Mills, Reece, and Tomas Engel, Louisa (2024) How Well Does the F-10 Australian Curriculum Prepare Students to be Water Literate Citizens? Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 40 (5). pp. 831-844.

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Abstract

Global water availability and management are persistent challenges to sustainable futures, yet people may have limited understandings of water systems and may hold negative attitudes towards sustainable solutions. With education a mechanism for realising a water literate citizenry, this study asks: How well does the Australian curriculum prepare students to be water literate citizens? McCarroll and Hamann’s (2020) Dimensions of Water Literacy guided a document analysis of Version 9.0 of the F-10 Australian Science and Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) curricula. Findings revealed that concepts related to water literacy were largely confined to the Year 4 Science and Year 7 Geography curricula. In Science, the dimensions of Science and Systems Knowledge and Local Knowledge were through concepts related to the natural and urban water cycle. In HASS, the Hydrosocial Knowledge dimension was privileged, owing to people’s interactions with water. While there were occurrences of Functional Knowledge in both curricula, the organisation of the curriculum according to knowledge and skills does not explicitly focus on the development of students’ positive attitudes and values towards water conservation, nor engage them in individual or collective decision-making and action. Implications for the Australian curriculum and what it means to be a water literate citizen are discussed.

Item ID:	84065
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2049-775X
Keywords:	Humanities & Social Sciences curriculum; science curriculum; water education; water literacy
Related URLs:	Publisher
Copyright Information:	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Date Deposited:	06 Mar 2025 00:37
FoR Codes:	39 EDUCATION > 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy > 390107 Humanities and social sciences curriculum and pedagogy (excl. economics, business and management) @ 40% 39 EDUCATION > 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy > 390113 Science, technology and engineering curriculum and pedagogy @ 20% 39 EDUCATION > 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy > 390105 Environmental education curriculum and pedagogy @ 40%
SEO Codes:	16 EDUCATION AND TRAINING > 1603 Teaching and curriculum > 160301 Assessment, development and evaluation of curriculum @ 100%
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