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| Program chair's overview |
2002 Ecological and Environmental Education SIG Program The 2002 program is now complete. A total of 36 submissions were received, two of which were symposium sessions. The proposals were of a high quality and as a result the 2002 program promises to be interesting and stimulating. Two significant trends were apparent in the proposals: (1) the number of new researchers submitting high quality proposals, and (2) the number of proposals linking environmental/ ecological issues with social justice issues. As a result of these trends the program includes new researchers in high profile paper sessions, and the business meeting focuses on environmental and social justice issues. The SIG has five sessions: asymposium, a paper presentation session, the business meeting, paper discussion (round tables) and a new members' poster session. The Symposium (Monday 12.00-2.00) is led by Dr Robert Farrell and consists of a range of speakers who will discuss sustainability in primary and secondary school education. It looks to be a very interesting session and one that shouldn't be missed. The Business Meeting (Thursday 4.05-5.35) should promote stimulating discussion with speakers (Dr Valerie Wilson and Dr Sally O'Connor) from two local universities, Xavier and Tulane. The theme of the meeting is environment and social justice issues. Professor Peter Blaze Corcoran and Dr Richard Tchen will provide a broader overview of environment and social justice through their discussion on the promise of the Earth Charter. SIG members are encouraged to attend the business meeting and, if possible, bring along new members! The Paper Presentation (Thursday 2.15-3.45) is another session not to be missed. There are four presenters - each discussing exciting research projects. Two of the presenters are at the end stages of their PhDs and are presenting research from their respective studies. The Paper Discussion session (Tuesday 10.35-11.15, formerly known as Round Table session) is a mix of presenters from different parts of the world, and covering a range of topics including: research on environmental education in Brunei; sustainability in higher education; park visitors experiences of Yellowstone National Park; environmental education and contemporary art and popular media; teachers and environmental education; teacher training; and, field biology and environmental education. The New Members' Poster session (Monday, 4.05-5.35) is chaired by Professor Annette Gough and consists of research from Africa, the US, Australia and Latin America. Again, it should not be missed. A field trip, followed by dinner, is also planned for Wednesday afternoon. The field trip is a tour of three 'brownfield' sites in New Orleans. A description of the three sites is available by clicking here. The tour is an initiative of the New Orleans city council and will cover both the ecological and social implications of the three sites. It promises to be very interesting. The tour is not commonly available to tourists visiting New Orleans. We have hired a bus which will leave the front entrance of the Marriott at 2 pm and return at 5 pm. The dinner is at a highly recommended, relatively inexpensive, Creole restaurant, "Dickie Brennan's Palace Cafe" at 605 Canal St. Dinner commences at 7 pm and we will meet at the restaurant. The cost of the tour will be about $18.00 per head depending on the number going. You will need to pay in cash at the time of the tour. It is essential to book early as we have reserved only 25 places
for the tour and the dinner. Please email Kimewalker@aol.com
to make your reservation. It is not necessary to attend both events
but I do need to know which (or both) events you intend to attend. I also wish to draw your attention - and encourage
you to attend - a paper being presented by SIG members in Division
G, 'Social, Cultural, and Historical Contexts of Educational Policy'
(Tuesday, 12:25:00 -1:55:00). Titled, 'Mainstreaming environmental
education: Reflections on Contract Research', the paper is being
presented by Justin S. Dillon, King's College London; Stephen R. Gough,
William A. Scott, Bath University; Kelly L. Teamey, King's College
London. See you in New Orleans. Kim Walker
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| Chair's report |
Should our SIG be renaming itself to the SIG on Education for Sustainability, or the Sustainability Education SIG, to reflect changes in ecological and environmental education? After all, the global 'sustainability' push - although the term never really took of in the United States it seems - has led to a reconceptualisation of environmental education in many cases. To speak of ecological education nowadays seems old fashioned and backward… Now we are educating for the values and competencies that are embedded in things like respect, pluralism, diversity, equality, equity and peace. Right? Looking over the presentations we had in New Orleans only two years ago, I noted that the research presented there, generally, did not reflect these changes. The focus tended to be on things like ecological understanding, changing student attitudes and behaviour, curriculum development in EE, biodiversity education, etc. Looking at this year's program - carefully put together by Kim Walker - I note that 'sustainability' is surfacing more frequently as an issue in education. Of course, we can raise questions with regards to the quick adoption of sustainability education or education for sustainability and with that, at least in many countries, the quick replacement of environmental education, certainly when this is done a-critically and driven by short-sighted pragmatism. But to the environmental education research community - let me for now stick to that old label - sustainability provides an opportunity to rethink the content, process and goals of the educational process and the way these elements are researched. I look forward to attending the many sessions that our SIG will have this year in New Orleans. Despite the demise of national funding for Environmental Education in the US - Bush Jr. has basically killed the Environmental Education bill signed by Bush Sr. in the early nineties - and a struggling NAAEE - memberships have been declining and so has the attendance of its national conferences - the interest in environmental education remains high in North America and certainly elsewhere in the world. The continued interest in our SIG reflects this interest, and if all of you visiting this web site and/or attending one of our sessions in New Orleans join us by paying a symbolic membership fee. I am confident that we will have at least as many sessions at the AERA meeting in 2003. I would like to draw your attention to our 2002 business meeting which - with the events of September 11th in mind - has the title of 'Educating between fear and hope: Creating a culture of peace and environmental justice'. The session will take place on Thursday late afternoon. At this meeting we will not only have some interesting guest speakers and something to eat and drink, but will also 'elect' a new program chair for our SIG. Finally I wish to thank Kim Walker for doing an outstanding job as program chair and Alan Reid for launching our SIG in cyberspace by creating a superb University of Bath-based SIG website. Arjen Wals |
