This text is part of the special issue of Relève en recherche
Thanks to a partnership project between UQAM and the Ecological Transition Campus, young researchers are busy developing and testing new educational approaches in nature at Parc Jean-Drapeau in close collaboration with the community.
Guillaume Moreau is just beginning his doctorate at UQAM, but he already has a lot to do. It organizes meetings with researchers and various actors in order to set in motion the design, creation and analysis of educational projects that will be implemented on Sainte-Hélène and Notre-Dame islands, in the territory of Montreal. At the same time, he conducts research in the literature regarding holistic approaches, such as social permaculture and nature as design inspiration.
Unlike most graduate research projects, his project is embedded in a research-action approach, which aims to lead the acquisition of scientific knowledge and concrete transformation actions in the field. The objective: to put science at the service of collaborative and experimental projects linked to pedagogy in nature.
In collaboration with Mr. Moreau, two students are doing internships to analyze the scientific literature on the subject and assess the potential of Parc Jean-Drapeau’s infrastructures. The small team is led by Laurence Brière, professor in the Department of Didactics at UQAM and researcher at the Center for Research in Education and Training relating to the Environment and Eco-citizenship (Centr’ERE).
The collaborative project takes place within the Ecological Transition Campus, an initiative bringing together citizens, researchers, artists and practitioners around the creation and sharing of new ways of life in the context of socio-ecological transition. The project is part of 13 research projects resulting from a partnership between UQAM and the Campus and which will notably make it possible to enhance Parc Jean-Drapeau with a view to social and ecological transition. The projects are funded to the tune of $800,000 over three years through co-funding from the MITACS grant program, which “acts as a catalyst for efforts within the Canadian innovation ecosystem.”
“We will be able to bear witness to a process, we must innovate on the methodological level, and it is all the more interesting that it is done in a collaborative approach, which is not so valued in the university environment, explains Laurence Briere. This will allow us to test a methodology that could be applied in other projects, and show the inspiration that this type of project can bring. »
Graduate students will also be able to acquire a variety of very useful skills once they enter the labor market through the organization of a concrete project and participation in this project. “It shows that we are not only a laboratory researcher in theory, explains Mme Briere. This develops multiple skills to have positions of responsibility. »
A priority for ecological transition
“If one does not succeed in understanding that one is in direct relation [avec la nature]we will not be able to make an ecological transition that will work and pass through the various challenges [qui nous attendent]believes Guillaume Moreau. [Il faut] transform our cultural perspectives in relation to our relationship to the world, to nature, to integrate human communities into our ecosystems. »
“We can use nature as a place of learning,” he continues. For example, teaching lessons using the observation of nature to do mathematics, geography, history, sports or artistic creation. To teach French through an environmental perspective, this can be done through a sheet that we observe and bring to class. »
The latest reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have highlighted the importance of education and collaborative research with a view to ecological transition, emphasizes Laurence Brière. She cites the emergence, in the province, of several educational programs that take place in nature: the open-air school of the Center de services scolaire de Montréal, the Des sciences hors platform, the ALEX reference framework for centers from early childhood. Their research-action project at Parc Jean-Drapeau is part of the same process.
“Environmental education is not yet very structured or structuring, and it is approached a lot from the angle of the problem [à résoudre], continues the expert. In a psychosocial dimension, the fact of seeing adults or other groups committed to the environment, these can be factors that will make us commit and that will move us away from eco-anxiety. »
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