Kimberley Transitions: Collaborating To Care For Our Common Home. Beginnings..., Sandra Wooltorton, Sandy Toussaint, Anne Poelina, Anne Jennings, Stephen Muecke, Kevin Kenneally, Jacqueline Remond, Schipf Arjati, Louisa Stredwick
Aug 2019
Kimberley Transitions: Collaborating To Care For Our Common Home. Beginnings..., Sandra Wooltorton, Sandy Toussaint, Anne Poelina, Anne Jennings, Stephen Muecke, Kevin Kenneally, Jacqueline Remond, Schipf Arjati, Louisa Stredwick
Sandra Wooltorton
This scoping paper is a preliminary introduction to the aspirations, interrelated literature and research involved in development of the Kimberley Transitions project. Our focus is on northern Western Australia’s Kimberley region, a landscape of immense natural and cultural significance. Along with the rest of Australia and indeed the world in which we all live, the Kimberley is on the verge of major climate, political, social and economic change. The direction of changes being proposed by governments and industry are regularly criticized, both globally and locally, by individuals and organisations concerned about damage to its rich biodiversity and cultural integrity. With …
Living Water: Groundwater And Wetlands In Gnangara, Noongar Boodjar, Sandra Wooltorton, Len Collard, Pierre Horwitz
Mar 2019
Living Water: Groundwater And Wetlands In Gnangara, Noongar Boodjar, Sandra Wooltorton, Len Collard, Pierre Horwitz
Sandra Wooltorton
Different languages, knowledge systems and ways of knowing impact upon shared understandings of place across and within landscapes. In this article we illustrate ways in which Noongar and English language-based understandings of groundwater and wetland interactions can inform a third space. Noongar knowledges recognise deep interdependences across social, linguistic, ecological, physical and spiritual domains, while English ways of knowing highlight separations and abstractions such as those between people and nature, and spirit and matter. The English language assumes a linear sense of time in which the past is always behind the present, where going forward is associated with progress. Noongar …
Confronting, Collaborating, And Crafting: An Enlivening Methodology For Academic Ecojustice Activism, Peta White, Sandra Wooltorton, Marilyn Palmer
Apr 2018
Confronting, Collaborating, And Crafting: An Enlivening Methodology For Academic Ecojustice Activism, Peta White, Sandra Wooltorton, Marilyn Palmer
Sandra Wooltorton
In order to strengthen academic ecojustice activism, we share tales of challenge and success from a collaborative auto-ethnographic project located in three contexts across Australia. We describe and theorise how we knead critical events to deconstruct and then reconstruct them for the purpose of activism. The process is one of collectively scaffolding and layering our understandings of these events, sharing alternative perspectives and then crafting fictionalised stories which we share to illustrate our methods and findings. The purpose of our practice is to stay open to different perspectives and to hold self and others to account to caring, loving ways …
Case Studies Of Training Advantage For Remote Aboriginal And Torres Strait Island Learners. Support Document., John Guenther, Melodie Bat, Anne Stephens, Janet Skewes, Bob Boughton, Frances Williamson, Sandra Wooltorton, Melissa Marshall, Anna Dwyer
Dec 2016
Case Studies Of Training Advantage For Remote Aboriginal And Torres Strait Island Learners. Support Document., John Guenther, Melodie Bat, Anne Stephens, Janet Skewes, Bob Boughton, Frances Williamson, Sandra Wooltorton, Melissa Marshall, Anna Dwyer
Sandra Wooltorton
The case studies that follow are a compilation of learnings derived from the research project, Enhancing training advantage for remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners. The project, funded by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), was conducted by a consortium of researchers from five institutions: TAFE SA, Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, University of New England, James Cook University and the University of Notre Dame Australia. The research was conducted during 2016 with participants from five locations: the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands of South Australia, the Northern Territory, western New South Wales, the Kimberley region of …
Transformative Education For Sustainability Transition At Edith Cowan University: A Discussion Paper, Sandra Woolltorton
Jun 2016
Transformative Education For Sustainability Transition At Edith Cowan University: A Discussion Paper, Sandra Woolltorton
Sandra Wooltorton
"Recently the Australian Government released a National Action Plan for sustainability education (DEWHA, 2009) that prescribes for universities a reorientation to sustainability through teaching and learning, research and campus management. It specifies a transformative approach to education, together with a whole‐of‐school, whole‐of‐system philosophy. In this paper I define ‘transformative education’ in the context of sustainability and discuss the implications of the National Action Plan for Edith Cowan University. I also conduct a reconnaissance of the sustainability websites of a small sample of international universities to consider the depth of their transformative approaches to teaching and learning. Finally, I ‘throw down …
Sustainability, Ambiguity And Aspiration In Teacher Education, Sandra Wooltorton
Jun 2014
Sustainability, Ambiguity And Aspiration In Teacher Education, Sandra Wooltorton
Sandra Wooltorton
The second strategy of the Australian government’s National Action Plan (NAP) for sustainability education is to reorient education systems to sustainability (Department of the Environment Water Heritage and the Arts [DEWHA], 2009). In this chapter, I put forward an activist-based socially critical viewpoint on the ambition to reorient education whilst uncovering a range of ambiguities, tensions and constraints which hinder meaningful change. I suggest that attention to these predicaments across curriculum, policy and accountability mechanisms will offer possibilities and hope. In this introductory section, I begin with the sustainability education NAP and provide a socio-ecological context before sketching out the …
A Process For Transition To Sustainability: Implementation, Sandra Wooltorton, Marilyn Palmer, Fran Steele
Jun 2011
A Process For Transition To Sustainability: Implementation, Sandra Wooltorton, Marilyn Palmer, Fran Steele
Sandra Wooltorton
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 first 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 definition of the term sustainability; of including cross-disciplinary perspectives; and of working with the local community. The second action cycle which …
A Process For Transition To Sustainability : Beginning., Sandra Wooltorton, Marilyn Palmer, Kerry Goodwin, David Paine
Jun 2010
A Process For Transition To Sustainability : Beginning., Sandra Wooltorton, Marilyn Palmer, Kerry Goodwin, David Paine
Sandra Wooltorton
In this paper we describe the background and first cycle of an action research project on the South West campus of Edith Cowan University (ECU South West) in Western Australia. The project was designed to reorient curriculum, teaching and learning to embed principles and practices of sustainability. The first action cycle ran for three months (following a three month reconnaissance period) and involved a series of meetings with campus staff, the writing of a grant application and inception report, a conference presentation, an art project and a collaborative writing endeavour for this paper. The planning, activities, observations and reflections of …
A Rapid Assessment Of Perceptions For Learning Community Development In Char Ung Kao Village, Char Ung Commune, Ou Chum District, Ratanakiri, Cambodia., Sandra Wooltorton
Jun 2008
A Rapid Assessment Of Perceptions For Learning Community Development In Char Ung Kao Village, Char Ung Commune, Ou Chum District, Ratanakiri, Cambodia., Sandra Wooltorton
Sandra Wooltorton
This report is designed to provide a basis for the Learning Community Development Project (LCDP) being
implemented by Live & Learn Environmental Education (L&L) in Char Ung Kao Village, Ratanakiri,
Cambodia. The idea of learning community development is to empower communities to take charge of
their own future in a sustainable way. The LCDP is a sub-component of the Rural Livelihoods
Improvement Project (RULIP).
This report was prepared using the data from the Rapid Assessment of Perceptions (RAP) that was
implemented by the L&L team in June 2008. The RAP is a battery of qualitative tools which use
participative ethnographic …
A Rapid Assessment Of Perceptions For Learning Community Development In Ka Chonn Leu Village, Ka Chonn Commune, Veun Sai District, Ratanakiri, Cambodia, Sandra Wooltorton
Jun 2008
A Rapid Assessment Of Perceptions For Learning Community Development In Ka Chonn Leu Village, Ka Chonn Commune, Veun Sai District, Ratanakiri, Cambodia, Sandra Wooltorton
Sandra Wooltorton
This report is designed to provide a basis for the Learning Community Development Project (LCDP) being
implemented by Live & Learn Environmental Education (L&L) in Ka Chonn Leu Village, Cambodia. The
idea of learning community development is to empower communities to take charge of their own future
in a sustainable way. The LCDP is a sub-component of the Rural Livelihoods Improvement Project
(RULIP).
This report was prepared using the data from the Rapid Assessment of Perceptions (RAP) that was
implemented by the L&L team in June 2008. The RAP is a battery of qualitative tools which use
participative ethnographic methods …
A Classroom Teacher's Reflection On Learning Sustainability, Sandra Wooltorton
Dec 2006
A Classroom Teacher's Reflection On Learning Sustainability, Sandra Wooltorton
Sandra Wooltorton
In 2004 I taught a class of 31 eleven and twelve year olds in a south-west Western Australian state primary school which I will call Forestdown. After critique and reflection on my 2004 teaching, in 2005 I taught half a day per week at the same school, this time with ten year olds. I used action research (Reason & Bradbury, 2001) to articulate my challenges and to formulate the approach I used to address them. The research context is a prosperous, business-as-usual culture built uupon a foundation of environmental destruction. Even though the children I taught in 2004 performed creditably …
Ecological Literacy: An Australian Perspective, Sandra Wooltorton
Aug 2006
Ecological Literacy: An Australian Perspective, Sandra Wooltorton
Sandra Wooltorton
As I begin to write this paper it is a still, windless autumn day in the tuart woodland in the south-west of Western
Australia. Rain is falling gently and in the bushes and trees there is a musical ensemble of rufous whistlers,
pee-wits, wrens, robins and wagtails. Occasional old jarrah trees spread their grey pin-striped trunks and
branches to display their brown, well-worn possum tracks, revealing use by the brush-tails in the safety of
night. The comparatively youthful peppermint and huge old tuart trees host the endangered ringtail possums that
come out in the dark, when the quenda scurries about …
A Participatory Approach To Learning Sustainability
Feb 2006
A Participatory Approach To Learning Sustainability
Sandra Wooltorton
I contend that for progress towards a sustainable future, we need an understanding of sustainability as having a core of reconnective learning as an inbuilt ‘driver’. Many writers such as Sterling (2001: 19) call for the elaboration of a new, lived paradigm of sustainable education and learning sustainability. In this chapter, I use notions of primary and secondary meaning and Heron’s (1996) and Reason’s (2004) framework of experiential, presentational, propositional and practical knowledge to propose a transformative, reconnective process for learning sustainability. I articulate a holistic, relational ontology and a participatory epistemology as the basis of the participatory approach. The …
On Wisdom For Our Future
Dec 2005
On Wisdom For Our Future
Sandra Wooltorton
It is early summer in the south-west of Western Australia, one of the most biodiverse eco-regions on earth. It is quiet now, late in the evening, while outside the wind stirs a gentle rustle in the tops of the tuart, jarrah, peppermint and banksia trees. In the scrubby undergrowth, the shy quenda is scurrying about, busily conducting her affairs in such a way that most of the humans are unaware of her presence. In the peppermint trees, the western ringtail possum will be similarly busy, along with the brush tail possum, the tawny frogmouth bird, the boobook owl and the …
Environmental Education In Action For The Future, Sandra Wooltorton, Dora Marinova
Dec 2005
Environmental Education In Action For The Future, Sandra Wooltorton, Dora Marinova
Sandra Wooltorton
We have known for quite a while that the planet we live on is under ecological stress. The beginning of this century however and 2006 in particular saw renewed concerns about humanity facing environmental challenges, threats and crises related to facts and perspectives on climate change. The economics of it as revealed in the Stern Review (2006) show that there is overwhelming scientific evidence that we must take action right now so that climate change will not increase its effect on the “the basic elements of life for people around the world – access to water, food production, health, and …
The Worsley Energy Challenge To Reduce Energy Consumption: Report On The Project Start-Up, Sandra Wooltorton, Richard Jeffreys
Dec 2005
The Worsley Energy Challenge To Reduce Energy Consumption: Report On The Project Start-Up, Sandra Wooltorton, Richard Jeffreys
Sandra Wooltorton
The Worsley Alumina Energy Challenge (WAEC) is an innovative sustainability education project that connects four schools, the South West branch of the Australian Association of Environmental Education (AAEE), two universities and a corporation, Worsley Alumina Pty Ltd (Worsley). As part of its corporate sustainability
responsibility, Worsley is providing renewable energy systems to the schools including photovoltaic, wind and biodiesel equipment. The type and size of the systems are based on each school's physical location, size and local community context. In turn, the schools have committed themselves to attempting to reduce their power consumption by 20% per capita over a five-year …
Progressing Towards Governance For Sustainability At Parkfield School: Making Connections Through Dialogical Design, Sandra Wooltorton, Alan Kidd
Jun 2003
Progressing Towards Governance For Sustainability At Parkfield School: Making Connections Through Dialogical Design, Sandra Wooltorton, Alan Kidd
Sandra Wooltorton
No abstract provided.
Education For Sustainability: A Background Paper Prepared For The State Sustainability Strategy, Sandra Wooltorton
Jan 2003
Education For Sustainability: A Background Paper Prepared For The State Sustainability Strategy, Sandra Wooltorton
Sandra Wooltorton
This paper commends the extensive variety of creative, locally responsive environmental education activities and programs being implemented by schools and teachers, with the support of environmental groups and agencies, throughout Western Australia. It endorses the Western Australian Curriculum Framework and national and draft Western Australian environmental education strategies and action plans. It acknowledges Department of Education action learning support programs for teachers as well as structures that support local community engagement in schools. These provide a strong foundation for education for sustainability.
The paper points out the scale of the global and local environmental problems still to be faced. A …
