This paper reviews Australian Government actions related to environmental education, particularly in the past decade, and examines the actions forthcoming from two national action plans (Environment Australia, 2000 and DEWHA, 2009), the implementation strategy for the Decade of ESD (DEWHA, 2006) and developments related to the Australian Curriculum. This analysis is inspired by the Australian-ness of the metaphor of the curriculum as a jigsaw puzzle suggested by Robottom (1987), the seemingly constant battle for survival in the formal curriculum that environmental education has faced since the 1970s (Fensham, 1990; Gough, 1997), and the ongoing tensions between science education and environmental education in Australia's formal school curriculum.

This paper addresses the question of how Australian environmental education (EE) research was conceptualised and contextualised in the decade of the 1990s. Sixty seven articles published by Australian authors in this journal from 1990–2000 were analysed to examine the conceptualisation of this research using an inductive emergent categorisation approach and a five frames model (Reid, in press) of key arguments and debates in the field. Contextualisation was explored in relation to specialist areas, scale and environmental dimensions of focus. A search for a coherent and distinct meaning of of this research was explored by making comparisons with international environmental education research during a similar time period that was the subject of two reviews. These analyses revealed that Australian environmental education research can be characterised as questioning and challenging prevailing (at the time) environmental education orthodoxies by critiquing and theorising the conceptual and curriculum framing of environmental education, most commonly from a socially critical and global perspective. Specialist areas and educational sectors that received little attention are also discussed.

Many environmental educators were motivated to enter the feld by a concern for the loss of places to which they felt a strong sense of attachment and belonging. This raises the question of whether a sense of place, or attachment to the Australian biophysical or cultural landscape, has shaped Australian environmental education research. An analysis was conducted of articles by Australian authors published in the AJEE in the period from 1990–2000, a time that preceded the (re)emergence of attention to place-based education in academic circles. Only four of 67 articles addressed the author's or other Australian's sense of place. Several explanations for this fnding are examined, drawing on some of the environmental psychology literature on place identity as well as the notion that sense of place involves multiple interrelated personal, cultural and professional identities. Finally, an argument is made as to why place attachments are important to environmental education research.

Australia is an old continent with an immensely long history of human settlement. The argument made in this paper is that Australia is, and has always been, a natureculture. Just as English was introduced as the dominant language of education with European colonisation, so arrived an ontological premise that linguistically divides a categorised nature from culture and human from “the” environment. Drawing on published work from the Australian tropics, this paper employs a socionature approach to make a philosophical argument for a more nuanced understanding of language, the cultural interface and contemporary moves towards interculture in Australian environmental education practice.

The speckled warbler and other woodland birds of south-eastern Australia have declined dramatically since European settlement; many species are at risk of becoming locally and/or nationally extinct. Coincidently, Australian environmental education research of the last decade has largely been silent on the development of pedagogy that refects the natural history of this continent (Stewart, 2006). The current circumstances that face the speckled warbler, I argue, is emblematic of both the state of woodland birds of south-eastern Australia, and the condition of natural history pedagogy within Australian environmental education research. In this paper I employ Deleuze and Guattari's (1987) philosophy “becoming-animal” to explore ways that the life and circumstances of the speckled warbler might inform natural history focused Australian environmental education research. The epistemology and ontology of becoming-speckled warbler offers a basis to reconsider and strengthen links between Australian natural history pedagogy and notions of sustainability.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, recognised as a seminal German polymath, developed a unique approach for investigating nature, termed “delicate empiricism”. Goethe's approach uses empathy, imagination and intuition to promote a participatory engagement with the world. It goes beyond the dualistic-rationalism that defines “conventional” ecological research and can lead to novel insights. “Delicate empiricism” was applied in an ecologically-degraded agricultural landscape in the Brigalow Belt, Queensland, Australia, and its potential for increasing landscape understanding and providing a basis for land-use design was assessed. It was found that Goethe's approach led to holistic, qualitative landscape awareness, not ordinarily accessible via “conventional science”. Application of “delicate empiricism” also gave rise to a land-use design that refected the Australian-ness of the Brigalow Belt landscape, particularly the potential for recovery of native biodiversity values through retention of regrowth vegetation. Overall, the study suggested that there is merit in educating Australian ecologists about “delicate empiricism” to encourage more creative and sensitive landscape management, that is in sync with the environment.

The current “Australian-ness” of outdoor environmental education is an evolving “set” of socio-cultural constructions. These constructions can be interpreted within the circumstances of an empirical study of tertiary study abroad students' participation in an undergraduate semester long unit “Experiencing the Australian Landscape” (EAL) as an ambivalent mixture of belonging and beach, or solidity and fuidity. This ambivalence imparts various meanings within and about the Australian context of beach as a “place”. The study is based on an interpretive mixed method ethnographic and phenomenological small-scale case study. It fnds that the beach experience is infuenced by various social discourses, such as neocolonialism, individualism and mobility. Participants experienced the beach in a fuid sense of non-belonging, despite the EAL intention of fostering a place-responsive pedagogy. In order to understand their experience and its alleged link to an enhanced environmental awareness, an embodied dialectic descriptive interpretation of place experience is suggested.

What experiences have infuenced Chinese educators' environmental consciousness and their involvement in environmental education work? Using the autobiographical inquiry approach the author explored this question with fourteen master environmental educators from various regions of China and examined in depth their signifcant life experiences (SLE). Participants described several paths to become involved in environmental education work. Multiple factors impacted their environmental consciousness. Out of ten main categories of SLE three themes emerged: serendipity, , and a strong sense of responsibility toward the environment and toward environmental education work. This study illuminates the Chinese-ness of environmental education from the angle of life experiences and reflections of environmental educators in mainland China, which also has relevance to and implications for the wider international environmental education community.

What is distinctive or indistinctive about environmental education in schools and other formal education settings in India? In essence, what is the ness of environmental education in the Indian education system? Our responses to these important questions form the focus of this paper, shedding light on the historical, present and future directions (or ness) of environmental education in India. In effect, we attempt to capture the ness of environmental education by considering practice, policy and research developments throughout the various contemporary and traditional environmental education movements. In so doing, we identify a theory-practice gap and a dire lack of research as some of the pertinent issues facing environmental education in India. In conclusion we discuss possible future directions that environmental education might take in addressing these issues.

In the 1998 Taiwanese national curriculum revision, environmental education was one of six new “Important Issues”. To some early observers, the generic “framework” sections of this 1998 curriculum (Aims, Goals, Core Competences) resonated well with the integrative and transdisciplinary nature of environmental education. This synergy held out promise for the successful introduction of environmental education to Taiwan, despite it not being one of the seven new Learning Areas (or subjects). However, this study suggests that a pervasive nation-wide exam-driven, subject-dominated educational climate resulted in a somewhat truncated “Taiwan-ness” in the environmental education that emerged. In three Junior High Schools preparing for curriculum implementation, there was little early focus on, either the national curriculum's framework aspects or the intended integrative nature of environmental education. Rather, by 2004 curriculum integration had become offcially non-compulsory, and environmental education was conceived as a minor priority, to be wedged where possible into spaces within the traditional subjects.

This paper documents a case study involving a Perth primary school accompanied on its sustainability journey by Millennium Kids Inc, a local not-for-proft community organisation. Tension between the school's sustainability focus, its prestige as an elite private school and a “lucky country” mentality frames the Australian-ness of this environmental education story. Data draws from interviews conducted with teachers, the deputy principal, principal, and CEO of Millennium Kids. School staff reported that Millennium Kids' collaborative approach connected the school with community groups and families in meaningful ways, provided support to staff, and infuenced curriculum integration by engaging the student voice. Challenges in the school related to managing expectations from families, leadership that fosters shared responsibility, and teachers' efforts to integrate sustainability across learning areas. A pattern of sustainability education was established in the school but these challenges could encumber the longevity, integration and support for these initiatives in the future.

This paper reports the outcomes of the second action cycle of an ongoing project at Edith Cowan University (ECU) called Transition to Sustainability: ECU South West which is located in a small, single faculty regional university campus. The overall project has comprised three action research cycles, the frst of which was the planning cycle which established the importance of building a community of practice with a learning stance for sustainability transition. It also highlighted the issue of a common defnition of the term sustainability; of including cross-disciplinary perspectives; and of working with the local community. The second action cycle which was the frst implementation phase, is the subject of this report. In this phase, we found that by not foreclosing on the meaning of sustainability, important aspects of sustainability were included. Although research participants initially expressed some concern about using an open understanding of sustainability, the problem of the meaning functioned to foster involvement in dialogue. In fact, these ongoing discussions around sustainability and the notion of a sustainable future formed the heart of this action cycle. However there were constraints associated with the subject of dialogue. These included problems of site communication, the maintenance of effective networks and issues around power and authorisation. We observed that each of these elements could work together in ways that enrich and/or obstruct a transition to sustainability. Finally, we found that lack of time hinders participation in sustainability transition projects because of its effect on authentic dialogue, thereby impacting upon the development of collaborative ways of working within the university. Our project is distinctively Australian in that it reflects an emerging movement in Australia to create social frameworks for embedding sustainability education activities. In our project, the transition process by which learning and change has been facilitated comprises the action research itself.

Vegemite, a thick, rich and salty product made from yeast extract, is a paste commonly spread on bread or toast in Australian households. This iconic product mirrors some of the unique aspects of this country. For example, Vegemite thinly spread is best. The population of this country is sparse across the wide lands, and the Australian environment with its thin soils, water shortages and intense climates, might also be described as spread thin. These aspects of context present challenges because Australia needs quality sustainability educators thick on the ground to deal with the many and diverse environmental issues.

This paper describes the development of the Australian National Professional Development Initiative for Sustainability Educators (NPDISE) and how it was infuenced by the Australian context. Multiple challenges existed: the size of the country, its environmental conditions and rich biodiversity, distance and space between major centres, distribution of people and resources, understanding of and support for education, and three tiers of government – each with its own policies, programs and priorities. On top of this, the practice of sustainability education crosses multiple professional sectors and disciplines. All these challenges had to be taken into account.

Research conducted by the Waste Management Association Australia in 2009 revealed that the needs of Australia's sustainability educators in overcoming many of these challenges were broadly consistent around Australia. This gave encouragement to the establishment of a national professional development approach for those working in the environmental education feld. This paper shows how four professional associations – Australian Association for Environmental Education, Waste Management Association Australia, Australian Water Association, and the Marine Education Society of Australasia – worked together for the frst time and approached these challenges whilst developing the NPDISE. A 1954 jingle said Vegemite would help children “grow stronger every single week”. The NPDISE represents a similar ethos with an emphasis on building the sector.

This paper seeks to provide a perspective on environmental education in Aotearoa New Zealand. To contextualise this perspective, it illustrates how environmental, socio-cultural and political imperatives have shaped the development of environmental education in this land. These imperatives illuminate the natural history of the country, the connectedness within the worldviews of the indigenous Māori people, the pioneering views of some enlightened European settlers, and tensions between development and conservation. We connect this context with an overview of research in Aotearoa New Zealand into one aspect of environmental education – student learning in schools. Examples from recent research in this area are provided to show how these approaches are contributing to the Aotearoa New Zealand-ness of environmental education.