EINGANA vol40 no1 april2017

EI NG A N A The Journal of Environment Education Victoria

Volume 40, No. 01 April 2017

EXECUTIVE

CO N TAC T E E V

Renae Walton, President Climate Adaptation Officer, City of Port Phillip

Level 2, 60 Leicester Street, Carlton, Victoria, Australia 3053 Phone: + 61-3-9341 8174 Office Hours Monday–Thursday 10am–4pm Email: admin@eev.vic.edu.au Website: www.eev.vic.edu.au

Josh Ambrosy, Vice President Outdoors Victoria Elizabeth Jenkins, Secretary Cornish College Dr Peta White, Treasurer Lecturer, Science, Technology and Environmental Education, Deakin University CO M M I T T E E O F M A N AG E M E N T

Environment Education Victoria (EEV) is a not-for-profit membership-driven incorporated association. EEV provides leadership and a voice for the environmental education sector within Victoria. Eingana is the journal of the Victorian Association of Environmental Education Inc., trading as Environment Education Victoria.

Subscription to Eingana is included in organisational and individual membership of EEV. The price of a single copy is $15.

Angela Andrews City of Darebin Dr Belinda Christie Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Swinburne Institute for Social Research, School of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities

EEV membership is open to individuals and organisations interested and committed to environmental and sustainability education.

Cyrelle Field Learning Programs Officer, Visitor and Community Development, Zoos Victoria

Joint membership for the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) and EEV is also available.

Andrew Gooday Independent Consultant

Volume 40, Number 1, April 2017 ISSN: 0156-7608 Commissioning Editor: Sarah Allen Editor: Margie Beilharz

David Mould Director, Second-Strike

For reasons of space and clarity, the Editors reserve the right to edit articles submitted prior to publication. The views expressed in each of the articles are those of the authors and may not necessarily be shared by EEV. Eingana is subject to copyright, however, we encourage you to use the article for educational purposes provided proper acknowledgment of the source is included.

Julie Wynne Wellbeing and Sustainability Leader, St Louis de Montfort Catholic Primary School CO R E O F F I C E S TA F F Julie Harris, Executive Officer Nicole Butler, Projects Officer Pen Lynch, ResourceSmart Coordinator Sarah Allen, Communications Officer C A S UA L S TA F F Jules White, Gifted and Talented Program Coordinator Jorja McKinnon, VCE Environmental Science Coordinator Dominique Dybala, ResourceSmart Facilitator

Acknowledgement: The Editors wish to thank all those who have contributed articles, illustrations and photographs for this issue of Eingana. We welcome contributions and advertising. Please contact EEV office if you are interested in writing for Eingana.

Front cover: Immersive marine science education with the SV Pelican 1. Photography: Michelle Quach, courtesy of Pelican Expeditions http://pelican-expeditions.squarespace. com Back cover: Searching for Weedy Seadragons at Point Lonsdale Photography: Pen Lynch Template design: 46&2: forty6and2.com Layout and design: Sarah Allen

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F R O M T H E E D I TO R S

Julie Harris and Margie Beilharz 04

Dominique Dybala

F R O M T H E CO M M I T T E E : EEV IS MUCH MORE THAN THE SUM O F I T S PA R T S

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NEWS & RESOURCES

F E AT U R E S A C H AT W I T H O U R 2 01 5 E N V I R O N M E N TA L E D U C ATO R S O F THE YEAR: JULIE WYNNE AND JA N E B U R N S

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B E S T P R AC T I C E I N M A R I N E E N V I R O N M E N TA L E D U C AT I O N – T H E C H A L L E N G E TO M A K E I T AU T H E N T I C AND IMMERSIVE

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S TO R Y T E L L I N G : T H E M O S T I M P O R TA N T S K I L L I E V E R L E A R N T AS A SCIENTIST

AU S T R A L I A N YO U T H C L I M AT E COA L I T I O N ’ S P E DAG OG Y

I T TA K E S A CO M M U N I T Y TO N U R T U R E S U CC E S S F U L F U T U R E E D U C ATO R S

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B OO K R E V I E W : T H E I N T E R D E P E N D E N T O R G A N I Z AT I O N – T H E PAT H TO A M O R E S U S TA I N A B L E ENTERPRISE BY REX DRAMAN

Sarah Houseman

Tom Reddington and Blanche Higgins 27

W H E N B A L L OO N S F L Y

Pete Lancaster

Matt MacArthur 21

C R E AT I N G T H E F U T U R E FOR HUMANITY

Julie White

Julie Harris

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P R O F E S S I O N A L L E A R N I N G A B OA R D THE SV PELICAN 1

U N D E R CO V E R L I T T E R P I C K E R

Ann Palmer

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AN EYE-OPENING EARTH AND E N V I R O N M E N TA L S C I E N C E S U M M E R S C H OO L

YiJie Neo

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F R O M T H E E D I TO R S

By Julie Harris and Margie Beilharz

Sometimes, keeping a theme very open-ended not only results in surprises but also allows a theme to emerge. This was definitely the case when we invited members to submit articles based on their current passions. The articles in this edition explore a wide range of ideas and practice all devoted to instilling environmental values and knowledge into our everyday lives through education, both in schools and the wider community. It appears that litter and healthy marine environments are very much at the forefront of environmental educators’ agendas in this first half of 2017. Given the dire threats to the Great Barrier Reef currently, following a second significant bleaching event attributed to climate change, along with the threat of Adani’s coal mine, it is perhaps not such a surprise after all.

I (Julie) report back on the EEV committee of management’s activities and achievements over the past year, and look ahead to our goals for 2017. One of the upcoming events is the announcement and celebration of the 2016 Victorian Environmental Educator of the Year Award, which is still open for nomination. I also interviewed last year’s joint winners, Julie Wynne and Jane Burns, to see what they’ve been up to in the past year, and what they have planned for 2017 and beyond.

Ann Palmer, a UK-based environmental campaigner and former teacher, has turned her simple pastime of picking up litter into a successful awareness-raising photography competition – showing the impact one person can have. Matt MacArthur is another individual spreading the wonder of science to school children, both in and outside classrooms. He is an ecologist, but rates his storytelling skills as even more important than his scientific knowledge in connecting students to the environment. This article is a great follow-up from the December 2016 issue of Eingana, which focused on communicating the environmental message.

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A learning experience that requires creativity and intellectual engagement is offered by EEV’s Creating the Future for Humanity workshops. Julie White, EEV Gifted and Talented Program Coordinator, outlines the upcoming workshops, which are open for booking. And for those wondering what students get out of workshops and conferences, Monash College student YiJie Neo reports back on the Australian Earth and Environmental Science Olympiad Summer School, which she attended with support from EEV. The Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) is another organisation that runs educational programs for school students. Tom Reddington and Blanche Higgins explain the pedagogy underlying the AYCC’s approach, which focuses on climate justice.

Zoos Victoria’s new campaign ‘When balloons fly, seabirds die’ also targets its message to school children. Pete Lancaster describes the campaign’s background and strategies, including the idea that the school children will help spread the campaign to their communities – a much broader target.

Not forgetting the key role teachers play in educating children about the environment, we have a number of articles looking at how they themselves gain their environmental knowledge. Alan Reid and Harry Breidahl discuss the importance of ocean literacy in their exploration of best practice in environmental education for pre-service teachers.

Dominique Dybala and her teaching colleagues gain an immense amount of inspiration from a professional development day learning about the marine environment out on a boat in Port Phillip Bay. And Peta White, Connie Cirkony, Jorja McKinnon and Kathryn Riley, from Deakin University’s new sustainability education team, explore some of the philosophies that undergird their ideas about sustainability education for future teachers.

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For a broader perspective on how society and organisations work, and the environmental consequences of current systems, Sarah Houseman reviews The Interdependent Organization – The Path to a More Sustainable Enterprise by Rex Draman.

We hope you enjoy and learn from these articles, and encourage you to both share these words with colleagues and engage in dialogue about what your passions in environmental and sustainability education are.

Julie Harris is the EEV Executive Officer.

Margie Beilharz is Eingana Editor.

Overlooking Urquhart Bluff. Photography: Pen Lynch

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F R O M T H E CO M M I T T E E : EEV IS MUCH MORE THAN THE SUM OF I T S PA R T S

By Julie Harris, EEV Executive Officer

It’s hard to believe that we are almost a third of the way through this year already. It has been a hectic start, with the staff focused on implementing some of the changes to membership services we’ve discussed in past issues. As previously highlighted, EEV, along with many other membership-based organisations, is constantly challenged by both members and non-members as to why I/we should belong. That question is worth investigating so that we can improve membership services, but there are also reasons for membership that go beyond the tangible benefits, such as newsletters, journals, events and discounts. Our members typically also value intangible benefits, such as being part of a collective movement, collegiality and making connections with others that both share our passions and stretch our learning.

EEV have recently invested in the development of a membership system that will make it so much easier for members to join EEV, renew their memberships, collaborate online, showcase their services, register for events and share knowledge. We have also decided to outsource our bookkeeping services following Cass’s departure at the end of 2016. (Cass was a great member of the team and we thank her for all she contributed in her time as Administrative Officer). Sarah Allen has added some of the administrative duties to her Communications Officer role.

The whole aim of streamlining some of these internal processes is so the staff, supported by the committee of management, can be more focused on implementing strategies to benefit members and diversifying our project-based work. As soon as the new system is ready to launch, we will let you know via email.

So, while we focus on tangible improvements for EEV members, some of which are outlined below, we also encourage you to reflect on the less tangible benefits, and what you bring to the organisation as well as what you get. As our new membership campaign postcard implies: Being part of a collective is much greater than trying to do it all by yourself.

In February, the committee of management and staff came together again to reflect on what we’d achieved against the goals we had set for 2016 and clarify our main focus for 2017. We also welcomed two new members (Elizabeth Jenkins and Andrew Gooday) to the committee at this gathering. We agreed:

YO U DO N’ T H AV E TO DO IT A LL A LONE

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we had achieved some of our goals

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we had established some new ways of working as a committee

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membership services was still a high priority, and while we had made some progress there was still significant work to do in 2017 in that area

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our agenda for 2016 was very ambitious for a group of dedicated volunteers and parttime staff. No matter how big or small an organisation, that is often a common theme.

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EEV members are a curious, passionate bunch of environmental educators. Photography: Pen Lynch

As well as re-visiting the goals and work plan for 2016, we identified the unique skills, knowledge and both professional and personal passions for each committee and staff member so we could better harness those qualities to achieve 2017’s goals.

We also further explored the value proposition of being an EEV member so we could marry our membership categories up with what you said you wanted in the most recent membership survey, as well as in informal feedback we receive. A specific interest group will be established to lead the development of clearer, more meaningful membership categories matched to member segments, such as VCE Environmental Science teachers.

Any potential changes to membership will be presented at this year’s AGM, which is tentatively scheduled for Friday 24 November. Our first Community of Practice event for the year, on Friday 2 June, will be the announcement and celebration of the 2016 Victorian Environmental Educator of the Year Award. Please nominate yourself or a colleague by Thursday 4 May, and put 2 June in your diary. The EEV committee of management look forward to seeing you then or at another one of our Community of Practice events throughout the year.

Julie Harris, EEV Executive Officer, on behalf of the EEV Committee of Management.

We would love broader member involvement, so if you are interested in participating in the membership interest group please contact me on 9341 8176 or eo@eev.vic.edu.au.

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A C H AT W I T H O U R 2 0 1 5 E N V I R O N M E N TA L E D U C ATO R S O F T H E Y E A R : J U L I E W Y N N E A N D JA N E B U R N S

By Julie Harris, EEV Executive Officer

The EEV Victorian Environmental Educator of the Year Award is currently open for nominations, so we felt it timely to see what last year’s winners and Excellence Award winners have been up to over the last 12 months. It is abundantly clear that all of them have continued to be exemplary ambassadors for the environmental and sustainability education sector.

We chat to Julie Wynne and Jane Burns about their particular passions over the last year, and what they see as key opportunities and challenges for the environmental/sustainability education sector from their different perspectives.

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As the Schools Excellence Award winner, Jeanette McMahon has continued to lead the wonderful sustainability team of students and teachers at Winters Flat Primary School to achieve amazing things. In 2016 they received the highest accolade in the state, namely, the overall Premier’s Sustainability Award.

Tom Reddington continued to lead the Switched on Schools Program at the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) until the end of 2016, before taking up a new role this year. Tom is now coordinating the establishment of the first workerowned cooperative enterprise in the Latrobe Valley, No. 01

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Earthworker Cooperative. The cooperative factory, based in Morwell, will manufacture premium solar hot water systems and other clean tech products, provide dignified employment, and encourage a ‘just transition’ for the region to sustainable and environmentally friendly industries. Tom has also been working as an education for collective change consultant to the Victorian Trades Hall Council, developing the World of Work program to immerse high school students in the real world of work and empower them to take action for a fairer world of work for all young people across the globe, So , if you, or someone you know, would make a great ambassador for our sector and deserve to be recognised for outstanding achievements, please nominate before 5 pm Thursday 4 May 2017.

JULIE WYNNE, ST LOUIS DE MONTFORT C AT H O L I C P R I M A R Y S C H OO L

really important. It’s important they feel safe to go exploring, so that’s what we provide in terms of our teaching and learning programs in these areas.”

As the dual sustainability/wellbeing leader, Julie feels this is particularly true for those students that don’t fit in or have special needs. “The natural learning spaces and nature-based curriculum allow them to be just them, and be safe without any judgement.”

Learnings One of the things we’ve been able to learn this year, says Julie, is the impact that the garden and outdoor learning environments are having on student wellbeing. We surveyed our Grade 2 students before and after a visit to the garden, so we now have some hard evidence that it is having a positive impact on student wellbeing. This is also backed up by the resilience data compiled by the City of Kingston.

Julie raced from a full-day workshop for leading ResourceSmart Schools to join me for a quick chat at the EEV offices before heading off to her next environmental education meeting, which just happened to be a gathering of the EEV Engagement Subcommittee. Now there’s commitment for you. It was a great opportunity to find out what she’s been up to, what her current passions are and what’s lying ahead for her in 2017.

Current Passions As we chat, it is clear that getting back to nature and linking that to student wellbeing is a key passion for Julie Wynne, a teacher at St Louis de Montfort Catholic Primary School in Aspendale.

She was really excited to gain a $50,000 grant from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries to bring wetlands into the school environment.

Working with landscape gardeners, Julie has already created something amazing: frog bogs that are a real part of the environment (not separate entities), where children can go tadpole hunting and get a bit dirty and muddy as they explore the wonders of the wetlands. The students also get to walk around the other gardens at the school in the company of turtles and geese, for example; helping to further the connection to local fauna and other animals.

Julie feels the connection to nature has been lost over the years, which is why it has become a significant priority for her. “It’s one thing to have the physical environments, such as the new wetlands area, but it is what the kids are doing in that environment and how they behave there that is

Julie Wynne with the principal of St Louis de Montfort Catholic Primary School, Mr Thomas Lindeman, at the awards presentation. Photography: Skye Ambrosy Previous page: (Left to right) Jeanette McMahon of Winters Flat Primary School (School sector Excellence), Julie Wynne of St Louis de Montfort Primary School, Jane Burns of CERES Community Environment Park (joint winners of the 2015 EEV Environmental and Sustainability Educator of the year), Tom Reddington of the AYCC (Community sector excellence). Photography: Skye Ambrosy

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other priority for Julie in the years ahead is to see a more positive and equitable approach to recognising the efforts of all schools doing things well. “It can be disheartening for schools to feel like they have missed out again on awards, funding and other forms of recognition for their efforts, so finding a way to value them all would be a great thing to achieve.”

Looking Ahead Looking ahead, Julie is busy with multiple projects, including co-coordinating the Steps to Sustainability Conference. In partnership with Port Phillip EcoCentre, she is developing a school-based STEM project to encourage local birdlife into the newly constructed wetlands. She is also designing and planning for Stage 3 of St Louis’s sustainability precinct, which will add to the nature play offerings with a ropes course as well as a new building that will incorporate sustainable landscape design from the start (rather than being added on at the end if there are a few dollars left in the budget).

As Julie works in a Catholic Primary School, she sees the papal encyclical Laudato Si’ as a great opportunity to address sustainability. Stewardship of the Earth has always been an important part of the Catholic identity, but having the Pope’s imprimatur takes it to another level. Julie sees support for sustainability in schools as a high priority, particularly as it seems to have dropped off the agenda in recent times in a more general context in the Australian and global consciousness. The

The challenges include: competing priorities in the Victorian Curriculum (a long-standing issue for all teachers), implementation of the new Victorian Curriculum F–10 (though in terms of how sustainability fits, having it embedded in Learning Areas has the potential to strengthen it as a crosscurriculum priority) and re-igniting the ‘buzz’ around sustainability.

I have to say that, after this short conversation with Julie Wynne, I came away feeling confident that with Julie’s energy and commitment, along with other education for sustainability leaders of days past and days to come, our sector is in good hands, and collectively we will be able to re-ignite the buzz around sustainability and environmental education.

Children in the vegetable garden and wetland at St Louis de Montfort Catholic Primary School. Photography: St Louis de Montfort Catholic Primary School

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Jane Burns with the CERES team at the awards presentation. Photography: Skye Ambrosy

JA N E B U R N S , C E R E S CO M M U N I T Y E N V I R O N M E N T PA R K

Over a cool drink on a very warm, sunny Thursday afternoon, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jane and find out what she’d been up to over the last 12 months. What shone through during our chat were Jane’s positive ‘can do’ attitude and her sense of hope for what sustainability educators can achieve when working together.

Within her own organisation (CERES Community Environment Park), Jane and her team influence and empower over 350 schools and early learning centres in the north, south and east of metropolitan Melbourne to be more sustainable. She feels the momentum is building across the state, and is very passionate for that reach to expand even further in the years ahead.

Another one of Jane’s key passions is how energy is used within Victoria’s schools. She has been working on influencing the Victorian Government wherever possible, as well as on the ground with schools, to both expand renewable energy in schools and reinstate the capacity for schools to buy a percentage of GreenPower as part of their energy contracts.

“GreenPower used to be a key feature of the wholeof-government contracts that government schools are bound to use, and many schools took up this option as a way to offset their energy use and reduce carbon emissions in the state.

“By 2012–13, electricity purchased as GreenPower had declined to 6% from 24% in 2009–10, a reduction of 75% over that period. Sadly, this decline followed the removal of a requirement that government agencies purchase GreenPower. For the next round of energy provision contracts, I want to see this return, and for schools to be required to buy a minimum amount of certified GreenPower rather than the current ‘cap’ on purchasing GreenPower. A purchase of 10–25% GreenPower will cost schools as little as 80 cents to $1 a week.”

Jane has also been working alongside a number of other organisations (including EEV, the AYCC, Moreland Energy Foundation Limited, Yarra Energy Foundation and Bank Australia as part of the Re-Power our Schools Alliance) to advocate for increased support for renewable energy in schools, which is in line with recently released Victorian Government targets of 40% renewables by 2025.

And a recent campaign Jane and the team are undertaking encourages schools to stop buying the usual heavy black plastic rubbish bags and to replace them with a bio-compostable option. You can check this out on CERES’ social media; it’s something all schools should be encouraged to take up to reduce the amount of plastic in our waste stream.

Another new project, being developed in collaboration with a partner organisation, will provide a crowdfunding platform to empower

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schools to raise funds for local sustainability initiatives. Jane sees this as a win–win for schools and government because the wider school community will be empowered to raise funds for projects they would like to implement, rather than waiting for funding opportunities.

The other exciting opportunity for Jane in 2016 was the chance to work with her colleagues to influence eight brand-new public private partnership (PPP) schools on their sustainability journey right from the word go.

“The difference has been that the facility’s management and teaching and learning programs are like an interconnected circle right from the get-go.

It’s been exciting to work with schools to establish sustainable behaviours as opposed to changing them.

There is also the potential to positively influence new communities. Given that the schools and communities are developing at the same time, they may be more receptive.”

Jane Burns judging the Kitchen Garden Cook-off at Silvan Primary School. Photography: Luda Prokopiwskyi

Looking Ahead As you would expect, Jane is also optimistic about the future. She sees the challenge for our sector being to support teachers to overlay a lens of sustainability in all that they do, such as the questions they ask, the materials they use in the classroom and the skills that they foster in young people; and that this will encourage their students to apply a sustainability focus to whatever career they embark on. This challenge applies at all levels of schooling, including tertiary, and also at the community level.

Outside her day job, Jane is also a visual artist.

This year she is exploring ideas on how the migratory patterns of birds are changing. The aim of this project is to draw the link between human environmental changes and their effects on migratory bird species, such as the Orange-bellied Parrot, whose migratory route is across Bass Strait.

The ability of migratory birds to navigate may be disrupted by our communications technology, radio waves and electromagnetic field fields, and the Orange-bellied Parrot’s survival may be affected by the illuminated ships on the straits. Like most sustainability educators, Jane’s day job spills over into everyday life, and it is going to be a big year ahead linking her work and art.

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We chatted about many things to do with sustainability education that afternoon, as colleagues do. While there are too many topics to include here, it is fitting that our conversation ended with Jane’s words, which are imbued with a hopeful tone, of course.

“There are a lot of people who say ‘what I do won’t make a difference’, but there are many organisations working together; and by working individually and together we can make a difference. It’s really pleasing to see that Victorian Government departments and agencies are required to do their bit to take action on climate change, as part of the TAKE-2 Pledge Program, and to demonstrate leadership through the government’s climate change adaptation plans.

So, with community groundswell, government leadership and business engagement alongside, we are making a difference!”

F U R T H E R I N F O R M AT I O N

Jane Burns jane.burns@ceres.org.au sustainability.ceres.org.au Julie Wynn jwynne@stlouisaspendale.com www.stlouisaspendale.com Enter the EEV Environmental Educator of the Year Award 2016 www.eev.vic.edu.au/about-eev/eevaward-entry-form

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B E S T P R AC T I C E I N M A R I N E E N V I R O N M E N TA L E D U C AT I O N – T H E C H A L L E N G E TO M A K E I T AU T H E N T I C A N D I M M E R S I V E What can we learn from local to international attempts to develop and provide best practice in marine environmental education programs? Alan Reid and Harry Breidahl reflect on some of their experiences with pre-service teachers at Monash University from the last 25 years, highlighting the importance of ocean literacy, and the value of authentic and immersive teaching and learning.

‘NO CHILD LEFT ON SHORE’

Environmental educators have responded to education policy slogans such as ‘No Child Left Behind’ with their own pithy versions, including ‘No Child Left Indoors’ to advocate for outdoor education, and ‘Last Child in the Woods’ to warn of the perils of so-called nature deficit disorder. In this article, we suggest that having ‘No Child Left on Shore’ is one of the keys to understanding best practice in marine environmental education. While it readily aligns with the aforementioned slogans, it also pushes us to consider the deeper challenges of providing best practice in environmental and

sustainability education more broadly; namely, by connecting students with local, real world issues, and by providing an engaging context for learning projects and outcome-based requirements in schools.

The Global Environmental Education Partnership (thegeep.org) aims to bring together strategic thinking and initiatives about best practice from environmental educators around the world (see the case studies on its website). It argues that best practice in environmental education advances “environmental literacy to create a more just and sustainable future through the power of education”.

We would argue that any environmental literacy

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worth its salt must include ocean literacy, and in approaching this in an integrated way, it may also advance scientific literacy (see Lambert, 2006; Strang et al., 2007). As Plankis and Marrero (2010, p.42) have argued: “If the ocean and its vast biodiversity are to be protected and global environmental problems are to be solved, it will be important for educators to find local connections, determine students’ understanding of the problems, and examine how to make ocean literacy and global environmental problems relevant.”

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Wider considerations for best practice include the European Union’s (2103) Galway Statement, that recognises “the importance of the ocean to our citizens, prosperity, human health and well-being, adaptation to climate and other environmental change, and security”. They also include UNESCO’s (2012) familiar standpoint for linking education and sustainability during the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, and in their Global Action Programme following it. These argue that a prosperous society depends on a healthy environment to provide food and resources, safe drinking water, and clean air for its citizens.

Yet as primarily land-based, urbanised creatures, it is easy to overlook the importance of healthy marine and coastal environments to sustainability, including during school-based education. For some, it is primarily a cognitive jolt to accept there is ‘Only One Ocean’ rather than ‘Only One Earth’. Yet the stakes are actually much higher if we consider the overwhelming bias of curriculum and pedagogy in Victoria, including in outdoor and environmental studies (for a landmark study in the field, from the Surf Coast, see Gough & Robottom, 1993). To wit, if there is ‘only one ocean’, why is so much of the work of educators, educationalists and education policymakers orientated towards what amounts to sidestepping this theme in curriculum and pedagogy, be that indoors or out-of-doors? Are we actually wrestling with a cognitive dissonance here, that some would suggest amounts to denial – particularly when we hear that iconic marine environments such as the Great Barrier Reef have recently been pronounced in mortal danger, and thus merit an obituary rather than a tourist brochure (Slezak, 2016)?

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If employability is an agreed goal for graduates of education systems, perhaps there’s another slogan to heed in reorienting education, ‘No jobs on a dead planet!’. The fact that we are deadening the oceans hasn’t gone unnoticed by marine and environmental educators, and that is why campaigns to develop ‘ocean literacy’ have been undertaken around the world, including through pre-service teacher education. At its core, ocean literacy (Figure 1) expects people to have the opportunity to develop a better understanding of the ocean’s role in the full range of societal challenges (health, bioeconomy, energy, transport and climate), coupled with full access to the best available science and knowledge on these topics, in order to act as responsible stewards of the ocean, and make informed decisions.

Figure 1: Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts of Ocean Literacy (Ocean Literacy Network, 2008)

Previous page: Immersive marine science education during Two Bays 2014. https://pelican-expeditions.squarespace. com/two-bays-2014/ Photography: Natalie Davey,

courtesy of Pelican Expeditions.

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Fieldwork: exploring saltmarsh and mangrove communities on the shores of Western Port. Photography: Harry Breidahl

In the remainder of this article, we explore how we have sought to respond to these initial considerations by developing best practice in contemporary marine environmental education at Monash University. We work with pre-service teachers to promote a range of qualities that foster authentic experiences during teaching and learning about marine and coastal environments (see Dennison & Oliver, 2013). To illustrate these qualities, we briefly sketch out key features of a case study of a long-standing marine science education program in Victoria (for further detail, see Reid & Breidahl, 2017).

The full case study shows that best practice marine environmental education must:

The key elements of the unit design are:

The case study also highlights the importance of the key design features of the program, including how and why it was redesigned to support the development of the aforementioned qualities. As some of the pre-service teachers commented:

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providing pre-service teachers with direct experience of local coastal and marine habitats, and linking the unit to wider considerations of sense of place and place attachment, in the students’ degree program while also meeting teaching standards requirements in Victoria providing pre-service teachers with direct curriculum experience, including curriculum-making and critique. This focuses on developing relevant and easily accessible curriculum material, initially grounded in the wealth of curriculum material in Coastal and Marine Studies: a Workshop Manual for Teachers. It also involves collaboratively developing units of work to be shared with teachers and other pre-service teachers during a Marine Environment Fair, using the seven Ocean Literacy Principles as an organising framework for key concepts and activities.

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engage the interest of teachers and learners

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involve us in some way that can lead to some ‘surpassing’ (e.g. of ignorance or misunderstanding about environmental systems)

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allow us to affirm and exercise imagination

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offer opportunities for interaction (e.g. with the experience, others and/or our surroundings).

“I loved the field trip to Balnarring Beach. I learnt so much doing my first assignment. The habitat report is a perfect way for students to familiarise themselves with their local marine environment.”

“This unit has been one of the best I have done so far in my course. I believe this was due to the way it combined both pedagogy and content. This unit had a perfect balance of both.”

We now illustrate two of these key qualities for environmental and sustainability education in Victoria in more detail – those of, involving and interacting – before rounding out the article with a summary of our reflections on fostering best practice in marine environmental education.

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The main risks to the future … are from the impacts of climate change—mainly increased temperature, ocean acidification and sea level changes. The interaction of these with the legacy effects of past poor management practices, and with the existing pressures of fishing, catchment-derived pollutants, and coastal urban, industry and port development, pose a major threat to the values of marine ecosystems as we currently know them. …

I N V O L V I N G : A S P E C I A L P L AC E I N AU S T R A L I A N C U L T U R E

Unsurprisingly, pre-service teachers at Monash University in suburban Victoria primarily end up teaching in suburban Victoria. But not all pre-service teachers recognise that urbanisation puts immense pressure on Victoria’s marine and coastal regions and systems. The risk here is that they remain ‘illiterate’ about this, and thus unaware and unskilled in how to address this local challenge in curriculum and pedagogy (see Markos et al., 2017 for how to assess a teacher’s ‘ocean literacy’). Equally, as pre-service teacher educators, to our minds it would be a dereliction of duty for newly qualified teachers to enter the local, highly urbanised schooling system if we didn’t address this too, showing that they – and we – have a role to play in fostering ocean literacy (Schoedinger et al., 2006).

The causes and effects of urbanisation on coastal and marine environments were powerfully summarised in an independent report, Australia State of the Environment, to the Australian Government Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.

The most recently available report, from 2011, notes the following challenges and threats to environmental quality in Victoria’s coastal region: “Our coastal lands and waters, beaches, bays and inlets hold a special place in Australian culture—for many, the coast is a defining attribute of what it is to be an Australian.

Australia’s vast ocean territory offers the opportunity to generate wealth, as well as the concomitant responsibility for conservation, management and sustainable use of the environment and living resources. …

Urbanisation has been identified as a major pressure on biodiversity, water resources, cultural and natural heritage, marine environments and atmosphere in other chapters of this report. Growing coastal populations require houses, wastewater treatment, roads and other facilities. … the impacts of urbanisation are not just direct (e.g. removal or modification of ecosystems) but also indirect (e.g. the consumption of natural resources as an indirect result of consumption of goods by people living in urban areas). …

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Our ocean and coastal ecosystems are used by everybody but are the primary responsibility of nobody. They are consequently suffering from ‘death by a thousand cuts’.”

One way of exploring the challenges of urbanisation in teacher education is a conventional approach: involve pre-service teachers in understanding the issues, for example, through an inquiry. To illustrate, UNESCO’s Multiple-Perspective Tool is designed to encourage the development of multiple perspectives on water during Education for Sustainable Development (UNESCO, 2012). While the tool was primarily intended for understanding freshwater situations, it can be equally applied to saltwater settings. The tool, like many similar approaches, focuses attention on developing highquality, multidimensional content expertise and coverage. It is expected to provide a pathway to: •

learning about sustainability issues from multiple bodies of knowledge

•

identifying and understanding personal and others’ perspectives

•

applying decision-making processes to complex issues that affect personal, community, and global wellbeing.

The tool, then, emphasises developing environmental literacies through a multipleperspective approach. For pre-service teachers embarking on their careers, the goal is to engender holistic thinking about complex systems by conveying the dynamic parts-to-whole relationship.

While by using “unique, but overlapping, perspectives on the relationships within natural systems and between natural systems and human society”, it should also encourage a sense of place, local action and understanding the perspectives of others, so that “students can better know themselves”. (UNESCO, 2012 p.5)

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Diving into the darkness under classroom tables to experience deep-sea bioluminescence. Photography: Harry Breidahl I N T E R AC T I N G : F R O M ‘ F I E L D T R I P S ’ TO ‘FEEL TRIPS’

However, we don’t want to suggest that developing understandings of the principles of ocean literacy and using multiple perspectives to develop curriculum materials are sufficient. Rather, we note that Golubchikov (2015) argues that taking a class “feel-trip” outside the classroom may afford better emotional engagement and reflection upon critical concepts, through more visceral and culturally responsive forms of learning (see also Whitehouse et al. (2014) on sea country). Ensuring a field trip program fully addresses emotional, conative and cognitive aspects rather than separating out its constituent parts is the key point here. It also serves to highlight the value of an engaging, experiential environmental education, particularly that which is immersive and authentic (Dennison & Oliver, 2013), rather than, say, largely ‘fact-focused’ (see Yamashita, 2015).

S U M M A R Y : TO WA R D S AU T H E N T I C A N D I M M E R S I V E E D U C AT I O N

Marine environmental education has been taught at Monash for 25 years. Distilling some of the key points about best practice from the fuller case study (Reid & Breidahl, 2017), we note the following.

The first key element to the design of our marine environmental education has been to ensure it promotes both direct and carefully interpreted high-quality experiences within our local coastal and marine habitats, alongside in-depth and critical consideration of the factors affecting the characteristics of these environments. This is primarily achieved through actively engaging students in immersive forms of education in relation to marine and coastal settings, and curriculum-making.

A second and supporting element has been to have the unit based in local schools on the Mornington Peninsula, rather than only at the university (as are the vast majority of pre-service curriculum-focused units beyond the practicum aspects). Consequently, pre-service teachers work on curriculum with school students in collaboration with ‘expert others’, such as school-based teachers, mentors and lecturers.

A third element has been linking the unit to wider considerations of place-sensitive pedagogies in the pre-service teachers’ program.

Thus, bringing these elements together, the unit helps exemplify the best of recent thinking and research about teaching standards and marineand coastal-related challenges in Australia and internationally, for example, in relation to engaging environmental science education priorities, pedagogical innovations associated with education for sustainability, and indigenous perspectives.

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Gough, A. G. & Robottom, I. (1993). Towards a socially critical environmental education: water quality studies in a coastal school, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 25(4), 301–316.

AC K N O W L E DG E M E N T S In the spirit of reconciliation, we recognise that Monash University is situated on country for which the Kulin nations have been custodians for many centuries, and on which they have performed age-old ceremonies of celebration, initiation and renewal. We acknowledge their living culture and unique role in the life of the region, including the bay areas, and offer our deep appreciation for their contribution to and support of our academic enterprise.

Lambert, J. (2006). High school marine science and scientific literacy: The promise of an integrated science course. International Journal of Science Education, 28(6), 633–654.

F U R T H E R I N F O R M AT I O N Alan Reid is probably not the one you first thought of. This one works at Monash University in the Faculty of Education, and edits the international research journal, Environmental Education Research. He recently edited (with Justin Dillon) a reference collection called Environmental Education (in the Routledge series Critical Concepts in the Environment).

Alan contributes to the Global Environmental Education Partnership to promote and support the field internationally.

Find out more about his work via social media and the pages or tags for eerjournal.

Markos, A., Boubonari, T., Mogias, A. & Kevrekidis, T. (2017). Measuring ocean literacy in pre-service teachers: psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Survey of Ocean Literacy and Experience (SOLE). Environmental Education Research, 23(2), 231–251.

Ocean Literacy Network. (2008). Ocean Literacy: Essential principles and fundamental concepts. http://oceanliteracy.wp2.coexploration.org Plankis, B. J. & Marrero, M. E. (2010). Recent Ocean Literacy Research in United States Public Schools: Results and Implications. International Electronic Journal of Environmental Education, 1(1), 21–51.

Reid, A. & Breidahl, H. (2017). Going with/against the flow: the challenges of an authentic marine science education. In: G. Fauville (ed.) Exemplary Practices in Marine Science Education: A Resource for Practitioners and Researchers. Springer, in press.

alan.reid@monash.edu, +61 3 9904 4170 Harry Breidahl is the director of Nautilus Educational, and a published author of children’s books and popular guides to Australia’s marine and coastal environments, including Australia’s Southern Shores. He has worked as an environmental interpreter and with pre-service teachers at Monash University since the 1970s, as well as with the Gould League of Victoria and the Marine Education Society of Australasia. He is an active supporter of Seaweek, a major national public awareness campaign and celebration of the sea. Find out more via the AAEE – ME (Marine Education Special Interest Group) on Facebook.

Schoedinger, S., Cava, F. & Jewell, B. (2006). The need for ocean literacy in the classroom. The Science Teacher, 73(6), 44–47.

Slezak, M. (2016). The Great Barrier Reef: a catastrophe laid bare. The Guardian, 7 June. Available at: https://www. theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/07/the-greatbarrier-reef-a-catastrophe-laid-bare

nautilus.ed@me.com, +61 3 9787 6762

Strang, C., DeCharon, A. & Schoedinger, S. (2007).

Can you be science literate without being ocean literate?

Current: The Journal of Marine Education, 23(1), 7–9.

REFERENCES Dennison, W. & Oliver, P. (2013). Studying nature in situ: immersive education for better integrated water management. Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education, 150, 26–33.

European Union (2013). Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation to launch a Transatlantic Ocean Research Alliance. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/ pdf/galway_statement_atlantic_ocean_cooperation.pdf Golubchikov, O. (2015). Negotiating critical geographies through a “feel-trip”: Experiential, affective and critical learning in engaged fieldwork. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 39(1), 143–157.

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State of the Environment 2011 Committee. Australia State of the Environment 2011. Independent report to the Australian Government Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.

Canberra: DSEWPaC. UNESCO. (2012). Learning about water: Multiple perspectives approaches. Education for Sustainable Development in Action: Learning and Training Tools no.

5. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco. org/images/0021/002154/215432e.pdf

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Whitehouse, H., Watkin Lui, F., Sellwood, J., Barrett, M. J. & Chigeza, P. (2014). Sea Country: navigating Indigenous and colonial ontologies in Australian environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 20(1), 56–69.

Yamashita, H. (2015). The problems with a ‘fact’focused approach in environmental communication: the case of environmental risk information about tidal flat developments in Japan. Environmental Education Research, 21(4), 586–611.

FURTHER READING Payne, D. L., & Zimmerman, T. D. (2010). Beyond Terra firma: Bringing Ocean and Aquatic Sciences to Environmental and Science Teacher Education. In A. M. Bodzin, B. Shiner Klein, & S. Weaver (Eds), The Inclusion of Environmental Education in Science Teacher Education (pp. 81–94). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

Schoedinger, S., Tran, L. U. & Whitley, L. (2010). From the Principles to the Scope and Sequence: A brief history of the ocean literacy campaign. Current: The Journal of Marine Education, Special Report #3, 3–7.

Walker, S. H., Coble, P. & Larkin, F. L. (2000). Ocean sciences education for the 21st century. Oceanography, 13(2), 32–39.

RESOURCES Fien J., & Ferreira, J. (1997). Coastal and Marine Studies: A Workshop Manual for Teachers. http://www.mesa.edu. au/cams/default.asp.

Alexander, L., Desonie, D., Kelchner, C., Lambert, J., Leaney, L., Menzel, T., et al. (2010). Life on an Ocean Planet (2nd ed.). Rancho Margarta, CA: Current Publishing.

Breidahl, H. J. (1997). Australia’s Southern Shores. Lothian Books, Melbourne.

Breidahl, H. J. (1988). Coastal Wildlife. Gould League of Victoria, Melbourne.

Porter, C. M., Wescott, G. P. & Quinn, G. P. (2010). Life on the Rocky Shores of south-eastern Australia. Victorian National Parks Association, Victoria.

Top: Are you Ocean Literate? Harry Breidahl teaching the basic Ocean Literacy principles to Grade 6 Primary School students from Melbourne's West. Middle: Grade 4 students getting a lesson in marine biology with Harry Breidahl and a pipefish. Bottom: Hands on learning on SV Pelican 1's trampoline. Photography: Natalie Davey, courtesy of Pelican Expeditions.

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S TO R Y T E L L I N G : T H E M O S T I M P O R TA N T S K I L L I EVER LEARNT AS A SCIENTIST Matt McArthur uses both his science background and his storytelling skills to bring the wonder of science into the lives of schoolchildren around Victoria.

Because we communicate so often and so effectively using stories, it’s easy to forget that storytelling is a skill. Narratives run through our cultural history more so than data and the conclusions we draw from it, but scientists often place information and analysis above stories when explaining their findings. Given the work that goes into training in a scientific field, and in generating and analysing data sets, this is understandable. But it’s still problematic that so many scientists treat storytelling as an auxiliary skill, if they consider it a skill at all.

Given the environmental challenges we face, it’s more important than ever that we have effective Volume 40

communication between the people identifying the problems we face and their possible solutions and the people who can bring about the necessary changes. Scientists need to communicate their work effectively with the public, particularly the young people who will inherit any challenges our own generation fails to address effectively.

If you look for them, you find stories in every aspect of human existence. Our internal monologue, the news and even the briefest interactions with other people contain elements of narrative, or even entire stories comprising beginning, middle, end and moral lesson. Cave paintings reveal that

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humanity has been telling itself stories since before we developed language. This is powerful, heady stuff, so it’s surprising that, when I tell my friends that I attend storytelling events as a regular night out, they ask me how late my children are allowed to stay up, thinking that I must refer to someone reading children’s books at the local library.

As with any skill, a person can hone their storytelling ability by understanding how stories work and by practising. Encouragement from professional storyteller Jackie Kerin saw me attending a monthly storytelling circle in my area. People ranging in age from 10 to 70, and ranging in background from factory worker to lawyer, turned up in the town scout hall. Someone lit a fire and people began to share stories. Personal experiences, folk tales and shaggy dog stories poured out. When invited to take my turn by the hearth, I spoke about a single moment in time under the Antarctic sea ice that haunts me, and which I’m told now haunts some of those who heard me speak. I went home drunk on vicarious experience, steeped in folklore from far flung lands and determined to learn more about sharing my knowledge and experiences with others through stories.

Since that first outing, I’ve attended every event I can, learning something from each performer and from each telling. Watching someone practise a tale over several events, perhaps girding themselves for a festival show or preparing for a performance of particular importance to them, showed me new perspectives on how to mould a tale to its optimal shape, conveying the most information and gaining the greatest impact reliably and for the least effort.

This bled over into my working life.

When I started my career in marine ecology, I hated public speaking but recognised that conferences and interviews offered scope to communicate my research effectively. I set myself to task, learning how to present my work to an audience. I watched my colleagues’ presentations with a critical eye and applied trial and error in my own to work out from first principles that which Toastmasters might have taught me far faster. I’m confident I became competent in the end. Well, my hands stopped shaking, anyway. With the bare bones of public speaking competence in hand, I began applying new insights drawn from storytelling to my presentations.

I found myself not only engaging my audience more thoroughly than before but enjoying myself – something I couldn’t have imagined when I started on this journey.

Top and left: A puppet can entertain, but without a story to tell a puppeteer is just a show-off with their hand up a pretend animal’s bum. Photography: Neil Bruce Middle: Exercises in measurement and experiment are meaningless unless they are firmly tied to the real world in some way. Stories bridge that gap with ease.

Photography: Matt McArthur Bottom: Storytelling is not widely recognised as the focus of a good night out but The Moth and Laborastory events sell out month after month and generate an atmosphere akin to a live music or comedy performance. Photography: Alfie Photography

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Science, while it uses facts as a footing and data as a tool, is about stories. Stories aren’t the reason we apply scientific thinking or methods but they are how we fit the information we start and end any scientific investigation with into the wider human narrative. I can bring any number of facts or artefacts into a classroom and draw my audience in with the wonder these can generate. But, unless there is a narrative underlying it, the wonder is just a short-lived buzz. Similarly, if I tell students anecdotes about my experiences working at sea or underwater without a message tied to the goals of the lesson, I’m spinning my wheels with short-lived wonder.

F U R T H E R I N F O R M AT I O N Matt McArthur has spent the past 20 years working on and under the sea in Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica.

He now runs a science incursions business servicing primary and secondary schools throughout Victoria. Drawing on his experiences as an ecologist, lecturer, musician and puppeteer, Matt develops off-the-shelf and bespoke lessons to highlight and supplement curriculum material about environmental processes and challenges, always with an eye for demonstrating how to use scientific thinking and methods in everyday situations.

My efforts in research and education coincide to provide the greatest benefit to students and my highest level of satisfaction when stories about my experiences, or the organisms and systems under discussion, capture the attention of my audience, fill them with wonder and leave a lasting message. The longer I work at it, the more often I experience that confluence. Taking students to the seashore is, while fraught with physical challenges, an easy way to fill them with the lore of marine life and to illustrate the connectedness of natural systems. It’s another thing to bring those concepts into a classroom and I doubt I would get any traction trying to convey those ideas using a projector and my shell collection if storytelling was not the foremost tool in my teaching skills box.

Matt podcasts about Antarctic history in his Ice Coffee series, and publishes articles on marine ecology, diving, aviation and critical thinking. He is performing in the finals of The Moth competitive storytelling event in 2017 and will be presenting as part of a Story-Telling Australia Victoria showcase in the 2017 Willy Lit Fest.

divermatt.com.au

Teachers are among the best storytellers in our community. They spend their days telling and listening to an almost endless stream of narrative, but I highly recommend attending storytelling events in your area. Beside the wealth of experience and perspective they offer, I find there is always something new to learn from people who make storytelling an end and not just the means to an end.

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AU S T R A L I A N YO U T H C L I M AT E COA L I T I O N ’ S P E DAG OG Y Tom Reddington and Blanche Higgins look at how the AYCC engages school students in campaigning for action on climate change.

A B O U T AYCC A N D S W I TC H E D O N S C H OO L S

Young people have the most to lose from global warming, but we also have a lot to gain. Climate change is our best opportunity to create a world that works for everyone, not just a few. We can power our lives with the wind and sun, and ensure access to clean energy and job opportunities for all.

AYCC believes that the only way to solve the climate crisis is through a social movement – a groundswell of support and momentum that is powerful enough to inspire the change we need and hold decision-makers to account. Our mission is,

therefore, to build a movement of young people leading solutions to the climate crisis. We have been fairly successful: the AYCC now has over 110,000 members, 100 local groups and more than 500 regular volunteers, making us the biggest youth-run organisation in Australia.

AYCC has run a range of highly successful and widely acclaimed campaigns, including: getting the commitment of Australian banks to not finance the Carmichael mine (which, if developed, would be the biggest coal mine in the Southern Hemisphere and would cause significant destruction of the Great Barrier Reef ); building community support for

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transitioning South Australia’s Port Augusta coal-fired power plants to solar; and, empowering thousands of students to run campaigns to make their schools more sustainable.

•

We give young people the practical tools needed to make change, and opportunities to practise using them. For example, we teach young people skills in community organising and social entrepreneurialism. These include practical skills such as how to build a team, run a meeting, have a campaign conversation, run call outs, manage projects, strategically engage decision-makers and use their personal story to inspire others to act.

Each year, AYCC’s high school program, Switched on Schools, engages over 18,000 high school students nationally through partnerships with high schools, local government and education for sustainability providers. In 2016, Switched on Schools was awarded the Victorian Premier’s Sustainability Award Community category.

The theoretical basis for our approach draws from a combination of:

AYCC P E DAG OG Y

•

critical pedagogy (Giroux, 2011; Freire, 1970)

•

environmental and/or place-based education (Gruenewald, 2003; Kahn, 2010)

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building on decades of activist and community organisers’ insights and strategies.

Climate change education often focuses on climate change as a scientific issue. But there is plenty of research showing us that understanding climate science doesn’t necessarily lead to people being concerned about climate change. Research also tells us that being concerned about climate change doesn’t necessarily lead to people taking action (Moser & Dilling, 2007; Hulme, 2009; Kavanagh et al., 2012; McKeown & Hopkins, 2010; Fernandez et al., 2014; Wibeck, 2014). Further, when discussing climate change action, climate change education often focuses on the behaviours individuals can change to reduce their ecological or carbon footprint, for example, by riding bikes, turning off lights, recycling and buying environmentally friendly products (Kagawa & Selby, 2010; Cordero et al., 2008).

Yet, even if we did convince everyone to do these things, it still wouldn’t be enough to reduce our carbon emissions sufficiently to keep emissions in line with the United Nations’ Paris climate agreement.

That is, while these approaches are all commendable and important, AYCC doesn’t think they are enough.

We believe we need a social movement that generates systemic, collective change for climate justice.

KEY PRINCIPLES

AYCC’s pedagogy differs in three key ways from this common ‘individual change’ approach: •

We focus on climate justice, understanding climate change as an economic, social, cultural, political, and personal issue, as well as a scientific and environmental issue.

•

We conceptualise young people as change-makers, not just individuals or consumers. We therefore focus on fostering collective action as part of a broader social movement. This can be applied in a classroom, across the school, in the community and beyond!

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To ensure that young people have the tools to create collective change and contribute to a social movement for climate justice, we make sure young people have: •

a support network composed of peers, to enable them to take collective action

•

practical, real world skills, to help build and organise their community

•

a successful first change-making experience, to create motivation and hope.

S W I TC H E D O N S C H OO L S

The Switched on Schools program’s successful approach includes in-school Climate Justice Workshops, two-day transformational summits, a Student Climate Action Network (SCAN) that mentors students through their journey, and an online platform packed with resources for students to run empowering campaigns. How these elements work together to form an holistic program is described below.

Previous page: Over 300 students gather at Victorian Parliament House calling on governments to repower their schools with 100% renewable energy, August 2016. Next page, top: AYCC Switched on Schools Summit, Boroondara, 2017. Centre row: Students in a "climate photo both" share a message about climate action on social media. Bottom: AYCC Switched on Schools Summit, Western Australia, 2016.

Photography: Courtesy of AYCC

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Workshops Trained AYCC facilitators deliver 40–80 minute workshops on climate justice and solutions, highlighting the role of young people in leading change. The workshops use high-energy videos, animations and experiential activities. Students are linked to the online platform and are encouraged to participate in campaigns to develop hands-on experiences for ongoing learning.

The key strategies and principles of developing practical skills for community organising, focusing on climate justice, developing peer-support networks, and having positive change-making experiences are embedded in these formal programs as well as in the way AYCC runs its general organisation.

“I have always cared about the natural environment, but I found the idea of taking action overwhelming, as I believed it was difficult to get other students in my school involved. These barriers fell away when, in Term 2 this year, with a group of students from my school, I attended the Switched on Schools regional summit in Wollongong run by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC). At the summit we met lots of passionate high school students from across the Illawarra region, as well as inspiring young volunteers. We discovered that, even though our ability to impact the world as young individuals can seem small, we are powerful as a group and our voices can be heard when we get together.”

Summits Summits are two-day excursions for over 100 students from a range of different high schools.

The students hear from speakers on the front line of climate change, as well as from a range of young people actively making changes in their communities. Throughout the summit, students explore climate change in terms of systems, futures and worldviews. Facilitators help students develop the skills needed to create change, such as managing groups and communicating climate change. Experiential actions, such as a ‘model United Nations’, immerse students in the challenges and opportunities of climate justice.

SCAN

Student: Taylor, Year 11, St John the Evangelist High School, Nowra, New South Wales

All workshop and summit attendees are connected to the Student Climate Action Network. Made up of high school leaders from across a region, SCAN provides a horizontal platform for passionate students to develop their campaigns, collaborate and troubleshoot challenges. Regional groups meet monthly in person and communicate online between meetings. AYCC volunteers also provide ongoing mentoring with face-to-face meetings, phone calls and emails.

“The Brighton Solar Schools project culminated in a feasibility study, which gives us a plan to gradually build up Brighton’s rooftop solar to 90–100% of the school’s energy needs. This would involve multiple builds over the coming years. I am really proud that I was able to take an idea and work on it with many brilliant people until it became a reality. Repowering my school made me the person I am and has been one of the most satisfying journeys of my life. My vision is now for students across Australia to build on my experience and create the world’s first renewables-powered education system. We have the technology, we have the expertise and we have the money. All we need is more students willing to think big and have a go!”

Web Hub The Switched on School’s website (www. switchedonschools.org.au) gives students the opportunity to participate in national campaigns and become part of a community working together to make a difference on the issue of climate change. Campaign challenges give students the opportunity to use their creativity to reach out to their school community and build strong outwardfacing sustainability groups. The online platform provides students with the opportunity to connect with other students across Australia who are taking action. Students can also access a range of resources and start their own campaigns

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Student: Matthew, Year 12, Brighton Secondary College, South Australia

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•

GET INVOLVED

The Switched on Schools program and AYCC’s thousands of volunteers are here to help!

The program is free and we are more than happy to collaborate so that it works best for each school. To become involved: •

register for a transformational summit

•

book an in-school climate justice workshop

•

sign up for the teacher newsletter

•

contact the National Schools Program Manager, Laura Sykes, at laura.sykes@aycc.org.au.

How to Embed Switched on Schools into Curriculum/Teaching and Learning Programs Teachers are pivotal to empowering students to lead collective change for climate justice. With the recent release of the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Learning for Sustainability mapping tool, it is much easier to see where Switched on Schools and/ or other involvement with AYCC fits into a variety of Learning Areas, not just for climate change education.

In the Curriculum We encourage you to use climate justice across the curriculum, and to provide space for students to explore the economic, social, cultural, political and personal dimensions, as well as the scientific and environmental aspects, of an issue. As well as interrogating the multidimensional challenges and opportunities of global warming, we also encourage you to include a sizeable ‘action’ component, using our key principles and strategies. This works well as a context for developing the General Capabilities as well as specific Ethical Capabilities in the Victorian Curriculum F–10.

Beyond the Curriculum There is boundless opportunity to incorporate climate justice in a school’s co-curricular programs.

It is applicable to student leadership, community service and resilience.

Some ideas: •

Start a climate justice group (or incorporate climate justice in your sustainability or social justice group).

•

Make climate justice a part of your school’s community service program/s.

Run a climate justice day, get speakers from diverse groups on the frontlines of climate change and include the day as part of a current climate justice campaign.

Key elements to building a social movement for climate justice, both within and beyond the curriculum, are: ensuring students understand that they can bring about change; providing students with a peer-support group; developing the students’ practical skills for community organisation; and, helping the students to have a positive collective change-making experience.

F U R T H E R I N F O R M AT I O N Tom Reddington worked at AYCC for three years, coordinating the Switched on Schools program. Tom now works as a consultant in education for social and collective change.

Blanche Higgins volunteered for AYCC over a few years and is currently completing a PhD in climate change education.

Switched on Schools: AYCC provide lots of examples of students leading collective action in their schools, communities and beyond www.switchedonschools. org.au Also, follow us on Facebook and Instagram This Changes Everything curriculum resource: Cool Australia has created an excellent study guide mapped to the curriculum for Naomi Klein’s award winning documentary This Changes Everything www. coolaustralia.org/unit/this-changes-everythingyear-9-10 A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: A book of teaching resources and lessons plans from the USA that explore climate justice and action www.rethinkingschools.org/proddetails. asp?ID=9780942961577 Climate justice in BC – Lessons for transformation: A collaboration between teacher organisations, activist groups, First Nations people and others teachclimatejustice.ca Sustainability as a national cross-curriculum priority www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/ crosscurriculumpriorities/sustainability/overview Getting Started with Sustainability in Schools: Has a range of curriculum resources as well as a case study on implementing sustainability as cross-curriculum priority www.sustainabilityinschools.edu.au/ resources

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REFERENCES

Cordero, E., Todd, A. M., & Abellerra, D. 2008.

Climate change education and the ecological footprint. Bulletin of American Meteorological Society, 865–72 Fernandez, G., Thi, T., & Shaw, R. 2014. Climate Change Education: Recent Trends and Future Prospects. In R. Shaw & Y. Oikawa (eds), Education for Sustainable Development and Disaster Risk Reduction, pp. 53–74. Springer, Japan.

Freire, P. 1970. Pedagogy of the oppressed, Continuum, New York Giroux, H. 2011. On Critical Pedagogy, Continuum, New York Gruenewald, D. 2003. The Best of both worlds: a critical pedagogy of place, Educational Researcher, 32(4): 3–12.

Hulme, M. 2009. Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity, Cambridge University Press Kagawa, F., & Selby, D. (eds) 2010. Education and Climate Change: Living and Learning in Interesting Times, Routledge, New York and Abingdon Kahn, R. 2010, Critical Pedagogy, Ecoliteracy and Planetary Crisis, Peter Lang publications, New York Kavanagh, R., Waldron, F., Ruane, B., & Oberman, R. 2012. Education, Climate Change and Climate Justice: Irish Perspectives. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Conference McKeown, R., & Hopkins, C. 2010. Rethinking Climate Change Education. Green Teacher, 89:17–21 Moser, S. C., & Dilling, L. 2007. Toward the Social Tipping Point: Creating a Climate for Change. In S. C. Moser & L. Dilling (eds), Creating a Climate for Change, pp. 491-516, Cambridge University Press.

Wibeck, V. 2014. Enhancing learning, communication and public engagement about climate change –some lessons from recent literature, Environmental Education Research, 20(3):387–411.

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I T TA K E S A CO M M U N I T Y TO N U R T U R E S U CC E S S F U L F U T U R E E D U C ATO R S Deakin University has a new team taking up sustainability education in two initial teacher education programs. Peta White, Connie Cirkony, Jorja McKinnon and Kathryn Riley explore some of the philosophies that undergird the team’s ideas about sustainability education as well as their hopes for their students, our future teachers.

When a team comes together, the beauty and richness of that team is made real through each individual. The Deakin University Sustainability Education team is one such team: located in and from different countries, with varied backgrounds and interests. We are passionate and enthusiastic about supporting the next cohort of teachers to be resourced, engaged, and prepared to change the systems in which we are all entangled and for which we, ultimately, carry responsibility.

Kat comes from a physical and outdoor education background. She says, “I became acutely aware how

the natural environment can be used for advancing human endeavours. As outdoor education is embedded within the physical education discipline, there can be an overemphasis on movement within pursuits of adventure. This works to influence the type and depth of relationship that can emerge with the natural world. Critically acknowledging anthropocentricism, in that the natural world is used as a sort of ‘gymnasium’, I became increasingly interested in how teaching practices in sustainability education can explore multisensory and embodied learning with the natural world”. This is to reconceptualise human–nature relationships.

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Connie’s understanding and passion for environmental sustainability began with a strong family orientation to the outdoors, and with simple and sustainable living. It has grown with her professional background in science and environmental education, ranging from her work as an entomologist, to teaching science, leading professional development and developing education policy. Connie is passionate about the role of environmental education for developing critical thinking for active citizenship, supporting equity, and engaging student learning through relevant and meaningful contexts.

We are each influenced by many from diverse disciplines and perspectives. We showcase a few here: Karen Barad (new materialism): Barad coined the term ‘agential realism’, meaning that “phenomena do not merely mark the epistemological inseparability of observer and observed, or the results of measurement; rather phenomena are the ontological inseparability of agentially intra-acting components” (Barad, 2007, p. 33).

Jorja had what she would describe as a ‘Huck Finn’ childhood: lots of kids riding bikes, catching tadpoles and dodging snakes. “My mum bought me the Deluxe Barbie Dreamhouse and I filled it with breeding snails! From an early age, through play, I came to understand the connectivity of natural elements. As an adolescent, I was fortunate enough to have a sports teacher who saw a gap in wilderness experiences for girls so formed a camping group.

Five girls were chosen and we took part in several alpine hikes. This is where my understanding of what we now term ‘slow pedagogy’ (Payne & Wattchow, 2009), came from. I came to realise that sharing my knowledge and passion through education was going to satisfy and sustain me. I sometime wonder if this was the motivation of my hiking group teacher, as there are shadows of him in all that I do.”

Peta found that she could engage her students more when involving animals or outside environments.

“I was teaching in a rural community and we were running a Landcare scholarship where we brought Year 10 students from the city to the country for 10 weeks. All students were engaged because we visited places where our local environmental issues unfolded, and talked to local people. Some were scientists and some were famers – all were passionate and engaging. This lead me to investigate a bit more and I found that there was a field called environmental education, and suddenly I had colleagues who thought similarly to me, resources were produced just for us, and many rich and varied possibilities resulted – it was career-changing.”

Previous page: United, Year 10 hiking expedition, Wilson’s Promontory National Park. Photography: Kathryn Riley

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Rosi Braidotti (posthumanism): Braidotti is a contemporary and feminist scholar. Her nomadic theory, within posthuman philosophy, examines how subjectivity is contingent and dynamic, always differentiated to its ‘other’, and always in the process of becoming; restricted and created by power dynamics (Braidotti, 2013).

Fritjof Capra: Capra advocates re-visioning the linear nature of the physical world, and instead seeing a world that is composed of complex interconnected and interdependent systems – where biological systems are inherently connected, interdependent, complex and adaptive. Capra also provided a context for multiple perspectives: given that all living things have specific physical structures with which to perceive the world, then reality consists of multiple worlds, each being equally valid. Respecting the multiple perspective is a powerful idea when discussing issues and enacting solutions in a world (or community or classroom) where there are such diverse perspectives. It also contributes to appreciating the ability of individuals (or communities or nations) to achieve consensus on any given issue.

Annie Leonard: A great inspiration and the genius behind The Story of Stuff and The Story of Solutions short movies (storyofstuff.org). Leonard was doing her master’s degree and trying to make her thoughts clear to her colleagues – so she made a short animation. It became an international success and several other movies have been made along similar lines.

Aldo Leopold: A conservationist, nature writer, and champion and advocate for an ecocentric land ethic and environmental stewardship, Leopold explores the inherent paradox within human–nature relations. He discusses the importance of nature immersion and experiences, and yet the subsequent degradation of the natural world through overexposure to human impact (Leopold, 1987 (1949)).

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Climbing Mountains, Year 9 trek program, Mt Kosciusko National Park. Photography: Kathryn Riley

Lynn Margulis: Margulis proposed the endosymbiosis theory – that eukaryotic cells emerged from the symbiotic relationship of multiple prokaryotic cells – suggesting a fundamental cooperation among living things; a trait inherent in our evolutionary history. This understanding of our shared evolutionary history has implications for how we view all living things, and our interdependence for continued survival.

We have a strong desire for our students to unpack what environmental and sustainability education means to them. How do they feel it and see it?

How does it live for them? We provide a model for living lightly, and aim to inspire and motivate others to act. Our future teachers are learning how an educator can create life-changing experiences for their students, and the power of collaboration within professional networks.

We draw specific influence from the scientific community who sharpen our focus and inspiration, including from more popular faces such as David Attenborough and David Suzuki. However, we generate equal inspiration from children as they scream and jump around watching a snail move up the window, or a classroom student who says “I haven’t really thought about that”.

Our consumeristic habits and management of waste in the western world are appalling: we need a changed attitude. We hope to instil a passion for thinking about actions and rethinking practices around sustainability. We hope that our students become engaged in motivating future students. We want to interest our students in ways of engaging with society through the lens of living with enough.

We want them to feel empowered to do things differently. We want them to live the constant process of becoming educators – not just being students. The becoming is such a valuable place to inhabit. It gives permission and breath to a space of desire set within a reality of time and energy.

As a team of educators coming at the same ideas from different angles, we have a common drive in providing our students (future educators) with an experience that broadens their understanding of the environment more than simply generating technical knowledge. Embedding environmental and sustainability education into our schools is necessary, but can sometimes be seen as secondary to teaching maths and science content, which receive more media attention.

We hope our students learn that one person, an educator, can make a change in many people’s lives.

We hope to offer potentially transformative experiences for our students, where they develop a critical understanding of the purpose of education and their role and responsibility within in it, and develop confidence in their ability to enact changes in their practices. We hope to critically deconstruct discursive practice and taken-for-granted norms

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in environmental and sustainability education, and to develop an ability to understand multiple perspectives and complexities, from local to global.

F U R T H E R I N F O R M AT I O N Peta White is a science and environmental education lecturer at Deakin University. With 25 years’ experience in education, Peta has worked in classrooms, as a curriculum consultant and manager, and as a teacher educator in several jurisdictions across Canada and Australia. Her passion for initial teacher educator, activist environmental education, and action-orientated methodologies drives her current teaching and research scholarship.

We want our students to be well resourced so that they know how to do what they want to do. They can create their own ideas about resources, and efficiently use resources that are already around them. Learning how to make digital media is indispensable in learning how to become a great educator.

peta.white@deakin.edu.au.

We want our students to learn how to orient their teaching practice and curriculum development around environmental and sustainability education approaches and contexts. We want them to practise what it takes to deconstruct (or unpack) and then reconstruct (or re-create) their teacher identity towards one of environmental action engaging students in learning through an environmental activism. We would like students to understand the points of their personal ‘ecobecoming’ and then reflect and grow again, always building as their environmental community grows. Finding meaning and inspiration in ideas of relational agency, we seek to instil learners with an environmental ethic of care, derived from a passionate and enthusiastic exploration of multisensory and embodied engagement with the natural world.

Connie Cirkony is a lecturer and PhD candidate in science education at Deakin University. She is investigating student learning science around the contemporary socio-scientific issue of climate change. Connie has a background in science and environmental education, from teaching and leading teacher professional development to drafting education policy.

She has also instructed pre- and in-service teachers in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria in Canada. She is passionate about improving students’ learning experiences through their active engagement in scientific processes as a way to understand and make informed choices about how to live in the world. c.cirkony@deakin.edu.au.

Kathryn Riley is a physical education and outdoor and environmental studies teacher. Kathryn is also a PhD candidate at Deakin University. Adopting new materialist theoretical resources to explore political ecology in education, Kathryn’s research seeks to (re)vision human–nature relationships. She is interested in the role of multisensory and embodied learning in sustainability education.

We want to generate critical insights into the role of environmental and sustainability education within the secondary school education context and wider constructs of local and global societies. In providing key understanding of its function and purpose, we aim to provide ‘real-life’, meaningful learning experiences in environmental education that examine the political, social, economic, and environmental interconnections of people with place, ‘country’ or ‘land’ (depending on context).

This is to elicit an engaged and active citizenship that is moving towards environmental stewardship and socio-ecological justice.

kathryn.riley@deakin.edu.au.

Finally, what unites us is the passion for the environment. Interestingly, three of us are Canadian (or very close to it), and have lived in a variety of different environments, learning to experience different ways of being. It was Jorja’s mum’s fridge sticker that said it best: “there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes”.

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Jorja McKinnon is a lecturer at Deakin University and a PhD candidate. In her PhD project, Jorja is re-imagining how environmental education is demonstrated through the Arts. Jorja has over 15 years’ classroom teaching experience in a variety of formal and informal science and environmental education settings. Prior to teaching, Jorja trained and worked as a scientific field officer on a variety of environmental education community projects. Jorja is also the VCE Environmental Science support at Environmental Education Victoria.

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jorja.mckinnon@deakin.edu.au.

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REFERENCES

Barad, K. 2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning, Duke University Press, Durham & London Braidotti, R. 2013. The Posthuman. Polity Press, UK/USA Leopold, A. 1987 (1949). A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There. Oxford University Press, Inc. Payne, P. G. & Wattchow, B. 2009.

Phenomenological Deconstruction, Slow Pedagogy, and the Corporeal Turn in Wild Environmental/ Outdoor Education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 14:15–32.

Top: Crossing the Divide. Year 10 Hiking Expedition, Wilson's Promontory National Park. Bottom: Year 9 Trek Program, Mt. Kosciusko National Park Photography: Kathryn Riley

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U N D E R COV E R L I T T E R P I C K E R Ann Palmer describes becoming a litter picker and how she encourages others to transition from anthropocentrism to Earthcentrism by way of a humorous photo contest. Adapted with permission from Green Teacher #109, Spring 2016. To learn about this non-profit magazine, visit www.greenteacher.com.

The Litter Picker’s Creed Every item a tale to tell how it came to be not doing so well.

An identity-shift from bright package to trash accomplished in a twinkling.

Their natural development – onward recycling – I’ll forward as best I may.

Retrieve from places they shouldn’t be items battered, broken, each day.

So every item a new tale to tell, how it’s doing better these days.

Recycled, reclaimed, the latest craze – quite sure it will do rather well!

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‘Can I help?’ asked 15-year-old Roxanne. ‘I like to help.’ I looked up from my litter picking, quite sure an angel had just descended on the beach.

For a teenager to approach an adult, particularly a stranger, with such an offer felt miraculous.

About to embark on her Duke of Edinburgh Award (an award that recognises adolescents and young adults for completing a series of self-improvement exercises), Roxanne decided to include litter picking as part of its remit. I went to see her parents, who at first appeared to be happy with the idea, but it turned out that was not the case.

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picking myself. Three years ago, UK television presenter Griff Rhys-Jones had climbed Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, wearing a jacket with the moniker Griff the Garbage emblazoned on it. He did this in the company of Rob the Rubbish.

The image of these two men taking such an upfront stance, and in a humorous way, went deep with me.

I wrote to the local council, offering to clean up my local patch if they would provide a jacket, litter picker and gloves. It was with huge delight I put on the high-visibility jacket announcing my new identity – Gaia the Garbage.

To go into a public place alone and start litter picking brings up an odd mixture of emotions.

Ridicule I had dealt with through my chosen moniker. Mostly, people ignored me, which was fine.

What I dreaded was being challenged. The Outer Hebrides of Scotland is still heavily patriarchal where the unspoken law is ‘Don’t put your head above the parapet’. To have the support of the local council and its Zero Waste department eased this feeling. Those people who spoke to me often confessed – and by their demeanour and tone of voice it did feel as if they were indeed confessing – to being secret litter pickers. This confirmed a collective attitude to litter picking which is part of environmental denial, ‘Do it if you must, but don’t be seen doing it. Whatever you do, never talk about it!’

unusual objects the sea deposited. I found myself mentally captioning the photographs, humorously.

In so doing, I seeded the best idea I’d had so far – a children’s photography competition.

L OC A L B U S I N E S S S U P P O R T

The remit was to raise awareness of the importance of community involvement to tackle the litter problem that horrifies visitors to the Western Isles, and therefore does little for the tourist trade. So, at the outset, I felt there was a good chance local businesses would be in favour of the idea. To take the children’s photography competition to the next level, the images needed to be presented with humorous caption. This would draw on the creative skills of pupils, something I personally feel is, as Sir Ken Robinson says, more important than literacy for the future. 1 When my idea was enthusiastically received by the majority of local businesses, who offered very generous prizes, I felt vindicated and, occasionally, even elated and surprised at the recognition – at last – of the importance of caring for our shared environment.

My partner and I tried to start a local litter picking group, using local media and posters to publicise an initial meeting. After all, the upsides are exercise, fresh air, the companionship of others and sometimes even the beachcombers’ reward – finding an item of real value. Just three people attended a meeting that was well publicised. The promised local representatives from official bodies – Keep Scotland Beautiful, Scottish Natural Heritage, Marine Conservation Scotland and Zero Waste Scotland – did not turn up. At the last moment, the venue was nearly withdrawn. This is subtle, and suggests a general apathy. But it left me in no doubt that what we were trying to do was not wanted or approved.

The head of Zero Waste summed it up: ‘You have a mountain to climb.’

I disagreed. What we had to do was find a way to make litter picking a ‘want to do’. One thing that ‘sells’ ideas is humour. To change the attitudes surrounding litter picking, to change its image, was key. My partner took our new digital camera to the beach and photographed me with some of the more

Previous page, left: The winning image for secondary school children. Photography: Jessica Ann Macleod Previous page, right: The winning image for primary school children. Photography: Finn Globe Above: Ann Palmer as ‘Gaia the Garbage’. Photography: Ann Palmer

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T H E S C H OO L S I T UAT I O N

In Western Isles schools, there is a person responsible for ecological coordination, but that does not translate into supporting an initiative sourced outside the school program. As ever, to have any chance of success, all possible publicity outlets were covered, all schools were informed three times and the deadline was delayed a month – with increased publicity – to encourage entries. Just one school, Sir E. Scott School in Harris, supported the Children’s Humorously Captioned Photography Competition by setting it as homework. With their teacher’s help, they provided the most innovative images and captions in a competition that attracted 49 entries. To extend the life of this project, a calendar of the winners of the combined 2015 and 2016 competitions is in place for 2018. An eversion of this calendar will be available to teachers who apply directly to us; either email gaiadance@ btinternet.com or visit the website www.gaiadancebooks.com.

Martin also promotes the idea of a two-minute beach clean (#2minutebeachclean). 2 By seeding the idea of litter picking as something anyone can do on a beach visit, he opened a quite different way of seeing litter picking; as a habit or part of a regular routine. I quickly found myself doing two-minute beach cleans on the way to swim with the local seals first thing in the morning. It’s an ideal approach when a full two hours is just not possible.

Closer to home for most Green Teacher readers, the Zero Tolerance Policy of New York police in eradicating graffiti 3 worked. Removing graffiti, the moment it appeared, had the seemingly magical effect of solving a long-standing problem. My own belief in removing rubbish from my patch is based on the same belief.

T H E U N D E R COV E R S TO R I E S O F T H E W I N N I N G P H OTOG R A P H S

Subtextually, each image tells a story with a serious message. The winning primary school entry, ‘Flattened by a giant litterball’ omits the child’s face, making the image universal. In all probability, for most entrants, the inclusion of the child’s face would have been automatic. It is a powerful image, and an excellent composition photographically. The huge polystyrene ball shows the way polystyrene behaves in seawater. It also points to a dark future fate of our species if we do not robustly address this problem of treating the shared environment as a global garbage dump.

The winning secondary school entry ‘The grazing here is rubbish these days’ points at the effect our rubbish has on animals. How plastic kills animals – the sea turtle is probably the most widely publicised – is implicated in the sheep’s comment.

A lightbulb moment. Photography: Daniel McAlpine OT H E R I N S P I R AT I O N S

While my partner and I were forwarding this competition, we learned of a rather different antilitter project being conducted by a young man, Martin Dorey. He set up the first Ocean School at the other end of the UK, in Devon. An Ocean School is similar to the green Forest Schools but focused on the sea, and Martin is regularly invited to talk about his projects on television and at conferences.

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The ‘all hands on deck’ philosophy so beautifully summarised by the statement ‘We are all crew on Spaceship Earth’ means it is permissible to include the help of animals, pets and even cuddly toys in the photographs. Children respond well to this expansive and imaginative approach to problemsolving. In the world of business, as a brainstorming technique, it is often the craziest ideas that, when made doable, are clear winners in a problem-solving context. The fact that indigenous cultures used any and all methods – singing, dancing, drama, modelmaking – to act out their needs (often survival needs), reinforces this whole-brain approach and reveals its deepest root in our species.

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RE-SEEING STIGMA

Stigma acts like an unspoken taboo. But it does raise a serious question. Evidence-gathering in a grassroots situation gives insights not otherwise available. The litter problem at the global level is publicised on television but little is done to reverse it, indicating a tacit cultural acceptance of litter-blindness. The reaction of parents not wanting their daughter to help is echoed culturally, worldwide. Einstein said that problems cannot be solved at the level they are created. The mindset that creates the problem is unfit, unable or unwilling to solve it. The paradigm shift is key to breaking into and out of this vicious circle.

T H E P OW E R O F N E W W O R D S

Not for one moment should we question the power of new words to change perceptions, and short-form communication, by fulfilling the demand for the instant. Building a general eco-literacy in the minds of the young necessitates seeing differently. Using expressions like ‘litter-blindness’ and ‘litteritis’ – the disease of mindless litter dumping – newly frames the activity. At grassroots level, litter is then seen differently, as contributing to lack of wellbeing if not actually illness, much as does nature deficit disorder.

According to the internet, new words are invented at the average rate of one a minute. It is a global phenomenon. Green Teacher has introduced me to words I have never met with before. These are words and terms to describe a present situation which previously did not exist. From the pages of Green Teacher recently come ‘biophilia’, our genetic predisposition to love nature; ‘solastalgia’, the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault; and the concept of getting students involved in ‘envirothons’.

believe we do not access the full field of potential because our individual specialisms keep us narrowly focused. This trains our brains into a left-brain bias, and 80% of people in western cultures have this now. My own postgraduate training taught me we are all ‘ppb’ – partial, prejudiced and biased – with no pejorative meaning attached. It simply describes the filtering state of our reality-processor, the human brain. Right brain-led training mitigates against this, but is not generally prioritised in schools. How we learn, the techniques, strategies, methods allowable, official and unofficial, sanctioned and tabooed, takes us one level deeper than the learning itself. This deepening exposes the roots, the source.

When patterns (that is, patterns of behaviour, patterns of thought, patterns of development) are given precedence over simple logical reasoning and are seen as being more deeply informative, we key into the synthesis skills offered by the functioning of the right hemisphere of the brain.

EARTHCENTRISM AND A N T H R O P OC E N T R I S M

Anthropocentrism (noun) – the belief humankind is the most important element of existence.

Earthcentrism (noun) – the belief the human species should see itself primarily as part of the Earth’s ecosystem. Derivatives: Earthcentric (adj.), Earthcentrically (adv.).

Google Analytics reveals a rising interest in the term ‘anthropocentrism’, unlike the status of other nature-connected words, like ecology, conservation, environment. Both Earthcentrism and anthropocentrism address human existence and our place in the cosmos, and this new academicsounding word, Earthcentrism, links to the internet growth pattern.

CO M P L E T I N G T H E F I R S T C I R C L E : H O L I S M

But, before we begin to look at the implications of these two mindsets or global overviews, it is absolutely essential not to set them up as dualities.

All we are doing by stating one or the other is identifying our major allegiance at a global societal level. Without doubt, the duality approach will be used to bring anthropocentrism and Earthcentrism into conflict, but at least stating them as alternatives, openly, offers an upfront and robust look at what we, as a species, are creating on planet Earth. It makes things more real.

For an adequate exposition of any subject, there must be an attempt at holistic seeing. Generally, I

If the ‘diversity in unity’ model of all existence, the very one given by nature herself, is prioritised and

Words have tremendous power. Once they are in common parlance, they take on a reality and are rarely questioned. If there is a word for it, it must exist.

I asked myself a different question. Do these words go far enough? Do they get to the root of the matter?

They go part way to be sure, but do they give us the ‘empowering handle’, or leave us in what the late great Irish poet Seamus Heaney called ‘limboland’.

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preferred, the duality trap can be avoided altogether.

The conclusion I came to in writing my book on Earthcentrism 4 was that we are all, at different times, both anthropocentric and Earthcentric. To exist within cultures forces this. The major reason to invent the term Earthcentrism is to offer an alternative; a vision of future possible (the subject treated so extraordinarily well by visionary Jean Houston 5). Working mainly in an anthropological context, she has discovered how disadvantaged indigenous people can empower themselves through changing the inner imagery associated with their situation. Others, like psychotherapist Dina Glouberman 6, have long practised this holistic right brain-led transformative technique with astounding results.

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The crucial matter of positioning oneself on any contentious issue is one we all face. The Hindu philosophy of ‘ahimsa’ – no harm – helps, alongside the desire to leave enough for the next seven generations. The visionary will want to go a step further – leave the planet in a better state than at present. The indigenous people of North America talked of the Fifth World of Peace.

References to indigenous wisdom give a profoundness and depth to our collective understanding, and work against superficiality of thought. The effect of introducing such ideas at appropriate moments to a group of concerned young people should not be underestimated. It can be done formally, by having an ‘indigenous wisdom’ theme running alongside the competition, or as a subject for a poem. Or less formally, by asking students to express their feelings in energy-raising ways that invite solutions. ‘Things that have not previously been connected’ are the source of both creativity and future syntheses of thought and ideas. What I personally find really useful about the term ‘Earthcentrism’ is that it helps to position ourselves, give ourselves an identity in relationship to the planet, and not just a colour. Colour is the shorthand, but the tokenism of ‘green-washing’ is part of the modern world too. There is a need for vigilance. If people were asked to state their baseline relationship to Earth, rather than their gender, sexual orientation, culture-of-birth and age on official forms – and there are certainly sufficient form-filling opportunities to make a societal impact – the way we see ourselves would be upfront, and therefore facilitate and encourage meaningful debate.

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CO M P L E T I N G T H E T H I R D C I R C L E : V I S I O N , AC T I O N A N D R E S U L T S

Do I really believe that, if the term ‘Earthcentrism’ were current in our language, the attitude of Roxanne’s parents would have been different? Is that pushing the argument too far?

To reframe that direct question is more helpful.

What I believe I witnessed was the lag factor in operation in intergenerational learning. The young person saw the need and immediately volunteered her services, but her impulse to do the right thing was quietly and systematically eroded behind the scenes. At this juncture, any and all ameliorating influences – from humour-based competitions to naming the unnamed – are to be welcomed. By habitually engaging solely in ‘what is’, we do not give ourselves the space to access the clarity of mind needed to build a vision of what is possible in the future.

One heartening thing emerged from this Children’s Humorously Captioned Photography Competition.

Early entries, posted on the website of our local newspaper, attracted interest. By the end of the competition, there were six and a half thousand followers of the progress of the competition, a very high number, coming in fourth behind major news events. It is testament to people secretly interested, like secretive litter pickers – only 49 actual entries but 6500 watchers. That is six and a half thousand people, out of 28,000 living on an island a hundred miles long off the west coast of Scotland, whose awareness of the litter problem has increased.

Meanwhile, I find my lone litter picking has become a therapy and diminishes feelings of solastalgia.

When I walk on the beach, or take the peat road onto the moorland, the litter-free landscape reinforces in me the feeling we can all make a difference. One that shows.

LITTER GOES LITERARY IN 2017

Entries are now open for the 2017 Children’s and Young People’s Humorously Captioned Photography Competition. Entries are accepted from anyone in full time education up to the age of 21. Submissions should include a humorously captioned photograph of yourself, with or without a pet or other ‘props’, humorously captioned, and one verse of eco-lyrics put to the tune of your own favourite song. Entry is free and closes on 1 December 2017

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The Remit for Entries

A G E N E R A L T E M P L AT E F O R T H E HUMOROUSLY CAPTIONED P H OTOG R A P H Y CO N T E S T Preparation Before starting this project with students, it helps to clear the emotional ground by asking for their felt response to litter picking. Handled sensitively, with reference to the Earthcentric and anthropocentric standpoints, any demeaning connotations will come to light and can be transformed. It is an opportunity to point out that the cultural taboo on litter picking is part of an anthropocentric rather than an Earthcentric worldview. This depth of understanding may initially seem unnecessary. Seen as seeding part of a positive holistic mind set primed to tackle ecological problems (considered as the biggest overview attainable – our species’ collective positioning and our relationship to the planet), it takes discussion to a meaningful level. Ultimately, it will forward the anthropocentric/Earthcentric debate.

Photographic entries had to be of a child with a piece of litter found on a litter pick. The photograph could also include an animal or a toy. The inclusion of animals and cuddly toys extends the humorous potential. Ideally, the objects used will be those found on an actual litter pick.

In true creative spirit, children may spontaneously offer their ideas for humorous captions. Using two disposal bags will enable the choice between items suitable for photographs to be made on site.

Judging the Competition Outside judges are preferable. They bring a fresh eye to the competition and, if the entries are judged anonymously, ensure an independent assessment. The method the three judges of our competition used was to score the photographs on a 1 to 10 scale, and then add up the totals.

Publicity

Community Partners The heading up and development of this kind of project depends on personal contacts and the specific relationship of a school to its local community. Involve the local community by approaching local businesses for prizes. This gives valuable feedback before the project is launched. People in one-to-one conversations reveal their private opinions more readily. To this day, I am still surprised at the extent of the support this competition received. Initially, we thought we thought we would have just one or perhaps two prizes. We actually were able to offer 15.

For children to lead the way in changing public perceptions feels, to me, like a big step towards empowering the younger generation to make a real difference. All adults involved become far more litteraware and less tolerant of the general apathy surrounding this subject. Its newsworthiness is enhanced because of the deliberately introduced humour, which lightens spirits and hearts and is good for us all. Reach out to local news sources to let them know what you are doing, and ask if they would like to cover the contest before, during or after it happens.

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N OT E S

www.gaiadancebooks.com/childrens-photographiccompetiton.html

1 Sir Ken Robinson, TED talk recorded at TED2006, Do Schools Kill Creativity? www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_ says_schools_kill_creativity

Ann Palmer is a former head teacher turned writer who champions Earthcentric grassroots-led campaigns. She teaches occasional residential nature writing courses for the UK Field Studies Council.

2 #2minutebeachclean beachclean.net 3 New York Zero Tolerance of Graffiti Policy www.nycedc.com/program/graffiti-free-nyc 4 Ann Palmer, article, Earthcentrism www.resurgence.org/ magazine/article3769-elements of existence.html Ann Palmer, e-book 2015. Earthcentrism: 100 Questions, 1,000 Answers: a Primer in Integrated Thinking, www. amazon.co.uk/Earthcentrism-100-Questions-AnswersPrimer-Integrated-Thinking-ebook/dp/B0151ZV692 5 Jean Houston, The Possible Human (Jeremy P Tarcher/ Putnam 1997) 6 Dina Glouberman, Life Choices and Life Changes through Imagework (Unwin Paperbacks 1989)

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P R O F E S S I O N A L L E A R N I N G A B OA R D T H E SV PELICAN 1 Melbourne-based educator Dominique Dybala organised an immensely rewarding professional development day out on Port Phillip Bay.

When teachers tell you they want to quit their jobs a week after a professional learning day, you should pay attention. Ordinarily, this would mean that something has gone wrong and needs fixing. Not today.

In February, staff from St Mary’s Parish Primary School in Williamstown were invited out for a day of professional learning on Port Phillip Bay aboard the SV Pelican 1. This generous opportunity developed out of the school’s ongoing work in engaging students in local landscapes and working with passionate professionals. Much of the engagement in the local environment has developed in partnership with the school’s commitment to outstanding science learning. Connecting the classroom learning with what goes on in the greater community, bringing the classroom out into the landscape the school is part of, and ‘knowing our place, knowing our story’ gives us the context for our curriculum.

This year, the school celebrates 175 years of education. The oldest, continuously operating Catholic school in Victoria, we have been providing education for the children of the community since shortly after Williamstown was first occupied by colonists in 1835. We are also in the enviable position of being able to see the bay and much of our community from our upper storey windows.

We want our students to know this story, from the school’s beginning and of the land before occupation, and to be empowered to develop the story as it continues. This place that the school, the students and their families occupy is critical to their education and, as a school, we believe that being connected to your community is critical to learning and wellbeing. We should know about this place we live and learn in, and use this as a foundation of learning. By the very nature of our location, it is a natural progression that we should learn about what we can see and experience directly: the water, Port Phillip Bay.

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A conversation with the principal, Jim Sheedy, about how to expand this concept of ‘knowing our story, knowing our place’ led to planning a day on the bay for our staff. We have sought opportunities for our students to head out on these special learning days, and some of our teachers have gone along with them.

But, this is the first time we have had the chance to head out as a staff to build our own knowledge of this place and to experience it together.

We ask it of our students: to head out on adventures, to learn new things and to share that learning with others. We can see that some of what they learn has an impact straight away in a student’s enthusiasm for sharing what they have been involved in, but we do not always know what the long-term impact is.

We can hope that it is inspiring, that it leads them to great things, and sets the foundation for lifelong learning, but we can’t know this from the outset. We ask it of our staff too: to head out in the possibly unknown and use the experience as a foundation for teaching.

Planning for this expedition on the bay felt like planning for the students, full of wonderings about what the impact would be and what the staff would do with the experience once the day was over. It was time consuming and somewhat stressful to plan, but not difficult. Working with the SV Pelican 1 is a privilege in itself. In its 12th year on the bay for the Two Bays Project, this 62-foot catamaran is an inspiring venue and vessel for a day of learning and engaging with the science and story of the bay.

The Pelican 1 gives you access to a landscape, water, that can be hard to get at. It also allows you to connect with an incredible range of educators and professionals who are passionate about the natural and cultural values of this landscape. Inviting people to head off on a local adventure, on an incredible vessel, out on the bay, with a possible snorkel, and supporting the learning of school staff is not a difficult sell. It meant that we had a marine educator, Harry Breidahl, and a Port Phillip

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EcoCentre educator, Sharron Hunter. We learned about the diverse marine ecology of the bay and the features of the animals that live there. We also got to consider the life of our litter and its impact on the bay. We heard the important stories of the bay before colonisation. A few brave participants hopped into the water on the cool and choppy day for an adventure underwater. The crew of the boat made the day, and we got to share it with some other amazing educators in science and the arts.

We asked a lot of the teachers, to head out on a Saturday in February together. Preparing for an environment that is so close, yet so unfamiliar, is not without its concerns for many. What would we do all day long? Would it be hot or cold? Will I get seasick?

Do I need a wetsuit if I want to swim? The teachers talked about this afterwards, these concerns of the day. They laughed about packing one of everything including bathers and beanies (not odd for a Melbourne teacher). The Pelican 1 is a great vessel to head out on, with comfortable undercover space to hide from the weather and learn in the onboard classroom, and outdoor spaces for experiencing the swell and spray of a less than calm day (and then sun when it appeared). It is the perfect place to learn about the bay, what lives in it and on it and what impact we have living around it, and to ponder how we might connect to it as teachers and as learners ourselves.

I could not have predicted the impact of the day. I hoped that it would serve as inspiration for teachers and be a chance to do something out of the ordinary.

I could never have known that teachers would want to quit their jobs as a result. There is a great thrill when the planned learning has such an impact, that a teacher would change the course of their life to fill their own desire for learning and experiencing. It was unexpected and has led to great conversations. From connecting a touch tank experience to the greater body of water of the bay to encouraging students to think about how a class novel can be grounded in experience in a local suburb. Getting out into the environment, out on the water, to learn as an adult, has an impact on you as a teacher and as a learner; what you can include in your teaching is profound.

In the conversations that followed being out on the water, the concerns we have for our planet are obvious. Having a positive experience, when sometimes the prevailing feeling is one of hopelessness and being overwhelmed, is useful. The trip on the Pelican 1 was a chance to continue to learn. The teachers were happy to say that there is a whole lot they know, and not just about the Volume 40

bay, because they are teachers. There is certainly a privilege to being an educator, with access to ongoing learning and experiences many others would not get.

On return to the shore, we have had a chance to talk about what we did together and what more we could do with this knowledge. Some surprising actions include getting out for a snorkel together to see more of the local marine environment and a bit of birdwatching in the local wetlands. We also talked about the need to demonstrate our concern for our environmental impact through our actions. As a Catholic school, we have the additional opportunity to explore how our local landscape and this kind of experiential learning can help us to respond to the Pope’s calling in Laudato Si’, to find our deep love for our land, a strong sense of community, and a respect for the sacred space we share with the inhabitants of our Earth.

As I think about the impact of this learning experience on Port Phillip Bay, I can’t help but think about what we might do with that learning. And of the learning that has happened over 175 years in the community. What is to come for the students of our learning community?

Many thanks go out to those responsible for the success of this expedition: to Natalie Davey and the crew of the SV Pelican 1 for a brilliant day and working relationship; to Harry Breidahl for his marine wisdom and Sharron Hunter for her generous sharing; to Jim Sheedy, principal at St Mary’s, for investing in professional learning; to St Mary’s staff for sharing their time and enthusiasm; to our visiting educators for sharing the day with us. I thank you all for your time, effort and passion.

F U R T H E R I N F O R M AT I O N

Dominique Dybala is a Melbourne-based educator with a special interest in the value of local places.

From the school ground to the underwater seagrass meadows and the massive backyard that is Western Volcanic Plains, Dominique is a passionate advocate for connecting to local resources and championing underloved wild places in the suburbs.

Pelican Expeditions and the Two Bays Project https://pelican-expeditions.squarespace.com Previous page: St Mary's Williamstown teachers aboard the SV Pelican 1. Middle row, left: Harry Breidahl teaching ocean literacy. Middle row, right: Dominique, teachers and guests looking very content with the day out on the Bay. Photography: Natalie Davey, courtesy Pelican Expeditions.

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C R E AT I N G T H E F U T U R E FOR HUMANITY Julie White, EEV Gifted and Talented Program Coordinator, outlines the student leadership program EEV runs, in which the objective is to create the future for humanity.

Is life under a dome possible? Do we need to recreate Noah’s Ark to save the animals? If there was an apocalypse on Earth, could we create a future for humanity? Students will explore these conundrums during the 2017 season of EEV’s Science and Environment Student Leadership Program.

Now in its third year, Creating the Future for Humanity offers four exciting and unique workshops. Schools may nominate up to eight students identified as gifted and talented (from Years 8 to 11) to participate. In teams, students will explore how mathematics, science, critical thinking, environmental knowledge and leadership skills are essential for humanity’s future.

The workshops:

“WOW. What a great day. I will be demanding this workshop becomes a regular thing! Our students loved the challenge. We had a great discussion on the trip back. That’s 14 lives you changed today. From little things … ” Teacher of group participating in Creating the Future for Humanity, 2016

W O R K S H O P DAT E S

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Noah's Ark, 1st June 2017, 9 am to 3:30 pm at Ecolinc, Bacchus Marsh. Places are available but filling fast. See follow page for details.

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are hands-on, interesting and engaging

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promote leadership skills

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Life After an Apocalypse, 18 August 2017, Doxa Camp, Malmsbury

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encourage students to collaborate with peers from other schools

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Life Under a Dome, 1 September 2017, Earth Ed, Ballarat.

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fast-track the students’ experience and knowledge into cutting-edge STEM lessons and careers.

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Life on Mars - Fully booked.

Students attending the Life on Mars workshop in 2016, exploring how mathematics, science, critical thinking, environmental knowledge and leadership skills are essential for humanity’s future. Photography: Pen Lynch EIN G AN A | 41

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B OO K N OW F O R N OA H ' S A R K !

Noah's Ark will be held on 1st June 2017, 9 am to 3:30 pm at Ecolinc, Bacchus Marsh.

Students will be challenged to explore the following: Can humanity exist without biodiversity? If the rate of extinction continues, what is the future for humanity?

The program for this memorable workshop will include: •

Fun, interactive and hands-on encounters with Victoria’s native wildlife by Roo Keepers www.therookeepers.com.au

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An awe-inspiring Birds of Prey program www.hawkandowl.com.au/our-displays/schooldisplays/

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Race Around The World, Ecolinc’s program where students unravel a number of clues to learn about various plants and animals.

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Macroinvertebrates bringing the small world to life.

Places are filling fast. Book now https://noahsarkeev.eventbrite.com.au F U R T H E R I N F O R M AT I O N

Julie White at projects@eev.vic.edu.au For detailed information about all four workshops and to register: www.eev.vic.edu.au/creating-the-future

Top: One of the wildlife encounters planned for the Noah's Ark workshop is the Birds of Prey program by Hawk and Owl. Photography: Hawk and Owl Middle and bottom: Students attending the Life After an Apocalypse workshop in 2016. With the clay and sticks, the students are designing how they would protect, feed, source water, manage a society for themselves, their families, and others (depending on who they are letting in). Photography: Pen Lynch

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W H E N B A L L OO N S F L Y Zoos Victoria’s Pete Lancaster is part of a team developing a new campaign to reduce the impact of balloon waste on seabirds.

Think about balloons outside. What comes to mind?

I remember finding the location of friends’ parties using balloons tied to trees or their front fence when I was younger. You probably have images of celebrations and parties, balloons of all colours, and perhaps chasing balloons. This is what the majority of people talk about when I ask them about their relationship with balloons outside. But my perspective on balloons has changed recently, and I’m not the only one.

Imagine that you are a seabird, flying above the ocean searching for food. You have chicks back at your nest and they are hungry. They are always hungry. You see what you think is food on the surface, so you fly down, swallow the ’food‘ and take it back to your chicks. They swallow hungrily.

But it’s not food. Without realising it, you have fed your chick marine waste, consisting of items such as plastic balloon clips and even a piece of latex balloon. With its stomach full of plastic and rubbish, your chick won’t be able to make it out of the nest.

Unfortunately this isn’t my imagination, it’s happening. Researchers from the University of Tasmania and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies have been following the flesh-footed shearwater at Lord Howe Island for over 10 years,

and there are frightening results from field surveys: 100% of flesh-footed shearwater chicks across the Lord Howe Island colony have marine waste in their stomachs, with balloon clips one of the most common and readily identifiable items found.

A 2016 CSIRO study named balloons and their associated litter (including ribbons and balloon clips) in the top three most dangerous items threatening marine wildlife for both entanglement and ingestion. One of the reasons balloons are so dangerous to wildlife is that they are actively being ‘eaten’ by some species who forage in the ocean.

Also, balloon-associated litter is able to persist for long periods in a marine environment.

Now, when balloons escape into the environment, I see them from a different perspective, that of the animals.

I’m fortunate to be in a position to have learnt a lot about balloons in the environment. I’ve worked on the development of the new community conservation campaign recently launched by Zoos Victoria and Phillip Island Nature Parks, called ‘When balloons fly, seabirds die’.

These organisations are using the research being done on Lord Howe Island to encourage visitors

In flight: flesh-footed shearwaters near Lord Howe Island. Photography: Ian Hutton, Lord Howe Island.

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and the wider community to think about balloons differently. As I speak to people about the campaign, whether it be friends, conservationists, zoo visitors or people on the street, the response is almost universal.

There is an ‘ahhh’ moment of “I had no idea”. And the exciting thing I’m finding is that, once people find out, they actively want to do something different when they have their outdoor events. And there are a number of alternatives to balloons that can be used outdoors; the When balloons fly, seabirds die campaign focuses particularly on swapping balloons for bubbles.

Bubbles are irresistible fun as they move around you, bringing out the child in all of us. Bubble machines have been installed at Melbourne Zoo, immersing people with bubbles as they enjoy the zoo, and reminding visitors that there are better ways to celebrate outdoors that won’t harm wildlife. It is a campaign that is all about fun.

Several balloon clips are removed from a flesh-footed shearwater during research on Lord Howe Island.

Photography: Ian Hutton, Lord Howe Island.

When balloons fly, seabirds die.

The key to this campaign is awareness, highlighting a side of balloons that isn’t usually considered. Schools will play crucial role in spreading this campaign to their communities, and can be involved in a number of different ways. It could be a sports carnival, school fete or a graduation; schools have numerous outdoor events that can be made balloon-free. Schools can therefore provide the inspiration and example for the wider community to follow, and we are excited to have a number already on board with the campaign.

The really exciting opportunity for schools comes from the chance for students to educate the local community about why their outdoor events are now balloon-free. A recent visit to a primary school showed me just how powerful this campaign will be. The students were excited to be able to make a difference to the environment and to engage in the community, as well as find out more about seabirds and litter.

And it isn’t limited to schools; everyone can play a part in educating about the harmful impacts of balloons in the environment. We can all be part of the solution. At some point, we all will attend or organise an outdoor event, such as a birthday party, and we can make the promise to host and organise balloon-free outdoor events. We can all talk about the impact of balloons on wildlife with friends and family, creating more ‘ahhh’ moments, changing thoughts and behaviour. Together, we can make the world a safer place for seabirds and all wildlife.

And so, in a year’s time, when someone in Australia is asked to think of balloons outside, I hope their first thought is of seabirds.

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Be part of the solution. zoo.org.au/balloons

F U R T H E R I N F O R M AT I O N

Pete Lancaster is a community conservation campaigner at Zoos Victoria. plancaster@zoo.org.au For more information on the When balloons fly, seabirds die campaign, or to register for a complimentary school campaign support kit, visit zoo.org.au/balloons

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B OO K R E V I E W : T H E I N T E R D E P E N D E N T O R G A N I Z AT I O N – T H E PAT H TO A M O R E S U S TA I N A B L E E N T E R P R I S E B Y R E X D R A M A N

By Sarah Houseman

From my kitchen table to conference and cafe tables, I hear many caring voices urging for action to mitigate the intensifying challenges of climate disruption, biodiversity depletion, human refugees and environmental destruction. But how will we know change is happening? What are the signs indicating a shift in the mindset of the dominant paradigm?

I believe we will know that a profound transformation is occurring when we are integrally part of it. It won’t be something that politicians in Canberra or Spring Street tell us to mindlessly incorporate into our daily practices. A new paradigm is not just about changing law to protect people, animals or planet; it means new ways of thinking, and developing new words and metaphors to describe and explain how we see ourselves, change and human society.

The Interdependent Organization explores how this paradigm shift might emerge in our organisations. It is a useful contribution to the growing resource base of books and papers applying understandings from complex systems thinking in biology, physics and computer science to human organisations. Starting with where we are – entrenched in a hierarchical, command and control, top-down mindset – Rex Draman provides readers with a thorough background in the history of systems thinking as well as some transformative tools and processes.

Draman knows the mindset of large organisations.

Starting out as a second shift foreman at Mohawk Tire & Rubber and ending up as Director of Advanced Manufacturing Technology for a large defence contractor, he has used this knowledge as the foundation of a 20-year career as an academic exploring systems and sustainability in management.

While Draman’s focus is US-centric, and corporate in orientation, he makes many useful observations for other organisational entities, such as government, small business and non-government organisations.

For those of you who work in an organisation context, I recommend this book as a very useful comparative study of linear and systems thinking frames.

The expected and dominant way of conducting business in 2017 is still informed by the scientific management exemplified by mechanistic metaphors and the macro-economic viewpoint. The goal of best practice cost accounting is to control the minutiae, and account for each minute of activity. It assumes that we will achieve effective and efficient operations through better control and costing of each piece of the organisation.

This worldview is linear, based on the assumption that identifying causes (problems) will enable correct solutions, and the elimination of problems (effect). This way of viewing assumes order and predictability as the standard. Therefore, ‘failure’ is where disorder or unpredictable outcomes occur. These are met with blame and fault-finding because someone let the system fail.

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So how are we doing after 150 years of industrial society? Not well on the inside. One indicator of the failure of macro-economics is how we feel about our jobs. Draman quotes a 2014 Gallup poll where over 70% of employees indicated they were either ‘not engaged’ or ‘actively disengaged’ at their place of work. This is an outcome of a system where the overarching goal is profit. Why? This is a narrow and short-term goal. It rewards short-term thinking, originating in the 1970s when the US economy was financialised. The focus shifted from the product or service generated to the revenues generated from financing.

The global, national and organisational consequences of financialising are explored in detail in the book. More recently, the election of Donald Trump as the US President is another example of (unexpected) system feedback. Analysing business change management texts, Draman concludes that the bulk are ‘more of the same’. New approaches require us to challenge existing practices, system goals and values.

Draman does not dismiss the value of the scientific method to humanity, especially in closed systems such medical or mathematical exploration. However, linear thinking is not the best framework to apply to complex human systems. It cannot help us understand and respond effectively to complex, curly and ‘wicked’ problems. Wicked problems have many variables and interdependencies between parts

of the systems. Think of Earth’s climate system, endemic poverty, the range of factors that contribute to human health, or the education of a child. These are all areas of our society where, despite longterm financial investment and good intentions, the ‘problems’ never seem to go away.

The book shows how the assumptions of linear thinking create and re-create problems. This is because quick responses and additional control and monitoring are the best ways to fix a machine.

We see this clearly in the public discourse around Australian literacy and numeracy standards in school children, where perceived ‘failure’ has led to more and more controls and monitoring. Politicians and bureaucrats seek to avoid blame and ‘find and fix the problem’ by a greater focus on teaching the basics in the classroom. The more we try to change things using this mindset, the more it stays the same.

By contrast, a systems approach looks for patterns when disturbances (problems) emerge. This requires a different way of perceiving. The intention is to see the underlying order that will give us insight into the behaviour of each system. Focusing on one part of a complex system will not help us to understand a whole – focusing on one parent does not reveal the dynamics of the family. Learning to recognise a system’s flow and feedback loops means understanding and valuing processes, networks and relationships.

Sarah Houseman. Photography: Ben Wrigley Volume 40

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Draman identifies and explains the enemies of systems thinking in “we have to fix it quickly”, which implies doing it before you understand what ‘it’ is. “We must make the budget last until the end of the financial year” prioritises short-term, budgetdriven fixes that most often inhibit long-term sustainability. And, while there is nothing wrong with information, when “we need more information” is invoked to search for the linear cause or answer, it stifles one’s creativity and the ability to see the system. “To hell with the rest of the organisation (or other organisations), we must get our needs met” reflects bunker mentality, a win–lose perspective common from politics to community sectors such as environmental education, when we don’t recognise that a healthy system is not a monoculture.

To help us reframe our businesses and communities as living systems rather than as profit machines, the second half of The Interdependent Organization is devoted to tools and techniques to assist the transition to this new mental model. The assumption is that we change behaviour by changing our focus to measures of performance, equity and happiness. The first step in the transformation to become a learning organisation: embedding the ‘action–learning’ cycle of plan–act–review and retraining in skills for ‘seeing systems’.

F U R T H E R I N F O R M AT I O N

Sarah Houseman was Executive Officer at EEV and editor of Eingana between 2009 and 2015. She is now director of Glasshouse Creative Media (www. glasshousecreativemedia.com), a digital media company specialising in app development, and a PhD candidate at La Trobe University, where she is exploring exemplary NGO governance structures and practices suited to the Anthropocene epoch we are living in.

Sarah blogs at sarahhousemansite@wordpress.com and you can email her at sarah.houseman@gmail. com Rexford H. Draman. 2016. The Interdependent Organization: The Path to a More Sustainable Enterprise, Greenleaf Publishing, UK

One incredible outcome of this shift towards a systems perspective, that I have also seen in my research, is the building of trust within an organisation and the expansion of open and honest communications. Broadening our focus from the individual tree to the entire forest leads us to value a diversity of perspectives. It also awakens our curiosity, because to understand how the myriad of interdependent relationships combine to make our forest healthy is a dynamic, lifelong endeavour.

This is a collaborative way of working, where we experience that the most satisfying and enlivening way of working occurs when we learn to see the whole together.

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AN EYE-OPENING EARTH AND E N V I R O N M E N TA L S C I E N C E S U M M E R S C H OO L YiJie Neo attended the Australian Earth and Environmental Science Olympiad Summer School with support from EEV. She reports back on the inspiring experience.

This summer holiday was a particularly memorable one for me: I spent two and a half weeks up in Canberra at the Australian Earth and Environmental Science (EES) Olympiad Summer School. After sitting the national qualifying exam in August last year, 24 students from across the country were invited to participate in the intensive camp at the Australian National University (ANU) to expand our knowledge and appreciation of EES. I was able to attend thanks to support from Environment Education Victoria.

Before this camp, I had never had much exposure to or interest in EES. Apart from a few basic sessions on the rock cycle, ecosystems and the water cycle during my earlier education, I hadn’t had a chance to properly experience EES. Besides, it wasn’t particularly stimulating and seemed like useless trivia. The Earth just works the way it works, I thought, and what more is there to it? I am sure many other students have felt the same apathy towards the subject. What’s the point of studying it?

Given my decided lack of interest, I signed up for the Australian EES Olympiad exam largely on a whim. I knew some stuff about the environment and plate tectonics, which I thought might be enough to help me get through it. Armed with my limited knowledge, I walked in blind. Two hours later, I was feeling completely, ingloriously out of my depth.

It was an exasperating experience well out of my comfort zone, and I walked out of the exam feeling grateful that I would never have to touch EES ever again – or so I thought! You can imagine the surprise a few months later when I was on the phone being offered a spot at the Olympiad Summer School.

After some incredulous laughter, I decided to accept my place. With an open mind and a willingness to explore something new, I set off to discover what the deal really is about earth and environmental science. As I dived headfirst into my readings and assignments, I soon began to realise that bad rock puns weren’t the most interesting thing about EES. I started appreciating the holistic nature of the study.

By virtue of the fact that it is the study of an entire planet, EES encompasses many broad regions of study, analysing their interactions and linking them all together to give an awe-inspiring bigger picture of the world we live in. It is not a restricted, rigid study for only the most esoteric of scholars, but a vibrant and dynamic study of the world with wideranging applications and implications for everyone.

Entering the summer school environment was both exciting and intimidating. EES is the youngest of the four Science Olympiad disciplines that Australia participates in on an international level, along with chemistry, physics and biology. There was plenty of hype about the other three, which have been around for decades, but EES is the young, growing underdog program. It is certainly less well known than the other more ‘traditional’ science disciplines!

YiJie holding a meteorite – it’s heavier than it looks!.

Photography: YiJie Neo Volume 40

As such, one of the aims of the enthusiastic and determined EES Summer School staff is to open the

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Visit to Mt Stromlo Observatory to learn about other planetary systems and how they help us understand more about Earth.

Photography: Sacha Mann Right: Fieldwork: identifying rocks and discussing the geological history of Mt Ainslie. Photography: Sacha Mann

eyes of aspiring young scientists to the complexities and beauties of our planet as studied in EES. The academic program at the summer school is built around the concept of the five ‘spheres’: the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere and exosphere. We spent time exploring content related to each of the spheres, with a strong focus on how they all interconnect. Any attempt to explain planetary phenomena necessitates a thorough understanding of all spheres and the intricate interactions between them, as no one system is unaffected by the others.

Needless to say, there was plenty of content for us to cover in a very short amount of time. In order to mix things up and keep us engaged through the intense period, we explored content and practised skills through a variety of lectures and practical lab work, like rock, mineral and fossil identification. Video tutorials and workshops allowed us to have handson experiences investigating tricky concepts like the Coriolis effect, seismic activity, contamination of groundwater systems, and fluid dynamics in the oceans. Field trips and group work encouraged us to learn more about what science out in the real world looks like, how to conduct investigations and how to apply what we’d been learning in the classroom in practical situations. Guest speakers from the university presented their work and took us on tours of their labs. Singing and dancing also featured strongly in our sessions, and our plate tectonic dance was, dare I say, perfected by the end of the two and a half weeks!

What really struck me by the end of the summer school was how much my view of earth and environmental science had changed. Who would have thought that there was so much to understanding the Earth and its history? Who would have thought that there is still so much left to learn about the world we live in? Contrary to what I once thought, the study of the Earth is not dry and boring, but living and evolving. The delicate systems on Earth that maintain life as we know it may not have operated in the past, and certainly come with no guarantee of staying the same in the future. Our planet is constantly changing, but when humans, a terrifyingly powerful agent of change, begin to shift the system out of balance too fast, we begin to compromise our own chance of survival on this beautiful planet that we call home.

We live on, influence and are influenced by a lively planet that we don’t fully understand. Many of its mysteries and secrets are yet to be discovered. Before we go on taking it for granted and using it for what we wish, it is important to have a healthy awe and respect for all its wonders. And that is why it is important to study earth and environmental science.

F U R T H E R I N F O R M AT I O N

YiJie Neo is a Year 12 student at John Monash Science School with a curiosity and passion for all things scientific. neo0001@jmss.vic.edu.au

EIN G AN A | 49

EINGANA The Journal of Environment Education Victoria

Education is a natural process carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences in the natural environment.

Maria Montessori