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In this paper, we employ Deleuzian philosophy to explore the complex challenges confronting teachers and education systems posed by the climate emergency and the implications of the resulting posthumanist turn. Self-identified climate-activist teachers working in schools in Aotearoa New Zealand were asked to draw Deleuzian assemblages of their educational realities and of themselves while contemplating the climate emergency. Their thought-provoking drawings were used as semiotic artefacts during unstructured Zoom interviews, leading to rich conversations. Through this process, the drawings channel affect within the research assemblage, entangling the reader actively into the research process. Insights gained from the participants problematise the perspectives of teachers in response to the climate emergency and lead us to conceptualise the potential of teachers as Deleuze's nomadic change makers toward posthuman futures.

Mixed reality (XR) environments combining real-to-virtual immersive experiences provide unprecedented potential for reframing educational pedagogy and practice. XR environments provide scaffolded learning points accommodating individual needs, while enhancing sensorial and embodied experiences. XR environments can facilitate self-determined (heutagogical) experience-based learning and esthetic visualization of wicked problems, making complex knowledge more accessible. Here we report on a study exploring the design of mobile learning with education outside the classroom (EOTC), heutagogy, and free-choice learning to enhance marine ecological literacy, based on a bring your own device (BYOD) XR intervention at a marine educational center in Aotearoa New Zealand. Findings indicate that XR affordances can enhance the understanding of complex marine conservation science, facilitating ecological literacy knowledge, attitudes and behavior change. Implications include pedagogical rethinking of EOTC with self-determined mobile learning; haptic, sensorial and embodied XR design considerations for environmental education; and epistemological speculation on learning phenomena in real-to-virtual immersive environments.

In this article, we present a theoretical framework for mixed reality (MR/XR) self-determined learning to enhance ecological literacy in free-choice educational settings. The framework emerged from a research study in New Zealand which aimed to explore how learning experiences which incorporate mobile technologies within free-choice learning settings can be designed to enhance learner development of marine ecological literacy. An understanding of how mobile technology can be integrated into the teaching and learning of sustainability education that incorporates free-choice learning contexts, such as visitor centres, is of strategic importance to both education outside the classroom and adult learning. Following a design-based research methodology, the framework is presented in the form of a set of design principles and guidelines, informed by key theories in ecological literacy and free-choice learning, heutagogy, bring your own device and self-determined learning. We briefly describe how the framework provided the foundation for an educational intervention. This paper aims to assist researchers and developers of MR/XR immersive learning environments to consider design principles and processes that can enhance learning outcomes within free-choice settings, such as museums and visitor centres.

The climate strikes of 2019 motivated millions worldwide onto the street and provided a platform for youth voices that demanded global climate action. This article explores the experiences of climate strike leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand questioning the motivational factors behind the youth action. In-depth interviews with 15 climate strike leaders identified emotions that influenced engagement and could motivate action. Climate strike leaders reported experiencing a series of turbulent emotional stages from apathy to action. Their experiences suggest that anxiety and anger are important stages in the emotional journey towards action. Using Boler's "Pedagogy of Discomfort," this paper examines these emotional stages that can disable or enable action. Considering youth perspectives increases our understanding of a suitable climate change educational framework that potentially supports both educators and students on this challenging journey.

The government of Aotearoa New Zealand has recognised the gravity of climate change by adopting a Climate Emergency declaration, passing the Zero Carbon Act (2019), and asking the Climate Change Commission to chart a pathway towards a carbon-zero future. The climate emergency necessitates transformation of the practices and visions of individuals and society towards a sustainable future. We argue that education must be recognised as a key enabler for this transformational process. In this article, we draw on our recommendations to the Climate Change Commission (2021a) for structural changes in our education system to build capacity for the implementation of climate-change education for a sustainable future. Our focus is on building capacity in school leaders and teachers through development of knowledge and skills, provision of time and space, and cultural embedding of education on sustainable living and climate change into the ways we all teach and learn. Our intention is to provide a "think piece" to be considered and discussed by school educators and leaders across Aotearoa New Zealand.

Environmental experiences often engage learners and create an intention to act, which is then not followed through once the learner is removed from the environment. This study utilized an exploratory, interpretive framework with younger primary school classes to investigate if transfer of learning from field trip experiences "in" and "about" the environment into action "for" the environment could be reinforced by social media interaction between the environmental educator and the class through a blog. Field observations, teacher interviews, student focus groups and analyses of students' work indicated that the blogs were well-received by teachers and students and did foster continued student engagement. The social media interaction only facilitated student action-taking if there was a shared philosophy between the environmental educator and the teacher with respect to the aims of the experiences and the value of action-taking. The importance of teacher attitudes in determining the value of social media is discussed as well as the benefit of dialogue among environmental educators and classroom teachers with respect to the philosophy of environmental learning experiences.

In this paper we examine theoretical perspectives on assessment in cooperative education placements. As assessment is linked to student learning, we focus briefly on the purposes of assessment. We then consider a range of learning theories that have been, and are more recently, explored as ways to explain the process of learning on cooperative education placements and their implications for assessment. We conclude that assessment that focusses on a student actively participating in a socioculturally-influenced process is likely to be a fair reflection of, and help facilitate, student learning in cooperative education placements.

Environmental educators need pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)--they need to know what to teach and how to teach it. This article examines teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of a tool known as a Content Representation (CoRe) for enhancing their PCK development in a school setting. The research design incorporated a partnership between an experienced environmental education consultant and two classroom teachers as they co-designed a CoRe for a unit on environmental action-taking for 16-17 year old students. The classroom teachers then used the CoRe as a guide to plan and facilitate implementation of the unit in their classrooms. Data were generated through field observations of the CoRe design workshop, interviews with the classroom teachers through the planning and implementation of the unit, and classroom observations. Data analysis was framed using Activity Theory. Findings indicated the CoRe design process was highly valued by the teachers that the CoRe was then used as a general guide rather a prescriptive curriculum, and that teachers felt aspects of their PCK were developed.

This paper describes teacher responses to a framework designed to support teacher planning for technology. It includes a learning experience outside the classroom [LEOTC] and is designed specifically for five-year-old students. The planning framework draws together characteristics of technology education, junior primary classrooms and LEOTC to describe the role of the teacher, parent helpers and students as they work through three identified phases--preparing for a visit outside the classroom, participating in a learning experience outside the classroom, and post-visit activities in the classroom. This framework was trialled using a case study approach in two new-entrant classrooms in which students made chocolates for Mother's Day as part of a technology unit. Students partook in a LEOTC visit to a chocolate factory in order to examine the practice of experts before designing and making their own chocolate gift. Data sources for this paper included interviews with two participating teachers. The analysis of these suggest the use of the planning framework led to the thorough preparation of parent helpers and students, clearly defined roles for both the teachers and the parents, and the use of valuable strategies which enhanced students memories of their visit enabled them to apply aspects of the knowledge gained to their own technological practice. (Contains 2 tables.)

This study focuses on the negotiation of environmental identity by 10 New Zealand students as they progressed from late primary school to junior secondary school. Interviews with these students and their parents focused on six theoretical perspective prominent in environmental education: significant life experiences, transformative learning, environmental literacy, values, action competence, and environmental identity. Thirteen major themes emerged, which are discussed in terms of two overarching findings. First, the deep-seated, composite and pivotal resonances between home and school influences in effective environmental education for sustainability (EEfS) learning are described, and suggestions are made for how this can be better taken into account. Secondly, a focus on the complex negotiation of the early teenage years suggests how promoting EEfS might occur more productively in secondary schools.

The importance of community learning in effecting social change towards ecological sustainability has been recognised for some time. More recently, the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools to promote socio-ecological sustainability has been shown to have potential in community education for sustainable development (ESD). The effective design and use of technology for community learning implies an understanding of a range of cross-dimensional factors including: socio-cultural characteristics and needs of the target audience; considerations of available and culturally responsive types of technology; and non-formal pedagogical ESD strategies for community empowerment. In addition, both technology itself and social communities are dynamically evolving and complex entities. This article presents a case study which evaluated the potential of ICT for promoting ecological literacy and action competence amongst community members in southern Chile. The case study addressed the ecological deterioration of a lake, which is having deep social, economic, recreational and cultural implications locally. The authors' research involved developing a theoretical framework for the design, implementation and use of ICT for community learning for sustainability. The framework was based on key ideas from ESD, ICT and community education, and was underpinned by a systems thinking approach to account for the dynamism and complexity of such settings. Activity theory provided a frame to address overarching socio-cultural elements when using technology as a mediating tool for community learning. The authors' findings suggest that the use of an ICT tool, such as a website, can enhance ecological literacy in relation to a local socio-ecological issue.

Despite school-community partnerships having much potential to provide educational organisations with authentic teaching and learning opportunities through community-based action projects, they remain under-utilised largely due to the structural constraints and pressures faced by teachers. This study helps fill a gap in scholarly discourse about the specific ways in which school-community partnerships can effectively be developed by providing an in-depth account of an 18-month pilot project with the aim to develop a conservation education program (Kids Greening Taupo) through a partnership structure in Aotearoa New Zealand. An evaluation of the pilot project was conducted using an ethnographic approach, which sought stakeholder perspectives about the program's developmental process through an interpretive lens. Qualitative data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and document analysis, and then thematically analysed. The findings provided in this article illuminate stakeholder insights and perspectives about the structures established and processes utilised over the three broad stages of program planning, implementation and maintenance, and the resultant environmental initiatives and programs. Through this study, a Collaborative Community Education Model has emerged that may serve as a potential framework or starting point for those interested in creating a new school-community partnership or to modify an existing one.

One of the goals of environmental education is the development of environmental literacy. The development of environmental literacy for preservice teachers is critical if they are to be confident and competent to deliver environmental education in schools. Little is known about the impact of environmental education on preservice teachers' environmental literacy and their subsequent practices as teachers within schools in New Zealand. This study used a mixed-methods approach with a pretest and posttest design to examine the environmental literacy of preservice teachers enrolled in a compulsory environmental education paper as part of their Bachelor of Teaching program at a New Zealand university. The perceptions of the preservice teachers' preparedness to teach environmental education was also examined. Findings indicate that despite only slight shifts in preservice teachers' environmental literacy, their confidence to teach environmental education significantly increased after completing the paper. Increases in the strength of correlations between environmental knowledge and affective dispositions were observed upon completing the environmental education paper. Implications of findings for teacher education programs are discussed. This study could inform curriculum design and teaching and learning practices for effectively preparing preservice teachers to promote the development of the environmental literacy of students in their future schools.

This article reports on an inquiry that used permaculture design thinking to create a science and sustainability education intervention for a secondary science class. The aims were to cultivate student attitudes towards science, towards learning science in school, and towards the environment, and to trellis learning of science and sustainability. Research into impacts of the intervention took the form of an interpretive, mixed methods case study, which included the use of questionnaires, interviews and observations. As a context for learning, local permaculture food production projects, as experienced through field trips in the intervention, appear to promote the relevance of science and sustainability learning and the ability to engage students. Science and sustainability learning outcomes appeared to vary among students, although nearly all of them reported they enjoyed learning science with a focus on the environment, including one group of students who reported they did not generally enjoy learning science in school. There was some evidence that the teacher transformed his own thinking through his participation in the intervention.

Over the past decade we have witnessed a proliferation and intensification of food pedagogies across a range of sites. This article begins by considering two pedagogical scenes that attempt to address food. They were enacted within educational settings in Australia; one a Year 8 (13 years of age) health education classroom, the other a professional learning seminar. Each were heavily imbued with the obesity prevention imperatives that have come to characterise social, political and educational discourse around food in contemporary times. Using these scenes as a springboard, we move to consider the place where we initially envisioned food might intersect with environmental education. We imagined that it would be a space with significant potential for approaching teaching and learning about food in new ways. Deploying menu as metaphor, the authors explore the possibilities for this new terrain and argue that bringing a Foucauldian inspired "ethics of discomfort" to the table might help us take stock of contemporary approaches and their effects. Given the dominance of crisis-driven responses that tend to characterise school food education, we conclude by suggesting that we need to interrupt the dominant discourses that circulate around food and try to engage with some new possibilities for teaching and learning about food.