Editorial: Methodology, Context and Quality

Note: This edition of the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education (SAJEE) is a ‘double volume’ and contains papers submitted in 2012 and 2013. The production of a double volume has been necessitated by administrative problems experienced by the journal production team in 2012, which affected the successful publication of a 2012 edition. However, the Council of the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA) agreed to respond by producing a double-volume edition for 2012/2013. Journal readers are reminded that the production of this journal is voluntary and depends heavily on voluntary administration and other systems. The patience of authors and readers in the 2012/2013 years of production is much appreciated. The 2012/2013 double-volume SAJEE is richly textured with two think pieces that open the journal, thirteen research papers and three viewpoint papers. The papers in the 2012/2013 double volume include papers by authors from Sweden, the United Kingdom, India, SouthAfrica, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Lesotho, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Kenya, showing that the journal is attracting not only southern African authorship, but also authorship from across the continent and internationally. The present edition of the journal is also interesting in that three different perspectives stand out, namely methodology, context and quality, perspectives which permeate the journal papers in various ways

Learning in a Changing World

The year 2007 is a significant year for environmental education. It marks 30 years since the first internationally agreed principles of environmental education were developed at Tbilisi, commonly known as the Tbilisi Principles. It is also the year in which human beings apparently are finally ‘waking up’ to the fact that human-induced environmental change is causing impacts which are infinitely complex and difficult to resolve. This year, through various highly publicised and politicised events, people have begun to recognise that it is getting hot on planet Earth, and that the associated social, economic and environmental costs are profoundly disturbing. The Stern Review and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change both firmly indicated that human-induced environmental change will threaten human economies and security in ways that are unprecedented in human history. Southern Africa, where this special edition of the EEASA Journal is being produced to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the existence of the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa, and the hosting of the 4th World Environmental Education Congress, is one of the areas most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. More than 70% of the people in southern Africa live in rural areas, and depend directly on natural resources for their livelihood and food security, making environment (and environmental education processes) a central concern in development discussions in the region. Patterns of global inequality are pronounced in the region, which has some of the poorest countries in the world. Out of its 25-year history, EEASA and its members, along with colleagues around the world, continue to seek ways of educating and empowering people to successfully participate in resolving environmental issues and create more sustainable and socially just living patterns. In drawing attention to our constant need to learn how to improve our understandings of environmental education and learning as the world around us changes, the World Environmental Education Congress organising committee chose to profile the question of ‘Learning in a Changing World’, by making this the theme of the Congress

Editorial : methodology, context and quality

From Introduction: The present edition of the journal is also interesting in that three different perspectives stand out, namely methodology, context and quality, perspectives which permeate the journal papers in various ways. The journal opens with a methodology think piece by Price. In this think piece, she challenges us to avoid ‘methodolatry’ in an environmental education context, noting that this requires us to resist hegemonic methodological assumptions – she suggests that positivism, post-structuralism and participatory methodology may all have such ‘hegemonic status’ and calls on us to critically and reflexively challenge the assumptions that inform and shape our methodologies and methodological commitments. She explains how she herself navigated this problem via the use of critical realist research approaches. The paper can therefore serve as a useful reflexive tool for authors who have contributed to the journal to review their methodological assumptions and practices and to ‘think deeply’ about the role of methodology in the research that we undertake

Editorial. Methodology, Context and Quality

This edition of the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education (SAJEE) is a ‘double volume’ and contains papers submitted in 2012 and 2013. The production of a double volume has been necessitated by administrative problems experienced by the journal production team in 2012, which affected the successful publication of a 2012 edition. However, the Council of the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA) agreed to respond by producing a double-volume edition for 2012/2013. Journal readers are reminded that the production of this journal is voluntary and depends heavily on voluntary administration and other systems. The patience of authors and readers in the 2012/2013 years of production is much appreciated

HOW HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS MAKE SENSE OF AND INSTRUCT WITH NARRATIVE FILM IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM

Although English teachers have integrated narrative film into their classroom instruction for over a century, the medium remains highly vulnerable to suspicion of its pedagogic value. While film has become ubiquitous in the English classroom, training for teachers in instructing with the medium remains nearly non-existent. This has led to the regular misuse of film as a time-filler, babysitter, reward, or mere break for student and teacher, alike. Such malpractice has only reinforced skepticism of film’s instructional value in the classroom despite the ample scholarly literature supporting its inherently cognitive nature and literary and linguistic likeness. Though film has been codified in the English Language Arts standards, none offer best-practice teaching methods. Therefore, this dissertation investigated how high school English teachers in central New York make sense of and instruct with narrative film in the classroom. Twelve high school English teachers from five school districts participated in this study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, direct observations, and document analysis and was informed by a multi-layered theoretical lens consisting of structuralism and its related offshoots, as well as schema theory and critical pedagogy. The results of this study revealed that these teachers understood film as another narrative form of text, with the same active learning potential as printed literature when employed purposefully, and with particular benefit for struggling and marginalized students. Effective practices, as participants understood them, took three distinct pathways, relating to what the teacher does in the classroom while film plays, and through centering instruction on either what or how film communicates. Participants saw the power of the visuals in film as particularly effective for teaching plays, for helping students critically examine their world and themselves, and for teaching skills related to evidence-based writing, analysis of literary techniques, and the Common Core Regents exam and state standards by transferring student understanding from the screen to the printed page

Media and information literate citizens: think critically, click wisely!

Can we improve our societies by clicking wisely? Content providers such as libraries, archives, museums, media and digital communications companies can enable inclusive and sustainable development. However, they do not always live up to these ideals, which creates challenges for the users of these services. Content providers of all types open up new opportunities for lifelong learning. But at the same time, they open up challenges such as misinformation and disinformation, hate speech, and infringement of online privacy, among others. Media and information literacy is a set of competencies that help people to maximize advantages and minimize harms. Media and information literacy covers competencies that enable people to critically and effectively engage with: communications content; the institutions that facilitate this content; and the use of digital technologies. Capacities in these areas are indispensable for all citizens regardless of their ages or backgrounds. This pioneering curriculum presents a comprehensive competency framework of media and information literacy and offers educators and learners structured pedagogical suggestions. It features various detailed modules covering the range of competencies needed to navigate today’s communications ecosystem. This resource links media and information literacy to emerging issues, such as artificial intelligence, digital citizenship education, education for sustainable development, cultural literacy and the exponential rise in misinformation and disinformation. With effective use of this media and information literacy curriculum, everyone can become media and information literate as well as peer-educators of media and information literacy

Belonging through Assessment: Pipelines of Compassion

A digital book that presents the research and resources created from the QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project - Belonging through Assessment: Pipelines of Compassion with UAL, Glasgow School of Art and Leeds Arts University