Son Truong

Sustainability, education, and anthropocentric precarity

The Anthropocene presents a radical intersection of human history and geological time. At a unique time on the 350 million year geological time-scale of the planet since the last major extinction event where humans have become a significant geophysical force. The Anthropocene, and its impending human impact that leaves the planet in a state of precarity, is a central focus for this assemblage of papers that explore the role of researching in sustainability and education at this time. Authors have utilised the practices of responding, re-configuring, re-reading, and re-presenting in order to consider the story of humanity and its entanglement with the more-than-human world. Throughout the collection, authors are provoked to grapple with their own past ways of thinking, and being in their research, and are invited to engage with a number of theoretical approaches. This chapter outlines the conceptual framework of the book and introduces each of the authors and their contribution.

Through the lens of participatory photography: engaging Thai children in research about their community play centre

This paper explores a childrens participatory photography research project that was conducted within a larger action research collaboration with a Thai nongovernmental organisation called the Foundation for Child Development. The project examined how Thai children experience play and sense of place at a childrens centre located in an urban low-income congested community. The process provided insight into how the centre may become a meaningful place in childrens lives through the ability to transform the space through their play, experience diverse playthings, interact with playmates, and feel a sense of safety. Guided by a cultural-ecological framework, the study contextualises childrens play and indicates how globalisation and urbanisation are increasingly changing the landscape of childhood in Thailand. The findings suggest that future research which examines the impact of these patterns on childrens play and play space can help inform policy and practice related to education, child development, and play space design.

Expanding Curriculum Pathways Between Education for Sustainability (EfS) and Health and Physical Education (HPE)

Environmental sustainability is now firmly a contemporary challenge for health researchers. The recent release of the Australian Health and Physical Education (HPE) Curriculum provides a timely opportunity to examine health knowledge(s) and consider the possibilities for alternative understandings of health and wellbeing in relation to interconnectedness with the human and more-than-human world. In this chapter, I reflect upon photographs generated by primary school students exploring their outdoor school environments, in order to re-imagine possibilities for integrating sustainability as a contemporary health issue within the HPE curriculum. I seek to consider this visual data from a recent project in Australian primary schools through my own emergent thinking about posthumanist and relational materialist perspectives. The discussion focuses on being attuned to particular places where children feel a sense of connection, relatedness, or enchantment, and to recognise the importance of the interconnectedness of the human and more-than-human world. I draw on two examples of school gardens to wonder about their potential to bridge traditional disciplinary boundaries. I argue that while there is scope in the HPE Curriculum to address the cross-curricular priority area of Sustainability, addressing this aim necessitates a renewed focus on alternative approaches and discourses that may not be explicitly associated with HPE in its current conceptions. Building the parallels between wellbeing and sustainability frameworks may lead to creative pathways between education for sustainability (EfS) and the HPE curriculum in a way that fosters embodied learning experiences for students, which may be catalysts towards deeper connections with self and others.

Combining Acceptance and Commitment Therapy With Adventure Therapy to Promote Psychological Wellbeing for Children At-Risk

With high rates of psychological distress reported amongst children internationally, the development and evaluation of new program initiatives is critical in order to meet the challenge of this burgeoning issue. Both acceptance and commitment therapy and adventure therapy are emerging as popular strategies to elevate psychological wellbeing. This small-scale program evaluation focuses on nine upper primary school-aged children enrolled in a specialist school in Australia for children with challenging behavior and/or emotional needs. Participants completed a newly developed 8-week intervention entitled ‘ACT in the Outdoors’ which combined key principles of both acceptance and commitment therapy and adventure therapy. The program was evaluated via a combination of pre and post participant psychological measures, and post interviews with participants and teachers. The results of this small-scale preliminary evaluation suggest that a portion of the participating children reported improvements in psychological wellbeing and skill development. Improvements appear to be mitigated by attendance and level of psychological wellbeing upon program entry. Based on this premise, the results suggest that more research is warranted to further understand the potential benefit of this innovative interdisciplinary approach.

From One Songline to Another: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students’ Study Tour Journey of Indigenous Connection and Solidarity

This chapter examines the experiences of eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander preservice teachers on a study tour with a focus on Indigenous Studies to a Canadian university. Educational activities included: cultural exchange with First Nations Elders, academics, and students; introduction to Canadian Indigenous Studies; and field trips to significant cultural sites. Through semistructured interviews and photo elicitation the participants in this case study reflected upon their experiences of personal and professional development. The analysis of the students’ retrospective accounts reveals emergent themes of connection, identity, language, healing, and action. The students’ interpretations indicate the transformative potential of overseas educational experiences to inform their future teaching practices and foster connections to Indigenous identities and cultures locally and abroad. The sense of shared historical experiences made the inter-cultural connection not just one of solidarity, but also a validation of students’ own experiences of marginalization. The findings speak to the importance of these types of inter-Indigenous exchange as well as a design of outward mobility experiences that recognize the potential for solidarity and healing. The students’ experiences of connection and identity generate the sorts of reflection that are part of a broader global movement amongst Indigenous groups towards cultural renewal.

Generating and Deepening Reflection Whilst Studying Abroad: Incorporating Photo Elicitation in Transformative Travel

Most study abroad programmes conclude with debriefing activities emphasizing verbal and written reflection, with the visual image used merely as a supplementary aid. Photographs are used to promote programmes with little integration into tertiary pedagogical strategies. This chapter argues that photo elicitation can be an evocative tool within diverse experiential learning settings. Based on this premise, the visual image can trigger students’ introspection and personal growth when sojourning overseas. Photo elicitation has a twofold benefit. First, photos augment the scope of empirical research, and second, images intensify the reflective learning process. Results indicate that the visual image amplifies the transformative power of study abroad and concretizes deeper learning. Greater focus on visual literacy is recommended for future programmes as a qualitative data technique.

The Epitome of Transformation: Enhancing Outbound Mobility Experiences in the Twenty-First Century

As Australia ventures deeper into the Asian Century, the need for outward-looking, global-minded graduates has never been greater. The outbound mobility experience (OME is recognized as one of the most effective tools to facilitate personal transformation and improve cross-cultural competencies. Funded by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching, the project Enhancing Programmes to Integrate Tertiary Outbound Mobility Experiences (EPITOME), launched in 2015, conducted student-focused research into OMEs to provide a comprehensive and usable best-practice guide for tour operators and academic staff and to investigate key challenges to participation in OMEs, as well as lessons learned by experienced facilitators and OME designers. This chapter outlines EPITOME’s research programme and key findings.

Women and Girls in Outdoor Education: Scoping the Research Literature and Exploring Prospects for Future Body Image Enquiry

Abstract: Research into women’s and girls’ outdoor programs and their influence on perceived body image has gained scholarly attention in recent decades. A systematic review of research from 1980–2017 identifies key trends and themes revealing opportunities to advance understandings in the field. In particular, while there has been extensive research conducted on women’s and girls’ outdoor education programs from various perspectives, there is a shortage of robust research examining the impact of outdoor education on body image. While identifying some trends, the broad scope of the enquiry highlights the scarcity of this empirical data, and calls for heightened emphasis and scholarly debate in the area of body image and outdoor education.