Evolution or Revolution in EE/SE Research? A Collaborative Dialogue From First-Year PhD Students

Abstract

The AAEE 2014 research symposium in Hobart provided a privileged space for researchers and practitioners within environmental education and sustainability education (EE/SE) to come together and create dialogues about education for sustainability research. This essay is a critical reflection from postgraduate researchers about the symposium and the EE/SE research landscape more broadly. The authors interrogate contemporary research frameworks and practices, and deliberate on how current perceptions enable and inhibit performance within EE/SE research. The authors ask provocative questions and encourage readers to imagine for themselves what a new research landscape, freed of calcified frameworks and entrenched systems, might look like. The essay then draws on an ecological systems perspective as a means of reimagining EE/SE research within a more emergent landscape that values inclusivity, democracy, collaborative inquiry and curiosity.'It's about dialogue and it's about time' was the theme of the 2014 AAEE Research Symposium. As emerging researchers in environmental and sustainability education (EE/SE), we, the authors, found the symposium to be a catalyst for thinking about how it is that we 'consider' and 'perform' EE/SE research. As a group of first-year PhD students, we have reflected on the research landscape in which we are located. In this essay, we aim to open a penetrating dialogue about the practice and meaning of research within contemporary research frameworks. We ask provocative questions and invite EE/SE researchers to critically reflect on how their own research practices and performance are mediated by deep-rooted frameworks and methodologies.A key stimulus for the symposium was to respond to the provocation: 'What are key research questions in EE/SE research?' We challenge the status quo that research questions are best determined through academic networks of knowledge building and sharing. Instead we contend that key research questions in EE/SE can be identified and created collaboratively.

Participating in Research Symposia: Tales of Reinscription, Disruption, and Inclusivity

“…However, there seems to be a tension in this purpose. On the one hand, the symposium structure and people attending can work to maintain existing power structures within the field (Beasy et al, 2016). The maintenance of structures can be achieved through a symposium program structure, as delegates can feel ‘labelled’ as belonging to a particular group through, for example, their ‘place’ in the program, such as from giving a particular presentation.…”

“…While this might be an unconscious occurrence, Russell et al (2010) argue that the very act of positioning oneself within a discourse such as that found in a research field does enact a form of control. But, on the other hand, research symposia can offer opportunities for exploring future directions and critical examination of current practices, thus seeking to ‘disrupt’ and change those existing structures (Beasy et al, 2016, p. 11), or what Professor Amy Cutter-Mackenzie referred to in her keynote address at the AAEE symposium as how, ‘silences are attempted to be unsilenced’.…”

“…The authors argue that this is an area in which both symposia could improve. There did not seem to be any opening for new and early career researchers to be introduced (without assimilation; Beasy et al, 2016), and there were no spaces for mentoring postgraduate students and assisting them to become ‘acculturated’ to the field to allow for further development and articulation of new ideas. This is an area that is open for consideration by future symposia organisers.…”

“…As well as youth and Indigenous people, emerging researchers’ voices are important as they might offer different ways of viewing a field; perhaps because they have yet to be indoctrinated into the currently accepted frameworks and systems that control a field's research decisions and topics, as well as maintaining power relationships. In this way, they can disrupt preexisting power relationships (Beasy et al, 2016). #aaeeer, a group of emerging researchers that was created during their participation in the AAEE symposium in 2014, reflected upon the discussions that resulted from this prior symposium and identified four perspectives on potential directions for our future research; namely, uncertain futures, traditional knowledges for the future, community environmental education/sustainability education, and the rise of the digital age (Aguayo et al, 2016).…”

Becoming Researchers: Making Academic Kin in the Chthulucene

“…A foray into processes of collaborative writing soon followed, resulting in the publication of co-authored articles ‘Perspectives From Emerging Researchers: What Next in EE/SE Research?’ (#aaeeer, Aguayo et al, 2016), and ‘Evolution or Revolution in EE/ES Research? A Collaborative Dialogue From First-Year PhD Students’ (Beasy, Page, Emery, & Ayre, 2016).…”