much deeper sense of understanding and integrated theoretical and practical ecopedagogy to unfold. However, in the Anthropocene, any discussion or practice of oceanScape ecopedagogy cannot escape the matter of marine ecocide. The professional implications for environmental educators are that if we are going to continue to educate with authenticity, then the timeliness, or not, of the antecedents and consequences of anthropogenic climate destabilization has to be front and center of every ecopedagogical discussion we have.

A Case Study of an Australian University Embedding EfS in a Pre-service Teaching Program

As part of a whole-of-program approach to embedding sustainability in a pre-service, 4-year Bachelor of Education program, academic staff at an Australian university engaged in collaborative projects to design dedicated sustainability subjects and embed science and sustainability principles, concepts, and issues across early childhood and primary subjects. This chapter examines aspects of learning, teaching, and assessment in a first-year core sustainability and science education subject, Foundations of Sustainability in Education; an embedded component in a third-year core professional studies subject, Early Childhood Education and Care; and a final-year elective, Environmental and Climate Change Education for the Tropics. The intent of these subjects is for pre-service teachers to develop understanding of the underlying science and complexity of key socio-ecological challenges, as well as the capacity to plan and implement sustainability and climate change learning experiences and actions in diverse school and community contexts. In order to promote pre-service teacher engagement and learning across multiple cohorts—including community-based Indigenous students and early childhood majors in online modes—the focus is on active and collaborative inquiry-based, technology-enabled, and praxis-oriented learning and assessment experiences.

Publishing models and article dates explained

We want to update readers, particularly prospective contributing authors and current reviewers, to a number of significant new developments for the JEE. These include: (a) changes in the editorial structure and management of the reviewing process; (b) several measures confirming improvements in the impact, quality, and expanded international profile of the JEE; and (c) significant increases in the number of manuscripts being submitted and the diversity of methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives reflected in manuscripts submitted and published.[Extract] We want to update readers, particularly prospective contributing authors and current reviewers, to a number of significant new developments for the JEE. These include: (a) changes in the editorial structure and management of the reviewing process; (b) several measures confirming improvements in the impact, quality, and expanded international profile of the JEE; and (c) significant increases in the number of manuscripts being submitted and the diversity of methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives reflected in manuscripts submitted and published.