Description:
In contemporary times the world is faced with many environmental challenges. Yet old habits of human hubris persist. Our times call for us to think differently, and in the context of environmental education research, think methodology differently. This chapter offers four provocations that challenge orthodox educational research practices. Namely, challenges to conventional humanist qualitative inquiry (St. Pierre, 2011), anthropocentric data, overly prescriptive methodocentrism of educational research (Weaver & Snaza, 2017) and inquiry grounded within paradigmatic structures (Gough, 2016). These challenges confront the issue of overly dogmatic and dictatorial research methodology. This chapter takes these provocations seriously, aiming to look beyond anthropocentric, paradigmatic and overly deterministic approaches to inquiry. I propose that an approach for doing this may be to think with things, such as theory, concepts, landscapes, ecosystems, non-human species, and materiality. This is a process of assembling relations in research practice that allows for unexpected possibilities to emerge—a process that allows for responses to the significant and account for the ephemeral. As part of this approach, I embrace the notion of “follow[ing] the matter-flow” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, p. 479) within the context of inquiry. I offer some examples to evoke this notion of open-ended inquiry.
Description:
In this chapter, we investigate the ways in which academics’ identity factors can impact their work experiences and pedagogies in two Australian tertiary institutions. While there is a body of literature that interrogates the concept of diversity in higher education, most of the research focuses on diverse student populations rather than examining academic diversity. Current research does not explore in depth the ways in which intersections of identity factors such as gender, race, class, and able-bodiedness might impact academics’ experiences in the chiefly middle-class-institutions that comprise the Australian Higher Education landscape. The authors employed a mixed methods approach. To collect data for the project, we constructed an anonymous online Qualtrics survey and invited participation from academics working at one regional and one urban university. The survey consisted of a mixture of open and closed questions concerning the relationship between identity and teaching approaches within universities. Responses were coded, and common themes were examined by the researchers using an intersectional approach. The survey findings reveal that academics who identify as equity group members see these identities as a strength in teaching and interactions with students, however, these identities sometimes give rise to tensions with colleagues and can be seen as a barrier to career progression.
Description:
The chapter offers a road map that charts the key issues raised in this edited collection that contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) series. Throughout the book, questions are raised, tensions observed, and practices highlighted, often through passionate discussion, regarding the ways in which considerations of equity, inclusion, and social justice are configured, challenged, observed, or ignored in a range of educational settings. All chapters address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education which advocates for the provision of inclusive and equitable education and the promotion of lifelong learning for all. This chapter extends the focus of diversity, inclusion, and social justice to examine the inclusive approaches embedded in the production of the book. Rejecting potentially exclusionary publication processes, the editors mobilized inclusive approaches to selecting, reviewing, and editing chapters and the development of edited scholarship. Focusing on connections and capacity building, a diverse range of authors, reviewers, and editors worked together in a supportive, inclusive, and encouraging framework to produce an interwoven contemporary narrative about the state of diversity and inclusion in mainstream education settings.