Reading the Australian Magpie Education and Training of Adults Roslyn Appleby University of Technology Sydney
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Literacy and RESEARCH ARTICLE (PEER-REVIEWED) Numeracy Studies: Human-animal relationships in adult literacy An international journal in the education: Reading the Australian Magpie education and training of adults Roslyn Appleby University of Technology Sydney. [email protected] Vol. 28, No. 1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5130/lns.v28i1.6958 Dec 2020 Article History: Received 27/11/2019; Revised 05/02/2020; Accepted 01/03/2020; Published 19/12/2020 © 2020 by the author(s). This Abstract is an Open Access article distributed under the terms This paper presents a case for the inclusion of human-animal relationships as a focus for of the Creative Commons adult literacy education. It outlines the ways in which language is implicated in human Attribution 4.0 International alienation from nature in a modern technology-focused life, and discusses the effects (CC BY 4.0) License (https:// of nature-deficit disorder on human well-being. It calls for an ‘entangled pedagogy’ creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), allowing that attends to stories of local wildlife, and points to the importance of such a pedagogy third parties to copy and for particular groups of adult literacy learners, including international students, new redistribute the material in migrants and recent refugees, who may be unfamiliar with the flora and fauna of their new any medium or format and to environment. As an example of entangled pedagogy the paper presents ideas for literacy remix, transform, and build lessons based on the iconic Australian Magpie whose relationship with humans is, at upon the material for any times, problematic. purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its Lost words license. In early 2015 a group of prominent authors, amongst them novelist Margaret Atwood, led a Citation: Appleby, R. 2020. Human-animal relationships protest against the removal of certain words in recent editions of the Oxford Junior Dictionary. in adult literacy education: The items in question, including almond, blackberry, budgerigar, magpie, fern, moss and willow, Reading the Australian were words associated with the natural world, and their removal made way for the inclusion of Magpie. Literacy and a new group of words, including attachment, broadband, blog, database and voice-mail, associated Numeracy Studies: An international journal in the with the increasing use of technology in everyday life. In their protests, as reported in The education and training of Guardian (Flood 2015, para. 5), the authors highlighted the ‘proven connection between the adults, 28:1, 6–16. https://doi. decline in natural play and the decline in children’s wellbeing’, and drew attention to the role org/10.5130/lns.v28i1.6958 of technology in ‘the increasingly interior, solitary childhoods of today’ (para. 1). They argued ISSN 1839-2903 | Published by that the Dictionary should not simply mirror trends in language usage, but should seek to UTS ePRESS | url of journal shape and extend children’s knowledge and understanding of the wider natural world. As 6 DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTEREST The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. FUNDING The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Appleby nature writer and landscape- language specialist Robert Macfarlane observed, ‘We do not care for what we do not know, and on the whole we do not know what we cannot name’ (para. 12). Language, he asserts, is in need of rewilding (Macfarlane 2015). NATURE- DEFICIT DISORDER While it’s true that the role of dictionaries is to document rather than dictate the use of certain words, the shift in language reflected in the Oxford Junior Dictionary points to an issue that has been discussed more broadly in society over recent decades and has implications not only for children but also for adults who create a world for children. Not long before these particular dictionary revisions, author Richard Louv coined the term ‘nature- deficit disorder’ to describe the negative effects on children’s well- being when we are alienated from nature as a consequence of living in the wired world (Louv 2005). Although the term nature- deficit disorder has been criticised for its part in medicalising childhood, it has been recognised that the process of alienation from the natural world at the heart of NDD has occurred incrementally over many generations (Dickinson 2016) and recent studies have confirmed the negative effects of such alienation on human well- being (see, for example, Miller 2005; Soga & Gaston 2016). For Stephanie Schuttler et al (2019) the problem of alienation is specifically related to people’s disconnection from local wildlife and local biodiversity. A similar term to describe human alienation from the natural world is ‘the extinction of experience’, a phrase coined by Robert Pyle in 1975. Pyle’s contribution was to recognise that alienation from nature not only diminishes human well- being but can also lead to a cycle of further apathy in regard to environmental conservation, and ‘therefore to further extinctions: a cycle of disaffection and loss, sucking the life out of the land the passion out of the people’ (Pyle 2005, p. 398). As a consequence of this negative feedback loop, alienation from nature is one of the biggest threats to conservation of the planet’s biodiversity (Schuttler et al 2019). At the heart of this problem, as Pyle sees it, is ‘the epic level of our nature illiteracy, amounting to almost utter ignorance of species other than our own’ (2005, p. 400). HUMAN- ANIMAL RELATIONSHIPS Not surprisingly, the primary solution proposed for addressing the problem of human malaise in an age of technological distraction is to attend to, and reconnect with, the transformative power of nature (Louv 2011; Pyle 2005), a remedy supported by both anecdotal and empirical evidence that demonstrates the physiological and psychological benefits of human encounters with, and education about, animals, plants, landscapes or wilderness (Miller 2005; MacKerron & Mourato, 2013; Townsend and Weerasuriya 2010). While MacKerron and Mourato’s (2013) empirical study and Townsend and Weerasuriya’s (2010) review of existing studies are primarily concerned with the benefits accruing to human mental health and well- being, a growing body of literature has focused more directly on the mutual benefits that accrue to both human and non- human animals. Thus, Louv’s (2019) most recent book, Our Wild Calling: How connecting with animals can transform our lives and save theirs, makes a specific case for reconnecting with other animal species not only to overcome human alienation and loneliness but also in order to protect, promote, and create a sustainable habitat for all creatures on Earth. This argument shifts human attention outwards, enlarging the locus of concern to encompass a more empathetic approach to the well-being of the non- human animals with whom we share our planet. We have dual purposes, then, for engaging with experiences of nature: on the one hand, promoting species flourishing, while at the same time, promoting human well- being. 7 Literacy and Numeracy Studies: An international journal in the education and training of adults, Vol. 28, No. 1 December 2020 Appleby THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE AND LITERACY An interest in human- animals relationships, and concern about the often deleterious effects of humans on other animals and our shared habitat, have been taken up in a range of popular and academic studies in language and literacy. In the media, George Monbiot (2017) argues that the language we use to describe – and therefore perceive – the natural world needs renovation, to more accurately reflect the wonder and beauty of nature, and urges the use of more precise language for ‘climate change’, for example, to recognise the current state of catastrophic ‘climate breakdown’. In applied linguistics studies, Guy Cook and Alison Sealey (2017) argue that the anthropocentric language we use reflects significant changes in the relationships between humans and other animals that have, in turn, come about as a consequence of human population growth, increased consumption of natural resources, and environmental degradation. Also in applied linguistics, Arran Stibbe (2001, 2012, 2014) has written extensively about the ways in which English language obscures, distorts, and damages our relationship with other animals and the natural world. With the promotion of ‘ecolinguitics’, Stibbe (2014) argues for a discursive shift away from destructive discourses that erase the natural world and the adoption of discourses that ‘begin vividly representing the natural world in ways which inspire people to take actions which protect and preserve it’, because ‘if the natural world is ignored, is erased from discourse, it will be physically erased, and so, ultimately, will we’ (p. 599-600). The role of language and its use in exploring the natural world has also been a focus for Dickinson (2013, 2016) in her field study of ecocultural conversations between adults and children. Dickinson argues that going outside into wild nature – as if nature were somehow already separated from humans – must always be complemented by an inward shift in the way we think about and perceive nature by exploring the cultural, economic, and political discourses of alienation. In this regard, Dickinson identifies poverty, racial segregation, and rampant overconsumption