An "issue" of serendipity: the discourse of sustainability and environment (in) action.
Cutter-Mackenzie, Amy
ser*en*dip*ity [ser-uh n-dip-i-tee] --noun
1. a propensity for making desirable discoveries by accident.
2. good fortune; chance.
What leads someone to take environmental action? And what are the
culturally ingrained practices or discourses in doing so (or not doing
so)? Serendipitously, each of the contributions in this Issue of the
Australian Journal of Environmental Education (Volume 26) address these
important questions which speak to the discourse and action (or
inaction) of sustainability.
Fuller (this issue) begins his contribution with the
statement--"The search for sustainability will define this
century" (p. 7). Fuller takes the reader on a similar journey to
that of his tertiary engineering and architectural students where
together they attempt "to resuscitate the concept of
sustainability" (p. 8). It is particularly heartening to read that
students having undertaken such experiences state that they "will
never use these words (ie., sustainability, environmentally friendly,
green, low energy building and so on) so carelessly in future" (p.
15). Fuller applies pragmatic examples and materials which indeed
provide valuable lessons for the field/s of environmental education in
reclaiming sustainability and all its acquaintances.
Serendipitously, Whitehouse and Evans (this issue) follow a
somewhat similar line of thought focussing on the cultural discourse of
greenie and its hindrance to the implementation of sustainability in
northern regional Queensland primary schools. They eloquently present
the stories of four environmental educators (in four different state
primary school schools) all revealing that they did not wish to be
identified as greenies. Greenie is an unequivocally recognisable and
common-use community discourse in regional Australia. This led
Whitehouse and Evans to ask "to what extent did the primary school
educators interviewed wish to identify with the social identity of
'greenie'?" (p. 25). The simple answer was not at all.
They rejected being labelled greenie by others and did not label
themselves as greenie as a consequence of the ramifications of doing so
in socially conservative communities. As such, Whitehouse and Evans
carefully consider the pejorative aspect of this cultural discourse as
an impediment to the broader uptake of sustainability in regional
schools in Australia.
The final four papers of this issue turn focus (and conversation)
to the active or possibly inactive elements of environmental education
(and its research) through the guises of consumption, environmental
learning (and teaching) and behaviour change.
In a discussion paper (a somewhat think piece), Skouteris, Do,
Rutherford, Cutter-Mackenzie and Edwards (this issue) tackle the
intractable dilemma of childhood obesity and the implications for
environmental education. They discuss the complicated relationships
between young children's environmental beliefs and consumer
choices, and how those beliefs and behaviours are often in direct
contradiction as demonstrated through their consumer choices. Bringing
together research from a multitude of fields, they attempt to join the
dots and reveal that "media exposure (particularly commercial
television viewing) may be a significant "player" in the
prediction of childhood obesity" (p. 33). They further maintain
that "the extent to which young children connect their consumer
choices and the sustainability of the product/s they consume with their
overall health and wellbeing has not previously been researched"
(p. 33). To these ends, they extend a call for further research on this
socioecological phenomenon among young children and the influence of
digital media use on a child's consumer behaviours.
Ballantyne, Anderson and Packer (this issue) focus on the pedagogy
of environmental education in the natural environment. Drawing upon the
findings from an interpretive case study, the authors of this study
"investigate the value of combining experience-based fieldwork in a
mangrove and coastal environment with reflective and metacognitive
activities" (p. 47). The focus is on senior secondary students and
the particular pedagogies that may enhance their environmental learning.
Through this study, the authors contend that "the most effective
environmental learning experiences are likely to be those that integrate
learning in the natural environment with classroom learning strategies
(p. 47)".
Birdsall (this issue) asks the important question what empowers
students to act in an environmentally responsible way? She foregrounds
that such environmental action is commonly identified as a "central
goal of formal environmental education" (p. 65). Birdsall offers a
definition of environmentally responsible behaviour and identifies the
role that knowledge may play in such action (or inaction for that
matter). Three different lenses are utilised to investigate
children's (11-12 years) knowledge and their subsequent actions
developed in the participation of an environmental education programme.
Birdsall revealed that the participants' actions could be termed
action competence. She presents a useful three part model that may
assist students and teachers in further learning about the nature of
action.
Following on from Birdsall (serendipitously), Black, Davidson and
Retra (this issue) further focus on environmental action (and energy
consumption) among university students. The study specifically focuses
on intervention strategies in facilitating energy saving behaviour among
resident undergraduate university students. They maintain that "one
of the paradoxes of environmental psychology is that individuals'
generally hold pro-preservation attitudes but often engage in
environmentally unfriendly behaviours (Shipworth, 2000), often referred
to as the "value-action gap" (Kempton, Boster, & Hartley,
1995)" (p. 86). Skouteris et al. (this issue) identified a similar
behaviour trend (value-action gap) among very young children. Drawing
upon multiple intervention types (3), the findings provided evidence
that facilitation of intrinsically motivated behaviours can result in
reduced energy use and greenhouse gas emissions; thus environmental
action. Together these studies (Skouteris et al., Ballantyne et al.,
Black et al., Birdsall) are particularly helpful in further
understanding young people's participation (active / inactive) in
environmental education.
The final section of this AJEE Issue presents five
thought-provoking reviews of recent publications highly relevant to the
field of environmental education. These publications also
serendipitously speak to this Issue through respective foci on childhood
participation, learning, pedagogy and/or environmental action/inaction.
The reviews were undertaken by: Selby (Down to the Wire: Confronting
Climate Collapse, Orr); Sobel (Education for Sustainability in the
Primary Curriculum: A Guide for Teachers, Littledyke et al.); Schnack
(Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators, Sobel); Skamp
(Dirty Money--A Research Report on Australian Consumer Attitudes to
Global Warming and Environmental Policy, Neco Holdings); and Bone (Young
Children and the Environment: Early Education for Sustainability,
Davis).
As gestured in this issue, the discourse (language in particular)
of environmental education presents many challenges for researchers,
policy makers, curriculum writers and practitioners alike. Such
challenges also present opportunities in furthering dialogue as the
field/s of environmental education evolves and perhaps re-evolves.
The continuing and intractable dilemma of the
value-knowledge-action gap is equally challenging and very much part of
the same conversation as we work to enhance participation and learning
in environmental education. This Issue of Serendipity indeed seeks to
make inroads.
You don't reach Serendib by plotting a course for it. You have
to set out in good faith for elsewhere and lose your bearings ...
serendipitously (Barth, 1991, np).
Reference
Barth, J. (1991). The last voyage of somebody the sailor. New York:
Mariner Books.
Serendipity. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved January
10, 2011, from Dictionary.com website:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/serendipity