The Social Construction of Informal Adult Learning in Community-Based Environmental Groups

This thesis is about Landcare participants and how they learn while carrying out natural resource management activities. Three research questions guided the study: How can Education for Sustainability be understood and theorised in practices of Landcare groups? How can an understanding of Education for Sustainability and sustaining practice contribute to a theory of social practice? What are the implications of these understandings of Education for Sustainability for the development and critique of natural resource management policy? The analysis, interpretation, and discussion chapters are framed by these three questions. The findings from multiple case studies were interpreted using a theory of practice architectures to identify practice changes occurring. The data on the community-based natural resource management groups are provided by in depth comparative case studies of four Landcare groups located in the Murray-Darling Basin in eastern Australia. Current Education for Sustainability theories do not adequately describe the characteristics of informal adult education, nor do they explore the educational practices apart from acknowledging that social learning is important. Informal adult learning in community-based natural resource management groups is integral to continuing natural resource management activities at the landscape level. The volunteer Landcare movement in Australia provides an example of a community-based natural resource management group.