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1
OUR PLACE
Western Sydney
Stage 1: Sustainability
Educators
Place story map: Chris Tobin, Darug Sustainability Educator, 2012.
OUR PLACE, WESTERN SYDNEY
STAGE 1: COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTAL and
SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATORS
PROJECT REPORT
March 2013
Margaret Somerville
Lin Brown
Karin Mackay
iii
CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... v
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................... vi
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1
What is „Our Place, Western Sydney‟? .................................................................................. 1
BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................... 1
Social/Cultural ....................................................................................................................... 2
Economic ............................................................................................................................... 2
Environmental ........................................................................................................................ 2
Educational ............................................................................................................................ 3
THE PROJECT .......................................................................................................................... 4
Aims ....................................................................................................................................... 4
Scope of the project ............................................................................................................... 4
Key questions ......................................................................................................................... 4
Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 4
Methods .................................................................................................................................. 5
Survey/invitation .................................................................................................................... 5
EDUCATORS‟ PLACE MAPS AND STORIES ....................................................................... 8
Outer Western Sydney Focus Group ...................................................................................... 8
Representative Place Story Maps ......................................................................................... 10
Mid Western Sydney Focus Group ...................................................................................... 14
Representative Place Story Maps ......................................................................................... 15
Inner Western Sydney Region .............................................................................................. 20
Representative Place Story Maps ......................................................................................... 22
CHALLENGES AND BARRIERS TO COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ............................ 26
Educators‟ statements about the challenges of their work ................................................... 28
ENABLERS OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ................................................................ 30
Strategies to engage the disengaged .................................................................................... 32
EDUCTORS‟ LEARNING AND SUPPORT NEEDS ............................................................ 35
Professional learning needs .................................................................................................. 35
Educators‟ support needs ..................................................................................................... 37
Priority needs ....................................................................................................................... 38
LIST OF APPENDICES .......................................................................................................... 39
Appendix 1: List of Acronyms ............................................................................................. 40
Appendix 2: Invitation Email ............................................................................................... 41
Appendix 3: Story Maps and Pedagogical Practices: The Educators‟ Discussions ............. 42
Appendix 4: Indepth Analysis of Individual Story Maps .................................................... 56
iv
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Participants per Region ................................................................................................. 5
Table 2: Outline of Workshop Content ....................................................................................... 7
Table 3: Outer Western Sydney Educators‟ Summary ................................................................ 9
Table 4: Mid Western Sydney Educators‟ Summary ................................................................ 15
Table 5: Inner Western Sydney Educators‟ Summary ............................................................... 20
Table 6: Challenges/Barriers to Community Engagement ........................................................ 27
Table 7: Strategies to Enable Community Engagement ........................................................... 31
Table 8: Educator Professional Learning Needs ....................................................................... 36
Table 9: Educator Support Needs for Community Engagement .............................................. 37
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: „Our Place, Western Sydney‟: Relevant Local Government Areas ............................. 1
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As lead author of this report I would like to begin by acknowledging that this research was
conducted on Darug Lands, to pay my respects to elders past and present, and to
acknowledge the Australian Aboriginal people who have participated in this project.
I would like to acknowledge the twenty five community sustainability educators who
participated in this research and shared so generously of their time, commitment and passion.
If the wellbeing of the planet was in their hands the world would be a better place.
I would like to acknowledge the very close working collaboration and support from Sue
Burton, Karen Paroissien and Amy Nancarrow of the Office of Environment and Heritage
and Jen Dollin of the UN Regional Centre of Expertise in Education for Sustainable
Development, Greater Western Sydney. Without this three way partnership the project would
not have been possible.
Finally I would like to acknowledge the wonderful work of research assistants Karin Mackay
and Lin Brown. Karin has been embedded in community arts and sustainability education for
many years and had just the right approach for engaging community educators in the drawing
task that yielded such rich insights for us all. Lin applied her expertise in making sense of the
proliferation of lists and quotes to manageable and accessible tables so that the reader of this
report can gain access to the complex and multiple data the educators generated.
We hope that readers will find this report informative and engaging and that it will make a
difference.
Margaret Somerville
Professor of Education
Director, Centre for Educational Research
University of Western Sydney
vi
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction - What is Our Place, Western Sydney?
„Our Place, Western Sydney‟ is a collaborative project between the Centre for Educational
Research, University of Western Sydney, the UN Regional Centre of Expertise in Education
for Sustainability Development, Greater Western Sydney, and the Office of Environment and
Heritage, NSW. The project was designed to find out how community sustainability educators
and community members can be assisted to achieve environmental and sustainability
outcomes in the region. It was organised in two stages. Stage 1: Community educators aimed
to investigate how community sustainability educators in the Western Sydney region are
engaging with their communities and how they can support their communities to get more
involved in looking after their local places. Stage 2 aimed to find out what local places are
important to communities in western Sydney and how to support community members to
look after their local places.
Background
„Our Place, Western Sydney‟ is developed in the context of the transition from a state-based
(governance) model to a region-based (place) model for the Office of Environment and
Heritage. For this purpose the western Sydney region is defined as comprising 8 local
government areas:- The Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury, Penrith, Blacktown, The Hills,
Auburn, Holroyd and Parramatta.
Figure 1: „Our Place, Western Sydney‟: Relevant Local Government Areas
vii
The Western Sydney region has a population of 1.2 million people and is one of the fastest
growing urban populations in Australia. The majority of Australia‟s new immigrants (60%)
settle in GWS. 35% of the total population of Greater Western Sydney were born overseas,
having migrated from over 170 countries, often as refugees, and speaking in excess of one
hundred languages. The region is home to the Indigenous Darug, Tharawal and Gandarra
peoples, and has the largest single Aboriginal community in the country with Aboriginal
people who have relocated from all over Australia.
The region features rural and agricultural lands, and natural bushland, including the remnants
of the critically endangered native Cumberland Plain Bushland and World Heritage-listed
areas of the Blue Mountains. The Hawkesbury-Nepean River system is Sydney‟s primary
water source, the backbone of the region‟s agricultural and fishing industries, and a major
recreational attraction. The demand for land development is threatening natural bushlands
and the local food industry. There is an extensive body of Indigenous knowledge about the
river and its local environments that is a crucial resource for sustainability education.
Despite the fact that western Sydney‟s economy is the third largest in Australia behind the
Sydney CBD and Melbourne, the region has higher than average unemployment and lower
than average salary levels. More than half of the local government areas are rated as having
the highest levels of disadvantage on the SEIFA index of socio-economic disadvantage.
Educational outcomes are marked by the low socio-economic status of many communities in
the region. The overall high school retention rate for years 7 to 12 is the lowest in the Sydney
metropolitan area and in 2009 twice as many people in GWS aged 15 or older had not
attended school compared to the rest of Sydney and NSW. The University of Western Sydney
is the only university located in Western Sydney and it offers a range of courses and research
programs to some 36,000 students. The area is also supported by seven colleges that form the
Western Sydney Institute of Technical and Further Education (WSI TAFE). These two
institutions are the major providers of further education in the area.
Based on discussions with regional leaders and contributions from individuals on the NSW
2021 „Have your Say‟ website, the NSW Government has identified the following priorities
for the Western Sydney region:
Grow the economy of Western Sydney
Improve access to jobs and facilitate employment growth, particularly for young
people
Improve strategic planning to protect valuable agricultural land
Provide greater access to affordable housing options
Reduce travel times
Deliver appropriate services to disadvantaged and vulnerable members of our
community
Improve local natural environmental assets and the health of the Hawkesbury-Nepean
River.
Within these broad priority areas a number of priority actions have been identified relating to
„Local Environment and Communities‟:
viii
Manage river health
Limit the impacts of urban development on the environment
Protect wildlife
Increase green skills education and training opportunities
Improve strategic planning to protect valuable agricultural land
Community-based sustainability educators are key to achieving these sustainability outcomes
in western Sydney but we know little about their work or how to support them.
THE PROJECT
Our Place, Western Sydney Stage 1 aims to identify how to community-based
environmental and sustainability educators in the Western Sydney region are engaging with
their communities and how they can support communities to become more involved in
looking after their local environments.
Key questions
What is your role in sustainability education and who is the community you work with?
What have you found helps to engage people in your community/ies to look after their local
places?
What are some of the challenges in engaging people in your community?
What are your professional learning needs and what support do you need to facilitate
communities to look after their local places?
Methodology and methods
The project was framed within the concept of Place, as aligned with the new directions of the
Office of Environment and Heritage and the structure of RCE, Greater Western Sydney. We
used the map of the region to group the eight local government areas into three clusters
according to distance from the centre of Sydney and apparent population density. This
resulted in an Outer Western Sydney cluster (Hawkesbury-Nepean and Blue Mountains); a
Mid Western Sydney cluster (Penrith, Blacktown and the Hills); and an Inner Western Sydney
cluster (Auburn, Holroyd and Parramatta). Educators were invited to attend a Focus Group in
their cluster and were subsequently linked to the Community Forum (Stage 2) held in the
same cluster. In this way the educators‟ Focus Group and Community Forum workshop
discussions were focussed on similar issues connected to the characteristics of these local
places.
The focus groups aimed to explore the nature and location of community sustainability
educators‟ work; the enablers and barriers to them engaging with their communities; and their
professional learning and support needs. Within the focus groups the research used a different
method for each of these aims. The educators were first asked to individually map their work
and their communities on A3 paper and to verbally introduce themselves using their place
story map. They then took part in a group discussion about the enablers and barriers to
engaging their communities, and finally they listed their learning and support needs in pairs.
The resulting data was analysed according to the storylines of place and identity in their place
ix
story maps; the categories and themes that emerged in the group discussion of enablers and
barriers; and the nature and frequency of their learning and support needs.
THE OUTCOMES
Educators place maps and stories
The analysis of the educator‟s 25 place story maps reveals how important it is to understand
the nature of sustainability educators‟ community engagement work. Each educator‟s unique
place story was analysed according to the two main storylines that emerged from this data,
the story of their identity and their pedagogies. Unlike educators in schools, their identities,
and the nature and places of their work, are diverse and complex. They tended to fall into
similar groups according to the place-based clusters of Outer, Mid and Inner West, and
therefore individual profiles are presented of typical and atypical place story maps for each
cluster.
Educators in the Outer cluster were well networked and focussed on experiential learning,
protection of natural eco-systems and food production networks. Educators from the Mid
West cluster were more fragmented, their focus was on engaging the disengaged and the
challenges of peri-urban development including loss of community cohesion and rural lands.
The Inner West educators on the other hand found many commonalities in issues of urban
density and urban low SES community needs, and the needs of high migrant and
multicultural communities.
The atypical place story maps reveal the importance of understanding and respecting the
diversity that exists within the field if we are to understand the work of community
sustainability educators. The place story map of a Darug educator was selected as one of two
Aboriginal participants, both in the Outer West group. His map shows concentric circles of
country with the outer circle representing the ancestors, the middle circle representing the
current generation and the inner circle representing the future generations. His map is
uniquely different to all of the rest. Eight brightly coloured circles within the outer circle
represent other organisations working for environmental sustainability, all contained within
the Aboriginal notion of Country.
The place story map of a volunteer educator was chosen as atypical in the Mid West group.
This artist-educator‟s map revealed a strong sense of personal meaning through her central
identity as educator, which connected diverse places and communities of engagement. The
place story map of a Moslem childcare centre owner/director was analysed as the atypical
map from the Inner West, although in some senses it could be said to be typical as half the
focus group were new migrants. This learning map is distinctive in it representation of three
childcare centres each under an arc of brightly coloured rainbows with sun, rain, trees, and
multiple community connections in all directions. The central image is a heart shaped of
home and family. The profiles and place story maps of these educators are represented fully
in the report and appendices.
x
Challenges and barriers
A total of 50 challenges and barriers to engaging communities were recorded across the three
focus groups. These were divided into four meta-level categories to better understand their
nature: (1) engaging different sections of the community; (2) collaborating with other
educators; (3) designing successful programs/workshops and (4) bureaucratic and work
conditions. Under (1) educators specified attitudes within particular community groups,
separation of communities from the environment and socio-economic factors as barriers. In
category (2) educators identified difficulties of engaging with teachers and schools, and
differences in educators own sustainability „journey‟. In relation to (3), designing successful
programs, credibility, information overload, problematic terms (climate change) and the
general difficulty of language and terminology were discussed. Bureaucratic concerns (4)
included over regulation for educators and community members, and lack of time and
resources for filling out complex grant applications. Quotes are provided to illustrate each of
these themes. Many of these challenges and barriers appear again in „Enabling factors‟ in
relation to potential resolutions.
Enablers of community engagement
Educators recorded a total of 76 responses when discussing successful strategies for engaging
community members in sustainability activities. These were categorised into the meta-level
categories of HOW, WHO, WHAT and WHERE to engage the community. Under HOW,
educators discussed successful workshop and program design; strategies for motivating and
engaging their communities; tailoring the approach to specific audiences in terms of
language, age and socio-economic factors; and strategies for informing the community; as
key enabling factors. Under WHO educators described the importance of getting to know
their communities and engaging networks as significant. Under WHAT they covered issues of
content appeal; and in relation to WHERE, they discussed the need to be visible in the
community. Again, each of these strategies is illustrated with key quotes from the data in the
full report.
Educator learning and support needs
The educators proposed a total of 136 learning and support needs that are analysed according
to „Professional Learning Needs‟ and „Support Needs‟. The topics proposed by the educators
in relation to their ongoing professional learning in order of the frequency were: 1)
establishing and maintaining formal and informal networks; 2) updating their knowledge and
skills in the areas of grant writing, information technology and pedagogies of engagement; 3)
participating in formal learning opportunities and 4) learning local knowledge and resource
availability. In terms of support required they listed: Additional staff (a wide range of support
staff named); information resources; money/funding; organisational support; time; support
from media for advertising; and ongoing professional development. The final focus group
was asked to prioritise their professional learning needs and came up with the following list
that is typical across the three groups if we interpret „language education‟ in the broad sense
of communication education.
xi
More financial resourcing - insufficient funding, money
Needing more volunteers
Language education, support to get the message across to non-English speakers
Mobilising partnerships and connections with other organisations and
Having time to access information about sustainability education programs, resources,
case studies already available through the internet (e.g. Sustainability Reading Hub)
This priority list from the educators themselves confirms findings from other research about
the community sustainability education sector (Somerville & Green, 2013). While
community sustainability initiatives are emerging worldwide as a source of innovative
responses to urgent planetary problems, the sector is the most poorly resourced and the least
understood. The location of highly innovative teaching and learning, community
sustainability education is an essential source of innovation for the formal education sector. It
is the most efficient and cost effective form of sustainability engagement in terms of the
potential of local partnerships, local networks, and the ability to mobilise committed
volunteers. The project has identified the unique place-based nature of sustainability
educators‟ work and the importance of building connections across the sector to leverage
momentum for transformational change. Educators identified the proliferation of information
on the web but welcomed the opportunity for authentic face to face connections and
information sharing as essential to their own professional development.
These research findings are limited to the perspectives of the 25 educators who participated in
the focus groups in the western Sydney region. The project is ongoing, however, in the sense
that the sustainability educators are connected to community members through the
community forums conducted in Stage 2 of the project. It is also ongoing in the sense that the
Our Place project will be extended to other regions in NSW. The findings about the work of
these community sustainability educators in each different region will add cumulative weight
to our understanding of their work in engaging their communities to look after their local
places.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Disseminate the findings of this research
Elicit feedback about the research and its findings from organisations and educators
within the region, and more broadly through face to face and online forums.
Continue to build on this knowledge through cumulatively considering the outcomes
of the research in other regions.
Develop professional learning modules through the UWS Education Knowledge
Network (EKN) that can be accredited into a Master of Education.
Establish and maintain regular network meetings across the region through the
Education for Sustainability strand of the UN RCE Greater Western Sydney.
Provide local and regional professional learning to enhance access to available
resources.
Introduction
1
INTRODUCTION
What is ‘Our Place, Western Sydney’?
„Our Place, Western Sydney‟ is a collaborative project between the Office of Environment
and Heritage, the Centre for Educational Research, University of Western Sydney, and the
United Nations Regional Centre for Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development,
Greater Western Sydney (RCE, GWS). The project is organised in two stages, Stage 1:
Community educators and Stage 2: Community members. Stage 1 of the project aims to
identify how community-based environmental and sustainability educators in the Western
Sydney region are engaging with their communities and how they can support their
communities to get more involved in looking after their local environments. Stage 2 aims to
find out what local places are important to community members and how to support them to
look after their local places. Community educators participating in Stage 1 are connected with
community members participating in Stage 2 through the research process.
BACKGROUND
„Our Place, Western Sydney‟ is developed in the context of the transition from a state-based
(governance) model to a region-based (place) model for the Office of Environment and
Heritage. For this purpose the western Sydney region is defined as comprising 8 local
government areas:- The Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury, Penrith, Blacktown, The Hills,
Auburn, Holroyd and Parramatta.
Figure 1: „Our Place, Western Sydney‟: Relevant Local Government Areas
Introduction
2
The Western Sydney region has a population of 1.2 million people and is one of the fastest
growing urban populations in Australia. While there are marked local differences across the
region, the following summarises the broad cultural, environmental, economic and
educational characteristics identified by the UN RCE Greater Western Sydney and the Centre
for Educational Research.
Social/Cultural
The population of the Region is culturally diverse as the majority of Australia‟s new
immigrants (60%) settle in GWS. 35% of the total population of Greater Western Sydney
were born overseas, having migrated from over 170 countries, and speaking in excess of one
hundred languages. Over the past decade 50% of the total immigration came from Iraq and
Sudan, often as refugees escaping the trauma of war torn countries. In addition to the high
cultural diversity resulting from incoming migration, GWS is home to the Indigenous Darug,
Tharawal and Gandarra peoples, and has the largest single Aboriginal community in the
country with Aboriginal people who have relocated from all over Australia.
Economic
Despite the fact that GWS‟s economy is the third largest in Australia behind the Sydney CBD
and Melbourne, the region has higher than average unemployment and lower than average
salary levels. GWS also has high levels of mortgage and rental stress. Seven of the ten local
government areas rated as having the highest levels of disadvantage on the SEIFA index, are
in the GWS region; that is half of the total number of local government areas rated as having
high levels of disadvantage. The SEIFA index is derived from such signifiers of disadvantage
such as low income, low educational attainment, high unemployment, and jobs in relatively
unskilled occupations.
Environmental
The region is subject to the impacts of human induced climate change and the sustainability
imperatives of transitioning to a low carbon economy, developing sustainable housing and
transport, ensuring agricultural sustainability and food security and conserving biodiversity
and river health. The region features rural and agricultural lands, and natural bushland,
including the remnants of the critically endangered native Cumberland Plain Bushland and
World Heritage-listed areas of the Blue Mountains. In particular, the Hawkesbury-Nepean
River system is Sydney‟s primary water source, the backbone of the region‟s agricultural and
fishing industries and a major recreational attraction. The demand for land development is
threatening not only the natural bushland but also the local food industry. There is an
extensive body of Indigenous knowledge about the river and its local environments that is a
crucial resource for sustainability education.
Introduction
3
Educational
Educational outcomes are marked by the low socio-economic status of many communities in
the region. The overall high school retention rate for years 7 to 12 is the lowest in the Sydney
metropolitan area (69.5% compared to 95.2% in Northern Sydney). In 2009 twice as many
people in GWS aged 15 or older had not attended school compared to the rest of Sydney and
NSW. The high cultural diversity of the region, especially waves of incoming migration
produces pressure on early childhood, schools and adult education provision in terms of
language and basic social integration skills. The challenges facing students with refugee
backgrounds are especially acute. UWS is the only university located in Western Sydney and
it offers a range of courses and research programs to some 36,000 students. The area is also
supported by seven colleges that form the Western Sydney Institute of Technical and Further
Education (WSI TAFE). These two institutions are the major providers of further education in
the area.
Based on discussions with regional leaders and contributions from individuals on the NSW
2021 „Have your Say‟ website, the NSW Government has identified the following priorities
for the Western Sydney region:
Grow the economy of Western Sydney
Improve access to jobs and facilitate employment growth, particularly for young
people
Improve strategic planning to protect valuable agricultural land
Provide greater access to affordable housing options
Reduce travel times
Deliver appropriate services to disadvantaged and vulnerable members of our
community
Improve local natural environmental assets and the health of the Hawkesbury-Nepean
River.
Within these broad priority areas a number of priority actions have been identified relating to
„Local Environment and Communities‟:
Manage river health
Limit the impacts of urban development on the environment
Protect wildlife
Increase green skills education and training opportunities
Improve strategic planning to protect valuable agricultural land
The involvement of the community is crucial in achieving these goals and the work of
community based environmental and sustainability educators is the means by which
communities can be supported. This collaborative project between the Centre for Educational
Research, the UN Regional Centre of Expertise in Education for Sustainability Development
and the Office of Environment and Heritage is designed to find out how community
educators and community members can be assisted to achieve these environmental and
sustainability outcomes.
The Project
4
THE PROJECT
Our Place, Western Sydney Stage 1 aims to identify how to community-based
environmental and sustainability educators in the Western Sydney region are engaging with
their communities and how they can support communities to become more involved in
looking after their local environments.
Aims
To connect and communicate with educators from different sectors in the region to
identify their strengths, weaknesses, and useful support needs in their roles
To identify current approaches, difficulties and gaps in engaging a broad cross-section
of the local communities including CALD communities, new arrivals, businesses,
Aboriginal communities and schools
To identify locally appropriate opportunities to build networks, skills and capacity of
educators
To create a local plan or framework for supporting educators to build networks and
skills and provide resources for engaging their communities in looking after their
local environments.
Scope of the project
The definition of „educators‟ is broad. It refers to those in the region whose role includes
environmental or sustainability education and engagement. This broad range of „educators‟
could include sustainability officers from councils or businesses, education officers from
CMAs, rangers or guides, and volunteers from community organisations.
Key questions
What is your role in sustainability education and who is the community you work with?
What have you found helps to engage people in your community/ies to look after their local
places?
What are some of the challenges in engaging people in your community?
What are your professional learning needs and what support do you need to facilitate
communities to look after their local places?
Methodology
The project was framed within the concept of Place, as aligned with the new directions of the
Office of Environment and Heritage and the structure of RCE, Greater Western Sydney.
Using Place as a conceptual framework offers a common language across different
knowledge systems (such as Indigenous and western knowledge frameworks). It can provide
a link between people‟s local places and global phenomena such as climate change by
focussing on impacts in specific local places such as fire, flood and drought. People‟s
relationship to Place is a way to engage community members on an emotional and spiritual
The Project
5
level as well as a more abstract governance or bureaucratic level. Place as a conceptual
framework has been central in this project.
In asking the question „How can environmental and sustainability educators engage
community members in looking after their local places?‟ it became clear that we needed to
divide the region into clusters of local government areas with similar sustainability
challenges. We used the map (see p.2) to group the eight local government areas into three
clusters according to distance from the centre of Sydney and apparent population density.
This resulted in an Outer Western Sydney cluster (Hawkesbury-Nepean and Blue Mountains);
a Mid Western Sydney cluster (Penrith, Blacktown and the Hills); and an Inner Western
Sydney cluster (Auburn, Holroyd and Parramatta). Educators were invited to attend a Focus
Group in their cluster and were subsequently linked to the Community Forum held in the
same cluster. In this way the educators‟ Focus Group and Community Forum workshop
discussions were focussed on similar issues connected to the characteristics of these local
places.
Methods
Survey/invitation
The Office of Environment and Heritage distributed an invitation to environmental and
sustainability educators across the western Sydney region using established email networks
(see Appendix 1). Educators were asked to respond with an expression of interest stating their
contact details, the local government area in which their work was located and a paragraph
explaining their community engagement roles and practices. Twenty-three educators
responded online. In order to balance the numbers of participants across the three regions,
additional community educators were contacted through personal networks, resulting in the
recruitment of an additional seven participants, bringing the total expressions of interest to
thirty.
Table 1 below provides an overview of the expressions of interest by educators and actual
attendance at the Focus Group.
Table 1: Participants per Region
LGA Expressions
of interest
received
Phone
confirmation
to attend
Final numbers
attending
Outer 14 11 8
Mid 15 10 8
Inner 10 8 9
All three Focus Groups were conducted within the same week to ensure cohesiveness and
consistency in the research design. Time-wise, each was scheduled to enable maximum
participation by educators employed full-time.
Each Focus Group was planned as a three-hour workshop/discussion including:
The Project
6
an introductory story mapping activity
a recorded whole group discussion specifically generating data of the enablers and
barriers to their work and
a paired activity where participants compiled a list of their professional learning and
support needs.
Story map making activity
Participants were provided with a range of high quality drawing implements including
pastels, chalks, textas, and coloured pencils and an A3 sheet of paper in order for them to
create their story map. They were asked to create a visual representation of where they
worked and which community/ies they worked with. Educators spent 10-15 minutes on their
story maps. On completion they were asked to speak to their place map and explain their
representations to the others present. Each educator spoke approximately 5 minutes. The
storytelling was recorded by passing the digital recorder from person to person as a „message
stick‟.
Focus group discussion – enablers and barriers to community engagement
During the second phase of the Focus Group, the educators were asked to reflect on their own
daily practice, to share their successes but highlight the challenges and barriers they face with
their efforts to engage community members in local sustainability activities. This discussion
section was scheduled to take 30-45 minutes, recorded and transcribed verbatim utilising the
services of a professional transcription service.
Paired activity – Professional learning and support needs
The third element to the Focus Group divided the educators into pairs to discuss and list their
professional learning needs and to nominate what support they needed to enhance their
community engagement work.
An overview for participants
The Focus Group workshop format, content and the guiding questions for the session were
provided for each participant prior to commencement (Table 2).
The Project
7
Table 2: Outline of Workshop Content
Part A Your Story
The location of your work
What work you do?
Who are the community/ies that you work with?
Include any special interest individuals or communities you work with.
Part B Discussion
What have you found helps to engage people in your community?
What are some of the challenges to engaging people in your community?
Part C List of Needs
What are your professional learning needs?
What help do you need to engage your communities?
How can we support you in this?
Guiding Questions:
What is your role in sustainability education and who is the community you work with?
What have you found helps to engage people in your community/ies?
What are some of the challenges in engaging people in your community?
What are your professional learning needs and what supports do you need to facilitate
communities to look after their local places?
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
8
EDUCATORS’ PLACE MAPS AND STORIES
The following data generated through the educators‟ place maps and stories is presented by
Region: Outer Western Sydney Region, Mid Western Sydney Region and the Inner Western
Sydney Region. Within each of these Regions data are presented in three sub-sections. Firstly,
the Regional Overview is discussed, followed by a table summarising identity and
pedagogical information expressed by the educators in their stories and concludes with
representative story map/s accompanied by a descriptive analysis.
The full data set for all educators‟ story maps is presented in Appendix 2: Story Maps and
Pedagogical Practices: The Educators‟ Discussions and Appendix 3: Indepth Analysis of
Individual Story Maps.
Outer Western Sydney Focus Group
Regional Overview
The first focus group was held at the Hawkesbury campus of the University of Western
Sydney and included eight educators from the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury-Nepean local
government areas. Two of the educators identified as Indigenous. The overall data gathered
from this focus group reflected the outer western Sydney cluster with large areas of
wilderness and rural lands and low population density. Participants were well networked
within their specific locations with a noticeable division between the Blue Mountains and
Hawkesbury-Nepean educators. The Blue Mountains participants were more focussed on
community sustainability activities, while the Hawkesbury-Nepean interests encompassed
such things as organic food production, and harvesting and marketing. Both groups shared
similar preferences for experiential learning in outdoor places and the protection of local
wilderness sites.
The Educators
Table 3 provides a summary of the Outer Western Sydney educators.
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
9
Table 3: Outer Western Sydney Educators‟ Summary
ID Place Pedagogies Communities
O-1-1 Mt Tomah;
occasionally
into
community.
Place Based – Community comes
to Botanical Gardens; workshops,
tours Eco-trail treasure hunt.
EarthCare; Hawkesbury, BMtns
communities Lithgow (power
station); Aboriginal Community-
Darug women.
O-1-2 Aboriginal
Centre Echo
Point
Presenting Aboriginal idea of
Country as including all living
things. 15min message to tourist
visitors.
Visits by individuals community
members, Local councils, Special
Interest Groups (Migrants and Arts)
National Parks and Wildlife State
Officers, Educational Institutions,
UWS, Schools, Environmental
groups, Bushcare, Aboriginal
Organisation
O-2-1 Rural farms in
Hawkesbury
area, farmers‟
markets.
Networking, farmers‟ markets. Rural communities; residents;
Schools, Agric Ref Group HEN,
OHN. UWS.
O-2-2 UWS site
rented by
Earthcare,
Henry
Doubleday
Seed Savers &
Alternative
Tech.
Earthcare Centre as a model of
community participation;
networking with other
organizations through partnerships.
UWS students; Botanical Gardens;
Hawkesbury Rainforest Network,
HH, RCE, PDR, ATA. „A node on a
network‟.
O-2-3 Hawkesbury
area;
Creek regen.
Bringing groups together;
developing packages of
engagement and trialling these.
Need more than plant identification
and bush regen.
Redbank, Rivo Kija, BMtn, Uni Vet
Sci, CSIRO, Schools, Illawarra,
TAFE CLM, Plant Society, ACF-
AABR.
O-3-1 Agricultural
education in
school
School (Terra Sancta–Sacred
Earth), students learn they are on
Sacred Earth, Permaculture
principles, garden chickens.
TAFE
O-4-1 Hawkesbury
bushlands –
activities along
river system.
Hands on regen with volunteers. Bushcare groups; Hawkesbury
community nursery, volunteers,
retirees, scouts, Aboriginal group.
O-4-2 Aboriginal
youth in
secondary
school
Project for pathways, ground work,
bush regenertaion, culture, native
plants.
Richmond TAFE – Cert 3
Horticulture.
ID Codes:
The ID Code for participants has three components as follows:
Letter indicates region: O = Outer; M = Mid; I = Inner;
First Number indicates occupation: 1 –Community Education Officer-Sustainability
Education Officer; 2 –Centre Coordinator; 3 –Secondary Teacher; 4 –Environmental Officers;
5 –Project Manager; 6 –Freelance Consultants; 7 –Early Childhood Centre Staff ;
Second Number indicates participants‟ consecutive number.
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
10
Representative Place Story Maps
1. Eric, Coordinator of Earthcare Centre
…we‟re not trying to be all things to all
people, but provide a place where people
can have experiential learning…but there‟s
links too…we network…I see us as a node
on a network.
Place, identity and community
Earthcare is its own little culture in that it‟s a small group, it‟s a tribal nature, it‟s Henry
Doubleday‟s Research and the Alternative Technology Association so it‟s two organisations
come together on the site and rent the land off the uni. So we connect university, UWS is
there, I think we offer a lot of benefit to UWS, mainly students but also to the staff and people
who are in there – there‟s actually 10 students over there working on gardens just, it‟s just
taken off at the moment. The other context we work in too of course, is in the Hawkesbury
area because we are local sort of thing and we‟re getting a reputation there too and a lot of
people know the centre and we‟re dealing with technological ATA issues, like solar power and
things too. But the organic growing side of things, we‟ve got a bit of bushland now too and
permaculture, so it‟s a bit of everything, and then we attract people from all over, the
Hawkesbury River is here of course too, sense of place, geographic, it‟s a major geographic
icon of the area I think.
Pedagogical practices
… the globe is here too of course, and we relate to that too, the RCE. A lot of things we
identify with are global problems anyway, over population and waste and pollution and
decreasing agriculture and decreasing natural environment and all that sort of stuff too so we
obviously have that in the back of our mind. And also there‟s other direct links too like with
the Botanic Gardens in terms of plant knowledge. Within here there‟s a closer connection with
the Hawkesbury Rainforest Network which of course I‟m involved with as well too, which
focuses on people identifying their own plants in their area. The Centre itself is a bit of a
model, I actually started the Earthcare Centre with a group of likeminded people. We‟re not
trying to be all things to all people, but provide a place where people can have experiential
learning. I see ourselves as part of a node on a network.
Place map
The central image is the Earthcare centre building with stick people encircled by greenery and
bush and the initials ATA (Alternative Technology Centre) and HD (Henry Doubleday) for
key partners. Wavy concentric circles, initials, and doubled ended arrows represent multiple
two way connections with RCE (United Nations Regional Centre of Expertise in Education
for Sustainable Development), HH (Hawkesbury Harvest), HEN (Hawkesbury Environment
Network), UWS (University of Western Sydney). In the top left corner a large black smudge
with symbolic buildings is labelled „western Sydney‟ with no connection to the central image
or any other part of the story map. A bright blue river enters from the side indicating it flows
in from elsewhere and shortly below forks into two with one labelled the Hawkesbury flowing
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
11
close by the central Earthcare image and out the bottom of the A3 sheet. A small globe of the
world is connected by double ended black arrows to the central image but it is dwarfed by
vivid red angular on each side. Five of these bright red angular scribbles surround the
Earthcare central image and Eric describes them as representing „chaos‟.
It is interesting that these red symbols of chaos contain the most vibrant energy of the story
map and it is likely that the red symbolises danger. They are not connected to the black
smudge of western Sydney so they possibly also represent free floating energy that can
potentially be drawn on in relation to the Earthcare Centre.
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
12
2. Chris, Aboriginal Education Officer, Echo Point Tourist Centre
I mean social justice and the
environmental outcomes to me are the
same. We work for those. We want a
healthy community, sustainable one. I get
a chance to share with people that we
have a heritage of good custodianship of
the country.
Place, identity and community
The large circle represents country and the smaller circles represent the various groups within
country. And so I‟ve worked for country, I get a chance to deliver, have some input into
various groups that are all working for the same good cause - there‟s Bush Care, we‟ve got an
Aboriginal Organisation, National Parks, visitors to the place, special interest groups,
environment groups, local councils, State Government groups, education, all these, they‟re all
within country and they overlap at different times. What I get the chance to do sometimes is
just connect people, and it‟s all - social justice and the environmental outcomes to me are the
same, we work for those. We want a healthy community, sustainable one, I get a chance to
share with people that we have a heritage of good custodianship of country, and it‟s not the
short term aims that we often have to abide by these days. And so the outer circle actually is
the ancestors, the people gone before us, this is us here [middle circle] and then the ones that
come up behind us are the children. And these are all part of our identity and they have to be
taken into consideration and we do make decisions about country and that sort of thing.
Pedagogical practices
I get lots of opportunities to share that with people and my real theme at the moment is that
human beings can fit beautifully on this planet. Aboriginal ancestors – we‟re lucky in
Australia we‟ve got Aboriginal history that has shown us that human beings can live on the
planet without trashing the place. One of the school teachers a few years ago alerted me to the
fact that whereas my generation grew up in fear we‟re going to blow each other up with a
bomb, young people these days often think the environment‟s going to kill us, and how tragic
is that? So that‟s why the stuff that we do is got to be done with hope and purpose. I work at
the Aboriginal Centre at Echo Point. I get 15 minutes to cram in a real quick message, so it‟s
challenging but you do, even in that 10 minutes if you just present things like people haven‟t
seen it before, you see little lights go on. I say, that we human beings can live in harmony
with the environment. I love to overturn the idea that it was a primitive culture. They also
need to know that human beings lived beautifully with the other creatures, we have to work
within their rhythms and that sort of thing. It‟s a message of hope, I explain that by working at
the uni here actually, I learnt that the river‟s far cleaner than it‟s been for 30 years, which is
exciting, but it‟s still not safe to swim in anymore.
Central image, icons and connections
Chris is a Darug man from the Western Sydney area. His story map is different from all of the
others. It consists of three concentric circles outlined in thick yellow/gold. The outer circle is
labelled „Country‟ in three places. There is nothing outside Country in this story map. The two
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
13
inner circles are unlabelled but we know from Chris‟s verbal story that the outer circle
represents the ancestors (who are country), the middle circle represents the present generation,
and the inner circle represents future generations. Drawn over these three large central circles
are eight smaller concentric circles in red, pink, blue and green as if they are orbiting within
the larger circle. Each is composed of three concentric circles labelled with the names of all of
the organisations who work to care for country:- local councils; special interest groups;
visitors; National Parks and Wildlife; State Offices, educational institutions, schools, UWS
etc; Environmental groups; Bushcare and Aboriginal organisations.
While the whole is embraced within country and the ancestors, the image has a mobile
dynamic quality about it akin to the symbolic images of the solar system with its orbiting
planets. The sense of the three circles spiralling inward towards future generations adds a
cyclical time dimension that is absent in other story maps. The colours are bright and hopeful
without any attempt at realism in any part of the map.
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
14
Mid Western Sydney Focus Group
Regional Overview
The second focus group was held at the Penrith campus of the University of Western Sydney
and included eight educators from the Penrith, Blacktown and the Hills local government
areas. The conversation again confirmed the use of Place as a conceptual framework and the
clustering of a distinctive mid-western Sydney group with a focus on peri-urban development,
pressure on farming lands and farming knowledge. The educators in this group predominantly
represented government and local council. The story maps produced by this group were more
dominated by text and lists and there was a marked difference between the volunteer or part
time community educators and those with a full time government role. Two educators from
Sydney Water attended this Focus Group with roles that crossed local government boundaries,
and extended beyond the western Sydney region, however, their work was located at the
interpretative centre at Warragamba Dam.
The Educators
Table 4 provides a summary of the Mid Western Sydney educators.
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
15
Table 4: Mid Western Sydney Educators‟ Summary
ID Place Pedagogies Communities
M-1-3
Community based
Behaviour change through education,
reskilling community, workshops (30
p.a), festivals, grants programs, external
forces for behaviour change.
Community members to
attend workshops and
events, Coles Program.
M-1-4 Penrith – senior
officer (wide range of
activities and has 10
staff to implement).
Events, workshops, blog, website,
festivals, info nights and sessions;
professional development for staff
Schools, Childcare
orgs, government,
businesses, UWS, RCE.
M-1-5 Visitors‟ Centre,
Warragamba Dam,
Community sites.
Ed for primary and high school students
(water cycle and water efficiency, HSC
chemistry, biology), Water for Life expo,
dam visits, classroom sessions.
Pre-, primary and
secondary schools.
M-1-6 Visitors Centre,
Warragamba Dam
Field days on farms
Community-based conservation (e.g.
Streamwatch), Rural Living Handbook,
16 Sustainable Grazing Programs, Grants
Program, Science informs behaviour
change.
Community members.
M-1-7 On-site education
throughout
community
Programs tailored to community and
service provided (face to face; ed
materials, bin stickers). Agenda is
negotiable.
Councils, Residents via
bin pick up.
M-6-1 Outdoors, Council
locations.
Workshop facilitator, hands on,
experiential
Agenda determined in the consultancy.
Work with Councils
(less as councils
employ their owned.
Staff).
M-6-2 Outdoors, Council
locations.
Horticulture degree, workshop
facilitation.
Councils (wants full
time work).
M-3-2 Agricultural
education in school
and community-based
activities.
Environmental activities – tree planting
(council);
Agenda set by HSC +
Network of schools in
Cumberland Region,
commercial operations
(Cfeeds), local
community groups
(Rotary), Council.
Representative Place Story Maps
1. ‘Mary’, Education Officer, Cleanaway Waste Services
So, we‟re working with all the different
core communities in each of the different
councils and they‟re all going to vary,
looking at different areas of housing,
whether its single unit dwellings or multi-
unit dwellings, and they all have their own
specific needs for education when it comes
to using their base services correctly.
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
16
Place, identity and community
My map shows us being in the middle, like our depot is sort of in a central location, and then
we‟re travelling out to all the different areas across Sydney metro and we‟re providing
specific services to each of those different councils and we have different contractual
requirements for each of those areas, as well. I‟m probably a little bit more concentrating
around the inner west with some of the specific projects I do, but we do also work with
Blacktown – sorry, Blacktown that was my attempt at your logo. So, we have a number of
different education programs that we need to tailor for each of our customers, depending on
the community and the services that we are providing in those areas.
Pedagogical practices
Mary‟s work involves school education programs with pre-schools, primary and secondary
schools and community workshops related to using the services correctly, to avoid
contamination. She also teaches people about farming, composting, shopping correctly, to
minimise waste. They use a combination of face to face with residents, educational materials,
and public education strategies such as stickers on bins.
Central image, icons and connections
The central image is a big blue garbage truck driving along the two black lines of road. The
garbage truck is connected by single lines to five circle hubs all around it representing the
different councils. Each circle hub is connected by lines to four further circles representing the
different entities such as schools, businesses, single resident dwellings and multiple resident
dwellings. Icons represent the dwellings and stick figure people are beside the dwellings.
Garbage bins are prominent in every location, with their three different coloured lids - yellow,
green and red. The main road is central to the place story map and leads into and out of the A3
sheet. There are many connections via the roads and these have been grouped into particular
communities. It feels as if the work of picking up refuse is never ending, symbolised in the
road that twists off into the distance. Interestingly there are no trees or bush landscapes,
gardens or yards in the image so it is very much about the built environment. There is no
connection made to where the refuse goes after it is collected and no recycle station is evident
in this place story map.
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
17
2. Suze, Freelance consultant
At Longneck we‟re doing an interpretive
trail to try and introduce the kids as they
walk in, because they‟ve got to walk in
about 300 or 400 metres from the road; to
try and introduce an understanding of the
aboriginal terms for the local flora and
fauna.
Place, identity and community
My involvement is actually is fairly organic compared to most people here, who have got a
steady role. I have my own business heading called Eco … which has a little side-line of
educating for environmental responsibility. And in doing that over the years I have done a lot
of facilitation of workshops at Blacktown Council, at Balkham Hills Council, Hawkesbury
and a few other different places. That has lessened somewhat over the years, as the councils
have taken on more of their own education programs. I used to do a lot more for Blacktown
council before a lot of their own staff had taken over a lot of the workshops which involved
composting, worm farming, gardening and those sorts of things, attending festivals.
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
18
Pedagogical practices
Suze has been involved with writing the national curriculum sustainability objectives across
the different key learning areas, particularly the arts. She sees „teaching and learning about
sustainability in the environment as something that is experienced, something that‟s hands-on,
and that‟s why I like to work outside‟. She is interested in incorporating Aboriginal
knowledge into her work: „she and I are actually - at Longneck we‟re doing an interpretive
trail to try and introduce the kids as they walk in, because they‟ve got to walk in about 300 or
400 metres from the road; to try and introduce an understanding of the aboriginal terms for
the local flora and fauna, and to ask some of her – some of her interesting things, you know,
maybe like, did you know that aboriginal people used to paperbark for nappies and things like
that, you know, sort of things that might stick in their brain‟.
Central image, icons and connections
The central image in this place story map is three large words under each other printed in
colour – „Teaching‟ in red, „Learning‟ in black and „Experiencing in green. Around these
words are five symbols of activities, each with a label - compost, a stack of three books with a
black arrow to the word „outside‟, trees, blue sky, yellow circle sun and tiny human figures
sitting on a red seat, labelled „mangrove wetlands‟, a group of tall trees with two small human
figures walking on a brown track leading into the trees labelled „Cumberland plain‟, the
outline of a gecko labelled „aboriginal knowledge‟. Each image except the Cumberland plain
is shaded over with a different pastel colour but there is no connection between them. This
map suggests that each of these is a separate areas of activity that are all related by the words
teaching, learning and experiencing, but they are not well connected representing the nature of
voluntary and freelance work. Every component image relates to the outside world and
experiencing the natural environment in a physical sense. The learning symbolised by the pile
of books is taken outside. People learn in the natural environment - two people walking on
the bush track in the Cumberland plain, and two others sitting by the mangroves. The
challenges are that there is no cohesive structure of connection even though there is
knowledge about each individual area.
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
19
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
20
Inner Western Sydney Region
Regional Overview
The third focus group was held at the Parramatta campus of the University of Western Sydney
and included nine educators from the Inner Western Sydney. Eight participants were female,
one male group and this group was the most talkative of the three. Three childcare
directors/workers had immigrated from Turkey and a volunteer community worker from
Thailand. The concerns of all the educators focused on multicultural issues with a strong
focus on language translation, communication with CALD groups, basic integration teaching
and the integration of social with environment sustainability. Sustainability issues included a
focus on waste recycling as well as community gardens. Although the focus was different,
because of the more densely populated, high multicultural urban location, the passion and
enthusiasm for sustainability education was very strong.
The Educators
Table 5 provides a summary of the Inner Western Sydney educators.
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
21
Table 5: Inner Western Sydney Educators‟ Summary
ID Place Pedagogies Communities
I-1-8 Community and
school visits.
Education key to change rather than
agenda set by council. Environment is
outdoor classroom – authentic learning;
value local places in urban sites; Holistic
cycle – stewardship of environment.
Presentations in schools, workshops.
Schools, CALD community,
environ & sustain networks,
volunteers.
I-1-9 Council office
central.
Linking educational programs &
resources to the town plan and
development applications – Feedback to
residents from bin inspections.
Presentations, Events, Clean Up Australia
Day.
Waste management assoc,
LGSA contractors, VITA,
Clean Away, Busy, Wellco.
I-1-
10
Council,
Community
(Scouts-Guides)
Business –
Marine Ed in
schools.
Building relationships; at councils, scouts,
guides then intertwine these. (short term
contract work – frustrating).
Schools, Guides-Scouts,
CALD groups.
I-1-
11
Council office;
media,
newspapers.
Policy writing, Distribution of hard
devices (tanks, solar panels, energy
saving), Outsourced education short term
(sustainability ads in paper don‟t work).
Community groups already
doing workshops. Council
have funds to employ
consultants- presenters.
I-6-3 Volunteer-
vegetarian
cooking classes.
Tai Chi.
Cooking and sustainability workshops
(like to start own business Whole System
Health).
Community, healing, nature,
family Whole System Health,
Religion.
I-6-4 Business location
Community
locations.
Delivering workshops- presentations. Home; local shops, Uniting
Church ethnic groups,
community garden.
Transition Towns; Fairs,
Social, Solar panels, Uniting
Church.
Business; Ed for
sustainability, links to A2E2
committee, Envirodoc, High
Schools, Penno, Workshops,
TTA partnerships, PD.
I-7-1
I-7-2
I-7-3
5 Childcare
centres; 4 where
clients, majority
or all have non-
English speaking
backgrounds,
inclusion of
special needs
(autism).
Excursions, value and respect cultures,
Aboriginal awareness, inclusion, festival
performances, services coming in-Fire
brigade etc.
26 service links with NSW
Gov, Local Govt and NGOs,
in the areas of Health,
Education, Religion, Welfare.
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
22
Representative Place Story Maps
1. Joanne: Environmental Education Officer, Bankstown Council
Getting out and exploring and touching
and feeling and that real authentic
learning is really, really important,
knowing where food comes from and
where birds live and when you throw your
rubbish on the ground, where does it end
up.
Place, identity, community
I work at Bankstown Council in the environment and education team as part of the sustainable
development unit. Going back, everyone was talking about their history and where they‟re
from and their past, I grew up the Blue Mountains and I‟ve always had a passion for nature
and protecting nature, the bush. I believe that that should be there forever and for everyone to
enjoy. So that‟s my passion for the environment. In my last position, I worked at Ashfield
Council on a project called the GreenWay Sustainability Project which was a partnership
between 4 councils and we had a number of sustainability projects over 3 years, funded by the
state government. One of the projects I worked on was a schools project with local primary
schools. I now believe, hence why I‟m in this role, that is really, really vital to work with
children, to get environmental messages across early on. Because when you‟re older and
working with adults, it‟s a lot harder to convince people.
Pedagogical practices
Basically getting teachers and students out of the classroom and learning in the outdoors. And
not getting on a bus and going a few hours away but exploring what‟s in your schoolyard or
what‟s down the road, what‟s in your backyard. Bankstown people say to me, „Bankstown is
so urban‟ and you‟ve got the Georges River and some of the beautiful outdoor areas – I‟m
amazed. And with that, I think then they make more of a connection with their environment
because they see it‟s in their backyard and they think, „It‟s mine and I‟m part of this‟. It‟s that
stewardship and they feel they want to look after it and it‟s kind of that holistic – I guess that
holistic cycle or process. That‟s why I think getting children connected with their local
environment at a young age, not just talking in the classroom or looking at a whiteboard but
getting out and exploring and touching and feeling and that real authentic learning is really,
really important, knowing where food comes from and where birds live and when you throw
your rubbish on the ground, where does it end up. Looking at the whole cycle and the whole
system rather than reading about it, is one thing. Even working within Council and you‟re
talking about the area that you work in, a lot of people have probably never been out to some
of these fantastic places. I don‟t think you get the true feel for the area until you get out there
and do that
Central image, icons and connections
The central image in this place-story map is made up of „Environment + Education‟ in big
green letters‟ surrounded by a wriggly green line and connected by red arrows to all of the
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
23
different sectors of engagement: Corporate sustainability, workshops, presentations, water,
energy, transport, ws carpool; CALD community Arabic, Vietnamese; Schools, childcare,
tertiary education, tours, workshops, resources, capacity building; Business; Community and
council events - homegrown photo and gardens competition, what people love most about
living in Bankstown, food, sustainability, national tree day, clean up days, Duck river; Env
and sustainability networks; Community groups, Villawood community garden, Chester Hill
edible garden; Greenway, observatory hill, DET accredited professional teachers program and
also sustainability and environmental protection; Volunteer groups, need to connect with.
Most of the map is print text but there are some stick figures, trees and grass, dollar signs, and
a blue star accompanied by the words „Passion for education, connect with people and the
environment‟. Interestingly the arrows are all one way, out towards the activities.
2. Mona, Owner/Director, Early Childhood Education Centres
Children, I believe, learn through - not
just the interactions they have with
people - but also the environment.
Place, identify, community
I‟ll start off with my family on this side. This is my home and this is where I feel comfortable
and relaxed and time out. So then my 3 children – I‟ve got 3 girls. And basically they‟re in
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
24
tutoring, so we‟re networking through their tutoring. I‟m also a consultant – a childcare
consultant and help childcare services open even family day care services. Also the mosque is
another place because my belief is Islam and so the mosque is part of our family and life. I
have three childcare services - one at Busby, one at Guildford and one in Granville area.
Now, they‟re 3 locations and in those three different places there are children from different
cultures. In Busby, the main cultures and languages spoken is English and Anglo-Australian.
However, all the programs are very much similar. The main language in Guildford would be
Arabic and Indian. And in Granville, it‟s Vietnamese, Arabic, Turkish and African. I think the
more we‟re going into - learning about sustainable practices and having to enjoy outdoors
more. And that‟s why I‟ve got the sky up there – and getting some vitamin D through the sun
– has been one of those key focuses that I‟ve changed in my life. Because of a lot of its
technology and my children are on their iPods and iPads and any other i-things.
Pedagogical practices
We involve the children in excursions and going out, we actually get everyone to value and
respect other people‟s cultures and a very strong Aboriginal awareness. We have a lot of
children with disabilities as well in our services and we actually get them out and perform in
festivals. They‟ll be performing on 1st of November which is the language and literacy.
They‟ve also already been at the multicultural [festival] – they did a multicultural dance, 4
different languages. And so we just – that‟s basically what we do. And then we‟ve got people
that come into our service, like the local community, like the ambulance, fire brigade, police,
nurse, the local doctors. I mean they all influence what goes on in life. I mean children, I
believe, learn through not just the interactions they have with people but also the
environment. So all of that has been put in. We did a course, a Living Green course, together
and a project on sustainable practices. And we all had to do our own project and set up our
own policy on what our thoughts and our values and philosophies. And what inspired me
about it – I really didn‟t know much about climate change. But yeah, when I did it, it opened
my eyes to a lot of other new things. So now I‟ve got a new philosophy altogether now.
We‟ve introduced, as she was saying, the recycling bins, a worm farm. This is our compost
bin. We also did a fruit and veggie garden that children can taste – they grow it themselves
and they eat from it as well. And they‟re going home and taking those practices back and
saying, „Mum, we should be doing recycling. We should be doing composting‟.
Central image, icons and connections
Mona‟s place story map is crowded with brightly coloured images and text. There is no one
central image but the A3 sheet is richly filled with icons with the three childcare centres under
their rainbows connected to many other icons in symbol and text: Busby Childcare Centre is
linked to local doctors, DECS, Local council, Energy saving solo power, Local dentist, digital
story sustainable practices, living green course project, main language Anglo-Aust English,
Arabic, Chinese. Rawson Road Childcare is linked to: Ambulance, SDN inclusion support,
Auburn botanical gardens, Aboriginal awareness, Local schools, Worm farms, multicultural
Granville centre, fruit and vege garden, main languages Arabic and Indian, other early
childhood services. Palm Childcare is linked to: Fire brigade, Police, fund raising charity.
In the middle left hand segment there is a dark pink love heart which has more white space
around it than the rest. The love heart is coloured pink but in fine black drawing is a house
with five figures inside and the label „My Home‟. Around the outside of the love heart linked
Educators‟ Place Maps and Stories Focus Group Summaries
25
by fine black lines are all the aspects of her personal life – the mosque, the gym, boot camp,
her parents, children‟s school, consulting and tutoring. The community is the environment in
which this educator finds herself I and she is deeply embedded in the actions and experiences
of her environment spiritually, practically, socially, emotionally.
CHALLENGES AND BARRIERS TO COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
A total of 50 ideas and issues were recorded across all three Focus Groups when participants
discussed the particular challenges they faced when trying to engage their communities. The
Inner-Western Group identified 18 challenges and barriers to their work with communities,
which comprised 36% of the total. The Outer-Western Group recorded 20 comments (40%)
whilst the Mid-Western Group listed 12 challenges and barriers (24%).
The challenges the educators identified as impacting negatively on their community
engagement work could be grouped around four themes. These were the specific challenges
of (1) engaging with different sections of the community for specific reasons; (2)
collaborating with other educators; (3) designing successful programs/workshops and (4)
bureaucratic and work conditions. Table 7 provides a summary of these themes and sub-
themes and has recorded the frequency with which the comment was made by the educators.
Challenges/Barriers to Community Engagement Focus Group Summaries
27
Table 6: Challenges/Barriers to Community Engagement
Themes and Sub-themes with Representative Examples N (%) Total
N=50 (%)
Community members
Attitudes and Knowledge within Community Groups
Inability or unwillingness of people to travel to different suburb
Ambivalence, apathy, no motivation about the use and meaning of the
term „sustainability‟, seriousness of the issues
Disengaged difficult to reach (e.g. youth) and preaching to the converted
11 (22) 20 (40)
Dislocation from environment
Disaffected portion of the community, disconnection from the natural
landscape e.g. migrants „insecurity‟
Increasing separation of individuals (from community) environment
Building community dialogue about local places
5 (10)
Socio-economic factors
People with more money and time can come but those with less cannot
4 (8)
Collaborating with other educators (Schools, Community)
Constraints to participate in schools (time/resources, cultural sensitivity,
current curriculum, teacher training, better support needed, teachers‟ level
of interest)
Differences in relation to where educators are in their environmental
journey
10 (20) 10 (20)
Designing successful programs/workshops
Credibility of sustainability programs
Avoid information overload for community…they switch off
„Climate Change‟ causes people to „turn off‟
The problem of language and terminology
Invisibility and inaccessibility of community facilities that are available
10 (20) 10 (20)
Bureaucratic constraints
Regulation and institutionalisation
Compliance with bureaucracy legislation
Difficulty for community members in approaching council
3 (6) 10 (20)
Lack of support – Time
Sense of no time, Lack of time
5 (10)
Lack of support - Funding
Grant applications, writing and admin
Ineligibility to apply for some funding
2 (4)
Challenges/Barriers to Community Engagement Focus Group Summaries
28
Educators’ statements about the challenges of their work
A large number of educators specified that finding and engaging the „middle group‟ of parents
with young families was difficult, and that this group, in itself, is not a static, easily
identifiable group.
25 to 45 year olds especially in new developing areas don't come to
workshops. They don‟t come to a lot of things that we put on. They‟re
focussed on money and family sustainability is not a priority.
A related issue was that the educators often felt that they were „preaching to the converted‟
with the same attendees appearing over and over again in their workshops.
People that tend to come are the older community, usually they're the same
people that come to the workshops, tend to be the people that already are
doing the right thing in terms of sustainability in their homes anyway.
The location of the workshops was raised as a barrier couched in terms of the inability or
unwillingness of people to travel to different suburbs.
In Blacktown even though it is one council area everyone identifies with
where they live, they don't necessarily want to come to Mount Druitt for a
workshop or you know what I mean, it's a bit of a hike to go all the way out
to Seven Hills for a workshop.
A barrier to engaging with local communities is the issue of accessibility of Council buildings
and their institutional symbolism:
I don‟t know how many people are likely to go into a council building to find
out information because council buildings can be quite intimidating.
The educators also spoke about the challenge of addressing the credibility of their programs
and being mindful that their language and the discourse of „sustainability‟ was at times a
deterrent to participation by some of their local community members.
One of our challenges is about credibility and I think that‟s the case for all
the sustainability programs in general in terms of it's a credible source and
people have an image I think about sustainability and hippies and that type
of thing as well, we have mixed success.
„Sustainability‟ just sounds so boring, it's so kind of clichéd too, over done,
but what else is there, what other words are there?
For some educators the concept of „sustainability‟ itself was thought to be not well defined
and understood by community members and educators alike:
Challenges/Barriers to Community Engagement Focus Group Summaries
29
One of the challenges - we don‟t even have a corporate definition of
sustainability and if people in an organisation have different definitions to
us it's a triple bottom line or quadruple bottom line approach where it's the
people, it's the environment and it's getting people actively involved in the
governance of our area as well. To some people it's putting on a water tank
and saving money or putting on solar and saving money and for some
people it's purely a green thing so that‟s even just internally within council
… and we get the issue where we say we want to do this and do something
about social sustainability and it's like well why are you doing that, isn't
that a social thing. Why aren‟t community services doing that instead and
that‟s what the challenge is as you said so many different angles on what
sustainability could be.
For another the evolution of meaning through terms such as „environment‟ and „sustainability‟
has created a difficulty:
It hasn‟t been in great depth because before it was the environment and that
got kind of pulled out of shape and distorted and hijacked and stuff and then
sustainability appeared and that was really new and now the same sort of
things happened to that so is it then going to move into a new term?
In the cases of both Aboriginal community participation and participation by members of
culturally and linguistically diverse communities, the use of different terms and concepts
represent a challenge for community educators that many may not even be aware of. One
educator, for example, said that there is no equivalent word to „sustainability‟ in the Arabic
language. In order to research the meaning of the idea for herself she actually returned to her
birthplace in a village in Turkey and made a digital story about their simple lives in the
village – carting water from a well, cooking on a small wood fire, growing their own fruit and
vegetables in communal village gardens. She brought this back to use as a resource to explain
what the concept of sustainability might mean to her and to communicate to her immigrant
compatriots.
Similarly, Chris Tobin, a community educator of the Darug language group explained that for
Aboriginal people the concept of „Country‟ includes all of the aspects of sustainability –
social, cultural, environmental and economic.
What I get the chance to do sometimes is just connect people, and it‟s all – I mean social
justice and the environmental outcomes to me are the same, we work for those. We want a
healthy community, sustainable one. I get a chance to share with people that we have a
heritage of good custodianship of country, and it‟s not the short term aims that we often have
to abide by these days. And so the outer circle [of country] actually is the ancestors, the
people gone before us, this is us here [in the middle] and then the ones that come up behind
us are the children. These are all part of our identity and they have to be taken into
consideration when we make decisions about country and that sort of thing.
30
ENABLERS OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Participants recorded a total of 76 responses when discussing successful strategies for
engaging community members in environmental and sustainability activities. The Mid-West
Focus Group recorded 35 enabling strategies (46%) of the total comments; the Inner-West
Focus Group suggested 24 (32%) of enabling strategies, facilitators of engagement and the
Outer-West Group listing 17 (22%).
The themes which emerged from clustering these enabling strategies were identified and
organised around WHO, HOW, WHAT and WHERE to engage the community. Table 6
summarises the sub-categories within these themes and also records the frequency with which
the comment was recorded across all three Focus Groups.
Challenges and Barriers to Community Engagement Focus Group Summaries
31
Table 7: Strategies to Enable Community Engagement
Themes N (%) Total
N=76
HOW – Successful workshop and program design
Experiential learning, hands on, sensory, living it, animation, context spark
Virtual workshop (online extensions to workshops, digital stories translated)
Info/knowledge exchange, (co-learning with guest speakers, presenters and peers)
Structure workshops in the format of popular TV shows, popular culture
Build on popular workshops such as bread making
Offer short courses as a taster, longer courses and information from evaluation follow up
Apply for money and funding
Aims and outcomes (focus on behaviour change, focus on goals, different programs with
different goals)
Need time
21 (28) 53 (71)
HOW – Motivate and involve the community
Look at what will motivate to create change, encourage families, enjoyable
Involve the community, (consultation/connection is the key, community sense of
ownership, their actions make a difference)
Choose issues requiring action for specific local effects, „what‟s in it for me‟ motivation
Look at achievements and celebrate these, not bogged down in negativity (acknowledge
change process is slow, accept small changes on a personal level)
Be flexible, keep up with the times, lead by example
Social pressure (Using social norms and peer pressure for some disengaged groups)
18 (24)
HOW – Tailor approach to audience (language, age, socio-economic)
Designing targeted innovative age appropriate strategies for the hard to reach
Avoiding concepts or words that some find difficult, use familiar language
Recognising the different hooks or pressure points for different audiences
Recognising the impact of peer pressure
9 (13)
HOW - Inform the community
Not just advertising (promote innovative program design, personal touch for disengaged)
General and popular media, PR, Newspapers, Council LGA surveys
Developing other avenues for producers: Radio ABC, Livestock programs, Masterchef,
getaway, good weekend
5 (6)
WHO - Know your community
Understanding diversity (migrants, indigenous youth, disadvantage, the unknown e.g.
bush)
Understanding community values (landscape, culture, history)
Identify the „middle group‟, the hard to reach
6 (8)
11 (14)
WHO - Engage networks
Forming partnerships to extend programs and resources by working with likeminded
people
Dialogue „whole of system approach‟
Sustainability officers as brokers in new developments
5 (6)
WHAT – Use content appeal in workshops and programs
What is topical? (people open to change then, real cost to the earth, political education,
global politics to local activities, what will benefit them directly?)
What is causing financial pressure? (education in energy saving-people are interested)
7 (9) 7 (9)
WHERE – Be visible in the community
Projects need to be visible not hidden away (main street, shopping centres, hook into
other public events, regular events eg. library story sessions)
Going to where people are, instead of expecting them to come to „us‟
5 (6) 5 (6)
Challenges and Barriers to Community Engagement Focus Group Summaries
32
Strategies to engage the disengaged
HOW to engage communities accounted for 71% of all comments relating to „enabling
strategies‟ with four sub-themes being identified from the data:
successful program and workshop design
strategies for motivating their communities
tailoring delivery approach to target group
successful lines of information dissemination into the community
A predominant focus of this discussion was how to „engage the disengaged‟. An overall sense
was that community members in general were aware of sustainability issues but felt
overwhelmed by the enormity of planetary problems. Educators said that a strong motivating
factor for „engaging the disengaged‟ was to be able to demonstrate to them that the collective
actions of individuals does make a difference:
… you need to demonstrate to people, have some proof so that they don‟t
feel overwhelmed with, „Well me - like one person doing that is just a drop
in the ocean‟. So some actual proof … the social proof is what you're
talking about. With the Melbourne Water example, that competition, … for
some social groups the suburb next door is doing better so then they want to
step up their game.
A successful strategy for engaging members of all communities was to meet people where
they are at - including their places of congregation, interests, languages and cultural
preferences. For some instances this was as simple as setting up stalls in a shopping centre:
… to go to shopping centres and we would set up our worm farm and compost
bin in the middle of the shopping centre and hail people down and go „Hi, can
I tell you something about composting. Have you seen some worms?‟ and each
day that we did that we would run a free compost set up and the person would
not only win a bin, they would win us going out to their house and setting it all
up.
Another successful strategy across all age groups was to deliver workshops on popular
interest topics. Bread-making, for example, was the most popular of all the sustainability
workshops offered by one local council with a waiting list of 80-100 people. Food and
cooking in general was a popular way of engaging the disengaged:
Sometimes it's about getting away from just the sustainability thing, the
same thing, we got an ex Master Chef contestant to do the cooking
demonstration workshop for us, this year we're going with more of a health
focus.
Challenges and Barriers to Community Engagement Focus Group Summaries
33
It was agreed by all educators that the most disengaged age group were middle income
parents with young families in 25-35 year age group. The most creative suggestions for
engaging in this group were to do with identifying where they meet in a public community
setting and joining in with them there:
At the library they have preschool story time and so you have a whole lot of
people that attend this. They don't really care what it is that you're going to
talk about or what book you're going to read to them. They're there every
single week with their child to attend story time and we‟re able to use that
opportunity to conduct workshops. A lot of non-English speaking adults are
there as well with their children so it means not only are we reaching the
young children who are going to be able to go home and encourage a
follow up of the content that‟s been discussed but we're also serving to pitch
at a level that some of these people that can't always understand a lot of
English, they're going to be able to get a lot out of the workshops as well.
The last workshops that we did at preschool story time I think had close to
80 people adults and children.
Younger adults in the 15-20 year old age group. The educators discussed that ensuring the
appeal of their workshops to the target group often called for creative thinking where the
sustainability education and actions are linked into fun, cultural activities:
The 15 to 20 year old age group is a very different kind of approach to the
25 to 45 year olds, for example for us we're looking at running a break
dancing competition where you‟ve got to sit on a bike and ride the bike to
power the music.
For low socio-economic status communities the pressure of finance was a strong motivating
factor for them to become engaged in reducing their energy consumption:
…we have lots of people in our area who can't afford their bills, they‟ve got
10 people living in a 2 or 3 bedroom home, we've got an aging populations
so we've got people that are 70, 80 years old who have been hospitalised
because they can't afford to put heating on in their home so it's a completely
different audience.
In the highly culturally and linguistically diverse locations in inner western Sydney there are
many specific issues of language and culture to be addressed, particularly for those of refugee
backgrounds. One educator, for example, said „there are 127 community languages - our 3
main cultural groups are our Arabic population, our Vietnamese and our Chinese population‟.
The issues raised by educators in relation to sustainability education for these groups
included food security and basic shopping education, basic education in refuse disposal and
language issues. Creative responses to these issues included the development of visual
languages for communication:
Challenges and Barriers to Community Engagement Focus Group Summaries
34
Our team [decided] not to translate and we‟ve done that because we found
that just because someone speaks the language, it doesn‟t mean that they
necessarily can read the language … we‟ve gone down the track of using
pictures to tell a story so - and we check our pictures with our community so
that, you can basically show them a picture and say “What does that tell you?”
and if someone can turn around to me and say „That pictures telling me that I
need to put my recyclables in the bin, loosely without a plastic bag‟ I go „Yeah‟
that‟s exactly what that picture is trying to tell you.
Special culturally appropriate strategies and pedagogies were also described as relevant for
Aboriginal communities in relation to the connection between disengaged youth, schools, and
communities:
I encourage them (teachers) to go out into the community and ask community
people – bring the community into the school and get local community, whether
its parents, friends to come into the school and talk to the kids. That‟s why it‟s
really important that schools build really strong relationships with that Aboriginal
community because a lot of Aboriginal people feel very hesitant to go into
schools.
35
EDUCATORS’ LEARNING AND SUPPORT NEEDS
When considering their learning and support needs, the educators across the three Focus
Groups proposed roughly the same number of suggestions (one third each). A total of 136
suggestions have been analysed and presented in three tables. Table 8, summarises the
Professional Learning Needs of the educators. Table 9 displays the Support Needs and
Structures the educators perceive as critical to their work and Table 10 summarises how the
educators see UWS, OHE and RCE as linking with and assisting them in their daily practice.
Professional learning needs
The topics proposed by the educators as integral to their ongoing professional learning (and
in order of the frequency with which the item was mentioned), were: 1) establishing and
maintaining formal and informal networks; 2) updating their knowledge and skills in the
areas of grant writing, information technology and pedagogies of engagement; 3)
participating in formal learning opportunities and 4) learning local knowledge and resource
availability. An overview of the specific professional learning need areas suggested by the
educators appears in Table 8.
Educator Learning and Support Needs Focus Group Summaries
36
Table 8: Educator Professional Learning Needs
Professional Learning Needs
Frequency
N (%)
Total=72
Establishing and maintaining networks – Communities of Practice
Professional development opportunities to meet and build networks with other
teachers
Partnerships with skilled people (water testing, finance, grants, bookkeeping)
I need to network to maintain professional standards at the higher academic level
How to use networks effectively, Linking into networks to share ideas
Partnership/relationship building and keeping (networks)
Not reinventing the wheel. There are lots of other groups/networks websites already
out there
What is happening in other organisations
28 (38)
Grant writing
How to write grants and where are they currently available, Reduce the loops in
the grant applications, Grant applications too overwhelming
Council to promote awareness of grants
9 (13)
Technology
IT digital media
Understanding rebates for new technologies.
Need to keep up with technology in education (e.g. QR codes, Apps, VC)
Facebook (networking opportunities), Blogs, Databases
8 (11)
Pedagogies of engagement
Engaging ways to teach topics, to teach parents and community
How to facilitate, how to engage, how to communicate, how to recruit and
empower teachers
Case studies of engagement (How, what worked, what didn‟t work)
8 (11)
Formal learning opportunities
Conference attendance
Australian curriculum knowledge
Psychology and behaviour change
Courses
Genuine evaluation of education beyond bean counting
Research/social research training - UWS (keynote speakers via video-
conferencing, evaluation, community development through informal contacts
and learning)
Strategies for professional development
13 (18)
Learning local knowledge and resource availability
Touring education facilities
Understanding of Aboriginal culture
Participating in on-the-ground work
6 (8)
Educator Learning and Support Needs Focus Group Summaries
37
Educators’ support needs
Table 9 outlines a summary of the type of the support the educators viewed as necessary but
which currently, is not being received. Most frequently mentioned was the need for additional
staff to ensure the ongoing success of programs and workshops. The other themes in order of
importance (the frequency with which the topic was raised) are listed below in Table 9.
Table 9: Educator Support Needs for Community Engagement
Support Needed
Frequency
N (%)
Total=63
Additional staff (wide range of support staff requested)
Facilitators, Staff to implement projects with support from local papers
Support Management
Paid project officer/coordinator to promote our work
Paid media support officer
Speakers of different languages
Volunteers
Administrators
Online staff
More people power
UWS, RCE, OHE to advocate, be a point of liaison for staff, within and external to
their organisations
18 (29)
Resources
Pool of resources which can be accessed
Centralised information and resources for council and community
Info in different languages, Language translation at local government and more
services
Books and pamphlets
Kits (environmental kits)
Venues and locations to run programs
9 (14)
Money – funding
Money, government grants and funding
Overcome costs borne by members/fund raising
Long term commitment and funding for the environment, programs and education
Problem/recognition of uncounted cost of educational engagement with community
via volunteer organisations instead of seeing volunteers as bureaucratic KPI Free
asset. Comments like increase your volunteers by 10%
9 (14)
Systemic / Organisational support
Support from my own organisation (the bureaucracy)
I want to be connected to the system that will make a difference to what we are trying
to do – Education, health, environment departments
Higher profile with council
Long term planning (strategic) for environment and sustainability
Award and encouragement for industry leaders - being valued
9 (14)
Time
Time
Time to do a program properly, realistic, measureable
7 (11)
Local media/advertising / Getting the message Out
Support from local media
Highlight positive messages and community champions
5 (9)
Ongoing professional development 2 (3)
Educator Learning and Support Needs Focus Group Summaries
38
Ongoing training (regulations, legislation, technologies)
Ongoing support and training to turn enviro officers into educators and change agents
Other
Flexibility - go to the community rather than the community come to us
Exposure to working with young people
More/greater access to target audience
UWS students to visit centres-recruit them into environmental pathways (messages
and methodologies in society)
4 (6)
Priority needs
The Inner Western Sydney Focus Group was asked to prioritise their support needs and to
offer for discussion their single most important need. These were:
More financial resourcing - insufficient funding, money,
Needing more volunteers,
Language education, support to get the message across to non-English speakers,
Mobilising partnerships and connections with other organisations and
Having time to access information about sustainability education programs, resources,
case studies already available through the internet (e.g. Sustainability Reading Hub)
This priority list from the educators themselves confirms findings from other research about
the community sustainability education sector (Somerville & Green, 2013). While
community sustainability initiatives are emerging worldwide as a source of innovative
responses to urgent planetary problems, the sector is the most poorly resourced and the least
understood. The location of highly innovative teaching and learning, community
sustainability education is an essential source of innovation for the formal education sector. It
is the most efficient and cost effective form of sustainability engagement in terms of the
potential of local partnerships, local networks, and the ability to mobilise committed
volunteers. The project has identified the unique place-based nature of sustainability
educators‟ work and the importance of building connections across the sector to leverage
momentum for transformational change. Educators identified the proliferation of information
on the web but welcomed the opportunity for authentic face to face connections and
information sharing as essential to their own professional development.
These research findings are limited to the perspectives of the 25 educators who participated in
the focus groups in the western Sydney region. The project is ongoing, however, in the sense
that the sustainability educators are connected to community members through the
community forums conducted in Stage 2 of the project. It is also ongoing in the sense that the
Our Place project will be extended to other regions in NSW. The findings about the work of
these community sustainability educators in each different region will add cumulative weight
to our understanding of their work in engaging their communities to look after their local
places.
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1: List of Acronyms ................................................................................................. 40
Appendix 2: Invitation Email................................................................................................... 41
Appendix 3: Story Maps and Pedagogical Practices: The Educators‟ Discussions ................. 42
Appendix 4: In-depth Analysis of Individual Story Maps ...................................................... 56
Appendices
40
Appendix 1: List of Acronyms
A2E
2 Australian Association of Environmental Education
ACF/AABR Australian Conservation Foundation/ Australian Association of Bush
Regenerators
ATA Alternative Technology Centre
BMt Blue Mountains
CALD Culturally and Linguistically Diverse
CER Centre for Educational Research (UWS)
CLM Contaminated Land Management
CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
GWS Greater Western Sydney
HEN Hawkesbury Environmental Network
HRN Hawkesbury Rainforest Network
HH Hawkesbury Harvest
HSC The Higher School Certificate
LGA Local Government Authority
LGSA Local Government and Shires Association of NSW
NGO Non-Government Organisation
OHE Office of Environment and Heritage,
PhD Doctor of Philosophy (degree)
RCE Regional Centre of Expertise (United Nations)
SEIFA Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas
TAFE Technical and Further Education
TTA Transition Towns Australia
UN RCE United Nations Regional Centre of Expertise in Education for
Sustainable Development
UWS University of Western Sydney
Appendices
41
Appendix 2: Invitation Email
Do you want to better engage your community in looking after the local environment?
Are you based in Western Sydney, the Hunter or the Illawarra?
The University of Western Sydney, the Hunter Wetlands Centre and the Office of
Environment and Heritage invite you to share your story at a regional Our Place for
Educators focus group. The results of the focus groups will be used to develop regional
activities to support those who engage the community in looking after the environment.
Who can participate in Our Place for Educators?
The focus groups are for people who conduct environmental/sustainability education (paid
and volunteer) that helps the community to get involved in looking after the environments of
Western Sydney, the Hunter or the Illawarra region. Participants might be from local
government, a business that has a community engagement project or a volunteer with a group
that has environmental engagement activities for the community (eg Landcare).
What will participants do?
From September to October 2012 up to 60 people in each region will participate in small
focus groups to discuss community engagement about the environment and share stories. The
focus groups will be held mid afternoon at a convenient location in each area. The focus
groups will specifically look at how educators are reaching across the community including
people from multicultural backgrounds, businesses, Aboriginal communities, early childhood,
youth, families and schools and also across a range of environmental issues.
All focus group participants in a region are then invited to a regional forum in November -
December, where the findings will be presented and future directions that can support
educators are discussed.
Our Place for Educators is part of the ongoing Our Place project. This aims to help the
broader community to get involved in looking after the local environment through forums
and events. Participants are also invited to be part of this project.
Interested?
To participate in a focus group please send an email to: [email protected] by
Monday 13 August.
In your email please include:
your name, phone and preferred email address
the region that you work in (Western Sydney, Illawarra or the Hunter)
a paragraph that tells us a bit about the kind of community engagement that you do.
Information received will be used by project partners for the purpose of invitation to the
focus groups only. For further information call Sue Burton on 8837 6007.
Please pass on this invitation and thank you for your interest.
Our Place for Educators
A collaboration between the Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development –
Greater Western Sydney, the Centre of Educational Research UWS, the Hunter Wetlands Centre and the
Office of Environment and Heritage.
Appendices
42
Appendix 3: Story Maps and Pedagogical Practices: The Educators’ Discussions
The educators‟ stories included below are extracts from the transcript
stories that accompanied their maps. These stories followed the
production of story maps, which allowed the educators to spatially
represent the place of their work and the communities and agencies
with whom they engage within that space. So in this sense the stories
are produced from the visual/spatial mapping rather than the other way
around, beginning with words. The analysis of the story maps
themselves is included in Appendix 2 but in a sense they are a means
to enable educators to conceptualise the place of their work and the
nature of their work spatially. A selected number of story maps are
included as examples of how the visual and spatial mapping enabled
the stories to be told. The educators‟ stories are presented according to
the three focus groups in which they participated as the geographical
clustering was the most significant means of categorizing the stories.
De-identification of the participating educators follows the coding procedure outlined on
page 9 of this Report.
Outer Western Sydney Focus Group
O-4-1: Bush Regeneration Officer
Place
I work for Hawkesbury Council so what I have tried to do is encapsulate the map of
the Hawkesbury LGA and I think that the river‟s quite important and it‟s tributary
because I said the Hawkesbury River so I started with Penrith because the LGA
comes in at Wiseman‟s Ferry. So there‟s all the smiley faces of all the Bushcare
groups, I‟m the Council‟s Community Bushcare Officer. So there‟s the Grose River,
there‟s Redbank Creek, Kurrajong Creek, Colo River, Webb‟s Creek and McDonald
River. They‟re systems through the Kurrajong and before that transition … where it‟s
a bit hilly and a bit flat and then the Hawkesbury Community Nursery that green
plant there and that‟s the smiley face as well, the community volunteers that work
there.
Pedagogical practices
I do bushland regeneration where people do bush regeneration in natural areas and
usually let the bush dictate what it wants to do. With the young kids, like with the
scouts, people who want to get their badges and so on, but primarily its retirees.
We‟ve got an Aboriginal group here but non-Aboriginal people are more than more
than welcome – at Lower Portland.
O-2-1: Volunteer Co-ordinator, Hawkesbury Harvest
So this is our vista out here the Hawkesbury River and the important thing for me in
the communities I work with and what I do is, the positioning of this area, this place
with the urban and Sydney‟s development and particularly the reasons why the
interest group that I work with, Hawkesbury Harvest, came about in the first place,
which was urban development, the pressure on farmland for housing, the situation of
Appendices
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farmers with the food system and the pressure of development with the dominance of
the retail chains in basically wiping out agriculture. I work for the University, the
Bringing Knowledge to Life thing was what they always did, my area of research is
rural communities and tourism but I activate that research through Hawkesbury
Harvest.
Pedagogical practices
The kinds of groups we work with are rural community primarily through Harvest
and the peri-urban residents that live out in this particular part of Sydney.
Addressing issues of quality of life, food supply, food quality, food excess and equity.
Those original big agendas that are all linked to obesity and all those things. What‟s
really important to most of the groups that we work with, are livelihoods, the
importance of the issues in the Sydney basin about development and the way food
systems work, sustainability and particularly the landscape out there. And in this
place, Hawkesbury [campus of UWS], the heritage landscape out here, both
indigenous and the farming and European heritage that is here and is rapidly
disappearing with one set of the landscape coming in over the top of others all the
time. This here represents the role we play in trying to activate the urban to the
cause, giving them an understanding about being educated about the issues.
O-1-1: Education Officer, Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens
We‟re out here at Mt Tomah, so we get lots of communities coming to us, but we‟re
also allowed to go out to communities and we have communities coming up to us.
We run things like workshops, people like Eric come and help us deliver. We also
have Aboriginal community coming up and teaching about plants, teaching TAFE,
schools, universities coming to that place. We also are allowed to go out,
occasionally, so I‟ll work with Hawkesbury Community, the Blue Mountains
Community and the Lithgow Communities, with the power stations out there. Lots of
things with school gardens, growing plants, so that they have a sense of their school
place, or their community place. The Darug ladies will come up, I took the out
harvesting yams, they didn‟t know how to identity the yams but we went out there
and we found all these different yams.
Pedagogical practices
We just got out and explore the landscape when we‟re at Tomah, or if it‟s, if I‟m
going to their place we look at their place and try and work out how their place
works or how their connections within their place and how the plants all work the
landscape. So if we go in there and work out how do we design a garden? So draw
some pictures like this and work out the garden will work, that‟s for the aboriginal
community.
We run orderly treasure hunts, self guided, for families, that‟s been running now for
10 years, which is low cost. $3 they get a treasure map and it‟s like an eco trail every
week, it‟s always different, there‟s messages embedded in there. And kids go and
they‟re actually running around the garden, like trying to find the next thing and
they‟re learning about things.
O-2-2: Earthcare Co-ordinator
Hawkesbury Earthcare Centre over here, we rent that from the University, we‟ve
been there about 21 years and we fly under the radar, mostly, and that is how we‟ve
been able to survive. There‟s a lot of things happening and all of a sudden it is in the
spotlight. Earthcare is its own little culture in that it‟s a small group, it‟s a tribal
nature, it‟s Henry Doubleday‟s Research and the ATA so it‟s 2 organisations come
together on the site and rent the land off the uni. So we get cheap rent, but of course
- and this is where we sit here in the centre, so I put us in the centre. So we connect
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university, UWS is there, I think we offer a lot of benefit to UWS, mainly students but
also to the staff and people who are in there – there‟s actually 10 students over there
working on gardens just, it‟s just taken off at the moment. So but there‟s been times
over the 20 years when there‟s been no-one there for 6 weeks in a row too, so it‟s
very much low budget kind of thing. But the other context we work in too of course,
is in the Hawkesbury area because we are local sort of thing and we‟re getting a
reputation there too and a lot of people know the centre and in indeed we‟re dealing
with technological ATA issues, like solar power and things too. But the organic
growing side of things, we‟ve got a bit of bushland now too and permaculture, so it‟s
a bit of everything, and then we attract people from all over, the Hawkesbury River
is here of course too, sense of place, geographic, it‟s a major geographic icon of the
area I think. And of course, the city‟s here on the horizon too, that‟s looming out
there.
Pedagogical practices
… the globe is here to of course, and we relate to that too, the RCE. A lot of things
we identify with are global problems anyway too over population and waste and
pollution and decreasing agriculture and decreasing natural environment and all
that sort of stuff too so we obviously have that in the back of our mind. And also
there‟s other direct links too like of course with the Botanic Gardens, I work there,
but there‟s a connection in terms of plant knowledge and stuff too. Within here
there‟s a closer connection with the Hawkesbury Rainforest Network which of course
I‟m involved with as well too, which focusses on people identifying their own plants
in their area too. But the Centre itself is a bit of a model, I actually started the
Earthcare Centre with a group of likeminded people. We‟re not trying to be all things
to all people, but provide a place where people can have experiential learning. So
but there‟s links too –I see ourselves as part of a node on a network which means
any weaknesses we have can actually be directed to other people.
O-2-3: Co-ordinator, Hawkesbury Environment Network (HEN)
Mine‟s been a bit of a journey from the beginnings up here where I lived in the Blue
Mountains and was influenced by role models very early in the piece. The greens are
actually places significant to the way that I thought about ecosystems and the
origins are my formal work. I‟m now down here under that retirement line and the
trajectory off the page if you like. So the formal stuff with university where I started
off in Vet Science then went to CSIRO then became a school teacher, then that all
changed when I reared 2 children, and became tied down to what was happening on
my own place of 20 acres, looking after that up in Kurrajong. And that‟s actually
where the big change happened for me, and I became extremely bored and joined the
Australian Plant Society which I focussed on and that became unsatisfactory
because people were just doing plants and identifying things so I became involved in
other eco stuff.
On this side of retirement I‟ve realised that what I‟m really focussing on is people
actually, not place. I‟m involved in several different places still Kurrajong, Little
Weenie Creek, Redbank Creek down in North Richmond, Bowen Mountain where I
live now. And still to some extent the Blue Mountains because I‟m tracking back
through my history where we actually lived, next door to what I think was the Gully.
And that‟s where my grandparents lived, so the Gully‟s significant because I‟ve
always thought I was part Aboriginal in a sort of an inner way. Anyway,
organisations, now I suppose the big focus now is Hawkesbury Environment
Network which is an umbrella group and brings in the different organisations that
Eric referred to.
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I think mine‟s a timeline, in my own life.
Pedagogical practices
North Richmond for instance, is very much an urbanised version of what used to be
an area like Kurrajong. And if you look at it, it‟s very unplanned, it‟s just grown, it‟s
bulging at the seams, it‟s got a huge lot of really disaffected people. And so the
engagement with them is going to have be quite different to just identifying plants
and going and doing a bit of bush regen, and so the idea is to develop packages of
engagement and I‟ve been trialling those over the last 3 years in different areas, to
bring groups together.
O-1-2: Aboriginal education officer, Echo Point Tourism
The large circle represents country and these represent the various groups within the
country. And so I‟ve worked for the country, I get a chance to deliver, have some
input into various groups that are all working for the same good cause … there‟s
Bush Care, we‟ve got an Aboriginal Organisation, National Parks, visitors to the
place, special interest groups, environment groups, local councils, State Government
groups, education, all these, they‟re all within, within the country like I say, and they
overlap at different times. What I get the chance to do sometimes is just connect
people, and it‟s all – I mean social justice and the environmental outcomes to me are
the same, we work for those. We want a healthy community, sustainable one, I get a
chance to share with people that we have a heritage of good custodianship of
country, and it‟s not the short term aims that we often have to abide by these days.
And so the outer circle actually is the ancestors, the people gone before us, this is us
here and then the ones that come up behind us are the children. And these have to be
– these are all part of our identity and they have to be taken into consideration and
we do make decisions about country and that sort of thing.
Pedagogical practices
So I get a - lots of opportunities to share that with people and to know that we, my
real theme at the moment is that, human beings fit beautifully on this planet, or can
do. And that Aboriginal ancestors – we‟re lucky in Australia we‟ve got Aboriginal
history that has shown us that human beings can live on the planet without trashing
the place and I explain to people that‟s a really important. And one of the school
teachers a few years ago alerted me to the fact that whereas my generation one
before us, grew up in fear we‟re going to blow each other up with a bomb. She
pointed out that the kids these days, young people often think the environment‟s
going to kill us, and how tragic that? So that‟s why the stuff that we do is got to be
done with hope and purpose.
I work at the Aboriginal Centre at Echo Point. I get 15 minutes to cram in a real
quick message, actually I don‟t even get that, I get 10 minutes, and so it‟s
challenging but you do, even in that 10 minutes if you just present things like people
haven‟t seen it before, you see little lights go on.
I say, that we, that human beings can live in harmony with the environment. I love
to overturn the idea that it was a primitive culture and I explain to people that I
think what‟s happened is, that as this culture‟s been dismissed in the past because it
get‟s mistaken as a primitive culture, I explain to people that it looked that way to
Captain Cook when he arrived, was – he arrived in 1770 and the whole of Australia
was in pristine condition pretty much then. And he‟s assumed that these people have
just arrived themselves, and now we‟ve got the archaeological base, no people have
been living here for 20,000 years before he arrived, and it‟s still just lived in, people
need to know that. They also need to know that human beings lived beautifully with
the other creatures, because in our culture we respect the other animal rights to be
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here, it‟s their home as well, it‟s not just move them out of the way, we‟re here. We
have to work within their rhythms and that sort of thing, so that‟s exciting for people
to reflect on. I also share with them too that, the social possibilities of how human‟s
can live, where there‟s societies and like I say it‟s not a dream, this is normal life
used to be. No rich and poor, no homelessness, no armies, no gaols, like I said, and
then I start to broker that maybe Cook was actually looking at an advanced culture,
not a primitive culture. So they‟re things for people to chew on and take back with
them, but and also a message of hope, I explain that, so by working at the uni here
actually, I learnt that the river‟s far cleaner than it‟s been for 30 years, which is
exciting, it‟s still not safe to swim in anymore.
O-3-1: Agricultural teacher at Catholic College
I suppose mine‟s a little bit of a time story as well. I grew up in the Snowy
Mountains on 3,000 acres and it‟s a very, very harsh piece of land. My father was
one of those mountain men that used to move cattle up into the high reaches, there‟s
a … hut and he passed away in 2006 and he was of the last pasturing people that
used to move cattle up into the high country. But it was a world of monoculture,
very much sheep destroying the earth or sheep providing wool for Australia‟s
betterment. I found my way into education, as an agriculture teacher and an
interesting thing is that, where I‟m at now is a Catholic School but it doesn‟t have a
name beginning with Saint, like St. Marks, St. Pauls, St. Andrews or what have you.
It‟s - and people don‟t recognise it as being a Catholic School because it‟s names
Terra Sancta. And the model of Terra Sancta is, it‟s from the Latin is Sacred Earth.
So the students are indoctrinated right from go that they‟re on sacred earth. And the
college‟s philosophy is, The Way Passes Through This Land. So some Catholic
Schools have, Act Justly, ours is The Way that God Passes Through This Land.
Pedagogical practices
I teach in agriculture to the kids, it‟s based on a lot of permaculture principles and
they really gain a lot from getting their hands dirty in the garden and looking after
chickens: „he‟s identified indigenous and he said, “Well what are you going to tell
me about my land?” And I said, “Well come along.” And I said, “Well a whole lot of
it is about respect for land, this is your place and you can make or be with the land
however you want.” And apart from that, do a little bit of work, some workshops on
permaculture up in the Blue Mountains, but that‟s my, my country story.
O-4-2: Environmental Officer
So I‟ve just recently been employed as a Catchment Officer for the Catchment
Management Authority. And working on a Project for Pathway which is in the
Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment area. To engage them to become excited about
environmental issues in our – in the catchment and to get them to possibly do some
on ground work, whether that be bush re-generation or … all those kind of things.
Pedagogical practices
But previously I worked at Druitt High School and I – they wanted to engage more
young people in this program. I actually started a horticulture course for disengaged
Aboriginal Youth. It‟s been very successful, we‟ve got kids that we really struggled
with to get into classrooms, to get to either whether getting them into class or getting
them to come to school or they‟d come to school but they wouldn‟t – they‟d just run
around the corridors and get teachers to chase them and think it‟s a good game. And
these kids have just made the majority of them, like 98% of them have just done a
complete turnaround, they‟re engaged in doing ongoing work within the school,
planting trees, and they‟re also, they‟re working with Richmond TAFE - they‟re
running a course, and they‟re doing a Cert 3 in horticulture, so it‟s really good just
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to see the engagement of these young people. And also they‟re learning about their
culture too and about native plants and how they were used and as all the reports
go, we know there‟s a closing the gap report and things like that, that engagement
with culture really improves education and health outcomes for Aboriginal people.
So it‟s really, meant getting kids out of classrooms, and doing hands on activities and
becoming engaged and excited about, not just the environment but about their
culture as well and engagement with elders.
Mid Western Sydney Focus Group
M-1-3: Environmental Officer, Blacktown Council
Spatial mapping of the relationship between eco-social relationships and her work in
sustainability:
In terms of the area that I work in it‟s very diverse in terms of the population and,
also the location and the types of areas that we have in terms of rural versus urban
we‟re quite highly densely populated in the centre of Blacktown, but then we go quite
rural. Unfortunately that will be lost in the next ten years and they are all being
developed, so, a lot of that land will be lost. So it‟s a very high growth area, we have
very high areas of disadvantaged population, but we also have areas of very new
developments which are people that are actually quite wealthy, so it really is a very –
it balances that out in terms of the statistics on the way that people live.
M-1-3 provides a very succinct overview of the peri-urban nature of eco-social relationships
in Mid Western Sydney with increasing development for housing replacing rural land and the
diversity of wealth and poverty between the older densely populated urban areas and the
upwardly mobile young families in new developments.
Pedagogical practices
M-1-3‟s work incorporates the full range of sustainability education from preschool, schools,
resident and community groups and a Coles community program. She sees the purpose of her
sustainability education work as „behaviour change‟ and the Council runs over 30 workshops
a year based on food and environmental and social sustainability. General sustainability
community education programs focus on „re-skilling‟ ranging „from topics on how to make
your own bread, how to make your own cheese to how to build a garden, to how to save
money on energy bills‟ with breadmaking being so popular they typically have a waiting list
of 80-100 people. They run five festivals a year and are currently preparing a prospectus for
community groups. The Council runs preschool and school programs with an annual schools
grants program, an environmental expo, regional catchment field days and kid‟s green day
out.
Social sustainability programs with new migrant communities include „very basic
sustainability on things like, what is the rubbish bin for, what are the taps and where does the
water come from to, how to grow your own food‟. The migrant groups include many people
who have newly arrived from refugee camps including Sudanese, Sri Lankan Tamils and
Bhutanese people. They run basic sustainability programs for these groups with a focus on
food – from how to shop in a supermarket and cook the food they can buy there, to growing
your own food. Food security is a significant issue with „disadvantaged groups‟ so they
incorporate „community kitchens and access to fresh food and vegetables that are affordable‟.
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The Council has teamed up with other agencies to provide cooking classes and conducts their
own internal training for sustainability educators. They train community sustainability leaders
through the Coles program.
M-6-2: freelance consulting to Councils
I live in Dural which is a very sort of peri-urban with encroaching development type
arrangement, and it‟s going from a very rural sort of very grass rootsy kind of food
growing area to a very wealthy, you know - lawns and watering systems, and very
not much concentration on sustainability in that area at all, and people are quite -
not socially isolated but isolated in a community sense because they‟re wealthy and
they‟ve got a huge amount of land and they‟re very successful and all these sorts of
things, and that‟s the farmer with his horse getting sort of pushed out, and I‟m seeing
that every day, new bits of land being.
Pedagogical practices
M-6-2 works as a freelance consultant conducting community workshops about organic food,
soil, water based on prior horticulture degree. She is trying to secure permanent work in the
sustainability area and is a current Social Ecology student. (Another person in the focus
group offered M-6-2 a job!)
M-3-2: agricultural teacher in a Catholic college
M-3-2 expresses the same peri-urban issues that the previous two participants have raised
with the added agenda of the loss of farming and food growing knowledge.
… many of the students that we have are urban based, and therefore their
understanding of the whole process of producing the food and in a sustainable
manner, looking at the environmental and ethical issues of getting the food on the
plate. It gives them a chance to explore that through agriculture, so I see agriculture
as a good vehicle.
Pedagogical practices
In order to achieve this he links into extensive networks of other schools, commercial
operations such as Castlereagh Feeds, and local community groups such as Rotary. His
(place) pedagogical practice involves understanding the geological, geographical and
historical characteristics of the Cumberland Plain in relation to its formation and human uses
over time. He engages with the Council and White Water in tree planting and other
environmental activities.
M-1-5: Senior educator officer, Sydney Catchment Authority
The spatial mapping of M-1-5‟s work is quite different because of the role that water plays in
history, in people‟s lives, and in its movement through water supply distribution that connects
people who live across the whole of Sydney to the major catchment at Warragamba Dam.
…we manage all the dams and the pipelines and the canals for the water supply for
all of Sydney and Wollongong, and parts of the Blue Mountains. So we‟re a very –
we‟re a new organisation but we‟re also a very old organisation, as well in that
pretty much the history of what we‟re about, the assets that we manage, they go back
well over 100 years, and in fact, that‟s a sustainability story from the get-go because
the very first supply to Sydney was the tank stream in the city and that catchment
became incredibly polluted and no longer a viable water source, then there was
other resources, wetlands and so forth exploited for water supply and population
outgrew them and, eventually they had to develop dams and weirs on different sorts
of river systems around greater Sydney, and a lot of, I suppose sustainability
environmental issues associated with them.
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Pedagogical practices
M-1-5‟s work involves educating primary and high school students at the interpretative centre
at Warragamba Dam about the water cycle and water efficiency (primary) and catchment
management issues (high school). The students come from all over Sydney and about 80-90%
come from the Sydney metropolitan area. They also teach online for HSC chemistry and
biology and he points out that their visitor numbers are about 7,000 but their online hits are
about 20,000 per year. Their onsite pedagogies are place-based with a „Water for Life‟
exhibition and a visit to the dam and a state of the art classroom in a new visitor centre.
M-1-6: Senior Education Officer, Sydney Catchment Authority
M-1-6 is based in Penrith and her education responsibilities are community focussed.
Pedagogical practices
They offer community based conservation programs such as Streamwatch, in partnership
with other agencies and have a community grants program. They have a strong focus on
people who live in the rural communities in the immediate catchment area with a Rural
Living handbook for those moving from urban to peri-urban or rural areas. A major project is
the Sustainable Grazing program because „what‟s happening on the farms within the
catchment is impacting on the water and the quality of the drinking water that we‟ve got. So,
it is based on behaviour change that we‟ve got science that sits behind it and informs it. They
offer 16 courses in this program, 14 of which are short (half day) courses and two are long
courses run over 6-12 months. These courses are offered to both commercial farmers and
hobby farmers.
M-1-7: Cleanaway Waste Services Education Officer
… my map shows us sort of being in the middle, like our depot is sort of … location,
and then we‟re travelling out to all the different areas across Sydney metro and
we‟re providing specific services to each of those different councils and we have
different contractual requirements for each of those areas, as well. I‟m probably a
little bit more concentrating around the inner west with some of the specific projects
I do, but we do also work with Blacktown – sorry, Blacktown that was my attempt at
your logo. So, we have a number of different education programs that we need to
tailor for each of our customers, depending on the community and the services that
we are providing in those areas.
Pedagogical practices
M-1-7‟s work involves school education programs with pre-schools, primary and secondary
schools and community workshops related to using the services correctly, to avoid
contamination. They also teach people about farming, composting, shopping correctly, to
minimise waste. They use a combination of face to face with residents, educational materials,
and public education strategies such as stickers on bins.
M-6-1: Freelance consultant
My involvement is actually is fairly organic compared to most people here, who have
got a steady role. I have my own business heading called Eco … which has a little
side-line of educating for environmental responsibility. And in doing that over the
years I have done a lot of facilitation of workshops at Blacktown Council, at
Balkham Hills Council, Hawkesbury and a few other different places. That has
lessened somewhat over the years, as the councils have taken on more of their own
education programs. I used to do a lot more for Blacktown council before a lot of
their own staff had taken over a lot of the workshops which involved composting,
worm farming, gardening and those sorts of things, attending festivals.
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Pedagogical practices
M-6-1 has been involved with writing the national curriculum sustainability
objectives across the different key learning areas, particularly the arts. She sees
„teaching and learning about sustainability in the environment as something that is
experienced, something that‟s hands-on, and that‟s why I like to work outside‟. She is
interested in incorporating Aboriginal knowledge into her work: „she and I are
actually at Longneck we‟re doing interpretive trail to try and introduce the kids as
they walk in, because they‟ve got to walk in about 300 or 400 metres from the road;
to try and introduce an understanding of the aboriginal terms for the local flora and
fauna, and to ask some of her – some of her interesting things, you know, maybe like,
did you know that aboriginal people used to paperbark for nappies and things like
that, you know, sort of things that might stick in their brain‟.
M-1-4: Sustainability Officer, Penrith Council
I‟m the sustainability education officer at Penrith Council. We‟re probably quite
similar in a lot of ways to Blacktown Council, but kind of different in others. Again,
we‟re on the peri-urban fringe, so we‟ve got some rural areas but, also levels of
development as well, probably got a bit more rural than Blacktown do. We have a
growing population infrastructure issues and all those associated issues as well.
We‟ve got areas of quite high disadvantage and financially well off areas as well; so,
quite a diverse community. Probably not quite as culturally diverse as Blacktown
would be, though. But it creates a very kind of challenging and interesting
environment to work in.
One of the challenges is people go, oh sustainability that‟s your department. What
we‟re really trying to promote is, no sustainability‟s something that everyone should
be doing and it‟s just what you should be doing as common practice - it shouldn‟t be
something special, as such.
Pedagogical practices
M-1-4 is responsible for about 10 workers in different departments who are involved
in sustainability education including a schools network with grants and funding,
biodiversity, water quality, environmental health (storm water program), waste
education, people looking after bushcare and landcare groups, waste education
officers dealing with composting and worm farming, managing the sustainability of
council facilities (sporting fields, childcare centres). They run lunch time workshops
for staff eg veggie gardening, sustainable fashion (op shop shopping), activities such
as mobile collection in which a chicken got donated to a family in Laos for every two
mobiles collected. They run community events such as sustainability festivals which
the library co-ordinates eg water photography wall; home power saving program,
supporting local permaculture group.
Inner Western Sydney
I-1-10: Environmental educator, Parramatta Council
So I-1-10 and I‟m from Parramatta Council. So this is me down the bottom. And
basically, I guess the 3 parts of my life. One is obviously my council work. Second is
my involvement in Guides and Scouts. And the third is my own business. So
obviously my – and then they sort of all intertwine. So my council work can work
with schools, work with community groups, work with - sort of with Guides and
Scouts - and works obviously building internal relationships. And then Guides and
Scouts works with all these. And then my business works with all these. So I guess
they all – my business does marine education in schools. So it‟s environmental
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education but from a different perspective. So they all very much intertwine, make
me me.
Pedagogical practices
Building relationships, frustrated because of short term contract work.
I-6-3: Volunteer environmental and community educator
I‟m actually wearing different hats and I‟ve actually worked in my heart space. I‟m
very, very, very deep in environmental area because I believe that we all have one
home, one planet that we share no matter what colour we are, where we come from.
We all actually have one home. And I‟m also actually very passionate about
environment - not only environment but the animals as well. I believe that so far and
for a long time that animals actually have no voice. They‟re actually – people can
just eat them, kill them or whatever, doing to them. And even actually inhabit their
homes - cut down the trees and harm them and hurt them with no reasons. And I
think that‟s actually – it‟s not right. So I‟m actually passionate about that animal
area. What else? I‟m trying to actually start my own business because I‟ve actually
been doing cooking workshops, doing workshops on sustainability and various
things. … my business is called Whole System Health – it‟s not about one person but
it actually start from one person. And it actually start from the heart space. I
believe that if one is actually not healthy physically and mentally, then we can‟t
actually step out and help our family, help our friends, help the community and leave
alone the animals. So it‟s very important that one is actually happy within one‟s self
and finds peace within one‟s self.
Pedagogical practices
See above. Also teaches Tai Chi, vegetarian cooking, etc.
I actually would say that from connecting with nature. And the message I get is
actually from the nature because I believe that we actually – our body – we actually
have 5 elements. Basically the earth is actually our bone and our flesh and the water
– our bodies actually have 75% of water. And our earth actually has 75% of water.
And the air – we share – our lung is actually – we share the air, the carbon dioxide
and the air with the trees, with the forest. So we are part of that 5 elements. And the
other one is the sun, the heat. Our body – actually if we don‟t have heat in our body,
we‟ll die. This body won‟t actually survive. So if we don‟t have the sun, then this is
actually – there won‟t be any life in this world.
I-1-11: Environmental educator, Auburn City Council
I work with a whole bunch of different people - different types, guises, all that kind of
stuff. Part of my role is environmental education and that goes towards a lot of
different things - so trying to clean up our local waterways, trying to reduce energy
consumption and just all the other aspects of general sustainability. I also
implement hard devices - so water saving things like water tanks, solar panels,
energy saving devices. And I also write a bit of policy when I get some time.
Pedagogical practices
Previously we‟ve done environmental education through handing out pamphlets and
ads in the paper. And you don‟t get much uptake from that. Our local paper has got
an 8% readership and a third of our population in our community is from a non-
English speaking background. But that doesn‟t mean they don‟t understand English.
So when we‟ve gone out to do different language stuff, the uptake is not necessarily
there either, especially when you‟re putting it in a paper. Because – I don‟t know – it
just hasn‟t worked. Anyway, so we‟ve got this specialist environmental educator in
for a short time. She‟s doing a great job and she‟s re-jigging the way we address
environmental education in the community. So try and do less of the work ourselves
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and link with community groups that are already doing that work and need a bit of
money. Because we‟ve got the money but we‟re people poor. Once this lady goes,
there‟ll be 2 people in my unit.
I-1-8: Resource Recovery Education Officer
I work at Bankstown Council as the resource recovery education officer, which is
waste and recycling in a you beaut way. I‟ve only just sort of done my drawing
looking at my career, I guess. And that‟s only because I‟m so passionate about my
career. So my drawing is the blue ECC tower at the centre of it all. I‟m working with
our community on waste and recycling and resource recovery. So it‟s a 3 bin system
of our red, green and yellow bins. We have a 192,000 population, 62,000 households
which we‟re providing a waste service for - those SUDS and MUDS – single-unit
dwellings and multi-unit dwellings. 127 community languages - our 3 main cultural
groups are our Arabic population, our Vietnamese and our Chinese population. The
way I‟m engaging with our residential community is through planning, looking at
development applications and the actual infrastructure that they‟re using for new
development, developing the education programs and the resources that go with
that, and doing community consultation along the way. I‟m guided by the waste
hierarchy of avoid, reuse, recycle and dispose.
Pedagogical practices
We‟ve been able to show that through the way that we are rolling out the program,
it‟s about giving feedback directly to households of bin inspections. It‟s the direct
feedback of: “Well done. You‟ve gone well this week.” Or, “Oh no, we found these
wrong items in your bin.” And we‟ve been able to find that we‟ve got lasting
behaviour change with just that. So yeah, so Recycle Right is kind of the big baby
that I‟ve been working on. Then I‟ve got links to all our industry groups - Waste
Management Association, LGSA, South Western and West of Sydney Rock areas.
Then I‟ve got our contractor arrangements. So as far as service provision, we work
with VITA, Clean Away, Busy, Wellco. And Council also owns and operates a tip –
Kelso Landfill. And then the whole other side of my job is contract management,
facilitation of sessions. So I go out and do presentations to community groups,
including Bankstown TAFE to some of their communities there. Program
development – I consider myself a bit of a communications specialist. And then our
event management – so we‟re running events that deal with electronic waste,
chemicals, national recycling week, Clean Up Australia Day, compost and mulch
giveaways. And then we‟ve got other programs – the hazardous waste, clothing,
food, sharps, and mattresses. So massive job but I love it and I‟m passionate about
it.
I-7-2: Owner/Director, Childcare centre
I‟m a director and the owner for 2 childcare centres in Auburn area, which is Love
& Care Childcare Centre and Kids‟ Early Education. I‟m not a very creative person
but it‟s called Love & Care so that‟s why I drew the love heart in the middle. My
husband is my inspiration after God obviously. He‟s my support in everything that I
do in my life and he‟s always there for me. We actually 3 childcare centres. We‟ve
got actually nine different languages in our service, the children all are kids from
non-English background. And there‟s a lot of them with autism and special need
children at the moment in our services, which is really hard for the staff and for us.
So attending a lot of professional development.
Pedagogical practices
Sustainability is a big issue in children‟s services at the moment. We just started this
year because I-7-1 dragged me to a course that we did together about sustainability.
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And we did actually a digital story, me and her. And everyone had their own way.
And I did it on global warming and it‟s on YouTube actually. And it was excellent to
see the different things happening in the world. So I was really interested in
sustainability and the issues that are happening around us. We organised a worm
farm. I-7-1 was – she had the big hand in organising things because I was obviously
… organised a worm farm for the children. We had actually a small garden for the
service. We did the bins – the 3 type of bins that we used for the kids for different
type of recycling things that we used. We‟re using a lot of – on the internet facilities,
so it helps the sustainability. We are dealing with Energy Australia too to get some
information for the children in how to save electricity and water. And we‟re dealing
through Auburn Council with the same things. I was interested in attending this
course actually, or this project, just to see how can we get more ideas about
sustainability. And how can we pass it to the parents and to the children from a
young age because whatever you teach them from young age, they going to grow
according to that. I do speak for disadvantages and we do have disadvantages in our
services. So I am a person and I do help out of our community in organising
different issues.
So basically as one of our aims to how we‟re going to educate, it was mainly
educating the families. And we thought about how are we going to get to the
families – is through the children. And so by bringing sustainable practices within
our services, then those children will go home and follow through at home by saying,
“Mum, we don‟t need that – the bedroom light on,” and so forth. And talking about
those sort of things. And they‟re all learning now because of the introduction to the
recycling bins – about reducing, reusing and recycling.
I-7-1: Owner/Director, Childcare Centre
I‟ll start off with my family on this side. This is my home and this is where I feel
comfortable and relaxed and time out. So then my 3 children – I‟ve got 3 girls. And
basically they‟re in tutoring, so we‟re networking through their tutoring. I‟m also a
consultant – a childcare consultant and help childcare services open even family day
care services. I also am the delegate of the OSTAG team because of my children.
Also the mosque is another place because my belief is Islam and so the mosque is
part of our family and life. The gym as well - being healthy and eating healthy. Now
started a 6 week challenge with boot camp and it‟s doing its bit. I‟m going out more.
I think the more we‟re going into - learning about sustainable practices and having
to enjoy outdoors more. And that‟s why I‟ve got the sky up there – and getting some
vitamin D through the sun – has been one of those key focuses that I‟ve changed in
my life. Because of a lot of it is technology and my children are on their iPods and
iPads and any other i-things.
Pedagogical practices
I do have 3 childcare services - one at Busby, one at Guildford and one in Granville
area. Now, they‟re 3 locations and in saying that, in those 3 different places there
are children from different cultures. The main – in Busby, main cultures and
languages spoken is English and Anglo-Australian. However, all the programs are
very much similar. The main language in Guildford would be Arabic and Indian. And
in Granville, it‟s Vietnamese, Arabic, Turkish and African. We involve the children in
excursions and going out. … we actually get everyone to value and respect other
people‟s cultures and a very strong Aboriginal awareness. And we have – as she was
talking about – SDN who are an inclusion support. So we have a lot of children with
disabilities as well in our services. And we actually get them out and perform in
festivals. And they‟ll be performing on 1st of November which is the language and
Appendices
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literacy. They‟ve also already been at the multicultural [festival] – they did a
multicultural dance, 4 different languages. And so we just – that‟s basically what we
do. And then we‟ve got people that come into our service, like the local community,
like the ambulance, fire brigade, police, nurse, the local doctors. I mean they all
influence what goes on in life. I mean children, I believe, learn through not just the
interactions they have with people but also the environment. So all of that has been
put in.
We did do a course, a Living Green course, together and a project on sustainable
practices. And we all had to do our own project and set up our own policy on what
our thoughts and our values and philosophies. And what inspired me about it – I
don‟t know much about climate change. I really didn‟t know much about climate
change. But yeah, when I did it, it opened my eyes to a lot of other new things. So
now I‟ve got a new philosophy altogether now. We‟ve introduced, as she was saying,
the recycling bins, a worm farm. This is our compost bin. We also did a fruit and
veggie garden that children can taste – they grow it themselves and they eat from it
as well. And they‟re going home and taking those practices back and saying, „Mum,
we should be doing recycling. We should be doing composting‟. And they‟re
enjoying the worms. Yeah, we went to Auburn Botanical Garden and we showed
them how the ducks and the rubbish in the duck‟s river – those kind of things they
we‟re basically doing. We‟re also one of the – we were in the New South Wales
Children – the finalist in the New South Wales Children‟s Week for best cultural
program, best director and best weekly program. And I think I‟ve covered all that I
do.
I-7-3: Early childhood education worker (same story as I-7-1 and I-7-2)
I-1-8: Environmental education, Bankstown Council
I work at Bankstown Council with I-1-9, in a different department. I work in the
environment and education team as part of the sustainable development unit. Going
back, everyone was talking about their history and where they‟re from and their
past, I guess. I grew up the Blue Mountains and I‟ve always had a passion for
nature and protecting nature, the bush. And I believe that that should be there
forever and for everyone to enjoy. So that‟s my passion for the environment. And
then my last position, I worked at Ashfield Council on a project called the GreenWay
Sustainability Project which was a partnership between 4 councils. So there was
Leichhardt, Canterbury, Marrickville and Ashfield Council. And we had a number
of sustainability projects to do over 3 years, funded by the state government. And
one of the projects I worked on was a schools project with local primary schools.
And back to what you were saying about education, working with kids and education
centres – I now believe, hence why I‟m in this role, that is really, really vital to work
with children, to get environmental messages across early on. Because when you‟re
older and working with adults, it‟s a lot harder to convince people-
Pedagogical practices
Actually in my last position, I, with a working group of people from other councils,
state government, community and a number of different people – we worked together
to develop a resource called GreenWay Sustainability Program. Anyway, it‟s been
adapted by the Department of Education and Training to be used as a professional
teacher‟s developing tool. They‟ve changed the name now. I think it‟s – if you look
up …, it‟s called - … credited. I think it‟s called Using Your Local Environment as
an Outdoor Classroom, Connecting Children to Their Local Environment.
Basically getting teachers and students out of the classroom and learning in the
outdoors. And not getting on a bus and going a few hours away but exploring what‟s
Appendices
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in your schoolyard or what‟s down the road, what‟s in your backyard. Bankstown
people say to me, “Bankstown is so urban‟ and you‟ve got the Georges River and
some of the beautiful outdoor areas – I‟m amazed. And this morning I actually did a
presentation for a school group from the Georges River Grammar School and I
really tried to push to them some of the beautiful natural spaces in Bankstown to go
out and explore. Because often I think people go to the Royal National Park or
Kuringi or the Blue Mountains and sometimes you‟re just looking at what‟s in your
backyard. And with that, I think then they make more of a connection with their
environment because they see it‟s in their backyard and they think, „It‟s mine and I‟m
part of this‟.
It‟s kind of that stewardship and they feel they want to look after it and it‟s kind of
that holistic – I guess that holistic cycle or process. That‟s why I think getting
children connected with their local environment at a young age – getting them – and
the other thing is you‟re getting them out and about. Not just talking in the
classroom or looking at a whiteboard. But getting out and exploring and touching
and feeling and that real authentic learning is really, really important. And knowing
where food comes from and where birds live and when you throw your rubbish on
the ground, where does it end up. And looking at the whole cycle and the whole
system rather than reading about it, is one thing. And even working within Council
and you‟re talking about the area that you work in. But a lot of people have probably
never been out to some of these – the Georges River National Park and … Creek and
some of these other fantastic places. And I don‟t think you get the true feel for the
area until you get out there and do that
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56
Appendix 4: Indepth Analysis of Individual Story Maps
OUTER WEST PARTICIPANTS
Name Central image Icons & connections Analysis
O-2-2
Earthcare centre with
people around
building encircled by
greenery and bush.
UWS is also written
as central. A field in
the centre
River on the south west
Western Sydney in the north west in black
Globe in the North east
small houses in the south at Richmond
Red web things chaos
Black arrow connections double headed so going in both
directions
Acronyms; ATA/ PDR?A; RCE; HH; HRN; UWS; RGB team
The urban environment is not connected to the
Earthcare centre and is pictured in black. Possibly
seen as a destructive force on the environment
O-4-2 Not done as running
late
O-1-2
Central circle in
yellow with no
writing in this. Solid
on the ring. Three
concentric circles
embracing other
smaller circles in
various colours
Doesn‟t have icons but lists these groups- from centre to periphery
1.Local councils; 2. Special Interest Groups Migrants and art
groups; 3. Visitors; 4. National Parks and Wildlife; 5. State
Officers Educational Institutions, schools UWS etc.; 6.
Environmental groups; 7. Bushcare; 8. Aboriginal Organisation
There is a definite centre but connections are made through
overlapping circles. The overlapping circles are not solid as if
these were temporary constructions in a universe that is infinite. In
these circles are the names of the organisations that have
something stake holding in country
Interesting that concentric circles are bigger and
closer to the centre for those groups that have more
power. This image shows relationships between
aboriginal groups bushcare and NPWS but
environmental groups are located opposite to this
and educational institutions are the furthest away
from everything
O-3-1
People in the centre
with two chickens
and grass and trees
Icons are a cross, the way passes through this land and a green
path or river. A truck? Or outdoor classroom on wheels, a globe
and the people and chickens. Connections are made by arrows in
green. Seems to be more of a process going around in a circle than
linear. People linked to permaculture to a singular person with a
question mark to a blackboard on wheels linked to a globe linked
to Dry plains linked to the river linked to the Blue Mountains and
permaculture again
The small clump of people being central to this
image are integrated with the chickens and the grass
so separation is not desired. There seems to be a
question of the lone person…what will you do?
What is your role. There is a linking to global
environmental concerns. Things are linked but still
very separate. The challenge here seems to be to
link disparate aspects of our world so the work can
be more effective and integrated
O-4-1 Hawkesbury River is
central
Icons are Mount Tomah and Mount Wilson and The Macdonald
Valley and Wisemans Ferry. These are pictured north of the river.
Lots of action in the areas. Bush regen. is
concentrated mostly between the Grose River and
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South of the river is Hawkesbury bushcare and Hawkesbury
community nursery and HIMAG (Hawkesbury, Indian Myna
Action Group). Black crosses are scattered across the map to
indicate where there are groups operating and looking after the
environment. There are also smiley faces in red
Connections are made by the rivers running off the central river.
These are Colo River, Webbs Creek, Redbank Creek, Currency
creek, Grose River and Macdonald River
the Colo River and South side of the Nepean.
Seems to be very much on the ground and practice
oriented. No sense of connections between the areas
and people but the people seem to be happy doing
this kind of work.
O-2-1 Hawkesbury Harvest
with a central tree
pictured
Words surround the HH tree central image these are
Empower; Educate; Activate; Advise; Research; Advocate;
Then further out from the centre are: Schools, schools harvest;
Agriculture Reference Group; HEN; OHN (Office of Hawkesbury
Nepean).
The urban environment is coloured grey and is far away from the
Hawkesbury harvest.
The Peri urban (LGA‟s, Residents) sites between the HH and the
Urban (govt, consumers, Industry, developers)
Farmers, community and the local is written beside the HH tree at
the centre of the story map
Connections are made by a green road or river? And a double
headed arrow connection Hawkesbury Harvest with the Urban
environment. A pink chain links UWS with Hawkesbury Harvest.
A Mountain range is in the background
Hawkesbury Harvest‟s relationship with the Sydney
basin is what is understood as the „local‟.
Landscape is defined by the river system (green
road) that created the basin (mountain range in
background), sustains it and is now where Sydney
exists. The double-headed arrow indicates it is
about dialogue with the city initiated by the country
in Sydney‟s backyard. The dialogue is about Farm
Gate Trail and markets as the most visible
experiential texts Harvest has created.
O-2-3
Central line is a one
way arrow in red and
grey. Like a cliff face
The icons are circles in green 4, orange 5, purple 6, yellow 1.
Inside these are written words such as Redbank, Rivo Kija, Bmts,
uni vetsci, CSIRO, School, Illawarra, Key Role Models, Child
rearing, TAFE CLM, Plant Soc., ACF/ AABR and People,
Ecosystems and HRN
Striking is the word Retirement in large blue letters at the base of
the story map
Connection is by the red central arrow which seems to connect the
past with many circles and groups with the present retirement
phase of O-2-3‟s life which has less circles and some which are
This is a personal story time line that shows many
activities in life but that is distinct from the current
retirement period. In this portioned off section there
are empty circles indicating a difficulty in getting
people involved in potential projects. Considering
HRN was her central concern it is interesting to
note that these are very small and located off to one
side also with empty circles.
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empty.
O-1-1
The Hawkesbury
River, the word
TAFE, Schools,
Stories
3 waratahs are prominently displayed in red and have planting, art
and school next to these.
Lithgow is on the top left and has smoke pollution spilling from
chimneys
Mount Tomah is in the top right corner directly opposite Lithgow
with happy people with the words „it‟s a frog‟ and a leader saying
„this way‟
Walks and Tbars is written under this
Beneath this is The Hawkesbury area with school and workshops
written. A road connects Mount Tomah and the Hawkesbury.
Aboriginal Groups as listed under the Hawkesbury area.
The River is connecting the two sides of the mountains and
connecting the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury area. A circular
road links the upper mountains plateau with the two sides of the
Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury. Schools are a linking theme.
Lithgow and the Blue Mountains are connected by the road
Schools are prominent in O-1-1‟s image. Strong
connections with roads linking however Mount
Tomah is way up on top of the hill away from any
action of daily routine like schools. The roads are
places which bring people to him but these school
are not really depicted as connected to each other.
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MID WEST PARTICIPANTS
Name Central image Icons & connections Analysis
M-1-4
Box with five
people in this, two
on one side and
three on the other.
This is Penrith City
Council. A line is
under the box all of
this is in brown
1.PCC central box. Under this is council facilities, solar &
water, lighting upgrades, water, Childcare centre; Internal,
brown paper bag, clothing drive, mobile muster Oxfam,
educators working group, official corp.ED., diversity
reference group
2.two people representing state and federal government.
LFHW written under the two people.
3.Schools network, sustainable times, emails
4.Sustainability issues in words: Climate change, food
security, urban growth, population up, biodiversity,
consumption, disadvantage
5.Uws, RCE, student placements, LFHW
6.WSEEN, other councils, DET
7.Tall buildings representing business, EUA, other
sustainability, brown paper bag
8.3 sets of pairs of people representing community groups
Community events
Community workshops; LFHW, greenbins, broad ED, blog,
website, Werrington Creek, energy info sessions,
Photo comp,
Carpool, new resident info night
Community Groups; susty street, permaculture SYD West,
sustainable gardening festival
Lines coming out from the central brown box and in the
bottom corner arrows connecting community groups, events
and workshops
Once again the council is at the centre of the frame
indicating an institutional approach. State and Federal
Government is highly visible in the colour pink while the
community section even though it is quite large is located in
the bottom left corner and is barely visible in grey. The
community sector is linked to its three sections but is not
linked to other aspects of the council work like schools,
childcare centres, government, and business. The state and
federal government dominate the top of the page in bright
pink over the council who must fit into this framework.
There is no link back to Council from community. The work
frame seems crammed with activities and it feels as if these
lists of things to do or influences mean not many are able to
be covered in depth.
M-1-3
The words in pink
Blacktown LGA
Words radiating out from the centre. Those that are larger
are Education, CALD, Sustainability and Behaviour
Change. Education and behaviour changed are linked with
brown arrows in both directions. Education is linked to
preschools. Surrounding Blacktown LGA which is the
centre icon are the words schools, residents, staff, CALD,
Sustainability and education surround the Blacktown area
indicating that these are two concepts that are scaffolds to
the way this educator does her work. However the focus
seems to be centralised in the council, so the institution is
the place to come and experience education and sustainable
practice, rather than the community environment being the
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preschools, urban, high growth area, high areas of
disadvantage, new developments, urban, rural, other
councils and external groups/ agencies. Education
underpins all of this central grouping of words. Up the top
of the frame is sustainability with links to food, social and
environmental. There is a list in the right corner of what
programs I do and these are:
School grants program; Sustainable living workshops;
Enviro expo; Preschool programs; Staff enviro programs;
Community group workshops; RCFD – field days;
Community gardens; CALD education program;
Sustainable living calendar; Sustainable events; Train the
trainer.
Lines radiating out from the central word and then
other lines connecting to show relationships to other words
place. In other words a you come to us approach rather than
a we will come to you approach. There seems to be a top
down approach evident in the term behaviour change, which
indicates external forces to change social behaviour rather
than seek change drawn from ideas circulating within the
community itself. A focus on delivery rather than facilitation
and involvement. A strong relationship between education
and behaviour change located at bottom of the page and
underpinning the philosophy of the council
M-1-7
Garbage truck on a
road
Garbage bins are prominent with the three different
coloured lids yellow, green and red. In the top of the frame
there is a sky scrapper with the word MUDS next to this
and next to this SUDS with two urban houses. In the lower
left hand corner there are several grey roads and circles, the
main one with the HILLS written in this referring to The
Hills District in Baulkham Hills. On the right hand side
there are three smaller hubs of communities with bins. The
lower right hand corner image only has one bin with a green
lid.
The main road is central and is connected to smaller
urban roads and cul de sacs where people live in
communities
The garbage truck goes to the peoples and businesses places
which is contrasted sharply to some of the other story maps
in Outer district LGA. There are many connections via the
roads and these have been grouped into particular
communities. It feels like the work of picking up refuse is
never complete, symbolised in the road that twists off into
the distance. Interestingly there are no trees or bush
landscapes, gardens or yards in the image so there is a
disconnect between where the refuse goes after it is
collected. There is no recycle station pictured.
M-1-6
Money is an image
alongside a heart.
The river is the
central image and
runs from the top of
the page to the
bottom in the centre
Trees are prominent with three taking up 2/3 of the page.
There is a dam beneath the trees and a smaller creek
running through the trees. People, work/farming, family and
money were represented. The word CHANGE is in capitals
and in bright pink is above the table. There is a fence
partitioning off the cows with cow paddys and rain falling.
A fence runs from the cows in the paddocks in the top left
This image is showing the multiple uses of the river
including play and recreation for families, food and farmers
needs all colliding. The problem with cow poo being
leeched into the ground is symbolised as being problematic.
The path linking all of these aspects runs through the natural
bushland, the farmers paddock and back to the table shows
that humans all impact on these aspects and have a stake in
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of the frame hand corner all the way around past the kitchen table and
back to the cows. The river is also seen as the principal
connector
looking after these but that these are not always seen as
being related as these elements are kept distinct from each
other.
M-6-2
Central image are
houses community
and one large house.
Open books are at
the top of the frame
Icons are rows of neat green plants, a green field with a cow
and three people with the cow, a basket filled with fresh
produce, a round no dig garden, a potted plant, a group of
eight people listening to a larger person with a face and a
speech bubble which is empty, two cars driving on the road,
four open books
The road is the connector linking community to
shopping and the green fields with cows and plants growing
There is a definite attempt to link human consumption at the
shops with an alternative approach to growing your own
food. The farm is linked by road to the shop where there is a
black cross on top of this. There seems to be the farmer style
growing, the backyard alternate growing of vegetables, the
road and the shops and the community away from the shops.
Although the road is the connector it is also the problem in
this image as it separates the farm from the shop and the
community from the place of buying their produce. It seems
ridiculous that the food is produced near the people and yet
they need to go to the shop far away to purchase this. There
seems to be a desire to teach alternative ways by the
educator but the empty bubble symbolises not knowing
what to say or do to be effective in this.
M-1-5
The Warragamba
dam and the road
leading to this
The cloud is dominating perhaps as it is the source of water,
which is a strong presence in this image. There is a red
building which has three people walking away from this
and below is a model of the water cycle. People seem to be
learning about this. There is another red building which
looks like a demountable structure perhaps for construction
of the damn site as there are also two trucks going
backwards and forth to the damn. The houses of residents
seem to be away from the dam itself. There is a very small
clock in the top right hand corner. Near this is a cow and
run off from the animal into the water supply
The road is the connecting feature in this image.
Lightning bolts are also connected to the cloud and possible
electricity generators
Although the clock is small and seemingly insignificant, the
message seems to be that if the run off continues that it is
only a matter of time before this has a disastrous effect on
the dam. People are a primary concern for this participant
and teaching or educating seems to be very important. Once
again however the urban or semi urban environment is
separate from the central concern of the educator
M-3-2
Cow in a paddock
with a red fence
around this
A series of boxes in different colours. Three green boxes in
the top left hand corner one with secondary schools,
Cumberland region, the other network, an orange box in the
top right hand corner with the words Glenmore Park
The relationships stem from the ag plot with the cow in the
centre. Interestingly the environment committee and trees
are the only words that are not boxed. This map is
dominated by the social response to sustainability and the
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62
primary school and a pink box in the bottom right hand
corner saying rotary exchange west, sponsors, art4ag
competition, Cfeeds. There is a blue river underneath these
boxes and on the other side is the words in red environment
committee and trees in pink
Connected by pink arrows in both directions. The river
is underneath the whole structure
environment is over the other side of the river. Secondary
schools dominate the frame as this is the biggest and where
most of the networks arise from. No connections to food or
plate or other uses of beef cattle. Links to community
members that are not part of schools are not evident.
M-6-1
The words teaching
in red, learning in
black and
Experiencing in
green
Visual icons of compost, a stack of three books with a black
arrow to the word outside, mangrove wetlands, the
Cumberland plain, a blue tongue lizard with the words
aboriginal knowledge
Connected by shading of pastels over the pictures, no
arrows but all images surround the central concept clearly
Separate areas of existence and work that are all related but
not well connected….rather connected loosely. Every single
icon relates to the outside world and experiencing the
natural environment in a physical sense. For example
learning is most effective when done outside, two people are
pictured walking on a bush track in the Cumberland plain,
two others sitting by the mangroves. The challenges are no
cohesive structure to get these things done or connected
even though there is knowledge about each individual area.
INNER WEST PARTICIPANTS
Name Central image Icons & connections Analysis
I-6-4 My home in a
small ellipse in
blue texta
Not many colours used mainly dark blue and green with a little brown
Main icons are a school vege garden, a high school, the local shops, a
community garden, a herb garden park
From my home words directly under this are: 1)office business with
links to High schools, penno, workshops, TTA partnership, PD+;
2)education for sustainability links to A2 E2 committee; 3)envirodoc
Links from the My home central image are:
1. local shops, carpark, Community garden; 2) Uniting church Epping
Community Hub, ethnic groups 3)Spiritual community, keep cups, retreats;
4) Family, granddaughters, elderly mother; 5) Aries; 6) Primary ethics,
school vege garden, ME and TEpping
On its own in the right corner is Transition Epping with links to; Local
fairs; Social activities; bushwalks; Workshops; Kilm nights; Solar panels;
Links to uniting church
The image radiates outwards similar to I-7-2 in
the group. There are connections amongst some
of the activities but the central organising
principal is the home and the business. There are
not many links between the activities except for
the transition Epping section. This is where more
community involvement is indicated with people
making Kilns and attending workshops and
attending a community garden.
There seems to be a disconnect between the
My home and the Transition Epping where they
appear at first to be linked but on closer
inspection they are not. The challenge will be to
link the business side of the image with the
Transition Epping aspect.
I-7-2
Love heart
containing the
Boxes with words placed inside these and of various colours
Auburn council; Local community bus, dentist, doctor; Brighter futures;
Embedded in local community concerns and
giving much to the community. The focus in
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63
Love and Care
Director and
authorised
supervisor 1996
Husband
CCMS & Centrelink; SDN children‟s services; Cancer council; DEC‟s;
Kids early education preschool; Contin support; Eye screening; MEEF;
Network directors meeting; Auburn mosque; Paint Auburn Read;
Sustainability group project; ABN aprentership; Early ED.; Transition to
school meeting and group; Networking, Palm Childcare, Busbee, Rawson
road pre-School; Local public and private schools; Hubworks; Auburn
hospital.
All connections are made with arrows to words in boxes or ellipses
going in an outward direction. Some build on to each other
about giving out from the heart and perhaps
spreading in many directions. Many links and a
plethora of knowledge and networks. No links
happening between these networks seems to
indicate that the educator works very diligently
but is exhausted from keeping these links going.
Challenge is to connect some of these network
up together.
I-7-1
No one central
image but the
central
organising
principal is the
rainbow and
colour and
childcare
Rich filled with icons. Three preschools under rainbows, Busby
childcare, Rawson road Long Day care and Palm Childcare
Busby Childcare is linked to local doctors
DECS; Local council; Energy saving solo power; Local dentist, digital story
sustainable practices, living green course project, main language Anglo
aust English, Arabic, Chinese.
Rawson Road Childcare is linked to:
Ambulance; SDN inclusion support; Auburn botanical gardens and
Aboriginal awareness; Local schools; Worm farms multicultural Granville
centre, fruit and vege garden, main languages Arabic and Indian, other early
childhood services.
Palm Childcare is linked to:
Fire brigade, Police, fund raising charity, Paint Auburn read language and
literacy program, best cultural program, best director, best weekly program,
finalist for children‟s week 2012, parent/family, MEFF multicultural dance,
compost bins, local council, centre support, main language Arabic, Turkish,
African, Vietnamese.
My home Love heart with a family house in it is linked to : Garage
sale, member of acor travel and dining, fem gym bootcamp, mosque,
tutoring, consultant, oz tag delegate, my parents beliefs, customs
experiences, selective Malek Fahed Islamic school.
The sun in the top right hand corner linked to cancer council
Blue clouds with rain falling on all the images and words
Trees at the bottom left hand corner of the frame
Compost bin at the base of the frame with reduce, reuse, recycle icons
The community is the environment in which this
educator finds herself I and she is deeply
embedded in the actions and experiences of her
environment spiritually, practically, socially,
emotionally. This frame is an environment in
itself. Icons cannot really be separated as they all
have a relationship with place indicated by the
rainbows, the rainwater and the trees. There is a
strong desire by the educator to be involved and
learn as much as she can with her embeddedness
and community as a driving force to motivate
her to do this. There is green beneath each
childcare centre indicating this is the place
where growth and experiences will occur for her.
There is a wealth of knowledge about culture
and language symbolised here. Although this is
an integrated social and environmental story map
one challenge may be that there is so many
things going on and perhaps not enough support.
However one area is problematic and that is
there are few links to centralised bodies that may
be able to support the growing work here. Not
sure if this is needed but comes through in the
imagery
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64
My name in Arabic
Connections are made through placement of icons near each other, the
use of coloured rainbows and bright colours also links concepts For
example the red for the heart symbolising passion and salience of what is
important. The whole frame is constructed like a living community
ecosystem with the sun and rain up the top, the trees and the ground down
the bottom and humans living in communities between heaven and earth.
Connections are also sometimes made with lines emanating from an icon
I-1-8
The central
image in the
Bankstown
City Council
building. This
dominates the
whole frame
The icons in the image are arranged in six sections. These are:
1. Recycle right in large yellow writing and then because it is the right
thing to do, 6 awards, government, community, industry
2. Waste Hierarchy with a pyramid with the words from top to bottom
avoid, reuse, recycle, dispose
3. Events, ewaste, chemical, NRW, CUAD, compost/mulch/ CAW.
mattresses, litter, sharps, food, clothing, hazards waste, program
development, contract management, communication specialist,
facilitation and education
4. LG ACT (NSW), WARR strategy (EPA OEH), resource recovery
strategy (BCC)
5. Advisory work, NSW WMAA, LGSA, SSROC, WSROC, SITA
cleanaway, visy, soilco, kelso and school, community groups + NESB
comms = facilitation
6. Planning Infrastructure, education, resources, consultation, SUD, MUD
3 main groups Arabic, Vietnamese, Chinese, 127 languages
Instead of connections there are sectors with very distinct boundaries of
different sizes. There are six sections
At the centre is the bureaucracy of the
Bankstown city council. There are many services
offered however communities seem to be a
number or distant from the work that is done.
The blocks that are used to separate the various
tasks indicate aspects of work to be achieved
rather than integrated. It may also indicate the
structural environment of the cityscape that this
educator in operating in. if the shape of the
building that she is working in is considered the
shape of her image mirrors this to a large degree.
This building is also right in the heart of
Bankstown but its walls seem to build barriers
rather than facilitate community engagement.
This image appears to advocate a top down
approach as it suggests to recycle right as it is
the right thing to do. No links between services
and groups seen as statistics.
I-6-3
In the centre
are the words
“custodian of
the land we
share”
Hearts of differing colour and words. Larger hearts and smaller hearts. A
total of 18 hearts on the page
Words coming out of the hearts or linked to these are in order of most
links:
1. Community, meat free stall, be the change, party, lamyong, food, farmers,
TP, The Hills centre for mental health Fri, Earthcare centre, cultivate, and
hearts coming from this large heart were: land and animals, local
residents, PCC, Pcan
2. Healing - Educator facilitator with links to mother, wife, daughter,
Everything is connected to the heart. The
educator comes from a very whole systems
approach that is grounded by her connection to
land as the central principal. The map is a
personal story line that details her work in the
community. It also includes her religious beliefs.
Although the connections are multifaceted there
are many repeated concepts and ideas and these
are scattered. Challenges would be to centralise
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65
grandma, sister, friend, custodian of the land. With links to smaller hearts
of T & M, the Hills Clinic, volunteer, community heart
3. Nature, water, space, land, tree. With links to cultivate, garden (home),
bush walk, permaculture west, permabliss with link to education heart
4. Family Friend with links to pet, 5 elements, animals, NT, trainings,
Buddhism with links to heart whole system health
5. Whole system health BIZ with links to massage, cooking, Thai Chi with
links to space for self
6. Education teach Buddhism, moral + values to kids and adults wed +
thurs, workshops
7. A voice for animals, vege gardening, meat free living
These were in the corners of the frame opposed to each other:
1st said Biz lampe berger, massage, gardening for health horticulture
therapy, thai chi whole system health, cooking vegetarian for inner peace,
2nd
one said: calander
Oct 13-14 rose garden, one million women, love food hate waste, vege
cooking and health care
Connections are everywhere and multifaceted. Hearts and lines are
used as ways to connect similar ideas or indicate relationship
the concepts and articulate these in a more
succinct way so that they could reach a larger
audience. However concepts of land as central to
her mission and purpose indicate a very different
outlook to more westernised conceptions of
place and being environment
I-1-10
Interlocking
colourful
arrows that
span across the
page in a
diagonal from
top left to
bottom right.
Also a black
line splitting
the page from
bottom left to
top right into
two
Main icons in the four corners of the page are;
Water splash into
Me
Council buildings
Guides and Scouts
Other icons are words that are linked by large arrows such as
School communities. ABC 123, unofficially, teenagers, primary schools
Preschools toddlers and parents
NGOs Refugees, community groups CALD and a long orange dotted
arrow with words saying slowly building from the council building
Internal relationships from the council building and the guides and scouts.
There is many blue large arrows coming from the guides and scouts to
all other aspects of the image.
Various arrows linking icons in each corner of the frame
The Me icon is at the bottom left hand corner
and is cut off by a black squiggly line around the
image. There are also black lines to the rest of
the page and one from Me to the Guides and
Scouts which cuts the page in half.
There seems to be a desire here to form and
build connections even if they are not solid. The
lines are wavy and water like. The black links
seem to be more solid and the guides although is
sidelines to the top right of the page is where
much of the movement of the blue wavy lines
radiate from. This is perhaps where the educator
started her interest in sustainability and
connectedness with the environment. So many
arrows while directed offers a sense of confusion
of direction and the broken arrow suggests
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66
relationships with NGOS CALD and community
are difficult to sustain.
I-1-8
In big green
letters is
environment +
education and
using your
local
environment as
an outdoor
classroom
connecting
children to their
environment
Mostly words but one blue star and one tree with grass underneath opposite
each other in the corners of the frame. Also dollar signs and people at
opposite diagonal corners of the frame
Ideas are arranged around the central image with the words being:
1. Corporate sustainability, workshops, presentations, water, energy,
transport, ws carpool
2. CALD community Arabic, vientnamese
3. Schools, childcare, tertiary education, tours, workshops, resources,
capacilty building
4. Business
5. Community and council events homegrown photo and gardens
competition, what people love most about living in Bankstown, food,
sustainability, national tree day, clean up days, Duck river
6. Env and sustainability networks
7. Community
8. Community groups, villawood community garden, chester hill edible
garden
9. Volunteer groups, need to connect with
Also just in a blob under the central image is greenway, observatory
hill, DET accredited professional teachers program and also sustainability
and environmental protection
The blue star is accompanied by Passion for education, connect with
people and the environment
Arrows emanating outwards in various colours connecting words to the
central image
Education is seen as a key in underpinning
aspects of change in this image. There seems to
be some really interesting directions that this
educator in exploring and these are coming out
of education and environment instead of a
council institution according to the image. This
seems to be a delivery model that seeks to
venture out into the community. However still
the links are only going one way and not
connected to each other. For example the
community and council events are not linked in
with community which begs the question if this
is genuinely working like this or whether this is
what he educator perceives to be the case. In
other words how engaged are the community in
reality.
I-1-11
Solar panels
and a sun with
a black open
book
The icons are in the top left quadrant a family of six or perhaps
community members with shovels ready to garden. I-1-11 is pictured here
in black. Then in the lower left quadrant is a large building in orange with a
large storm cloud over the roof. Then in the lower right quadrant is a large
purple energy electricity plant spewing out clouds of pollution. Three
houses receive electricity from the plant. In the top right quadrant there is a
bush landscape with a river dividing the two sides and a large black hole
with brown. This might indicate pollution form the river
Black seems to be an important colour. The book
is in black that my symbolise mystery or not
knowing what to do or how to go about teaching
or learning. I-1-11 has pictured himself in black
as well which may be linked to the knowledge
he wishes to impart, the wisdom. It could also
represent what he does not yet know or the
difficulties experienced in engaging community.
Appendices
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The images are not connected by arrows or lines but seem to be
arranged in four quadrants
The black in the river I think may symbolise the
start of pollution. What is interesting here is that
he seems to identify the problems of the solar
being the sole provider of electricity. The sun as
the provider of electricity seems to be a desired
solution but could also represent his desire to
shed illumination on environmental issues and
bring light to his own knowledge base. The
disconnect between the four quadrants indicates
that connections are not being made to the
significant issues that he sees.
I-7-3 Oval with the
words Love
and Care Kids
early education,
Network and
LDC preschool
Four houses drawn around the central image. Otherwise words
Inside the house words are:
1. Local school
2. Preschool linked to involve with the community, moved to child care as
I really enjoyed working with children
3. Love and Care Long Day care, Welfare sector, voluntary, enjoy helping
the needy people
Words around the central image are:
Acceptance; Partnership with other LDC preschool with local;
Multicultural; Eye screening visit; SDN; Worm farm in childcare; Auburn
council; Library; Recycle; Library; Dental visit; Our big aim is to educate
our parents and family about sustainability in Auburn area through the
children; Lead by example.
Arrows moving outwards from the central image
Similar to other daycare educators as this is
energy emanating outward to the community.
The community is the central focus but there is
little connection between the organisations that
the educator is using. The words in the houses
seem more important so schools, preschools,
love and care LDC and the welfare sector are
highlighted. There is a challenge to seek help
with the aim of educating parents and this seems
to be the driving force behind the involvement in
sustainability education.