Author:
Sammel Alison,McMartin Dena,Arbuthnott Katherine
Abstract
AbstractDespite the essentiality of freshwater to all life on the planet, the populous has inadequate understandings of water. Formal education plays a key role in shaping how individuals and communities make sense of water, its accessibility, management, consumption, and hazards. This article seeks to bring attention to the influence of cultural framings of freshwater and extreme freshwater events (such as flood and drought) in government-mandated school curricula in two water-vulnerable geographical regions of Australia and Canada. We seek to identify and respond to hegemonic social constructions that become naturalised if left unexamined. By examining the agendas and language around freshwater and extreme freshwater events in formal educational curricula, we gain a better understanding of the perceptions and assumptions made about freshwater. The results highlight that freshwater and extreme freshwater events are minimally conceptualised within these curricula as ‘nature-based’, rather than being part of a dialectical relationship with societal agendas and practices. This article discusses the implications of this framing and the psychological barriers that may affect the acknowledgment and investigation of extreme freshwater events. We conclude by offering curricular suggestions that invite community-based understandings of the dialectic relationship freshwater has with communities and regional ecosystems.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
General Environmental Science,Education
Reference53 articles.
1. Children's views about the water cycle
2. Socio-hydrology: A new science of people and water
3. Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.). The Australian Curriculum: Science. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Science/Rationale
4. Climate adaptation: Institutional response to environmental constraints, and the need for increased flexibility, participation, and integration of approaches
5. US Geological Survey (USGS). (2012). Flood-inundation maps for a Nine-Mile Reach of the Des Plaines River from Riverwoods to Mettawa, Illinois. Retrieved from http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2012/5227/pdf/SIR20125227_DesPlainesRiver_floodinundation.pdf
Cited by
7 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献