Using the perspectives, behaviours, and environmental values, beliefs, and norms of a school's staff, we investigated the features of a long-term environmental education program. This case study answers the following questions: How has the Lesser Kestrel environmental education program survived for almost two decades and become institutionalised into the school culture? What are the features of the environmental education program at Falcon School that allowed it to endure despite clear obstacles? We inductively analysed documents, focus group transcriptions, and individual interviews. Our findings indicate the goals of the Lesser Kestrel environmental education program and principles of values-beliefs-norms theory were strongly aligned along five main features: leadership and vision, human and economic resources, nature connectedness and conservation, community engagement, and tradition (which united the first four features). We conclude that these features work collectively to integrate the surrounding community into Falcon School's culture and long-term environmental education program.

Education for Sustainability (EfS) has been prioritised in the School of Education at James Cook University (JCU), Townsville, Australia. This article presents a case study that explores the ways in which teacher educators integrate EfS in their teaching in the Bachelor of Education (BEd) (Primary) at JCU, and their perceptions of enablers and constraints. Two key findings arose from the analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with four subject coordinators, and their subject outlines: (1) teacher educators at JCU integrate EfS in different ways through their choice of assessment, content and/or pedagogy; and (2) constraints operating at the school level, namely teacher educators’ perceptions and understanding of EfS, were perceived to be salient challenges to the integration of EfS in the program. Vision, leadership and funding at the university level were also identified as enabling factors that warrant further investigation. Findings contribute to existing literature regarding the integration of EfS in preservice teacher education, and serve to inform practice at JCU and universities more broadly.

This article offers a perspective from early childhood care and education in Aotearoa New Zealand. It draws from the data of four recent studies to demonstrate pedagogical practices informed by Indigenous (Māori) perspectives. Māori values, such as manaakitanga (caring, hospitality, generosity) and whanaungatanga (relatedness), are shown featuring in routines focused on provision of food and serving as a key focus of early childhood education for sustainability. It is argued that providing opportunities for children to become engaged with growing, cooking and sharing food enables them to operationalise compassion towards themselves, others and the environment, reconnecting with the source of their food and demonstrating generosity and care to others (both human and more-than-human) in their communities. This can be viewed as a pedagogical response to the increasing encroachment of neoliberalism, with its incumbent individualism and lack of collectivist consciousness or concern for the environment, into education settings. Furthermore, drawing upon Indigenous perspectives honours traditional, localised wisdom regarding sustainability practices.

This paper reports the outcomes of the second action cycle of an ongoing project at Edith Cowan University (ECU) called Transition to Sustainability: ECU South West which is located in a small, single faculty regional university campus. The overall project has comprised three action research cycles, the frst of which was the planning cycle which established the importance of building a community of practice with a learning stance for sustainability transition. It also highlighted the issue of a common defnition of the term sustainability; of including cross-disciplinary perspectives; and of working with the local community. The second action cycle which was the frst implementation phase, is the subject of this report. In this phase, we found that by not foreclosing on the meaning of sustainability, important aspects of sustainability were included. Although research participants initially expressed some concern about using an open understanding of sustainability, the problem of the meaning functioned to foster involvement in dialogue. In fact, these ongoing discussions around sustainability and the notion of a sustainable future formed the heart of this action cycle. However there were constraints associated with the subject of dialogue. These included problems of site communication, the maintenance of effective networks and issues around power and authorisation. We observed that each of these elements could work together in ways that enrich and/or obstruct a transition to sustainability. Finally, we found that lack of time hinders participation in sustainability transition projects because of its effect on authentic dialogue, thereby impacting upon the development of collaborative ways of working within the university. Our project is distinctively Australian in that it reflects an emerging movement in Australia to create social frameworks for embedding sustainability education activities. In our project, the transition process by which learning and change has been facilitated comprises the action research itself.

If the dawn of the Anthropocene heralds the collapse of the natural and social sciences into a single geostory, then why not also a radical synthesis of the anthropocentrism of Marxist theorising with the biocentrism of Deep Ecology? This article proposes just such a unification for theorising education. First, those on the educational left who wish to develop a fundamental unity between red and green should perhaps unearth the roots of Deep Ecological thinking and delve into the long and manifold history of socialist movements, with the aim of identifying where, between the deep red and deep green, might lie some shared origins in common ground. The flawed but nevertheless distinctive monism of the first philosopher of Marxism, Joseph Dietzgen, offers a philosophy that both prefigures the cosmology of Deep Ecology and suggests means of reconciling the narrative of human toil and ‘progress’ with that of human ‘nestedness’. The task facing the socialist looking to explore such a possibility needs to be located principally at the level of ‘cosmic’, rather than ‘social’ ontology, and this article sketches the outlines of such a unity project. Second, from this synthesis flows a set of implications for education and human growth. As the article explains, themes such as alienation and subjectification that cross-pollinate the theoretical perspectives might serve as central motifs in a red biocentric educational project fit for the Anthropocene. It is not solely environmental education, but approaches to education more broadly that require reconceptualisation for the Anthropocene.

Rapid changes to resource and environmental management systems are occurring in Australia. These include increased emphasis on a whole-of-ecosystem approach, adaptive management, and community participation in decision-making. The need to respond to these rapid changes raises new educational challenges, which are being addressed in the Resource and Environmental Management program at Macquarie University through a round table exercise in environmental decision-making. Using an environmental flow allocation scenario, with a combination of face-to-face meetings and online tasks, this role-play activity requires students to assume a stakeholder role, formulate a position paper, question the views of other stakeholders, and negotiate to reach a consensus-based outcome. A key outcome is the learners' active engagement in an authentic task that exposes them to many of the uncertainties they will face in professional practice.

This paper focuses on a case study of the collaborative development of an environmental education unit involving the use of puppetry and drama. The collaboration was between an experienced classroom teacher beginning to use drama, and a drama/environmental educator and researcher. The critical lens for the analysis was sustainability education, including how this aligns with some recent theory on multiplist and evaluativist meaning-making. It is argued that these modes of meaning-making are necessary pedagogical goals of an eco-connected pedagogy. This case study showed that collaborative planning, implementation and reflection of drama pedagogy was not only a catalyst for more complex and deeper levels of meaning-making for the classroom teacher, but also prompted discussion about other important issues such as the quality of student engagement, classroom power dynamics and authentic assessment. In addition the teacher observed a range of outcomes achieved by her students that align with sustainability education as they became immersed in a dramatic world. In particular she observed that the students, through role-playing and writing about points of view not necessarily their own, developed deeper understandings demonstrating multiplist and evaluativist meaning creation.

We argue that to face climate change, all education, from kindergarten to tertiary, needs to be underpinned by environmental education. Moreover, as a site of reframing, education when coupled with philosophy is a possible site of influencing societal reframing in order to re-examine our relations to nature or our natural environment. However, we contend that as philosophy has been largely absent from curricula, it is vital to redress this issue. Further, the environment cannot be viewed simply as subject matter for study but, reconceptualised in the Indigenous sense as Place. Only in this way can we overcome the human-nature divide. We conclude that educators must look for what Plumwood calls ‘experiences that do not fit the dominant story’ to disrupt an important link in the chain of climate change by developing ‘traitorous identities’ able to challenge the dominant culture.

The aim of this study was to assess the environmental attitudes, knowledge and behaviours of young people aged 11 - 16 years, and evaluate which factors best predict ecological behaviour, through testing the Model of Responsible Environmental Behaviour' (Hines, Hungerford & Tomera 1986-1987). Results indicted that while young people are not negatively disposed toward the environment, they have limited knowledge about the issues. Perceived personal responsibility toward the environment was shown to be the strongest predictor of ecological behaviour, followed by ‘action skills’ for boys and knowledge levels for girls.

To what extent are young people committed to or apathetic about environmental conservation, and what do they see as the barriers with respect to taking environmental action? One aim of the study reported in this paper was to assess the environmental attitudes, knowledge and behaviours of young people aged 11 - 16, and to assess gender differences in these variables. A second aim was to evaluate which factors best predict ecological behaviour in young people, through testing a model which incorporates environmental knowledge, attitudes, perceived action skills, beliefs about personal responsibility, and other personal factors as potential predictors. This ‘Model of Responsible Environmental Behaviour’ (Hines, Hungerford & Tomera 1986-1987) has not been previously applied to the prediction of adolescent ecological behaviour, by which we mean ‘any action taken to ensure that ecological relationships among living things do not deteriorate’ (Caltabiano & Caltabiano 1995, p. 1080).

Young people's relationships to the environment are important developmentally, and because adolescents are the ‘next generation’ of potential activists for environmental concerns. The task of identity formation (or development of a ‘sense of self’) in adolescence has been conceptualised as including the shaping and maturing of a personal ideology, with its associated beliefs, values, and behaviours (Erikson 1971, Kroger 1989). Marcia (1966) using Erikson's framework, conceived of ideology as incorporating views about religion and politics. However as social concerns change, so might the importance of different content areas for the formulation of ideology (Bennion & Adams 1986). For young people today, thinking about environmental concerns and dilemmas may be part of their identity development in the sense that such thoughts may be part of forming an ideology about the world. In Australia, the National Union of Students surveyed 7,400 students in 1990 and found that ‘the environment was hottest election issue amongst university students in Australia’ (cited in Youth Research Centre 1991, p. 3). Similar findings of strong environmental concern have been found in a range of other Australian studies of adolescent populations (Clark 1996, Connell el al. 1998, Iiving Saulwick & Associates 2000, Sykes, Yencken. Fien & Choo 2000). Environmental concerns involve several aspects, including attitudes toward the environment, knowledge of issues, and participation in pro-environmental behaviour. It is to these topics that we now turn.

WWOOF (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) is an increasingly popular form of ecotourism in Australia. An ethnographic study of 10 young adult international tourists was conducted at five rural Victorian WWOOF sites. The objective was to examine the participants’ nature experience. As part of the ethnographic study, this article selectively reports on the ecopedagogy at the WWOOF sites, focusing on the potential linking of spatio-sensory ‘doing’ in the environment and conceptual ‘learning’ about (including from, for, and with) the environment. The WWOOF environment is designed physically, materially, and naturally. These dimensions can be interpreted in overlapping spatial levels. Each spatial level partially correlates with the dominant bodily senses. By analysing the participants’ reflexive accounts of their WWOOF nature experience, this article suggests that their spatio-sensory ‘doing’ contributed to their environmental ‘learning’, which is categorised into three heuristic types. These are called symbolic, transpositional, and transformative. This study empirically and conceptually adds to the literature on experiential environmental learning with a possible ecopedagogical model of incorporating spatialised bodily senses in curriculum design.

Concern for the environment has traditionally been associated with youth. Studies in the USA over the past twenty-five years have consistently shown that environmental concern declines with age (Buttel, 1979; Van Liere and Dunlap, 1980; Lowe, Pinhey and Grimes, 1980; Lowe and Pinhey, 1982; Honnold, 1981, 1984; Mohai and Twight, 1987; Arcury and Christianson, 1990). Just why this is so has been a matter of some dispute; the ‘aging’ hypothesis suggests that it is due to the socio-biological aging process; the ‘cohort’ hypothesis points to the differential influence of important historical events on birth cohorts, particularly in their formative years; and the “period” hypothesis proposes that both of these processes can be over-ridden as all age cohorts adapt to changing social, cultural and economic circumstances. Both the ‘cohort’ hypothesis (Mohai and Twight, 1987; Samdahl and Robertson, 1989) and the ‘period’ hypothesis (Honnald, 1984) have received some support.

A recent study in Australia (Blaikie, 1992) has offered some support for the ‘cohort’ hypothesis but has shown that the relationship between age and Ecological World View (environmental attitudes) is curvi-linear rather than linear. The strongest commitment to an Ecological World View (EWV) is to be found in a middle-aged cohort; younger cohorts hold a middle position and older cohorts have the lowest level of commitment. It would appear that this middle-aged cohort was influenced in its youth by the earlier wave of environmental concern in the 1970s, and it has either maintained this level of concern, or had it revived in the more recent wave. Today's younger generation has not reached this same level of concern, perhaps because of the differences in socio-economic climate between the 1970s and the present, and their greater susceptibility to the effects of the current recession.

Despite increasing recognition that whole-school approaches to sustainability have an important contribution to make in moving society towards a more sustainable existence, progress in this area remains slow. By examining the practices of the Ananda Marga River School, a small independent school in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland of Queensland, this paper aims to provide ideas and encouragement for teachers and school managers who wish to maximise the influence that schools can have on creating a more sustainable future. The following case study highlights the School's success at implementing practices that focus not only on resource management and greening the school grounds, but also on areas such as governance, partnerships, pedagogical approaches and curriculum development.

We tell the story of an experience Kate Dawson, her students, and three eagles had at an outdoor preschool. The experience profoundly affected Kate, and prompted us to ask the following questions: What made this experience feel so magical, and what caused it to happen? Why are these magical moments valuable, and how might they impact our pedagogical practices? We posit that magical moments in outdoor early childhood education depend upon relational and pathic knowledge, and understanding of place, rather than intellectual or cognitive knowledge about place. We suggest conditions and practices educators may employ to foster magical moments, including slow ecopedagogy and embodied, sensory, and spiritual attunement to place. We consider our role as educators in the educator-students-place system, particularly when acknowledging that place is agentic, and acts as learner, knower and teacher. To understand place pedagogically, we must think of ourselves as learners and as the objects of learning, as much as thinking of ourselves as knowers. This requires a pedagogy of embodied responsiveness and a surrender to place as teacher. Far from simplifying the work of the educator, living within a relationship of educator-students-place complexifies the practice of teaching.

The benefits of community environmental education outlined in environmental education literature are supported by the findings and implications of a research study undertaken in New Zealand. Evidence from a two-case case study suggests that environmental programmes guided by the key principles and practices of community environmental education, that is, public participation, environmental adult education and environmental communication, can produce effective environmental outcomes. Indeed, these cases indicate that the principles and practices of public participation provide a catalyst for genuine collaborative efforts between different organisations and local communities. Results also indicated that environmental adult education strategies can empower community members to critically evaluate local environmental issues, which in turn resulted in a commitment to improving the local environment. I thus argue in this paper that the principles and practices of community environmental education can provide benchmarks for cross-sectoral collaboration and assist communities in reaching environmental solutions.

The aim of this paper is to address the issue of the coherence of three dimensions of environmental education activities - its substantive purposes; the research informing its policy, organisation and practices; and the professional development processes supporting its practitioners. It will be argued (i) that the purposes of environmental education are socially transformative, (ii) that the dominant approach to research in the field is behaviourist and deterministic, and (iii) that within a context of socially transformative environmental education, the role that the dominant behaviourist approach to research plays in professional development needs to be critically examined. The paper outlines a current international project in environmental education which includes in its aims an exploration of the relationships among environmental education purposes, research and professional development.

In the Anthropocene, universities play a role in developing students’ sustainability literacy and capacity to solve socio-ecological challenges. The objective of this study is to identify the generic and sustainability-oriented skills and competencies required of business graduates by regional employers. The regional focus meets a gap in the literature. An online survey of employers in North Queensland found that they attach importance to a wide range of skills and competencies and see sustainability as a key factor in future business success. Yet, there are contradictions in terms of their support for sustainability in the curriculum and business practices, particularly when it comes to the recruitment and selection process. Furthermore, contradictions exist between the university’s adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the weak interest displayed by prospective employers in graduates’ sustainability literacy. This study has important implications for regional universities. A reframing of the role of sustainability education in the curriculum is warranted, where a deeper connection is made between sustainability education and the values employers already hold. Recommendations for curriculum designers are made on how to foster and assess the competencies that business graduates need to meet the demands of regional business upon entering the labour market.

Drawing on a posthuman lens we walk — with Deborah Bird Rose and her conceptual framing of shimmer. We explore shimmering as incorporating a sensorial richness, as beauty and grandeur, as constantly in flux, moving between past, future and back again. Shimmering has potentiality in a posthuman context in its encompassing of spiritual and ancestral energies and illumination of the human (settler) story of exceptionalism. By theorising shimmer with this posthuman lens, we acknowledge and honour the eco-ethico consciousness raised by Australian ecophilosophers and ecofeminists such as Deborah Bird Rose and Val Plumwood, and the social ecologists who have continued to walk with them. In order to disrupt anthropocentricism and present a moral wake-up call that glows from dull to brilliance in these precarious times, we bring to environmental education the potential of holding the shimmering past tracings of theory along with us on our journeys.

Despite the essentiality of freshwater to all life on the planet, the populous has inadequate understandings of water. Formal education plays a key role in shaping how individuals and communities make sense of water, its accessibility, management, consumption, and hazards. This article seeks to bring attention to the influence of cultural framings of freshwater and extreme freshwater events (such as flood and drought) in government-mandated school curricula in two water-vulnerable geographical regions of Australia and Canada. We seek to identify and respond to hegemonic social constructions that become naturalised if left unexamined. By examining the agendas and language around freshwater and extreme freshwater events in formal educational curricula, we gain a better understanding of the perceptions and assumptions made about freshwater. The results highlight that freshwater and extreme freshwater events are minimally conceptualised within these curricula as ‘nature-based’, rather than being part of a dialectical relationship with societal agendas and practices. This article discusses the implications of this framing and the psychological barriers that may affect the acknowledgment and investigation of extreme freshwater events. We conclude by offering curricular suggestions that invite community-based understandings of the dialectic relationship freshwater has with communities and regional ecosystems.

Such enthusiasm for a perceived new paradigm in the mathematical sciences is beginning to emerge within broader educational contexts (Devaney & Keen, 1989; Egnatoff, 1989; Geake, 1990a & 1990b). Much of the interest in fractal geometry has focussed on its ability to describe complex natural phenomena (Mandelbrot, 1983 & 1990; Pickover, 1987; Barnsley, 1988). Recent investigations into the visual perception of natural imagery have used fractal mathematics in describing the characteristics of such perception (Pentland, 1984; Field, 1987; Peli, 1990). This study examined human visual perception of the fractal form found in the natural environment. Specifically, this research project examined how exposure to a program of fractal computer graphics affected the perceptual sensitivity of primary school children to the natural visual environment. The underpinning rationale was to address a long standing challenge of Linke (1980) to develop a stronger theoretical basis for environmental education in Australia.