Alan Reid – författare

Oysters are humble animals yet very important. Vital to the health of our coast, this keystone species helps filter coastal waters and protects shorelines from undue erosion. In addition, oysters are a source for both food and physical shelter for a wide array of other animals as well as some plants.This book began with a federal grant to create a living shoreline, a manmade slope carefully engineered to provide optimal living conditions for oysters and that will function as a seamless part of the natural environment. Such living shorelines allow oysters to thrive while they also help protect the land from some of the problems that are increasing because of climate change. Why add a children’s book to an ecological building project? Learning about oysters and their role in the environment will help our young people grow into adults who are good stewards of our planet. Understanding life cycles and the interconnections between species, no matter how small, are crucial to that outcome, and oysters are a fascinating and compelling way to explore those concepts.INCLUDES:Full-page color illustrations throughoutInset illustrations highlighting associated species, life-cycle stages, ecological insights, and human uses of oystersAmazing oyster factsWays to help support oystersFurther reading

Australian education policy for the past 40 years has been heading in the wrong direction and is entirely unsuitable for preparing young people for the 21st century. Exaggeration? Sadly not.For a teacher, there is nothing more exhilarating than encouraging young people to realise the power of learning. But in our schools today, teachers spend so much time preparing their students for high-stakes tests, gathering data and filling in forms, that many of them feel like the life has been squeezed out of their role. Schooling has been turned into a market, and school leaders are forced to spend precious time and resources competing with other schools. Their professional experience is disregarded as policy makers turn to the corporate world and self-appointed commentators to determine curriculum and school funding.The outcome? Our schooling system is becoming more segregated; children from poorer backgrounds are falling behind; public schools are starved of funds; and good teachers are leaving.One of the most highly regarded educational leaders in Australia, Alan Reid, argues it''s time to reconsider the purposes of education, the capacities we need for the future, and the strategies that will get us there. He outlines a new narrative for Australian schooling that is futures-focused and prizes flexibility, adaptability, collaboration and agility, with students, teachers and school communities at centre-stage.''A provocative and persuasive argument for the necessity of a new narrative for Australian schooling so as to meet better the demonstrable demands of the twenty-first century...'' - Emeritus Professor Bob Lingard, The University of Queensland''At the heart of the book is a penetrating critique of neoliberalism and the damaging effects it is having on education and society. It should be essential reading for policy makers, educators, parents, and anyone interested in the current state of Australian education.'' - Professor Barry Down, Murdoch University

Australian education policy for the past 40 years has been heading in the wrong direction and is entirely unsuitable for preparing young people for the 21st century. Exaggeration? Sadly not.For a teacher, there is nothing more exhilarating than encouraging young people to realise the power of learning. But in our schools today, teachers spend so much time preparing their students for high-stakes tests, gathering data and filling in forms, that many of them feel like the life has been squeezed out of their role. Schooling has been turned into a market, and school leaders are forced to spend precious time and resources competing with other schools. Their professional experience is disregarded as policy makers turn to the corporate world and self-appointed commentators to determine curriculum and school funding.The outcome? Our schooling system is becoming more segregated; children from poorer backgrounds are falling behind; public schools are starved of funds; and good teachers are leaving.One of the most highly regarded educational leaders in Australia, Alan Reid, argues it''s time to reconsider the purposes of education, the capacities we need for the future, and the strategies that will get us there. He outlines a new narrative for Australian schooling that is futures-focused and prizes flexibility, adaptability, collaboration and agility, with students, teachers and school communities at centre-stage.''A provocative and persuasive argument for the necessity of a new narrative for Australian schooling so as to meet better the demonstrable demands of the twenty-first century...'' - Emeritus Professor Bob Lingard, The University of Queensland''At the heart of the book is a penetrating critique of neoliberalism and the damaging effects it is having on education and society. It should be essential reading for policy makers, educators, parents, and anyone interested in the current state of Australian education.'' - Professor Barry Down, Murdoch University

The volume identifies and debates important elements of what would be involved in an education that is truly adequate for the environmental situation that currently confronts us. The chapters in the book present a wide variety of perspectives and raise questions about much mainstream environmental education, particularly the heavy emphasis given to science in understanding environmental problems and to technology for solving them. Contributions argue that there are other equally - if not more - important aspects to be considered: notably our underlying attitudes towards nature and the quality of our underlying relationship with it. They raise questions about what we mean by nature and how we come to know it most authentically in its many facets. The overweening anthropocentrism and desire for mastery that informs much of current Western engagement with nature is revealed as stymying our ability properly to recognise nature’s intrinsic value and moral standing. Consideration is given to the need for a curriculum in which morality, poetry and myth, art and the humanities, have key roles to play and where our understandings of the qualities of time and space that frame the curriculum are refreshed. The majority of the chapters in this book were originally published in the journal, Environmental Education Research.

The volume identifies and debates important elements of what would be involved in an education that is truly adequate for the environmental situation that currently confronts us. The chapters in the book present a wide variety of perspectives and raise questions about much mainstream environmental education, particularly the heavy emphasis given to science in understanding environmental problems and to technology for solving them. Contributions argue that there are other equally - if not more - important aspects to be considered: notably our underlying attitudes towards nature and the quality of our underlying relationship with it. They raise questions about what we mean by nature and how we come to know it most authentically in its many facets. The overweening anthropocentrism and desire for mastery that informs much of current Western engagement with nature is revealed as stymying our ability properly to recognise nature’s intrinsic value and moral standing. Consideration is given to the need for a curriculum in which morality, poetry and myth, art and the humanities, have key roles to play and where our understandings of the qualities of time and space that frame the curriculum are refreshed. The majority of the chapters in this book were originally published in the journal, Environmental Education Research.

The past decade has seen an explosion of interest in civics and citizenship education. There have been unprecedented developments in citizenship education taking place in schools, adult education centers, or in the less formally structured spaces of media images and commentary around the world. This book provides an overview of the development of civics and citizenship education policy across a range of nation states. The contributors, all widely respected scholars in the field of civics and citizenship education, provide a thorough understanding of the different ways in which citizenship has been taken up by educators, governments and the wider public. Citizenship is never a single given, unproblematic concept, but rather its meanings have to be worked through and developed in terms of the particularities of socio-political location and history. This volume promotes a wider and more grounded understanding of the ways in which citizenship education is enacted across different nation states in order to develop education for active and participatory citizenry in both local and global contexts.

The past decade has seen an explosion of interest in civics and citizenship education. There have been unprecedented developments in citizenship education taking place in schools, adult education centers, or in the less formally structured spaces of media images and commentary around the world. This book provides an overview of the development of civics and citizenship education policy across a range of nation states. The contributors, all widely respected scholars in the field of civics and citizenship education, provide a thorough understanding of the different ways in which citizenship has been taken up by educators, governments and the wider public. Citizenship is never a single given, unproblematic concept, but rather its meanings have to be worked through and developed in terms of the particularities of socio-political location and history. This volume promotes a wider and more grounded understanding of the ways in which citizenship education is enacted across different nation states in order to develop education for active and participatory citizenry in both local and global contexts.

Recent scholarship on children’s literature displays a wide variety of interests in classic and contemporary children’s books. While environmental and ecological concerns have led to an interest in ‘ecocriticism’, as yet there is little on the significance of the ecological imagination and experience to both the authors and readers – young and old – of these texts. This edited collection brings together a set of original international research-based chapters to explore the role of children’s literature in learning about environments and places, with a focus on how children’s literature may inform and enrich our imagination, experiences and responses to environmental challenges and injustice. Contributions from Australia, Canada, USA and UK explore the diverse ways in which children’s literature can provide what are arguably some of the first and possibly most formative engagements that some children might have with ‘nature’. Chapters examine classic and new storybooks, mythic tales, and image-based and/or written texts read at home, in school and in the field. Contributors focus on exploring how children’s literature mediates and informs our imagination and understandings of diverse environments and places, and how it might open our eyes and lives to other presences, understandings and priorities through stories, their telling and re-telling, and their analysis.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Environmental Education Research.