Sense of place in Australian environmental education research: distinctive, missing or displaced?

Abstract

Many environmental educators were motivated to enter the field by aconcern for the loss of places to which they felt a strong sense of attachment and belonging. This raises the question of whether a sense of place, or attachment to the Australian biophysical or cultural landscape, has shaped Australian environmental education research. An analysis was conducted of articles by Australian authors published in the AJEE in the period from 1990-2000, a time that preceded the (re)emergence of attention to placebased education in academic circles. Only four of 67 articles addressed the author’s or other Australian's sense of place. Several explanations for this finding are examined, drawing on some of the environmental psychology literature on place identity as well as the notion that sense of place involves multiple interrelated personal, cultural and professional identities. Finally, an argument is made as to why place attachments are important to environmental education research.