Futures Forum – 4th June – Briony Towers and Joe Ferguson
The current generation of Australian school students has known nothing other than escalating disaster risk. Across the continent, systemic drivers—including climate change, urban expansion, socio-economic inequality, environmental degradation, and the enduring impacts of colonisation—are exposing increasing numbers of people to the damage and disruption caused by natural hazards and disasters. As a ‘silenced group’ with limited political and economic power, school students are particularly vulnerable to the physical, psychosocial, and educational impacts of disasters, which can have profound and lasting effects on their well-being.
Through socially critical, place-based pedagogies that engage students as essential partners in disaster risk reduction and resilience, our work seeks to challenge and transform the structures and systems that marginalise children and young people from policy, research, and practice. In our new series of Practice Briefs, we invite Master of Teaching students to critically engage with the status quo and consider the role they can play—as both educators and citizens—in strengthening disaster risk reduction and resilience in school communities.
Briony Towers, Co-Director, LEADRRR / Senior Research Fellow, School of Education, Deakin University.
Briony Towers is the founder and co-director of Leadrrr and a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Education at Deakin University. For the last 20 years, Briony’s research and practice have focused on building capability and capacity for effective and sustainable models of school-based education for disaster risk reduction. Since completing her PhD on child-centred disaster risk reduction in 2011, Briony has collaborated with schools, emergency management agencies and non-government organisations on programs and initiatives that position students as genuine participants in the development of disaster risk reduction strategies, plans and standards. Briony is a dedicated advocate for the rights of students in disaster risk reduction, and she is strongly committed to amplifying student voice in research, policy and practice.
Joseph Ferguson, Lecturer in Science & Environmental Education, School of Education, Deakin University.
Joseph Paul Ferguson teaches and researches in primary science and technology education as well as environmental/climate education
in both the primary and secondary education contexts. Joseph’s current research explores pragmatist semiotic approaches to teaching and researching science and environmental/climate education and the use of video methodologies (including film) to undertake design-based research with teachers in schools. He is passionate about the power of theory/philosophy to inform educational practice. Joseph is committed to working with pre-service and in-service teachers to make science and environmental/climate education inclusive and transformative for all young people.
Watch the recording here!