Learning to be drier

UB Deakin Research TeamBarry Golding, Mike Brown, Annette Foley, Erica Smith

Coral Campbell, Jennifer Angwin, Christine Schulz, Lauri Grace

OctoberVET, October 30 2009, Ballarat

Learning to be Drier in the southern Murray-Darling Basin

Sites & teams

Alpine, Victoria: Annette Foley & Lauri Grace

Mid-river, NSW: Barry Golding & Jennifer Angwin

Lower river SA: Mike Brown & Christine Schulz

Dryland Victoria: Erica Smith & Coral Campbell

Learning to be drier

What is common or different about approaches to learning about being drier?Four very different land use contexts in the southern Murray-Darling Basin.Three different Australian states.Interviews with education & training organisations, water authorities & land managers, farming and other enterprises, community organisations and individuals.

Presuppositions

A diverse range of sites (case studies), informants & interviews.A diverse knowledge of learning about and understanding the phenomenon of drying.Causality set aside in the interview.A constructivist view of learning. No right way of learning, knowing about or understanding the drying phenomenon.Adult learning would take many forms beyond accredited education and vocational training, particularly in the community.

Context for the study

A decade of unprecedented dry years.Extensive wildfires & drying of wetlandsOver-allocated water resources.Lack of an agreed, national, Basin plan.Water allocations approaching zero in many districts in late 2009.Predictions of climate change causing further drying of the southern Basin.

Research questions

How and what do adults learn in response to changes in water availability?

How is this learning experienced & responded to by different stakeholders?

How are these stakeholders learning to respond?

Alpine

Annette Foley & Lauri Grace

Mid-river

Barry Golding & Jennifer Angwin

Lower river

Mike Brown & Christine Schulz

Dryland

Erica Smith & Coral Campbell

Forthcoming papers Volume of Australian Journal of Adult Learning, November 2009

Learning to be drier in the southern Murray-Darling Basin

* Water, weeds and autumn leaves: Learning to be drier in the Alpine region

* Bearing the risk: Learning to be drier mid-river

* Learning to be drier: A case study of adult and community learning in the Australian Riverland

* Learning to be drier in dryland country

Wicked learning: Reflections on learning to be drier

Wicked learning

Reflections on Learning to be drier

UB Deakin Team

‘Wicked’ (=messy) problems

multidimensionality

scientific uncertainty

value conflict and uncertainty

mistrust

urgency

Climate changeA ‘super wicked’ problem

time is running

there is no central authority

those seeking to solve the problem are also causing it.

Conclusions about …

social learning, and the importance of learning …to be productiveto be efficientto surviveto live with uncertaintyto be sustainable to share.

Conclusion

Combating the extent and effects of drying, causality aside, will require new forms of learning through new community, social and learning spaces, apart from and in addition to new technological and scientific learning.