Education Agendas and Resistance With the Teaching and Learning of Freshwater and Extreme Freshwater Events

Abstract

Despite the essentiality of freshwater to all life on the planet, the populous has inadequate understandings of water. Formal education plays a key role in shaping how individuals and communities make sense of water, its accessibility, management, consumption, and hazards. This article seeks to bring attention to the influence of cultural framings of freshwater and extreme freshwater events (such as flood and drought) in government-mandated school curricula in two water-vulnerable geographical regions of Australia and Canada. We seek to identify and respond to hegemonic social constructions that become naturalised if left unexamined. By examining the agendas and language around freshwater and extreme freshwater events in formal educational curricula, we gain a better understanding of the perceptions and assumptions made about freshwater. The results highlight that freshwater and extreme freshwater events are minimally conceptualised within these curricula as ‘nature-based’, rather than being part of a dialectical relationship with societal agendas and practices. This article discusses the implications of this framing and the psychological barriers that may affect the acknowledgment and investigation of extreme freshwater events. We conclude by offering curricular suggestions that invite community-based understandings of the dialectic relationship freshwater has with communities and regional ecosystems.

Untitled

“…This implies that the vast majority of academic articles frame EFWE within the hydrological cycle ideology which commonly views EFWE as natural disturbances in perceived normal quantities of water, viewing them as natural disasters or crises. This perspective is consistent with research advocating that water is dominantly interpreted as a natural resource, separate and distinct from human systems (Linton, 2008(Linton, , 2010Linton & Budds, 2014;McMartin et al, 2018;Sammel et al, 2018;Schmidt, 2013Schmidt, , 2014Sivapalan et al, 2012;Takao, 2016;Tortajada & Biswas, 2018). Discussions of social aspects within Level 2 refer only to the impact or aftermath of EFWE to society, with little recognition of complex historical societal processes influencing EFWE.…”

“…Both areas host over a million residents with similarities in governance, investment in science and technology, systems of weather forecasting, emergency warnings, and response measures. Similarities also extend to education systems, including university publication expectations (Sammel et al, 2018).…”

“…In other words, the hydrosocial cycle perspective invites us to consider how over time, human processes influence our relationship with water, which in turn changes water's relationship with us through the simple expansion of water onto dry land, or the movement of water away from dry land. This perspective recognizes the limits of a hydrological cycle frame and asks societies to adopt an integrated perspective of water-human relationships so we can see the influence of human assumptions, values, understandings, and practices on how we frame our relationships with EFWE (Bakker, 2012;Bates et al, 2008;Gober & Wheater, 2014;Krause, 2014Krause, , 2016Krause & Strang, 2016;Sammel, 2016;Sammel et al, 2018;McMartin et al, 2018;Sivapalan et al, 2012). Lindon and Budds (2014) warn of privileging the hydrological cycle perspective:…”

“…A purely hydrological cycle understanding of EFWE is being challenged by a hydrosocial cycle understanding (Linton, 2010;Sammel, 2014Sammel, , 2016Sammel & McMartin, 2014;Sammel et al, 2018;Sivapalan et al, 2012). A hydrosocial cycle understanding encourages EFWE to be understood as dynamic fluctuations in the quantity and flow of water, where water movement aligns with larger natural and socially constructed rhythms that have different temporal beats (Krause, 2013;Linton, 2008Linton, , 2014Linton & Budds, 2014;Tortajada & Biswas, 2018).…”

Enviroment Knowledge Implementation to Senior High School and Collage Students Activities

“…Connecting social and natural ecologies in ones curriculum and implemented in practical in community could increase young people contribute awareness [3]. Curriculum should integrate learning of fresh water to anticipate education agenda [5].…”