Outdoor Education & Environmental Education

Centre for Excellence in Outdoor and Environmental Education

News & Events

• New Professor and Head of School - Professor Noel Gough

• Current student - Hayley Hollis

• Tree Planting Project -Tsunami Resettlement Camps

New Professor and Head of School - Professor Noel Gough

La Trobe University has recently appointed Professor Noel Gough to its first Chair in Outdoor and Environmental Education and to head the School of Outdoor Education and Environment. His previous appointments include Professor of Education at the University of Canberra (where he was also Director of the Learning Communities Research Area), Associate Professor in Education at Deakin University (which included a period as Director of the Deakin Centre for Education and Change), and a number of adjunct professorial and visiting research or teaching fellowship positions in several universities in Canada, China, South Africa, and the UK.

Professor Gough has long-standing teaching and research interests in environmental education and in 1997 he was awarded the inaugural Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Environmental Education Research. During 1998 and 1999 he was a member of a team from Deakin and Griffith Universities that was awarded an AusAID Institutional Development Grant for an Australia-South Africa Institutional Links Program focussing on capacity-building in environmental education in South African universities, which has led to his further involvement in numerous research and consultancy activities in southern Africa. In 2005 he was a member of a Deakin University team that received a Vice-Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching and Learning for developing and delivering Outdoor and Environmental Education as a summer semester intensive program at Deakin's Warrnambool campus.

Professor Gough's other research interests include curriculum studies, science education, popular culture, and the social and cultural effects of internationalisation and globalization. He is the author of Blueprints for Greening Schools,  Laboratories in Fiction: Science Education and Popular Media , and numerous journal articles. He coedited (with William Doll) a critically acclaimed text, Curriculum Visions, which has now been translated into simplified and traditional Chinese, and is the founding editor of Transnational Curriculum Inquiry, the journal of the International Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies .  He is also a member of the editorial boards of another eight international journals. His current publication projects include coediting Internationalisation and Globalisation in Mathematics and Science Education, coauthoring a book on new methodologies for environmental education research, and writing (as sole author) a book on narrative and fiction in curriculum inquiry, Curriculum/Fiction: Narrative Experiments and Intertextual Turns.

Professor Gough's immediate tasks at La Trobe will include leading a review of the School's teaching programs and research activity and contributing to new initiatives in research development and postgraduate studies in both the School and the Faculty.

Hayley Hollis - current student

Hayley is studying the Bachelor of Nature Tourism at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus. She states that: "Nature Tourism is a great degree to obtain as it offers a wide variety of employment options, as well as being a fun course to be a part of. Not only do you learn about the natural environment, but also some philosophy, science, and electives of your own choice."

Her favourite areas of study in the new course has been a unit (subject) called "Bush Environments". The unit includes three field trips, of which Hayley states:

"... the final field trip asks us to lead a whole group on a 4-day walk and talk on Mount Stirling [in the Victorian Alps]. At first this was a very daunting activity, but once it was over there was a great sense of satisfaction that everyone in the group had done it and we had done it well."

Haley enjoys studying in Bendigo because "... there is an amazing amount of natural bush around the town. The local forests are very accessible and I found that a great bonus, and a great place to explore and conduct study".

Tree Planting Project - Tsunami Resettlement Camps

by Sarah Morrison - Current Student

I am currently finishing my 3rd year at La Trobe University studying outdoor education with a sub major in photojournalism.

For my semester break I was lucky to go on a family holiday to Sri Lanka. It was an inspiring and eye opening trip. One of my three sisters has started a tree project in a town called Galagodawata. It consists of planting either fruit or medicine trees in the tsunami resettlement camps. She has given half of the resident's trees but needs money to finish the rest (300 houses).

Therefore I have come back on a mission to fundraise so it can be finished. I'm trying to raise money for the Tree Project and also an NGO 'Foundation for Livelihood Enrichment' who have helped and supported Emily (my sister) with the tree project. At present the Foundation for Livelihood Enrichment are trying to raise money to fund their Organic Home Gardens Initiative which is introducing alternative agriculture to farmers, fishermen affected by the Tsunami and relocated families. They are attempting to significantly reduce the amount of harmful pesticides in rural areas and create sustainable food and income sources Tsunami victims.

I am having a Fundraising night at Start Cinema in Eaglehawk on the 18th of September at 7pm, $15 including supper, showing 10 Canoes.

I would love some help fundraising so if you are interested in helping, making a donation or attending the movie night please contact myself, Sarah Morrison on 0438 059 529.