WWOOF (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) is an increasingly popular form of ecotourism in Australia. An ethnographic study of 10 young adult international tourists was conducted at five rural Victorian WWOOF sites. The objective was to examine the participants’ nature experience. As part of the ethnographic study, this article selectively reports on the ecopedagogy at the WWOOF sites, focusing on the potential linking of spatio-sensory ‘doing’ in the environment and conceptual ‘learning’ about (including from, for, and with) the environment. The WWOOF environment is designed physically, materially, and naturally. These dimensions can be interpreted in overlapping spatial levels. Each spatial level partially correlates with the dominant bodily senses. By analysing the participants’ reflexive accounts of their WWOOF nature experience, this article suggests that their spatio-sensory ‘doing’ contributed to their environmental ‘learning’, which is categorised into three heuristic types. These are called symbolic, transpositional, and transformative. This study empirically and conceptually adds to the literature on experiential environmental learning with a possible ecopedagogical model of incorporating spatialised bodily senses in curriculum design.

Global initiatives and a rapidly expanding academic literature identify the responsibility that universities have to incorporate sustainability education into their curricula. This study had two aims: first, to investigate the extent to which Australian undergraduate management curricula explicitly identified a focus on sustainability and, second, to examine the changes that had occurred between 2009 and 2014. A web-based content analysis was undertaken to gain a snapshot view of the emphasis placed on sustainability in all 40 Australian universities’ business/management courses. Our findings showed that in 2014, three-quarters of the courses identified failed to include even one subject that all students must study that mentioned sustainability. This finding was only marginally different from the 2009 findings, suggesting that there is a long way to go before sustainability education in Australian universities’ undergraduate management curricula could be claimed to be fulfilling the needs of students, businesses, and the broader society.

This article presents the findings of a research study with young adults who explored the connections between their early childhood experiences in nature and their attitudes and actions towards the environment in adulthood. Drawing on E. Wilson's (1984) work, environmental or ecological consciousness is theorised to connect to ecological identity and relates to an individual's deep reflection on, connection to, and engagement with the natural environment. The study's survey tool invited young adults to select various options that described their experiences in nature as children and their views of, and actions towards, the environment in the present. The findings illustrated connections between childhood experiences in nature and later views of, and actions towards, the environment. The correlations between expressed views about caring for the environment and environmentally friendly actions were surprising, however, as actions did not necessarily align with beliefs. The article concludes with recommendations based on the findings, outlining how positive attitudes and actions towards the environment may be fostered in childhood.

Compelling evidence links childhood experiences in quasi-natural settings with learning and wellbeing, but, as cities grow, children's activities have been increasingly restricted to de-natured spaces that are designed or controlled by adults. In recent years, academics and education practitioners have campaigned to reverse this trend, and one result is that Australian early childhood centres and schools increasingly provide environments that enhance opportunities for children to engage with nature. These moves are also underpinned by higher-level policy initiatives. For example, the National Quality Standard, Element 3.2.1, requires that early childhood outdoor spaces are designed so that children experience natural environments (ACECQA, 2013). Similarly, the South Australian Department for Education and Child Development (2016, p. 5) Outdoor Learning Environments Standard mandates ‘balanced environments which instil a sense of wonder, generate curiosity and spark the imagination of children and young people’. However, despite recent interest and policy initiatives, the processes by which environments influence learning remain ‘under-researched’ (Engelen et al., 2013, p. 324) and constitute a ‘significant blind spot’ (Rickinson et al., 2004, p. 8) in the literature.