PhD

1. PhD • Working title • Teachers in their place: teachers at work in an environmental communications project • Research topic • How do teachers’ histories, location and everyday lives interact with teacher identity and professional practice?

2. The Murray-Darling Basin

3. Hannah – farmer and ‘greenie’ [P]eople just couldn’t understand why I’d want to save trees, and why I’d worry about whether there was going to be erosion, but really the thing that matters to us was our property was only not far downstream, and it could have had a huge effect on our livelihood, plus the two properties above us, and honestly we’d seen what this flood could do.

4. Hannah – a teacher takes a stand • Well one reason why I did it was because I was a teacher, because I’d learnt that, I’d always taught the kids that if you believe in something you’ve got to stand up for it, so the kids saw me standing up for it, because it was a huge media issue at the time, yeah, so everyone in the community certainly knew which side I was on. • [Hannah’s emphasis]

5. Students as birdwatchers • The task: Work by yourself or in pairs. You must remain very quiet. Find a comfortable spot to sit so you will not have to move, because sudden movements and noises scare birds away. Wear dull, bush coloured clothes so that you blend with the surroundings. Write down your observations straight away. Location: _______________________ Date: ________ Time: ________

6. Jackson: re-reading place We found out the gardens are a birdwatchers paradise. Our visits to the Botanic Gardens have shown us a huge variety of birds that live in or visit Tamworth. We saw birds like the Jenny-wren hopping along the ground searching for food, the Fantail darting from tree to tree collecting insects in its beak, and the Double Barred Finch waiting for predators to leave the area before taking a drink of water from the pond. It made us realise that birds are living in many different kinds of habitats.

7. Jackson: ‘rewriting’ place During our visits to the Botanic Gardens we took photographs, wrote poems, drew pictures, sketched trees and even painted a few paintings. While we were there, we learnt about how different bushes and shrubs can attract different types of birds. Would you believe the Wattlebird doesn’t eat wattle, well believe it, it is true; in fact they eat nectar of eucalypts and other trees and shrubs. If we planted more of these flowering eucalypts then we would attract more Wattlebirds and maybe some other different kinds of Honeyeater.

8. Casey • Bird Watching • Eyes sharpen • Ears gather • Nose knows a linger of lavender • And the familiar park invades • Stalking still • Becoming part of the bush background • Eyes following birds as they circle and soar • Like brush strokes sweeping across the blue • Sky canvas • Colours and calls • Tell me who they are • I wonder where they have been • And where they will go • As they glide through the hazy day • In their lazy way.

10. Jackson: a knowing, acting subject This project has opened up a whole new world by allowing me to see the large diversity of birds around me, and it will encourage all of us to plant more trees and have a bird safe environment. … for what I have experienced and understood [in art] I have to answer with my life. Bakhtin (1990)Art and Answerability: Early Philosophical Essays by M. M. BakhtinEd. Michael Holquist. Austin:University of Texas Press