Environmental education research in southern Africa: dilemmas of interpretation

These multiple framings of our reflections on environmental education research in southern Africa are written as dilemmas of interpretation that aim to disrupt any temptation to generalise or essentialise its qualities and characteristics. Recognising that research is a textual practice, we use J. M. Coetzee's portrayal of the dilemmas faced by African novelists as a point of departure in reflecting on the changing landscape of environmental education research in southern Africa as we have experienced it over six years. We provide readings framed by reference to post-colonialism, changing epistemologies and methodologies, contexts of transformation and tension, the influence of international organisations such as the United Nations and its instrumentalities, and concerns about human rights and accountability. We conclude by affirming the post-colonialist trajectories of environmental education research in southern Africa and speculating on the distinctive possibilities that recovering ubuntu (an ethic of sharing and hospitality) might offer to researchers in this region.

Critical environmental education research : re-engaging the debate

The field of research in environmental education has experienced several changes in orientation in its first 25 or so years. In the period of the 70s and 80s, the most visible approach to environmental education research was clearly applied science in nature. From the late 80s/early 90s there has been a period of intense debate about research in environmental education, in which the patterns of research established in the 70s and 80s came to be reflected upon in a more critical fashion, previously taken for granted assumptions questioned, and a range of new approaches to research identified and critically considered. Methodological debates were engaged, arguments for alternative approaches developed, and critiques presented. This article re-considers some of these arguments in light of recent critique and project research experience, and argues for a recognition of the practical exigencies in conducting project research in real contexts.

Easier analysis and better reporting : modelling ordinal data in mathematics education research

This article presents an examination of the use of Rasch modelling in a major research project, 'Improving Middle Years Mathematics and Science' (IMYMS). It is unarguable that it is important to take students' perceptions, or views, into account when planning learning and teaching for them. The IMYMS student perceptions survey is an attempt to make visible these student viewpoints, and report them in a way that is accessible to teachers and researchers involved in the project. The project involves four clusters of schools from urban and regions of Victoria to investigate the role of mathematics and science knowledge and subject cultures in mediating change processes in the middle years of schooling. There are five secondary and twenty-eight primary schools. The project has generated both qualitative and quantitative data, with much of the qualitative data being ordinal in nature. Reporting the results of analyses for a range of audiences necessitates careful, well-designed report formats. Some useful new report formats based on Rasch modeling -the Modified Variable Map, the Ordinal Map, the Threshold Map, and the Annotated Ordinal Map - are illustrated using data from the IMYMS project. The Rasch analysis and the derived reporting formats avoid the pitfalls that exist when working with ordinal data and provide insights into the respondents' views about their experiences in schools unavailable by other approaches.

Higher education research at Deakin University

There is much complexity to the term ‘higher education research’. This paper explores the notion and provides some background for ongoing discussion with members of the College of Distinguished Deakin Educators (CDDE) and other staff stakeholders at Deakin University.

Music education research in Australia - 2007

Summarises current music research in Australia such as the establishment of the Bibliography of Australian Music Education Research (BAMER) database, conferences held by the Australian Society for Music Education, and recently completed post-graduate research studies in music education (includes some abstracts).

Music education research in Australia - 2006

This article summaries some research on music education in Australia. During 2006, the Bibliography of Australian Music Education Research (BAMER) database has undergone a major revision with the addition of several newly-located research studies and the updating of existing inaccurate or incomplete entries. The 27th World Conference of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) was held at the Kuala Lumpur Conference Centre in Malaysia from 16 to 21 July and was attended by several Australian delegates. Forthcoming conferences are listed.

For goodness sake! Postlogographically de-(dis)positioning education research

How are education researchers and their research now positioned? Where are education research and researchers now positioned in the public/private debate? What is the position of practitioner research in these circumstances? My paper introduces 'post logography' as a researching trope for perturbing structuralist analytic methods towards interpreting post structuralising complexities that challenge the 'positioning' of education/research/researchers.

I discuss interpreting researching with and in (with-in) educating as intertwining ways, for turning the analytical objectivity that 'positions' subjective 'facts' as essentialised 'goods', towards exploring generative states of 'goodness'.

Education and its research are typically cast as separate constructs (like teaching and outcomes) for defining the subjectification of educational objects as valuable 'goods' - especially those with private economic value.

I argue that researched educational 'goods' are mostly teaching and outcomes focussed, and mainly privately positioned, whereas researching with-in educating for 'goodness' concerns a public disposition of exploring-learning-generativity for social knowing-acting.

I am theorising that through postlogographically de-positioning the predominance of 'facts' as private 'goods', and thereby recognising interpretive states concerning and generating 'goodness', the reductive polarisation of education/research, public/private, theorist/practitioner turns towards understanding complex continua for exploring-learning-generativity, which introduce new horizons of significance for social knowing-acting.

Emerging methodological issues in environmental education research

This presentation draws on recent experience in the “Environment and School Initiatives” (ENSI) project to explore emerging issues in the methodology of action research in environmental education. The ENSI project has been operating for close to twenty years, involving some twenty (mainly European) countries in the conduct and reporting of attempts to adopt an action research perspective in environmental education curriculum development and professional development. The presentation will locate the project within an historical perspective on research in environmental education before considering differing interpretations of the action research methodology in a range of different (country-based) professional settings. With examples from case studies of action research in environmental education, the presentation suggests that action research is best characterised by adoption of certain principles such as deliberate reflection by practitioners, respect for „practical knowledge‟ of teachers and teacher-generated narrative data, and recognition of the significance of context, rather than by adherence to any recipe-like methodological formula. A corollary of this is that methodologists need to acknowledge and respect the „exigencies of practice‟ within which practitioners of action research in environmental education conduct their professional work.

Re/de/signing the world : postructuralism, deconstruction and 'reality' in outdoor/environmental education research

This paper examines rhetorical constructions of ‘reality’ in selected outdoor/environmental education discourses-practices.1 Many outdoor/environmental educators privilege philosophical realism coupled with suspicion towards poststructuralism(s) and deconstruction. From a postlogographic position on language, we argue that producing texts is a method of inquiry, an experience and performance of semiosis-in-use as we sign (and de/sign) the world into existence. This re/de/signed world never represents the ‘real’ world precisely or completely, and in this paper we explore and enact modes of textual (and extratextual) production that struggle to retain a poststructuralist skepticism towards representational claims without falling into antirealist language games. We focus in particular on Deleuzean concepts of ‘rhizomatic’ inquiry and nomadic textuality as enabling dispositions for re/de/signing worlds in which realities and representations are mutually constitutive (rather than dialectically related).