title: Intersections between place-responsive outdoor education and environmental action: Transforming secondary students' ethic of care into action.

authors: Martindale, Joanne

subjects: environmental action

abstract: There has been growing concern expressed about the disconnection of people, and particularly young people, from nature. This detachment from the natural world is visible through media and movies with an increased reference to the urban, human-made environment since the 1950’s. Additionally, it is observable in our overuse of the Earth's resources and slow change to more sustainable behaviour. The cost of this disconnection from nature is on our physical and psychological well-being. It reduces appreciation and attachment to place. This study looks at connecting secondary students to their place through a place-responsive outdoor education journey and explores how the journey can influence their developing ethic of care for place. 

Place-responsive outdoor education is one way to potentially connect and ‘re-wild’ our school students to their place and nature. Through this, they may develop an ethic of care. There is then an assumption that by developing an ethic of care and responding to place, people will take action to look after or improve their place. However, little research has been conducted to date to show that there is a link between attachment to place and pro-environmental behaviour or taking action. The second part of this research explored how any potential ethic of care developed from the place-responsive outdoor education journey could be transformed into motivation for students to act for place, by adapting the place-responsive outdoor education journey to incorporate environmental advocacy sessions using Birdsall's (2010) model for learning about environmental action.

This research uses a phenomenography approach to study the experiences of a group of secondary school students engaging in a place-responsive outdoor education journey and their responses to the journey. Twelve students came on the journey and six of these participated in the study. Data were gathered using photo-elicitation interviews based on photographs the students took during the place-responsive outdoor education journey. The students then attended a series of environmental advocacy sessions based on the journey to help them reflect and consider what response they might make to their experiences. A second interview was then held with each student after these sessions to explore their perceptions of an ethic of care leading to action. Data in the form of interview transcripts and observational notes were analysed and thematically organised. 

The first part of the study highlights the significance of a slow pedagogy to the place-responsive outdoor journey and the enjoyment by the students. Contextual factors like the weather had an impact on the students.  The journey also emphasised the importance of community and social interaction for the students. At the end of the place-responsive outdoor education journey, the students expressed a sense of accomplishment and a deeper connection to the city, realising it was more than just shopping malls.

The students indicated great enthusiasm and motivation to take action as the environmental advocacy sessions began. The students decided to use a voting system to decide on the final action to take, which lead to some students disengaging at this point as they may not have seen the relevance to them of the specific action chosen. For many of the students, other priorities and pressures made them feel too busy to have the time to take action. The findings indicate that students who have had repeat visits to place have a stronger connection to it and suggest this is a predictor of them continuing to taking action or display pro-environmental behaviour in response to their experiences.

text: Intersections between place-responsive outdoor education and environmental action: Transforming secondary students' ethic of care into action. There has been growing concern expressed about the disconnection of people, and particularly young people, from nature. This detachment from the natural world is visible through media and movies with an increased reference to the urban, human-made environment since the 1950’s. Additionally, it is observable in our overuse of the Earth's resources and slow change to more sustainable behaviour. The cost of this disconnection from nature is on our physical and psychological well-being. It reduces appreciation and attachment to place. This study looks at connecting secondary students to their place through a place-responsive outdoor education journey and explores how the journey can influence their developing ethic of care for place. 

Place-responsive outdoor education is one way to potentially connect and ‘re-wild’ our school students to their place and nature. Through this, they may develop an ethic of care. There is then an assumption that by developing an ethic of care and responding to place, people will take action to look after or improve their place. However, little research has been conducted to date to show that there is a link between attachment to place and pro-environmental behaviour or taking action. The second part of this research explored how any potential ethic of care developed from the place-responsive outdoor education journey could be transformed into motivation for students to act for place, by adapting the place-responsive outdoor education journey to incorporate environmental advocacy sessions using Birdsall's (2010) model for learning about environmental action.

This research uses a phenomenography approach to study the experiences of a group of secondary school students engaging in a place-responsive outdoor education journey and their responses to the journey. Twelve students came on the journey and six of these participated in the study. Data were gathered using photo-elicitation interviews based on photographs the students took during the place-responsive outdoor education journey. The students then attended a series of environmental advocacy sessions based on the journey to help them reflect and consider what response they might make to their experiences. A second interview was then held with each student after these sessions to explore their perceptions of an ethic of care leading to action. Data in the form of interview transcripts and observational notes were analysed and thematically organised. 

The first part of the study highlights the significance of a slow pedagogy to the place-responsive outdoor journey and the enjoyment by the students. Contextual factors like the weather had an impact on the students.  The journey also emphasised the importance of community and social interaction for the students. At the end of the place-responsive outdoor education journey, the students expressed a sense of accomplishment and a deeper connection to the city, realising it was more than just shopping malls.

The students indicated great enthusiasm and motivation to take action as the environmental advocacy sessions began. The students decided to use a voting system to decide on the final action to take, which lead to some students disengaging at this point as they may not have seen the relevance to them of the specific action chosen. For many of the students, other priorities and pressures made them feel too busy to have the time to take action. The findings indicate that students who have had repeat visits to place have a stronger connection to it and suggest this is a predictor of them continuing to taking action or display pro-environmental behaviour in response to their experiences.

year: 2017

title: The construction of Karen Karnak: The multi-author function

authors: Snake-Beings, Emit

abstract: The context of this article is the changes in authorship that have occurred within the comparatively recent developments of Web 2.0 and the emergence of interactive WikiMedia. The mode of authorship within a Read/Write culture, compared with that of a Read/Only tradition, is that the role of the audience has become merged with the author, and as such represents new functions and attributes. Modes of multi-authorship, demonstrated in the use of the pseudonyms Karen Karnak and Karen Eliot, represent declarative authors whose names signify multiple origins, while concurrently indicating a distinct body of work. The function of these names forms an important tool of deconstruction involving an experimental mode of multi-authorship utilising WikiMedia technology in the creation of a collective multi-author pseudonym, Karen Karnak. The article ends with a discussion of the implications of multi-authorship on the concept of the body of work, ownership and copyright.

text: The construction of Karen Karnak: The multi-author function The context of this article is the changes in authorship that have occurred within the comparatively recent developments of Web 2.0 and the emergence of interactive WikiMedia. The mode of authorship within a Read/Write culture, compared with that of a Read/Only tradition, is that the role of the audience has become merged with the author, and as such represents new functions and attributes. Modes of multi-authorship, demonstrated in the use of the pseudonyms Karen Karnak and Karen Eliot, represent declarative authors whose names signify multiple origins, while concurrently indicating a distinct body of work. The function of these names forms an important tool of deconstruction involving an experimental mode of multi-authorship utilising WikiMedia technology in the creation of a collective multi-author pseudonym, Karen Karnak. The article ends with a discussion of the implications of multi-authorship on the concept of the body of work, ownership and copyright.

year: 2013

title: What does it take to make us listen? The experiences of those leading whole school reform to improve outcomes for indigenous minority students

authors: Buckley, Louise Jane

subjects: Education

abstract: This thesis examines how the Kia Eke Panuku: Building on Success school reform initiative shaped the experiences of groups of educators within mainstream New Zealand secondary schools. These experiences are analysed against a setting of colonisation and historic educational policies of assimilation and integration that have created a situation of education debt. The lack of power for Māori in education is evident. This study highlights the role of the Strategic Change Leadership Team in deconstructing power hierarchies within schools so that educational outcomes can be improved for Māori students. It presents the Strategic Change Leadership Team as the vehicle for conscientisation, resistance and transformative praxis within schools. It shows that in schools where power hierarchies were deconstructed, Māori students were able to enjoy educational success as Māori.

text: What does it take to make us listen? The experiences of those leading whole school reform to improve outcomes for indigenous minority students This thesis examines how the Kia Eke Panuku: Building on Success school reform initiative shaped the experiences of groups of educators within mainstream New Zealand secondary schools. These experiences are analysed against a setting of colonisation and historic educational policies of assimilation and integration that have created a situation of education debt. The lack of power for Māori in education is evident. This study highlights the role of the Strategic Change Leadership Team in deconstructing power hierarchies within schools so that educational outcomes can be improved for Māori students. It presents the Strategic Change Leadership Team as the vehicle for conscientisation, resistance and transformative praxis within schools. It shows that in schools where power hierarchies were deconstructed, Māori students were able to enjoy educational success as Māori.

year: 2020