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Extreme freshwater events, scientific realities, curriculum inclusions, and perpetuation of cultural beliefs

['Alison J. Sammel', 'School Of Education', 'Professional Studies', 'Griffith University', 'Gold Coast', 'Lisa M. Watson', 'Faculty Of Business', 'Athabasca University', 'Athabasca', 'Dena W. Mcmartin']

Date: 2022-06

The purpose of this research was to explore and open dialogue about possible connections between the scientific realities of extreme freshwater events (EFWE), a lack of EFWE-related curricular content in schools, and future teachers’ awareness and perceptions of EFWE. In phase one, an analysis of existing weather data demonstrated ongoing moderate to severe EFWE in the two regions under investigation, Queensland, Australia and Saskatchewan, Canada, at the time of data collection. In phase two, a content analysis of school curricula in the two regions shows a dearth of mandatory content related to EFWE, though Queensland, Australia had slightly more mandated content than did Saskatchewan, Canada. In phase 3, a survey of pre-service teachers in the two regions showed a demonstrable lack of recognition of undergoing moderate to severe EFWE at time of data collection, along with a general satisfaction with the current level of curricular coverage of the topic. While respondents’ overall concern was low, there were consistent regional differences. Queenslanders were more likely to recognize their lived experience with EFWE and perceived it to be a more important inclusion in school curricula than their Saskatchewanian counterparts. Taken together, results suggested that learned cultural truths were reflected in and perpetuated by school curricula. Results highlighted cultural denial of EFWE severity and a need to change false truths by increasing visibility of EFWE in mandated school curricula. The authors propose that results warrant further research and discussion as it relates to public policy and prioritizing EFWE in formal school curricula.

Copyright: © 2022 Sammel et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This paper seeks to explore 1) the extent to which societies recognize the realities of EFWE and 2) what role formal education plays in perpetuating that understanding. To address these questions, this paper investigates the three interrelated EFWE-related issues of occurrence, mandated school curricula, and educator perceptions within two water-vulnerable geographical regions of Australia and Canada. First, it offers scientific evidence as compiled from Government agencies to explain and describe the occurrence of EFWE in these two geographical regions. Second, this paper brings attention to what governments in these two geographical areas prioritize as important to teach and learn about EFWE within mandated school curricula. Finally, it explores the perceptions of 340 preservice teachers in these two geographical regions to examine their personal understanding of EFWE and their beliefs about addressing EFWE in the classroom. Taken together this research proposes that school curricula may serve to perpetuate a lack of recognition of the severity and importance of EFWE within the societies that they serve.

Human systems have always had a highly complex relationship with water [ 5 ]. This long-term relationship has allowed water to shape societies while being shaped by societies [ 6 – 8 ]. Therefore, the consequences of EFWE necessitate that societies comprehend the historical values, expectations and policies that continuously emerge from humans’ relationships with water. Farnum et al., [ 9 ] suggest cultural relationships with freshwater illustrate a plurality of discourses and ideologies that can influence how cultures engage with freshwater, each bringing about ecological and social benefits and problems. For example, in Western cultures, existing literature suggests that the formal values, expectations and education policies with education systems perpetuate dominant cultural beliefs [ 10 , 11 ]. Thus, if a particular society has not traditionally prioritized a particular topic (like EFWE) as important, it is reasonable to believe that it will not be reflected in its school curricula [ 12 ]. It has similarly been shown that cultural beliefs also influence what teachers believe should be included (and what gets ignored) in curricula and in their classrooms [ 13 ].

Climate change is influencing the frequency and severity of extreme freshwater events (EFWE) such as heavy rainfall, floods, droughts and associated severe weather and water scarcity [ 1 – 3 ]. Evidence shows that every 0.5C increase in global warming causes increases in frequency and severity of extremes including heavy precipitation (high confidence) and droughts (high to medium confidence) [ 3 ]. Even though freshwater is essential to much of life on Earth, it is also an extremely scarce resource. If all freshwater on the planet were equated to 100 L, usable freshwater amounts to only 0.003 L, equivalent to about half a teaspoon [ 4 ]. Due to the scarcity and critical need for freshwater, human societies and freshwater have historically coevolved.

There is currently a disconnect between the scientific realities of extreme freshwater events (EFWE) and how they are perpetuated by society through shared cultural beliefs. This research looks at formal school curricula as one possible cause of this disconnect in order to open dialogue about ways in which the gap may be closed.

2. Literature review

The purpose of this research is to explore a potential disconnect between the scientific realities of EFWE and how cultural beliefs about EFWE are perpetuated through formal education. As such, the literature review will situate the research and its three parts as visualized in Fig 1.

2.1 The significance of EFWEs The frequency and intensity of EFWE, such as catastrophic storms and long periods of drought, are increasing in many parts of the world [14]. Aggravated by climate change, environmental degradations and rapid urbanization, EFWE are having a disastrous impact on humanity, other species and the ecology. Raikes et.al. [15] outlines how intergovernmental communities characterize disaster as: a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts (p.1). The significance of EFWE as part of extreme weather events can not be understated. Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters [16] describes floods and drought as the two most common natural disasters: with floods accounting for nearly half of all natural disasters from 1995 to 2015, while globally, most people have been affected by droughts. The World Economic Forum [17] outlines how extreme weather events and natural disasters are becoming two of the most influential global risks, causing the largest economic, social, and environmental damage. This highlights the deep interconnections between physical and social systems. As an example, Caparros-Martinez et.al. [18] state: Climate models that predict that by 2050 an increase of 1.5°C in the average global temperature of the planet could cause drought and habitat degradation that would make life difficult for 178 million people around the world, while the effect on the population of an increase of between 2°C and 3°C would be significantly higher, affecting between 220 and 277 million people, respectively. On the other hand, the number of people at risk of flooding is expected to increase from 1.2 billion today to 1.6 billion in 2050 (about 20% of the world’s population), which will cause the economic value of assets at risk to be about $45 trillion by 2050, a growth of more than 340% compared to 2010) (p 1760). Associated with EFWE, the diminishing freshwater resources along with an increase in the world’s human population, has the United Nations World Water Assessment Programme [19] predicting the world will face a world freshwater crisis, altering all life on the planet. Flooding is generally defined as an excess of water following extreme flows of precipitation or runoff. In Queensland, flooding predominantly occurs after sustained extreme rainfall. In Saskatchewan, floods can occur as a result of extreme rainfall, as well as rapid snowmelt across frozen land and glacial melt flow through riverine systems. It is possible to be experiencing drought and flood concurrently, since one has to do with extended periods of inadequate water supply and the other with a more localized (spatially and temporally) event of excess water supply, respectively. Two examples are the moderate drought in Queensland of 2018 during which some of the highest rainfall on record was experienced and the extensive drought in southern Saskatchewan in 2010 during which flooding occurred due to high volume rapid spring snowmelt. The scientific definitions for droughts are more diverse and are often place-based or purpose-specific in terms of impact. Thus, there will commonly be references to agricultural drought, environmental drought, and socio-economic drought that are primarily associated with specific impacts and including qualitative impacts and categorization, as well as meteorological and hydrological droughts that are more purely quantitative in their definition. Drought is not simply a term used to convey periods of no to low precipitation, which is more correctly referred to as the aridity of a region characterized by low precipitation, such as a desert [20,21]. That is, desert regions are always arid, but not always experiencing drought. Drought, therefore, is a term more appropriately used to define rainfall deficiencies or moisture conditions in dry regions.

2.2 Impacts of climate change on frequency and severity of EFWEs The impact of climate change on both scientific and societal responses to the availability of freshwater and the potential for changes in frequency and severity of EFWEs are becoming increasingly clear as increasing monitoring and analysis of freshwater systems are implemented. For more than 15 years, climate scientists have pointed to the likelihood of climate change exacerbating both the incidence and impacts of excessive moisture (flood) and a dearth of adequate moisture (drought) for supporting both societal and ecosystem function [22,23]. Active–and proactive–management of water resources requires an engaged, informed and educated society who are aware of and respect the deep connections between and amongst freshwater systems and the communities, ecosystems, and social-economic-political-health systems in which they exist [1,8,24]. Both Canada and Australia recently produced comprehensive reports on changing climate trends and projections, as well as connections to potential economic and agricultural impacts, namely Canada’s Climate Change Report 2019 [25] and Australia’s State of the Climate 2020 [26]. Both of the study regions in Canada and Australia have experienced demonstrated warming over the historical record (approximately 100 years in each case) and each is projected to experience further warming in accordance with the range of emissions scenarios and outputs for both regional climate model and global climate model [25,26]. Globally, increases in the incidence and impacts of extreme precipitation are closely associated with warming temperatures [27]. Thus, excess precipitation is likely to become more prevalent and damaging in areas that are experiencing concurrent increases in temperature. The occurrence of flooding in those regions depends on both excess precipitation as well as localized flood control measures and infrastructure, and land use and urban design (e.g., amount of impervious cover).

2.3 The perpetuated societal view of EFWE This research likens school curricula to notions of ‘truth’ that frame societal thoughts and conversations about EFWE and provides the opportunity to observe Foucault’s [28] concept of regimes of truth. This concept suggests that within all societies, historical evolving patterns of thought, classifications, and forms of knowledge, have become so normalized that they structure society’s perceptions of self and the world around them. This perceived legitimate knowledge holds so much power that it functions as ‘the truth’ in that social system. We propose that school curricula hold the legitimate power necessary to perpetuate these normalized notions of truth within societies. Like any other concept, ‘the truth’ about EFWE becomes so entrenched in social systems that it has the potential for controlling conversations. Sammel and Hartwig [29] showed this to be the case when they conducted a review of 193 peer-reviewed research papers associated with EFWE in the two geographical regions explored in this paper, highlighting what could be viewed as ‘legitimate knowledge’ about EFWE in these regions. Their results found that EFWE were commonly perceived through a scientific lens and resulted from disturbances in the assumed normalcy of natural systems, mostly separate and distinct from human systems. Consistent with research advocating that water is dominantly interpreted as a natural resource, separate and distinct from human systems [30], EFWE were labelled as ‘natural disasters’ and ‘natural crises’. Further, these natural hazards were understood as causing major disruptions and negative consequences for social and economic systems and priorities, which reflected an anthropocentric (human centred) perspective. Sammel and Hartwig outlined that the dominant pattern of thought towards making sense of EFWE emphasized management, planning and preparedness as a means to avoid, reduce or mitigate negative EFWE consequences to human societies. This understanding, based upon historical evolving patterns of thought, classifications, and forms of knowledge, become so entrenched in social systems that they have the potential for controlling, limiting or closing down conversations about EFWE. However, it offers one conceptualization of a grand narrative of EFWE. With this as a starting point, we ask, to what degree have the curriculum documents influenced what people believe to be ‘true’ about EFWE? To what degree does this dominantly theorized perspective of EFWE disable other perspectives and considerations around EFWE within education?

2.4 School curricula as representations of society’s values and priorities Drawing on British agendas of education, early educational infrastructures in Australia and Canada drew from questions of how and what to forge as the emerging nation’s identity. In this way, education has historically been an important site in the cultivation of both Australia’s and Canada’s social construction and identity with both built on the assumption that intelligence (as achieved from educational endeavors) is a means of measuring and attaining social standing and to the extreme, social superiority [31]. At the individual level, the cultural narrative promotes education as a lure for ‘higher earnings’. The desire to produce citizens who can understand the world from the frame of the formal government curriculum was based, in part, on advancing the achievements and agendas of the nation state. With the slow moving wheel of cultural change, education later focused on developing citizens, however, the agenda was, and is, based upon introducing a child to the knowledge and culture as ascribed by the ruling government through centralized curricular. So what agendas do governments have for education? In the era of neoliberal capitalism, increasingly, economists are involved in educational research, the evaluation of effective education and schools, and student performance of the skill based curriculum at a state/provincial, national and international levels [32]. At the international level, the OECD and World Bank, in combination with PISA and TIMSS, rank and sort countries by how their students achieve in completing hard skills, that being, the skills required for particular occupations. For example, this international involvement can be witnessed globally in science education as science is one of three subjects evaluated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) through the implementation of PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) testing. PISA’s rankings and communication of Canada’a and Australia’s 15-year-old school students’ scholastic performance in science education plays a role in influencing the normative directions of national conversations about these countries’ competitive global performance [33,34]. International evaluations of national science education have instigated the injection of funding based upon demand for a more scientifically literate society and an increased number of students progressing towards scientific careers. Whereas soft skills, such as cooperation etc, are not prioritized [13]. The goal here is to appraise a country’s human capital as a way to measure or predict a country’s future economic growth, and to make larger economic decisions about the movement of money and risk management for those nation states. Education is thus in service of growing a nation’s economy, through building the production capacities of students with the right information and skills to contribute to generating healthy economic growth. With the goal of emphasizing hard skills needed for the workplace, what social narratives unfold within the formal educational curriculum and how do they align with the urgent and unfolding EFWE and freshwater crisis? It is essential to investigate understandings and conversations individuals, communities and societies are currently having around EFWE [9]. As formal education plays a key role in shaping a community’s understanding of EFWE, this paper will explore how the social narratives within formal curriculum documents align to this urgent and unfolding freshwater future.

[END]

[1] Url: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000020

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