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Seeing the Trees and the Forest: Attending to Australian Natural History as if it Mattered

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Alistair Steward
Alistair Steward*
Affiliation:
La Trobe University
*
†La Trobe University, PO Box 199, Bendigo, Victoria 3552, Australia. Email: a.stewart@latrobe.edu.au
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Abstract

Discourse in the Australian Journal of Environmental Education of the last ten years has not addressed a pedagogy that draws on and reflects the natural history of the continent. Australia is an ecological and species diverse country that has experienced substantial environmental change as a consequence of European settlement. Australians have historically been, and increasingly are, urban people. With high rates of urban residency in a substantially modified landscape, what role might environmental education play in assisting Australians to develop understandings of the natural history of specific Australian places? While Australia has a rich history of people observing, comparing and recording the natural history of the continent, environmental education discourse in this journal has not addressed how pedagogy might be informed by a focus on natural history. This paper draws attention to this gap in Australian environmental education discourse and offers some thoughts and ideas for a pedagogy based on the natural history of specific places.

Keywords

Natural historynaturalistAustraliaplace-based education
Type
Research Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , 2006 , pp. 85 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2003

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