Search

In this article, the authors describe a cultural transformation to embrace community-engaged scholarship by faculty members in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia-Vancouver. They describe a transition from community-inquiry faculty projects to community-engaged action research projects achieved through organizational restructuring, curricular revision, and new teaching approaches; discuss the concepts that grounded their curricular revision; and report on the outcomes of their Faculty's transition. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

The "evidence-centered design" (ECD) framework is a powerful tool that supports careful and critical thinking about the identification and accumulation of evidence in assessment contexts. In this paper, we demonstrate how the ECD framework provides critical support for designing simulation studies to investigate statistical methods within an ill-defined methodological domain like games-based assessment. We discuss the design and selected findings of a complex simulation study to investigate the utility of statistics derived from a non -parametric method called "epistemic network analysis"; this method is used in practice for the analysis of real data from a suite of digital learning environments called "epistemic games." We present findings that show that one marginal ENA statistic, the "weighted density" statistic from social network analysis, has some ability to detect differences among a variety of simulated learners when they play different types of simulated games. Detection strength ranged from weak to strong, depending jointly on game design characteristics and the types of learners being compared. Our work illustrates the complex challenges of how best to describe, justify, and evaluate design decisions for simulation studies in the context of games-based assessment.

The Coeur d'Alene Reservation spans 345,000 acres of mountains and farmland in northern Idaho. Most people on the reservation live in the communities of Worley, Plummer, Tensed, and Desmet. Roughly 50 miles south of Plummer is the University of Idaho's main campus in Moscow. The university is Idaho's land-grant institution, with a statewide mission of teaching, research, and outreach. Through its strategic plan, the university is committed to partnerships like Better Together, a university-community partnership in which university faculty members and students work across disciplines to address critical issues, side by side with communities. Better Together brought together two university programs--Horizons and the Building Sustainable Communities Initiative (BSCI)--with people in communities on the Coeur d'Alene Reservation. The communities partnered with the university through University of Idaho Extension's Horizons program to expand leadership capacity and reduce poverty. For its part, the university partnered with the communities first as part of its outreach mission (through Horizons), and then, building from the Horizons relationship, to give its students real-world learning experiences. From 2006 through 2009, local residents interacted with University of Idaho faculty members and students in a variety of settings--community leadership training, broad-based community visioning, activities to reduce poverty, land use planning sessions, and social events. Two years after the main programs ended, there are positive outcomes for the communities as well as the university. This article describes the University of Idaho's partnership with the Coeur d'Alene Reservation Communities, which was awarded a 2010 Outreach Scholarship/W. K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award for the Western Region. (Contains 1 figure.)

Invasive alien species (IAS) cause major environmental and economic damage worldwide, and also threaten human food security and health. The impacts of IAS are expected to rise with continued globalization, land use modification, and climate change. Developing effective strategies to deal with IAS requires a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach, in which scientists work co-operatively with social scientists and policy-makers. Higher education can contribute to this process by training professionals to balance the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of the IAS problem. We examined the extent of such training in Canada by reviewing undergraduate and graduate university curricula at all 94 member institutions of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada for IAS content. We found that degree and diploma programs focusing on IAS issues are lacking at Canadian post-secondary institutions. Furthermore, few courses are devoted solely to IAS, and those that are typically adopt an ecological perspective. We argue that the absence of interdisciplinary university curricula on IAS in Canada negatively affects our ability to respond to this growing global challenge. We present several international educational programs on IAS as case studies on how to better integrate training on invasive species into university curricula in Canada. (Contains 1 table.)

NIMBYism, the popular and short form for "Not In My Back Yard", describes the resistance and outright opposition by residents, either within a distinct place such as a neighbourhood, or, more broadly, in a larger civic area right up to a town or city level, against some planned nearby facility, service, or changed land use. NIMBYism is also about people's more extensive relation to the world of change, and their understanding of the wider places in which they move. It is an existential issue touching on the ways people find meaning in the world. As such it is an ethical issue connected to choices which are often less about care for others then one's ability to consume. It is tied into the integrated nature of people's civic, economic and environmental obligations. In this article, the author talks about environmental engagement and the problem of the "Not In My Back Yard" syndrome. He first describes the historic roots of NIMBYism and the contemporary forces in continuing NIMBYism. He then offers solutions for overcoming NIMBYism.

In this final, collaborative paper in the "Learning to be drier" edition, we reflect on and draw together some of the key threads from the diverse narratives in our four site papers from across the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Our paper title, "Wicked learning", draws on a recent body literature (Rittel & Webber 1973) about messy or "wicked problems" as characterised by Dietz and Stern (1998). It picks up on our identification of the difficulty and enormity of the learning challenges being faced by communities, associated, at best, with a decade of record dry years (drought) and severely over-committed rivers. At worst, drought is occurring in combination with and as a precursor to recent, progressive drying of the Basin associated with climate change. Our research is suggestive of a need for much more learning across all segments of the adult community about "... the big picture, including the interrelationships among the full range of causal factors ..." (Australian Public Service Commission, APSC 2007: 1) underlying the presenting problem of drying. We conclude that solutions to the messy or wicked problem of drying in an interconnected Basin will lie in the social domain. This will include building a wider knowledge and acceptance of the problems and likely future risks across the Basin including all parts of communities. The problem of drying as well as its causes and solutions are multidimensional, and will involve comprehensive learning about all five key characteristics of other "wicked" policy problems identified in previous research in the environmental arena. The narratives that we have heard identify the extreme difficulty in all four sites of rational and learned responses to being drier as the problem has unfolded. All narratives about being drier that we have heard involve a recognition of a combination of the five characteristics common to wicked problems: multidimensionality, scientific uncertainty, value confect and uncertainty, mistrust as well as urgency. All narratives identify the importance of social learning: to be productive, to be efficient, to survive, to live with uncertainty, to be sustainable and to share. Combating the extent and effects of drying, causality aside, will require new forms of learning through new community, social and learning spaces, apart from and in addition to new technological and scientific learning. (Contains 1 figure.)

This research project, part of a much larger study, considered how people in regional communities learnt to deal with the impact of reduced water availability as a result of drought or climate change. The communities in the Mallee-Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia, were the focus of this study and a range of local people from different sectors of the communities were involved in interviews, which became our main data source. We recognise the limitation that not all viewpoints could possibly be accessed in the participant selection process. The resultant data indicated that significant changes were being made to local practices as a result of the learning taking place and that there were a range of processes which enabled adult learning across the communities. (Contains 1 table.)

This paper investigates learning related to the phenomena of drying over the past decade in the southern Murray-Darling Basin in Australia, as perceived in a mid-river site within the western Riverina of New South Wales, Australia. The insights from audio-recorded interviews, with a wide range of adults across the water-dependent community, mostly relate to the catchment of the Murrumbidgee River in the Shire of Hay. Our overarching theme is about how people are learning about, understanding and bearing the risks, of what is widely regarded as a prolonged drought. For some, the learning is about how to cope with less water in the Basin, and particularly from the river, as predicted in the climate change literature. Our narrative-based, empirical research registers the felt experience of those located, in situ, as a severe "irrigation drought" extends into 2009. The paper dramatises the many obstacles to learning how to think and act differently, in difficult and rapidly changing ecosocial circumstances. (Contains 3 footnotes.)

This article explores the adult and community learning associated with "learning to be drier" in the Riverland region of South Australia. Communities in the Riverland are currently adjusting and making changes to their understandings and practices as part of learning to live with less water. The analysis of adult and community learning derived from this research identified six different forms of learning. These are, learning to produce, learning to be efficient, learning to survive, learning to live with uncertainty, learning to be sustainable and learning to share. These forms of learning do not occur in isolation and separately from each other but to the contrary are occurring simultaneously with and alongside each other. Further, it is argued that the people and communities in the Riverland, through learning to live with the effects of climate change and less water, are at the forefront of learning to be drier. (Contains 1 table.)

Our paper explores how and what adults living and working in the Alpine region of Victoria understand and are learning about the changes to water availability, in a time when the response to water availability is subject to extensive debate and policy attention. Interviews for this study were conducted in the towns of Bright and Mount Beauty, with participants drawn from across the Alpine region. The interviews focused on what local stakeholders from the Alpine region understood about water availability in the region and how and what they had learned about living and working with climatic changes in their local area. The findings of our study see that there was evidence of a strong understanding of the direct and indirect impact of climate change on participants' local community area. The study also sees evidence of learning through a community "frames of reference" as outlined by Berkhout, Hertin and Dann et al.

In this article, the authors set the scene for this research volume. They sought to emphasize and broaden their interest and concern about their "Learning to be drier" theme in this edition to the 77 per cent of Australians who live within 50 km of the Australian coast, the majority of whom also live in major cities and urban complexes. On 24 September 2009, a massive dust storm swept across New South Wales, dumping millions of tonnes of red dust on capital city areas of Australia unaccustomed to dust: (1) Canberra; (2) Sydney; and (3) Brisbane. Snow, laced with the same red dust fell the same day in the Australian Alps, as attempts at breaking the historic and prolonged deadlock between the Australian federal government and states about water trading rules, as part of achieving a national "plan" for the Murray Darling-Basin, again broke down. On 1 October 2009 the New South Wales Office of Water circulated a news release, making "an initial allocation (in the Murray Valley) to general security users of 1 per cent" of their entitlements, and asking all water users "to be as conservative as possible with their use in what continues to be the worst drought ever experienced". Eight researchers contributed team papers to this special edition from the four sites in the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Collectively, they bring wide and deep academic backgrounds, theoretical perspectives and experiences from a wide range of work, research and life contexts, in mainly rural and regional Australia. While the research plan detailed in this article was essentially common, each two-person team grappled with and selected its own preferred combination of theoretical perspectives for their paper. The method and the qualitative (mainly interview) data were therefore treated somewhat differently across different sites. While the four site papers were researched, developed and written relatively independently by two-person teams, their joint, sixth paper attempts to "stand back". In sum, they collaboratively seek to critically analyse and draw some conclusions about what might be common or different about the diverse approaches to learning about being drier, drawn from four very different land use contexts, in the same Basin, across three different Australian states. (Contains 1 table, 1 figure and 1 footnote.)

"Green" is the new mantra for many institutions. School districts as well as colleges and universities across the country are constantly searching for new ways to reduce energy use, waste and the harmful greenhouse gas emissions emitted into the environment. In fact long before "carbon footprint" became a common phrase, educational institutions nationwide have been concerned about the possible environmental impact and/or liabilities produced by their activities. This includes the growing emphasis on sustainability and the impact these practices can have on environmental insurance as well as the numerous environmental exposures that can be encountered during nearly any phase of construction and operation. Educational facility owners should have significant environmental concerns regarding new construction activities as well as the operation of existing premises. That's because property contamination can result from numerous sources that include historical usage. Environmental liabilities need not provide obstacles to educational institutions if they are proactively identified, managed and mitigated. Several of these methods include the utilization of risk management techniques, contractually, or via environmental insurance. With concerns continually on the rise about risk liabilities in environmental and sustainable construction, educational institutions nationwide are beginning to take even greater advantage of the many benefits provided by the proper insurance coverage. Fortunately, it is a market that has continued to adapt and broaden in accordance with the specific needs of facility managers representing nearly every American industry.

Land use and development are complex issues rooted in ecology and environmental science as well as in politics and economics. This complexity lends itself to a problem-based learning (PBL) lesson for environmental science students. In the lesson described in this article, students investigated developing a city-owned, 13-acre site where a shopping mall had been demolished, leaving open land and a parking lot. This project allowed students to explore environmental science concepts and use science and engineering practices and communication skills. While students acknowledged that the process of considering multiple perspectives and devising a comprehensive plan was more challenging than they anticipated, all groups presented a final land use that was supported with evidence.

The integration of art into curricula focused on teaching science is a new perspective in education designed to reach a broader range of students. The current study examined the process of second-grade students participating in science and art activities through qualitative content analysis. The subjects of science and art were not taught to the students separately, rather, students engaged in both subjects simultaneously, in an integrated manner. Participants were 23 second-grade students (11 female and 12 male; age range 7 to 8 years) who were learning about erosion through sketching and creative construction and the work of civil engineers through role-play and exploration of problems they solve. Sources of information for the study included student-reported symbolism for engineering badges, classroom discussions, students' responses during testing of sand hills, teacher observations, and student writings. Major themes in the process of the students were: connections to prior knowledge of erosion and engineers along with symbols connected to engineers; observing erosion and shapes of the land; integration of art bringing motivation; social learning and teamwork; problem-solving solutions to erosion; making connections between the classroom testing and the real world; and the desire to continue exploring erosion. The lessons emphasized learning "through" and "with" the arts, making the lessons engaging and motivating students to continue learning on their own.

This study tested the effect of four short videos appealing to environmental values on home irrigation users' intent to use good irrigation and fertilization practices. The videos were largely ineffective, and there was only a small effect on one of the behaviors within the fertilizer loss treatment group. Implications point to a need for environmental education professionals to develop strategies to address environmental issues fatigue and conduct audience research that informs communications and educational programs. Environmental education professionals should encourage water protection with nonenvironmental appeals, possibly by connecting to personal or social values.

This article illustrates the steps taken to enact a new methodology for participatory social mapping by the Environmental Education, Communications and the Arts (GPEA) Research Group of the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT). The aim of Social Mapping is to record the identities, territories and socio-environmental conflicts experienced by social groups, based on their own namings and narratives, rather than relying on those more typically generated or provided by researchers or theorists. As such, it offers an important dialogical pathway for environmental education practices, in that it highlights the intrinsic relationship between culture and nature, and reinforces the understanding that the loss of one implies the disappearance of the other.

There is evidence indicating that students are rarely asked about what they want to learn, but when they are asked, the students readily identify topics of personal relevance with a hands-on component. They want topics that are curiosity-based and not knowledge based. This paper draws on data that gave voice to 199 students studying geography and their teachers. A short survey explored students' interest in a variety of topics commonly found in geography curriculum documents. Interviews were used to increase reliability and validity. The analysis of the survey followed a "Whole Group Mean Score" and allowed for the generation of a ranked order of topics from which zones of High Interest, Low Interest, and Ambivalence were determined. The central issue that this paper addresses is that there is a misalignment in the topics that students find of interest to learn about, and those that their teachers find of interest to teach about. It is postulated that a better fit between curriculum and students' interests could lead to improved cognitive and affective geographical learning outcomes, as well as an increase in geography enrolments.

Our arts-based curriculum encounter occurred in a graduate course on arts-based research methods. For a class project we engaged in an inquiry on the question: "What does it mean to live on this land?" which we explored through various arts-based activities. The question challenged us to think deeply about our relationship with and responsibilities to the land we occupy. The inquiry raised for us and, in various ways, implicated us in issues around geographical settings, historical contexts, colonization and nationhood, relations as/with Indigenous peoples, Indigenous ways of knowing, relations with the natural environment, exploitation of the land, the environmental crisis, and our own family histories and personal journeys. In this paper, we share the reflective writings of four inquiry participants interspersed with some images from our work together.

Education for reconciliation is centered on renewing Indigenous-settler relations. In this article, two graduate students share their experiences as they endeavour to take up a praxis for reconciliation. Positioned by their different cultural identities, they join in a duoethnographic conversation, to reflect on their learning and to share their successes, insights, and tensions as they navigate various complexities. Through their reflective process, they ask: "What might collective enactment look like and what forms might it take in education?" As they journey together, they discuss the need for spaces that promote vulnerability and openness, and the strength of land-based and grassroots learning opportunities.

This paper focuses on how I have been attending to the TRC's [Truth and Reconciliation Commission's] calls to action within science teacher education. It draws on personal experiences, my dissertation, Canadian policy regarding Indigenous education, and academic literature to explore what the calls ask of teacher educators. Throughout, I consider how Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, being, and doing might circulate together in specific places, and the role that "Land" and the natural world might play in reconciliation via science teacher education. Ultimately, the paper offers a still-in-process glimpse into how I have found a place at home to begin engaging with the Calls to Action of the TRC in science teacher education.

Purpose: This paper aims to compose a systematic understanding of campus sustainability innovations and unpack the complex drivers behind the elaboration of specific innovations. More precisely, the authors ask two fundamental questions: What are the topics and modes of implementation of campus sustainability innovations? What are the external and internal factors that drive the development of specific innovations? Design/methodology/approach: The authors code and analyze 454 innovations reported within the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS), the campus sustainability assessment tool of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Using descriptive statistics and illustrations, the paper assesses the state of environmental innovations (EIs) within STARS. Then, to evaluate the role of internal and external drivers in shaping EIs, the authors have produced classification and regression tree models. Findings: The authors' analysis shows that external and internal factors provide incentives and a favorable context for the implementation of given EIs. External drivers such as climatic zones, local income and poverty rate drive the development of several EIs. Internal drivers beyond the role of the agent of change, often primarily emphasized by past literature, significantly impact the implementation of given EIs. The authors' work also reveals that EIs often move beyond traditional mitigation approaches and the boundaries of campus. EIs create new dynamics of innovation that echo and reinforce the culture of a higher education institution. Originality/value: This work provides the first aggregated picture of EIs in the USA and Canada. It produces a new and integrated understanding of the dynamics of campus sustainability that complexifies narratives and contextualizes the role of change agents.

In Australia there has been a rapid move to an acceptance of education for sustainability as mainstream environmental education. We argue that education for sustainability, with its platform of assisting individuals in making apparently informed decisions to create a more sustainable world, is at some distance from promoting more ethically-based environmental responsibility. If environmental education is to encourage environmental responsibility, then ethically challenging curricula should provide more suitable mechanisms to encapsulate a sense of what it means to care for country, described by Leopold as "an intense consciousness of land," and foreseen decades ago with his concept of the land ethic.

With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the international community committed to address a great number of challenges. Among those emphasised by the SDGs, some are highly relevant for indigenous groups. Education, poverty, access to justice and climate change are only a few of the issues affecting indigenous people's lives. Yet, indigenous groups are not passive actors. Despite being at the mercy of climate hazards and misleading political decisions, the knowledge system they have developed throughout the centuries has helped them to successfully respond to ecological and development challenges. By exploring indigenous cultures and their knowledge systems in greater depth, this article aims to understand how the sustainable development agenda can benefit from these different forms of traditional knowledge. More particularly, it will attempt to explain the main notions in which traditional knowledge is rooted and analyse means of knowledge maintenance and transmission. It will then explore the relationship between indigenous knowledge, sustainable practices and land and resource management, as well as climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction strategies. These ideas will be supported by a discussion on the need to guarantee indigenous people full access to land and justice in order for them to fully realise their rights. The conclusion reflects on the importance of fostering an integrated system of knowledge in which indigenous groups are involved in knowledge sharing practices and decision making processes.

Northern Thailand is home to many hill tribes, who have lived for hundreds of years as subsistence farmers or nomadic hunters. In the 1940s, communist insurgencies drove many hill tribes from China, Burma, and other nations south into northern Thailand. Uprooted from their native lands, the hill tribes left behind ties to economic resources and, to compensate, many turned to the growth of the opium poppy as a cash crop. The growth and sale of opium endangered their lives and those of the citizens of the surrounding countries, and slash and burn farming methods resulted in environmental degradation. In 1969, the Thai government formed the Royal Projects to address this situation. The Royal Project Foundation then expanded its development efforts with the establishment of the Education and Social Development Projects (ESDPs), which seek to implement sustainable social services within the villages, and have been largely successful in hill tribe villages. The authors' research assessed the current status of the ESDPs, the causes of the program's successes and failures, and the needs of the villagers of Doi Ang Khang. The authors' study is concerned primarily with the Lahu and Palong tribes of Doi Ang Khang, which reside in the villages of Khob Dong and Nor Lae, respectively. The aim of their evaluation was to develop an understanding of why the Khob Dong village had not achieved a high level of success from the ESDPs and to recommend strategies for improving future development projects. (Contains 1 table.)

The Tsavo/Amboseli Ecosystem represents one of the major remaining wildlife conservation blocks in Kenya. This ecosystem consists of four protected areas which are safe havens for wildlife: Amboseli National Park, Kimana Wildlife Sanctuary, Tsavo West National Park, and Chyulu Hills. This research focused on the wildlife displacement and dispersal area reduction by human activities within Kimana Group Ranch corridor. After Kenya gained its independence in 1963 the government developed policies which encouraged nomadic peoples such as the Maasai in the Amboseli-Chyulu-Tsavo areas to live more sedentary lifestyles because pastoralism was viewed as a primitive and non-lucrative land use. As land within Kimana Group Ranch becomes developed and settled, less area is available for wildlife to disperse and migrate in the Tsavo/Amboseli ecosystem. The destruction and fragmentation of wildlife habitat due to human activities such as cultivation is the largest threat to wildlife, causing a large number of local extinctions within protected areas. The protected areas of Amboseli National Park, Kimana Sanctuary, Tsavo West National Park, and Chyulu Hills are becoming increasingly isolated islands of conservation into which an overabundance of wildlife is compressed, decreasing the biodiversity and wildlife conservation potential of the system. The objectives of this study were: (1) To determine actual areas of human activities (roads, fences, institutions and markets) as well as their associated wildlife displacement area that contribute to the shrinking of the dispersal area between Amboseli National Park, Kimana Sanctuary, and Tsavo/Chyulu Hills; (2) To establish the locations and extent of roads, fences, institutions and markets, and to map them using GIS; (3) To understand the ability of livestock and wildlife to co-exist by determining displacement distances of wildlife from different species of livestock; and (4) To establish wildlife distribution and habitat associations within Kimana Group Ranch, paying particular attention to the distribution of elephants, in order to understand displacement effects in relation to human establishments. (Contains 10 tables and 8 figures.)

The School of Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism at Lakehead University offers a third-year course on ecological literacy. The course evolved from one with a predominant scientific approach to studying the bioregion to one that embraced a broader epistemological stance, giving greater authority, voice, and presence to nearby landscapes. This essay traces the progression of an assignment designed to increase confidence, ability, and enjoyment of learning how to directly engage in reading landscape stories. Three key pedagogical changes amplified the potential of landscape as perceptible author for student learners: (1) giving place a more tangible and "knowable" quality; (2) increasing student motivation to visit "their" place more often and to stay longer; and (3) facilitating transformation from story seeker to thoughtful participant. (Contains 1 note.)

This study outlines the processes used by University of Wisconsin--Extension, Lincoln County (UWELC), educators over an eight-year period to facilitate the development of a county land use plan and to guide committees through a review of the new proposed county zoning ordinances based on that plan. As a partner in these projects, UWELC helped create a model of public participation for other counties and municipalities conducting land use planning based on Wisconsin's comprehensive planning law passed in October 1999. UWELC educators drew on the expertise of University of Wisconsin system faculty based outside Lincoln County to provide information about land use and zoning issues.

Virtual Reality (VR) is primarily a visual technology. Elements such as haptics (touch feedback) and sound can augment an experience, but the visual cues are the prime driver of what an audience will experience from a VR presentation. At its inception in 2001 the Centre for Advanced Visualization (CFAV) at Niagara College of Arts and Technology was equipped with state-of-the-art VR technology. The computer, screen and sound system were all arranged into a "Reality Centre" (RC). The reality centre was an SGI concept that saw VR being used in order to bring disparate groups of engineers together on a project so that they could talk together while they explored their data using VR technology. CFAV's first big project involved the Peace Bridge between Fort Erie and Buffalo. The target was to build a model of Fort Erie and Buffalo with sufficient detail that lay-people would be able to evaluate any new bridges, or proposed changes to the old bridge. CFAV's engagement in the Peace Bridge project introduced the facility to a new kind of partner, the land use planner. A land use planner is an engineer or architect, etc. who must explain their intent or changes to a public site or piece of infrastructure to the public. CFAV's technology has now changed to the extent that it uses conventional modeling tools and off-the-shelf technology to produce its presentations.