Here on the east coast of Australia, we’ve sighed a deep breath of relief. We’ve only got floods, COVID and lockdowns to deal with this summer. So why worry about bushfire education?
In one stroke of the pen, or a malicious smack by the hand of fate, the purpose of education, and the practice of education comes into sharp relief. Global western education lives in a peculiar space. Back in the day, schools produced workers. Not hard to work that one out. Schools still produce workers.
Now-a-days, we are more sophisticated, and schools produce data and schools perform accountability. That data is the raw product for many other industries and narratives. The peculiar thing is none of this has anything directly to do with learning, or teaching or flourishing.
A stroke of the pen demanding the production of accountability artefacts, and the blind hand of terror that ravages lives and communities through the impact of bushfire are both masters of what happens in our classrooms. And it is that moment of decision about what happens in the classroom around bushfire education that we see the broader education maelstrom manifest itself.
The Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration declares that:
‘Our vision is for a world class education system that encourages and supports every student to be the very best they can be, no matter where they live or what kind of learning challenges they may face.’
This is indeed an okay ideal. And once all the ‘mothering statements’ were agreed on and written down, the accountability industry (biocapitalists) people had their turn in the Commitment to Action section:
The ‘Strengthening accountability and transparency with strong meaningful measures’ outlines the role of ‘good quality data’ as being the means by which teachers and schools are held accountable for implementing educational policy.
The Education Declaration, by the stroke of a pen determines that publicly available assessment results (read, national high stakes testing regimes.) must be used “…..to ensure schools are accountable for the results they achieve with the public funding they receive,…..’
So whilst we can’t measure if students are being the very best they can be, schools can be forced to compete with each other both here and abroad so we can;
‘analyse how well schools are performing against each other and internationally’
This national document sets the frame for the practice of education through policy development. There is an obvious line of ink that positions schools a producers of data and accountability artefacts. This document reflects the current culture in education policy and design.
So what has this to do with bushfire education?
The horrific Black Saturday bushfires of 2009 in Victoria Australia led to a Royal Commission. Recommendation 6 called for Victoria to ‘lead an initiative to ensure that the national curriculum incorporated the history of bushfire in Australia, and that existing curriculum areas include elements of bushfire education.’
So, 12 years on, have we discharged our obligation to teach kids about bushfires or have we caused kids to learn the ‘how-to’s’ of disaster risk reduction for bushfires?
We could produce accountability artefacts telling kids and teachers if they have passed or failed bushfire education by including relevant items on national high stakes testing regimes. We could produce worksheets and work programs referring to safety plans and McArthur meters. We can easily discharge our responsibility to be accountable.
But would our kids actually know how to be safe during bushfires?
The beaches of last resort in Mallacoota, and the charred remains of the Marysville footy oval don’t care how much data we produce, they don’t recognise the nod of approval from some faceless accountability evaluation consultant. They quietly embrace the small footprints of kids who know what to do, and have the power to do it.
So the purpose of Progressive Bushfire Education, is to let kids live with that knowledge and use power to grow it.
In this world where we measure only what we value, the urgency in schools is to discharge curriculum content, track kids progression and rush on to the next bit.
Progressive Bushfire Education is grounded in the process of learning, not the programme of teaching. This means that students acquire basic knowledge on bushfire behaviour, develop and theorise understandings and then take action with their learning.
It is social, formative, agile, often project based but above all it is meaningful to the student who is doing the learning.
Child Centred Disaster Risk Reduction is the idea behind Progressive Bushfire Education.
Teaching bushfire education does not cause risk reduction from bushfire disasters.
Learning bushfire education however, may be that causal link to students being the very best that they can be in a bushfire prone, climate changing environment.