What is Environmental Literacies?
This collaborative research project including Primary English Teaching Association, Charles Sturt University and the University of South Australia investigating the kinds of literacies associated with the Special Forever program. The research project, entitled ‘Literacy and the Environment: A Situated Study of Multi-mediated Literacy, Sustainability, Local Knowledges and Educational Change’, is funded through the Australian Research Council’s Industry-Universities Linkages scheme.
Who are the project researchers?
The research team consists of Associate Phillip Cormack, Professor Barbara Comber, Professor Bill Green, Professor Jo-Anne Reid and Associate Professor Helen Nixon.
What did the project investigate?
The program:
- critically analysed the knowledges and pedagogies of literacy and the environment developed through Special Forever; and
- investigated how primary teachers design curriculum and pedagogies that engage students in developing their knowledge about the environment and the skills for communicating this knowledge.
How was the research be undertaken?
First, the research team worked with the Special Forever regional coordinators and, then, with a larger body of teachers and students participating in the Special Forever program. The case studies of eight Special Forever Coordinators have been published in the Primary English Teaching Association book, Literacies in place: teaching environmental communications