Environmental educators remain challenged by how to encourage people to make connections between environmental quality and human development in a way that is socially just and equitable for all living things. This article explores links between performance-based learning and environmental education pedagogy as one way to address this challenge. Sixteen children (8–10 years) from an Auckland primary school worked with a performance artist to present Lookout, an intimate performance by a child for an adult. Its intent was to juxtapose people’s different backgrounds, experiences and ages in a two-way communication of their view of Auckland City through an environmental lens encompassing past, present and future, while surveying the city from a vantage point. Analysis of data from focus groups with the children and interviews with their parents (also participants) showed that the Lookout process led to children developing a deeper understanding of Auckland City’s issues, a stronger sense of connection to their city, an understanding of the future, and feelings of empowerment. However, their parents’ learning was more tenuous. Three key elements to the success of Lookout for learning are identified, and it is proposed that these could be used when developing performance-based environmental education programs.

This paper considers the role of rangers and education officers who present and represent their park on school trips to national parks, and their interactions with teachers who organise those trips. These shared encounters are commonplace events. They have an important potential and actual role in environmental education, but have not been the subject of much research. Both the teachers' environmental education objectives and the possibilities offered by parks are wide: nature study, ecology, parks as natural and cultural heritage, land management and community issues, recreational activities and their consequences. However this breadth of potential activity possibly exacerbates a gap between the two cultures that meet on such encounters, a gap that needs to be addressed if the participants are to be able to maximise their shared and separate concerns.

Using semi-structured interviews, our research looked at the strengths and limitations of several school visits for both teachers and ranger. In this paper we report particularly on the importance of the ranger in the process. We suggest that the role of the ranger is an undervalued and under-supported link in effective environmental education.

Social and environmental education are two sides of a coin. Each has similar student-centred goals that see an understanding of society or the environment and one's place within it as a medium for achieving some of the long term goals of education. The similarities between the two have not been recognised nearly as much as they could have been, though Disinger (1982) among others has recognized international, global, futures, population and values education (all long established themes in social education) as imperatives in environmental education. Both social and environmental education seek to help young people identify, understand and desire to resolve the problems that confront humanity.

Education has an enormously important role to play in motivating and empowering citizens to participate in environmental improvement and protection. Nearly three decades ago, Schumacher (1973) described education as our ‘greatest resource’ in his endeavour. In the last decade, major international reports have stressed this also. The theme of the Brundtland Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), Caring for the Earth: A Strategy for Sustainable Living (prepared as the World Conservation Strategy for the 1990s) (1991), and Agenda 21 (the Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro) (1992) is that it is possible to sustain ways of living that can redress environmental decline without jeopardising the ecosystem or resources base for the future. Each report speaks to the imperative of education to engender this ethic (see Fien 1995).

In the Asia-Pacific region also, education has been identified as a critical factor and countries have adopted a range of strategies for implementing programs in environmental education. Many workshops and training programs have been organised since 1986 Regional Meeting of Experts in Bangkok at which an action plan was developed for environmental education from primary through post graduate levels. Significant work is taking place in redefining environmental education in a Pacific context, particularly to incorporate concepts of sustainable development. Much exploration of how teacher education can rise to the occasion of the great need for environmental education and for teacher education in environmental education is on-going in the region (see Fien & Corcoran 1996).

The Swan Mundaring Community Catchment Project (SMCCP) was a three year Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) funded partnership project between the Wooroloo Brook Land Conservation District Committee, the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council, the City of Swan, the Shire of Mundaring and Agriculture WA. The project was established in 1997 in response to a clear community demand for catchment-based coordination for existing initiatives and the recognised advantages of a strategic approach to future catchment management activities.

The SMCCP was one of the key Landcare initiatives of the Shire of Mundaring's Environmental Management Strategy. The success of the catchment project and a broad range of other Landcare and environmental initiatives within the shire was recognised in September 1999, when the Shire of Mundaring was awarded the biennial Telstra Local Government State Landcare Award. In addition a local community group, the Hovea-Parkerville Community Conservation Group was equal winner of the State Living Streams Award, sponsored by the Water and Rivers Commission. These awards are testimony to the ongoing commitment of the community and the Shire of Mundaring to valuing and protecting the environment.

Environmental education across the early years has become increasingly important in Australia since the implementation of the Early Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum. These documents promote a connection to nature for young children as well as environmental responsibility. In Western Australia, large areas of natural environments are bush spaces, accessible by young children, families and schools. There is no existing research investigating early childhood teacher’s knowledge of plants in these bush spaces and the utilisation of these spaces in teaching botany as part of their teaching practice. The discussion in this article examines part of a larger year-long multi-site case study of the changes in the botanical understanding of two early childhood teachers of children aged 5–8 years, in Western Australian schools both before and after the Mosaic Approach, botanical practices and Indigenous knowledges were incorporated into their teaching practice. This article focuses on the changes of botanical literacies of the early childhood teachers specifically. The findings suggest that using inquiry-based and place-based methods and including First Nations Peoples’ perspectives about plants whilst teaching in the bush can significantly increase the plant knowledge and understanding of teachers, as well their own scientific and botanical literacies.

The Saltwatch environmental education program aims to increase awareness and understanding of salinity and thereby to stimulate remedial and preventative action. An evaluation of the program in Victoria in 1995 revealed its wide use across school curricula, and subsequent practical environmental action in 53% of schools. Participation in Saltwatch and subsequent environmental activities were more restricted in community groups. The paper concludes with a discussion of Saltwatch's success and possible improvements.

Biodiversity is an abstract concept, attracting various responses from different people according to where they have come from and what ecosystems they have been closely linked to. In theory, most people would agree that protecting biodiversity is an important process, but in practice, few people commit to actions on a local level. This paper explores a situation faced in the Northern Territory where environmental educators seek to engage hearts, hands and minds to protect biodiversity but it is difficult to gain commitment given a diverse and transient community such as exists in Darwin. The survey of 175 tertiary students at Charles Darwin University develops insights into how individuals perceive and name local mangrove and savanna ecosystems, and which areas they would want to conserve. Results have implications for local environmental education. Suggestions are made about how awareness of and actions for biodiversity in the Top End could be extended.

This research study explored the experiences of children (aged 9–10 years), from four different primary schools, playing a hunting game in a nature reserve. Previous research shows that children’s play in green spaces can provide a number of benefits to children. However, there is a lack of research into children’s experiences of playing in bio-diverse environments. This study sought to find out how children (aged 9–10 years) “playing” the role of animals in a nature reserve could enable them to experience different ways of being and different ways of understanding their relationship with the world around them. The study employed a qualitative phenomenological design that aimed to interpret the first-person lived experiences of the children playing in the nature reserve. Four classes from four different primary schools took part in the study. Six children from each class were interviewed and analysis of their responses generated a number of different themes. The results suggest that playing the hunting game in a biodiverse environment does offer states of being and knowings that are not as accessible in schools. Playing the role of an animal had afforded the children with an accentuated, embodied experience, offering insight into the otherness of the more-than-human world.

This paper is authored by Bawaka Country, acknowledging Country’s ability to teach and share. Country is homeland and place. Country is everything and the relationships that bring everything to life. Country is knowledge. This paper is shaped and enabled by songspirals. Songspirals are sung and cried by Yolŋu people in north east Arnhem Land, Australia, to awaken Country, to make and remake the life-giving connections between people and place.

The Goŋ-gurtha songspiral leads this paper, showing us how a Yolŋu Country-led pedagogy centres Country’s active agency by learning through, with, and as Country. This pedagogy shares with us the ongoing connections within and between generations to ensure that knowledge remains strong and that sharing is done the right way, according to Yolŋu Rom, Law/Lore. This learning is predicated on relationality and responsibility. It is a more-than-human learning in which human knowing is decentred and Country is knowledgeable. It is a learning which recognises and respects its limits and it is a learning in which the ongoing sovereignty of Yolŋu people is front and centre.

The school strikes for climate action that began with Greta Thunberg in 2018 and spread worldwide in 2019, left many young people to ponder ‘what is the point of education if we have no future?’ In this investigation of a student-centred project on sustainability conducted with Year 4 students in Brisbane, the point of education was framed by Biesta’s three domains of purpose; Qualification, Socialisation and Subjectification. Sustainability education requires attention to each domain, that is, increasing children’s knowledge of sustainability (Qualification), facilitating their critical awareness of social practices related to sustainability (Socialisation), and expanding their capacity to act in response to the challenges of living sustainably (Subjectification). The project was designed using an action research model where children co-created the topic (reducing plastic usage) and then decided on how it would be investigated and reported. Interviews during and after the project, and episodes recorded in a research journal revealed changes in each of the three domains, with changes in the Subjectification domain being the focus of this study. The overall positive and multifaceted learning outcomes that occurred highlight what is possible when addressing issues of sustainability and the point of education in ways that matter to children.