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Thinking with a landscape: the Australian Alps, horses and pedagogical considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2020

Scott Jukes Open the ORCID record for Scott Jukes [Opens in a new window]
Scott Jukes*
Affiliation:
La Trobe University, Bendigo, Australia
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: s.jukes@latrobe.edu.au
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Abstract

This paper proposes some possibilities for thinking with a landscape as a pedagogical concept, inspired by posthuman theory. The idea of thinking with a landscape is enacted in the Australian Alps (AA), concentrating on the contentious environmental dilemma involving introduced horses and their management in this bio-geographical location. The topic of horses is of pedagogical relevance for place-responsive outdoor environmental educators as both a location-specific problem and an example of a troubling issue. The paper has two objectives for employing posthuman thinking. Firstly, it experiments with the alternative methodological possibilities that posthuman theory affords for outdoor environmental education, including new ways of conducting educational research. Secondly, it explores how thinking with a landscape as a pedagogical concept may help open ways of considering the dilemma that horses pose. The pedagogical concept is enacted through some empirical events which sketch human–horse encounters from the AA. These sketches depict some of the pedagogical conversations and discursive pathways that encounters can provoke. Such encounters and conversations are ways of constructing knowledge of the landscape, covering multiple species, perspectives and discursive opportunities. For these reasons, this paper may be of relevance for outdoor environmental educators, those interested in the AA or posthuman theorists.

Keywords

landscapeposthumanoutdoor environmental educationinvasive speciesendangered speciesferal
Type
Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , July 2021 , pp. 89 - 107
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Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This manuscript is an original work that has not been submitted to nor published anywhere else.

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