Art Education as Environmental Activism in Pre-service Teacher Education

This presentation explores how art and design education can contribute to the imperative of climate change and help societies adapt to living more sustainably. Drawing on methods from arts-based research and qualitative case study, it reports on a study that investigates what can be learned from creating environmental art installations with pre-service teachers (those training to be K-12 teachers) as part of environmental art education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Data collection methods used in this study are two-fold. The arts-based research methods include journaling, photography and the creation of installations from environmental art-making experiences. Traditional qualitative methods include anonymous online surveys, semi-structured interviews and feedback forms on art workshops. Findings suggest that preservice teachers experience attitudinal and behavioural shifts towards sustainability after engaging in the processes of creating environmental art. Involvement in the workshops also provided opportunities for building community, engaging multiple domains of learning, modeling sustainable art-making practices and prompting environmental activism. Overall, connecting environmental issues with arts-based pedagogy through environmental and sustainability education (ESE) may inspire art educators to reflect on their responsibility to advance climate action and consider what role(s) they can play in environmental activism inside and outside of their educational institutions. This presentation explores how the study adds a new dimension to the current literature because of its focus on generalist pre-service teachers and pedagogical strategies that engage those with little background in art education. The results of this study inform a developing pedagogy for environmental art education in higher education settings

Evaluation Design and Technical Assistance Opportunities: Early Findings From the Beacon Community Program Evaluation Teams

Examines study designs, evaluation approaches, outcome measures, data sources, challenges, and technical assistance needs among sites in a project under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to strengthen health information technology capabilities

Designing whole-systems commissioning: lessons from the English experience

The paucity of formal evidence, allied to the requirement for strategies that are sensitive to local history and context, means that a ‘blueprint’ for successful strategic commissioning is not currently available for adoption. We are therefore confined to proposing ‘design principles’ for those seeking to embark upon a transition towards a whole systems approach to strategic commissioning. People and relationships are of critical importance all the way through the chain from strategic commissioning to micro-commissioning. Most crucially, experience suggests that structural solutions alone cannot deliver effective relationships and will not be effective when relationships are neglected. The need to ensure staff, partner and political buy-in suggests that relationship management and consensus-building are an integral component of the leadership role in moving toward strategic commissioning. As with any major re-organisation, the move to strategic commissioning is essentially a change management initiative and therefore will stand or fall according to whether it adheres to good practice in the change management process. Central to this, and to achieving commissioning outcomes, is the requirement for meaningful service user and public engagement. Effective commissioning emphasizes individual capabilities as well as needs, and community assets as well as deficits and problems. Adoption of strategic commissioning approaches is still at the developmental and learning stage and arguably all structural arrangements should be regarded as transitional

The atmospheric carbon sequestration potential of man-made tidal lagoons

Understanding sequestration of carbon by coastal ecosystems is central to addressing the role they play in climate change mitigation. To quantify this process, accurate measurements of CO2 fluctuation, coupled with variations in residence time of coastal water-bodies are required. Nearshore ecosystems, including coastal lagoons, may provide an effective sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide, particularly those containing productive biota such as seagrass. However, the rate and pattern of carbon sequestration in seagrass meadows across a range of environmental settings is still poorly constrained. In this study, we utilize a robust physical tidal model, along with biogeochemical dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) assessment, to estimate water residence time and net sequestration of atmospheric CO2 in an intertidal lagoon containing a seagrass (Zostera noltii) meadow. Total alkalinity and pH measurements taken from advected water mass exchanged with the open ocean at inlet boundaries are used to calculate DIC and pCO2. A predictive model of hydrodynamics provides good approximation of mean water residence time to within 6 h (±3 s.d). Results indicate that during the daytime study period the lagoon is a sink for carbon, having a mean net ecosystem productivity (NEP) of 3.0 ± 0.4 mmol C m−2 hr−1. An equivalent diel NEP range of between 15.23 and −9.24 mmol C m−2 d−1 is calculated based on reported shallow water pelagic respiration rates. Moreover, approximately 4% of DIC availability occurs from atmospheric CO2 transfer to lagoon water. However, a negative diel rate of −82 ± 81 mmol C m−2 d−1 is found, assuming overnight respiration ascertained from converted Zostera noltii O2 utilization. We hypothesize that analogous regional nearshore ecosystems provide baseline study sites suitable to elucidate the carbon capture potential of planned, nearby tidal range energy schemes