Ellen Field | James Cook University (original) (raw)

Papers by Ellen Field

Urban Environmental Education Review

This chapter considers an alternative socially critical perspective on environmental education, t... more This chapter considers an alternative socially critical perspective on environmental education, the emphasis of which is on the influence of cultural norms and structural features of society on people's environmental actions and the need for participatory approaches that engage citizens in creating and determining appropriate actions to realize their own vision of a sustainable urban environment. It describes emerging learning spaces, also known as “ecologies of learning,” that engage young and old urban citizens in participatory collaborative activities such as community gardening, critical place-based education in urban schools, and social media environmental interest networks. After providing a brief history of environmental education, the chapter discusses communicating information about and solving environmental problems. It then examines critical thinking about issues of quality of life and human-nature interrelationships before concluding with an overview of how to develo...

Justice and Equity in Climate Change Education, 2022

Online social networks have become embedded within most young people's everyday lives (Green ... more Online social networks have become embedded within most young people's everyday lives (Green & Hannon, 2007) and have become the number one online activity for youth (Lenhart, 2015). Both the availability of online information and the rise of social networks have impacted how young people engage in knowledge production, communication, and creative expression (Ito et al., 2009) opening up discourse on the educative possibilities of these spaces. This research project has explored how youth in varying geographic locations around the world use social media platforms to engage with their peers in environmental learning and environmental activism. The results of this multiple case study comprise multiple perspectives from youth from eight different countries, map characteristics of youth-focused social media networks, and explore how these affinity spaces foster learning and activism. In this regard, this project provides a typology of youth social media usage for learning about and ...

Education for Democracy 2.0, 2020

eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics, 2016

This paper draws on my dissertation research, that is focused on elucidating the substance, struc... more This paper draws on my dissertation research, that is focused on elucidating the substance, structure, and dynamics of how youth are engaging in interest-driven environmental peer-to-peer learning and activism within social networking “affinity spaces”. Affinity spaces – virtual or physical - are locations where groups of people are drawn together because of an engagement or shared interest in a common activity (Gee, 2005). My research is situated within a constructivist research paradigm and employs ethnographic methods to gain “insider” understandings of teen social media practices that relate to environmental learning and action, as experienced by the teens themselves (Lankshear et al, 2011). Drawing upon data obtained from surveys, social media observation, and interviews with youth from 11 different interest-driven environmentally-focused Facebook groups, I will discuss variations of the networks and interactions. Specifically, I will explore the network structure and various i...

Curriculum Perspectives, 2017

With an understanding that children and young people will be severely affected by climate change ... more With an understanding that children and young people will be severely affected by climate change consequences, this paper asks, what role should they have in their education or in civil decisions that will impact their quality of life in a climate-altered world? The paper argues that too often educational responses to uncertainty result in instrumental approaches where children and youth are not given agency to be active participants in their educational choices. Educational responses that emphasize participatory, place-based and transformative or emancipatory approaches to learning are likely to be more generative and responsive to young people's needs.Using Kagwa and Selby's (2010) framing that climate change offers a "learning moment [that] can be seized to think about what really and profoundly matters, to collectively envision better futures, and then to become practical visionaries in realizing the future" (p.5), the paper suggests two educational shifts that will help formal education systems become responsive to the needs of the twenty-first century. The first shift, adopting community as curriculum, focuses on knowledge production becoming a participatory process that is practiced with and amongst community members trying to solve local problems. The second shift, adopting a connected learning approach, focuses on harnessing the advances of innovations of the digital age with an equity agenda to address local issues. The paper outlines case examples which highlight how these shifts create pathways for what environmental sustainability education calls for in order to foster creative engagement in emergent change, facilitated by new approaches to learning and ways of organizing.

ALERT is a unique kind of scientific organization-one that helps world-class scientists to influe... more ALERT is a unique kind of scientific organization-one that helps world-class scientists to influence key environmental decisions. ALERT helps scientists to communicate dynamically-via the growing power of social media-with journalists and the general public. ALERT promotes and disseminates cutting-edge environmental research and helps journalists connect with leading environmental experts. ALERT is directed by William "Bill" Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate at James Cook University in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. He also holds the Prince Bernhard Chair in International Nature Conservation at Utrecht University, Netherlands.

Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 2016

Following the inaugural Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) research sympos... more Following the inaugural Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) research symposium in November 2014, we — a group of emerging researchers in Environmental Education/Sustainability Education (EE/SE) — commenced an online collaboration to identify and articulate our responses to the main themes of the symposium. Identifying as #aaeeer, our discussions coalesced into four main areas that we felt captured not only some of our current research interests, but also ‘under-explored’ areas that need further attention and that also held the potential for meaningful and ‘dangerous’ contributions to EE/SE research and practice. These themes were: (1) uncertain futures, (2) traditional knowledges for the future, (3) community EE/SE, and (4) the rise of the digital, explorations of which we present in this article. By no means intended to capture all that is worth researching in this field, these themes, and this article, are deliberately presented by #aaeeer to spark discussion...

Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2015

At James Cook University, a core first-year subject within the Bachelor of Education, Foundations... more At James Cook University, a core first-year subject within the Bachelor of Education, Foundations of Sustainability in Education (FSE), sees students investigate the underlying science and complexity of socioecological challenges through inquiry, placebased learning, experimentation and consideration of classroom practice. Given that this subject is delivered across modes, a blended learning approach that encompasses an innovative use of learning technologies and careful consideration of pedagogy provides opportunity for both on-campus and online students to engage in active, learner-centred, collaborative, experiential and praxisoriented learning experiences (Wals & Jickling, 2002). In this paper, we draw upon Pittaway's (2012) engagement framework and Herrington, Herrington, Oliver, Stoney and Willis's (2001) guidelines for quality online courses to explore students' perceptions and experiences of FSE. We investigate how a blended learning design can support the development of a robust foundational knowledge base in science and sustainability education, and engagement in active, experiential and praxis-oriented learning experiences for first year online students. This paper furthers the discussion around best pedagogical practice and blended learning design for science and sustainability education in online preservice teacher education, and in other disciplines in teacher education that call for hands-on learning experiences in an online environment.

At James Cook University, a core first-year subject within the Bachelor of Education, Foundations... more At James Cook University, a core first-year subject within
the Bachelor of Education, Foundations of Sustainability in
Education (FSE), sees students investigate the underlying science and complexity of socioecological challenges through inquiry, placebased learning, experimentation and consideration of classroom practice. Given that this subject is delivered across modes, a blended learning approach that encompasses an innovative use of learning technologies and careful consideration of pedagogy provides opportunity for both on-campus and online students to engage in active, learner-centred, collaborative, experiential and praxis oriented
learning experiences (Wals & Jickling, 2002). In this paper,
we draw upon Pittaway’s (2012) engagement framework and
Herrington, Herrington, Oliver, Stoney and Willis’s (2001) guidelines for quality online courses to explore students’ perceptions and experiences of FSE. We investigate how a blended learning design can support the development of a robust foundational knowledge base in science and sustainability education, and engagement in active, experiential and praxis-oriented learning experiences for first year online students. This paper furthers the discussion around best
pedagogical practice and blended learning design for science and sustainability education in online preservice teacher education, and in other disciplines in teacher education that call for hands-on learning experiences in an online environment.

Following the inaugural Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) research sympos... more Following the inaugural Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) research symposium in November 2014, we — a group of emerging researchers in Environmental Education/Sustainability Education
(EE/SE) — commenced an online collaboration to identify and articulate our responses to the main themes of the symposium. Identifying as #aaeeer, our discussions coalesced into four main areas that we felt captured not only some of our current research interests, but also ‘underexplored’ areas that need further attention and that also held the potential for meaningful and ‘dangerous’ contributions to EE/SE research and practice. These themes were: (1) uncertain futures, (2) traditional knowledges for the future, (3) community EE/SE, and (4) the rise of the digital, explorations of which we present in this article. By no means intended to capture all that is worth researching in this field, these themes, and this
article, are deliberately presented by #aaeeer to spark discussions, as well as showcase an example of online collaboration between researchers in a number of countries.

Urban Environmental Education Review

Justice and Equity in Climate Change Education, 2022

Education for Democracy 2.0, 2020

eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics, 2016

Curriculum Perspectives, 2017

Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 2016

Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2015

At James Cook University, a core first-year subject within the Bachelor of Education, Foundations... more At James Cook University, a core first-year subject within
the Bachelor of Education, Foundations of Sustainability in
Education (FSE), sees students investigate the underlying science and complexity of socioecological challenges through inquiry, placebased learning, experimentation and consideration of classroom practice. Given that this subject is delivered across modes, a blended learning approach that encompasses an innovative use of learning technologies and careful consideration of pedagogy provides opportunity for both on-campus and online students to engage in active, learner-centred, collaborative, experiential and praxis oriented
learning experiences (Wals & Jickling, 2002). In this paper,
we draw upon Pittaway’s (2012) engagement framework and
Herrington, Herrington, Oliver, Stoney and Willis’s (2001) guidelines for quality online courses to explore students’ perceptions and experiences of FSE. We investigate how a blended learning design can support the development of a robust foundational knowledge base in science and sustainability education, and engagement in active, experiential and praxis-oriented learning experiences for first year online students. This paper furthers the discussion around best
pedagogical practice and blended learning design for science and sustainability education in online preservice teacher education, and in other disciplines in teacher education that call for hands-on learning experiences in an online environment.

Following the inaugural Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) research sympos... more Following the inaugural Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) research symposium in November 2014, we — a group of emerging researchers in Environmental Education/Sustainability Education
(EE/SE) — commenced an online collaboration to identify and articulate our responses to the main themes of the symposium. Identifying as #aaeeer, our discussions coalesced into four main areas that we felt captured not only some of our current research interests, but also ‘underexplored’ areas that need further attention and that also held the potential for meaningful and ‘dangerous’ contributions to EE/SE research and practice. These themes were: (1) uncertain futures, (2) traditional knowledges for the future, (3) community EE/SE, and (4) the rise of the digital, explorations of which we present in this article. By no means intended to capture all that is worth researching in this field, these themes, and this
article, are deliberately presented by #aaeeer to spark discussions, as well as showcase an example of online collaboration between researchers in a number of countries.