Metaphors used by some engineering academics in Australia for understanding and explaining sustainability

Carew, AL; Mitchell, CA

Metaphors used by some engineering academics in Australia for understanding and explaining sustainability

Carew, AL Mitchell, CA

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Environmental Education Research, 2006, 12 (2), pp. 217 - 231
Issue Date:: 2006-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Carew, AL	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Mitchell, CA https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9842-540X	en_US
dc.date.issued	2006-01-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Environmental Education Research, 2006, 12 (2), pp. 217 - 231	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1350-4622	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/3637
dc.description.abstract	Metaphors can be powerful teaching and learning tools which may help us to understand novel, complex or abstract concepts using familiar language and thought structures. Academics routinely use metaphors in their university teaching to explain new or difficult ideas to students. In this article the authors argue that tertiary teachers’ metaphors for sustainability warrant formal investigation, as they will likely influence the construction and delivery of sustainability curricula. Based on this contention, we conducted in-depth interviews with eight Australian engineering academics which centred around the question ‘What do you mean by sustainability?’. From the interview transcripts, we explicated and described four distinctly different metaphors. These were: sustainability as weaving, sustainability as guarding, sustainability as trading, and sustainability as observing limits. We describe each of the metaphors in detail and speculate on some of the underlying assumptions which underpin them. In conclusion, we advance the idea that sustainability might be taught using an explicit multiplicity of metaphors and that each metaphor would express important aspects of the phenomenon of sustainability. This approach would capitalise on the diversity of existing metaphors in the academe, and could result in curricula which reflect the richness and depth that a variety of perspectives can bring to understanding a complex, abstract, flexible concept like sustainability. © 2006, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Environmental Education Research	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1080/13504620600690795	en_US
dc.title	Metaphors used by some engineering academics in Australia for understanding and explaining sustainability	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	2	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	12	en_US
utslib.for	1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy	en_US
utslib.for	0502 Environmental Science and Management	en_US
utslib.for	1303 Specialist Studies in Education	en_US
dc.location.activity	Bournemouth UK
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/DVC (Research)
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/DVC (Research)/Institute For Sustainable Futures
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - ISF - Institute for Sustainable Futures
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.issue	2	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	12	en_US

Abstract:

Metaphors can be powerful teaching and learning tools which may help us to understand novel, complex or abstract concepts using familiar language and thought structures. Academics routinely use metaphors in their university teaching to explain new or difficult ideas to students. In this article the authors argue that tertiary teachers’ metaphors for sustainability warrant formal investigation, as they will likely influence the construction and delivery of sustainability curricula. Based on this contention, we conducted in-depth interviews with eight Australian engineering academics which centred around the question ‘What do you mean by sustainability?’. From the interview transcripts, we explicated and described four distinctly different metaphors. These were: sustainability as weaving, sustainability as guarding, sustainability as trading, and sustainability as observing limits. We describe each of the metaphors in detail and speculate on some of the underlying assumptions which underpin them. In conclusion, we advance the idea that sustainability might be taught using an explicit multiplicity of metaphors and that each metaphor would express important aspects of the phenomenon of sustainability. This approach would capitalise on the diversity of existing metaphors in the academe, and could result in curricula which reflect the richness and depth that a variety of perspectives can bring to understanding a complex, abstract, flexible concept like sustainability. © 2006, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/3637