In 2007, at WEEC in Durban, I was asked to speak about environmental education research since Tbilisi, to explore what we might learn from this work, and look ahead to the challenges that then\u00a0faced us as a community engaged in doing, and using, research. \u00a0I ended my talk\u00a0like\u00a0this:<\/p>\n
We need\u00a0to escape from our isolation, to work and communicate with others, and persuade them that what we do is important.\u00a0 But what do we have to offer them?\u00a0 What can we say to policy-makers and practitioners \u2013 and the public \u2013 about what we\u2019ve been doing these last 30 years and might now do that will help address our global needs?\u00a0 What aspects of our range of research would we point to?<\/em><\/p>\n Over the last few weeks I\u2019ve been asking this question:<\/em><\/p>\n Given all the difficulties the world now faces in relation to development and the environment \u2013 and the importance of education in addressing such challenges \u2013 what insights does environmental education research provide that will help us?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And it\u2019s a question that\u2019s disturbingly difficult to respond to in a satisfactory fashion, which is why I\u2019m presenting here, rather than answering it myself with any degree of confidence.\u00a0 I do wonder how you would respond.\u00a0 I\u2019m also setting it out here because I think it\u2019s a question we might ask of ourselves. \u00a0Coincidently, the 30th June edition of the UK Times Higher Education Supplement carried a related story by Richard Rose, an expert on conflict and divided societies.\u00a0 He, and a few others, were invited to talk with President Bush about this sort of question.\u00a0 The focus was Iraq, of course, and what might be done now.\u00a0 Rose had three minutes to make his points, choosing to do so in, as he put it: \u201chard-hitting one-liners, rather than in the indirect discourse of mandarin English\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n What would we say if our President or Prime Minister gave us three minutes to address this question, and make our points?\u00a0 What would you say?<\/em><\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n Here's a challenge, then, for those organising WEEC 9: Ask some prominent people what they would\u00a0say, either from the perspective of\u00a0their\u00a0own work, or from that viewed more widely, in response to this question:<\/p>\n Given all the difficulties the world now faces in relation to development and the environment \u2013 and the importance of education in addressing such challenges \u2013 what insights does your work\u00a0provide that will help us?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 3 minutes<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 that's about 300 words.<\/p>\n Hard-hitting one-liners<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 that's not how you usually write and speak.<\/p>\n ....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 2007, at WEEC in Durban, I was asked to speak about environmental education research since Tbilisi, to explore what we might learn from this work, and look ahead to the challenges that then\u00a0faced us as a community engaged in...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}