Sustainability, Environment and the Arts in Education Research Centre

Come join us for this incredible ARC linkage PhD project

New PhD scholarship on an Australian Research Council project at Southern Cross University!

New PhD scholarship on an Australian Research Council project at Southern Cross University!

Transforming Teaching: A New Podcast Series from Southern Cross University

Hosted by Dr Katie Hotko (Academic Partnerships Coordinator) and Professor Alexandra Lasczik (Associate Dean Education Partnerships), the Transforming Teaching podcast brings together leading educators and sector professionals to explore the evolving challenges and opportunities in Australian classrooms.

Season 1 focuses on Early Childhood Education and Care, offering rich insights on pedagogy, identity, technology, and creativity.

Now streaming:

🔸 Episode 4:Reggio Emilia and Rituals in the Early Childhood Classroom with Pedagogista Lucia Stacchiotti

🔸 Episode 3:Visual Arts Learnings with Professor Alexandra Lasczik and Dr Katie Hotko

🔸 Episode 2:Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives with Madison Rybka

🔸 Episode 1:Digital Technologies in Early Learning with Dr Amanda Levido and Dr Jubilee Smith

These episodes feature expert voices and real stories shaping the future of teaching.

🎙️ Listen now and explore more at:
👉 https://www.scu.edu.au/education/the-learning-lounge/

New from the Australian Journal of Environmental Education:

Wilding Pedagogies: Theorising, Practising and Imagining Towards a Changing, Decolonising and Reconciling World

This editorial introduces the Wilding Pedagogies Special Issue (Vol. 41, Issue 1), guest edited by Michael Paulsen, Linda Wihelmsson, Sean Blenkinsop, Bob Jickling, Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles (SEAE)

Framing wilding as both practice and provocation, the editorial invites readers to rethink pedagogical imaginaries through decolonial, ecological, and more-than-human lenses. This issue includes diverse contributions that expand understandings of place, relationality, and the wild in education.

Read the editorial: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/australian-journal-of-environmental-education/article/wilding-pedagogies-theorising-practising-and-imagining-towards-a-changing-decolonising-and-reconciling-world/2B75AF1DBA4A2B124DDFF6F5014043F8

Explore the full issue: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/australian-journal-of-environmental-education/issue/F8820FFA9464AA851F4B40144A8E8A8A

SEAE Visiting Scholar Seminar – Wednesday 2 July

Join us for a compelling online seminar with Trude Iversen, PhD Candidate at the University of Stavanger, Norway, as she shares research at the intersection of ecology, early childhood education, and artistic practice.

Drawing from her a/r/tographic inquiry, Trude explores how young children engage with art materials in outdoor environments, where creativity, sustainability, and relational ways of knowing emerge together. Her project offers a rich, post-qualitative perspective on how thinking, making, and being can co-exist in early learning settings.

Date: Wednesday 2 July 2025
Time: 1:30pm to 2:30pm AEST
Location: Online via Zoom
The Zoom link will be sent upon registration: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/seae-visiting-scholar-seminar-tickets-1414497713739?aff=oddtdtcreator

Hosted by the SEAE Research Centre, Faculty of Education, Southern Cross University.

The Learning Lounge is now live.

This new platform from the School of Education at Southern Cross University provides bespoke, research-informed resources for contemporary educators.

Led by Professor Alexandra Lasczik, Associate Dean of Education Partnerships and co-leader of SEAE, the website is designed to support teachers across all cohorts with practical, relevant tools for today’s learning environments.

Explore The Learning Lounge: www.scu.edu.au/education/the-learning-lounge

How do floods impact children’s learning, safety, and sense of belonging?

At the Emergency Media and Public Affairs (EMPA) Conference, researchers from the SEAE Research Centre at Southern Cross University — David Rousell, Liberty Pascua-de Rivera, Chantelle Bayes, and Kirstin Kreyscher — shared findings from their project Floods and Me: Education in a Changing Climate.

The study centres the voices of children and young people affected by the 2022 floods in Lismore and Maribyrnong, calling for their inclusion in disaster response and climate policy.

📍 Bunurong Country
👉 Learn more: https://www.scu.edu.au/education/research/sustainability-environment-and-the-arts-in-education-seae-research-cluster/floods--me/

ARC Climate Country – research invitation

We are eight ARC-funded researchers from Southern Cross University, The University of Queensland and The University of British Columbia who are inviting children and young people from Yuggera (Brisbane) and Yugambeh (Gold Coast) to join our project ARC Climate Country: Advancing Child and Youth-Led Climate Change Education with Country.

Children and young people will be supported by the research team and Indigenous knowledge holders to map child and youth complex climate change understandings and ultimately co-design a climate change education framework for primary and secondary schools. If you have children or young people interested in climate change, please encourage them to join us.

🎥 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LqChUm1h_8
📝 Register interest: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ClimateCountry

Supported by the Australian Research Council.

February and March 2022 saw close to 1,000 schools in the hashtag region temporarily close, with some schools unable to return to their original locations. The disaster resulted in damaged infrastructure and educational materials, displaced families and impacted teachers.

Southern Cross researchers have launched the Floods + Me project to work with young people in gathering their experiences during and following the hashtag and its impact on their schooling.

In our latest podcast episode of hashtag , Dr. Simone Blom PhD and Liberty Pascua-de Rivera talk about the project and their upcoming education framework aimed at helping schools prepare for .

Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Soundcloud: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4XFrmJKHZswuwdAkVvK2Zb?si=28c97fc260d74856

Support, time and hugs: Children respond to Lismore floods SCU Buzz | The Southern Cross University podcast · Episode

SEAE members Dr Lisa Siegel and Dr Simone Blom have published groundbreaking research in Environmental Education Research examining online environmental education through an agential realist lens.

Their paper documents how they navigated teaching pre-service teachers in digital spaces while exploring the entanglements between educators, students, and virtual environments. Through diffractive analysis of learning platforms and assessment tasks, they demonstrate how posthumanist concepts can transform environmental education practice beyond traditional binary thinking.

Find their April 2025 article "Teaching environmental education online to pre-service teachers through an agential realist lens: what matters?" in the latest issue of Environmental Education Research.

Full paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504622.2025.2489103

We are pleased to share that SEAE Research Centre members Prof Alexandra Lasczik, Prof Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, Dr Maia Osborn, Dr Lisa Siegel, and Dr Marianne Logan have received the Outstanding Journal Article Award from the International Communication Association’s Visual Communication Studies Division.

Their article, “Landcare and landscapes and accidental beauty: failing digital technologies and the gaze of child researchers” (Visual Communication, 2024), offers a powerful exploration of child-led research, visual storytelling, and the creative possibilities of technological failure.

This award recognises research that challenges norms and reimagines how we understand learning, land, and image-making through the eyes of children.
Read the article:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14703572231209479