Education Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …