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18 Natural Resources and Environmental Issues Volume VII goldrush. In this goldrush prostitutes flourish, learners buy fools gold and there is a sense that educators who don’t join will be left behind and suffer an early demise. Unlike earlier goldrushes when staying home was an option, this time educators are mounting the wagon with unseemly haste. They don’t know much about what lies along the trail, the destination is obscure, there is scant research to guide their journey and marauding corporations have already staked claims. But it isn’t boring and almost anything can happen. These things are happening because the Web is alluring and, for folks tired of tyrannical teachers, capricious administrators and the other tedium of face-to-face education, the notion of securing education from their own home is attractive. Despite serious and profound problems associated with providing or securing an education on the Web, a curious coalition of interests stills voices that would otherwise raise awkward questions. Neo-Liberal Perspective Neo-liberal or rightwing politicians like the Web because it seems efficient. It nicely fits the exhortation to “do more with less.” Moreover, because it straddles national boundaries, the Web coincides with the interest in “internationalizing” education within the context of the “global economy.” Large numbers of fee-paying learners both on and off-campus can be reached all at the same time with materials written by a course designer whose employment was very likely terminated when the course was ready. Indeed, the most malevolent of the neo-liberals anticipate a day when there will be no difference between on and off-campus education, much (or, if possible, nearly all of it) will be mediated by computers which don’t form unions, go on strike, complain about inferior food services, demand new books or need a place to park a car. At the University of B.C. in Vancouver distributed learning is even being touted as an instrument to cut down on the number of vehicles that wind through affluent suburbs (wherein politically well-connected people have their abode) on the way to campus. While putting one hand into the learner’s wallet to extract a substantial “cost-recovery” fee for the privilege of doing the Web course, in the other hand the Director of Distributed Learning holds a placard upon which is written the word “access.” In other words, the language of lifelong education, of equity and access, is used to obscure the fact Web learning and education is a salient aspect of commodification. Is the World Word Web a code for World World Profit? Anarchist-Utopian Perspective For entirely different reasons anarchist-utopians who have no time for globalisation discourses or the excesses of neo-liberalism also like the Web because it enables them to subvert unequal power relations that infest much of formal education. In the 1970’s Ivan Illich (1979), a leading anarchist-utopian, condemned the self-serving nature of formal education and called for the deschooling of society. In many ways the Web exemplifies the ethos of deschooling and, around the world, indigenous people, women and others typically locked out of formal education, applaud the opportunity to form solidarityrelationships with like-minded folks elsewhere. With moneyminded neo-liberals and left-oriented anarchist utopians supporting it, Web learning and education is enjoying rapid growth. If there are murmurs of dissent they are muted. Beware of Techno-Utopia Distributed learning is a close descendant of familiar folk - correspondence study, distance education and open learning. But, whereas the first three generations of this family were nest in a democratizing discourse, their offspring - distributed learning - is a dodgy character. The prime force driving development of distributed learning is profit. Equity, access, the problems of the hard-to-reach are in the “vision” and “mission-statement” but there as window-dressing, part of an effort to drive single-mode distance education operators out of business. Those who previously dismissed courses offered at a distance as second best and declined opportunities to form what are now euphemistically called “partnerships” with open learning agencies, correspondence education providers or distance education institutions, now want not part, but all the action. In this flotilla, advocates of distributed learning have inherited elaborate videoconferencing facilities, still produce traditional courses packed in ringbinders and produce video and audiotapes and many of the other accouterments of the so-called older forms of distance education. But the Web is their flagship. Technology-mediated distributed learning, like all forms of education, is not simply a matter of moving information. Nor is it ideologically benign or politically neutral. Regrettably, there is far too much American influence on the Web (Wilson, Qayyum and Boshier, 1998) and little regard for the interests or learning styles of indigenous people or those living outside the metropole (Boshier, Wilson and Qayyum, 1998). Moreover, despite all the talk of empowerment and “solidarity-links” between environmental activists, popular educators involved in struggles over land, resources or agrarian reform and the possibilities for decentralization, there’s more to it. For example, Mander (1996) claims technology is a powerful instrument for centralization and a potent weapon in the colonization of states that hitherto have been out of reach. On the surface, distributed learning looks like a sexy and innocent newcomer. But as is so often the case there’s more to it. What’s needed in natural resources education is a map, with a GPS or loran, that can guide the unwary through the labyrinths of educational technologies, theory and practice. Innovative learning, distributed learning and all the other attributes of pedagogy in the modern university - problem-based education, cooperative education, internships, lectures, semi-
1998 University Education in Natural Resources 19 nars, colloquia - do not serve all interests equally well. Moreover, they’re based on varying conceptions concerning the nature of reality. None of them are innocent methods or techniques. All bristle with ideological baggage. It has become increasingly difficult for educators to take refuge under the cover of “objective science” because, as well as representing a positivist epistemology, it too is an ideology. It is necessary that educators take a position concerning natural resources. It is inevitable that this position will be expressed in program content and teaching processes. With this in mind we now present a map of theory that identifies different world views concerning program content and teaching/learning processes. MAPPING THEORY The model presented below embraces four world views that offer different ways of thinking about education concerning natural resources. It was originally developed by Burrell and Morgan (1979) to explain organizational behaviour but has since been deployed to analyse different approaches to AIDS education (Boshier, 1989), adult education (Boshier, 1994) and the cause and prevention of fishing vessel accidents (Boshier, 1996). The version shown here is a postmodern elaboration by Paulston and Liebman (1994) and Paulston (1996) which has been used to study comparative and international education and has the potential to analyze a broad array of phenomena. There are two axes laying beneath Fig. 2 that lie in an orthogonal (right-angled) relationship to each other. Treat them like latitude and longitude on a nautical chart. The first concerns ontology - assumptions about the nature of reality and the way people perceive or construe things in the world. The second concerns the importance of power relations (e.g. between different interest groups, government and environmentalists, First Nations and Europeans, men and women). Think of this map like Microsoft windows. The ontology and power relations axes are lain down first. They exist at right-angles to one another. On top of this window Paulston has lain down two overlapping circles. The top layer, which comprises the third window to be opened, are various theoretical fragments, theories, and conceptualizations contained in the two circles. When reading this map it is important to note the ends of the two axes that frame the model (transformation versus equilibrium orientations on the vertical power-relations axis; idealist-subjectivist versus realist-objectivist orientations on the horizontal ontology axis). Ontology The horizontal axis concerns ontology - the essence of phenomena. Researchers, teachers and citizens vary with respect to the extent to which they think there is an objective “reality” - out there - external to the individual. For some, there is an objective world inhabited by lawfully interrelated variables. Most of us brought up in the positivist tradition believe this. For others, such as many feminists or indigenous people, reality is essentially a subjective phenomenon that exists within consciousness. It exists “in the mind.” On the left end of the ontology (horizontal) axis are “idealist-subjectivist” orientations. On the right end are “realist-objectivist” orientations. Power relations The vertical axis concerns power and self-interest. Power relationships lay at the centre of education about natural resources. Every instance of education about natural resources serves some interests better than others. Teaching about the “management,” “conservation” “exploitation” of natural resources is not a neutral, technical or benign process. It involves all kinds of struggles - between environmentalists and capitalists, local communities and trans-national corporations, men and women, different ethnic or occupational groups and so on. Somebody’s interests are always being served when education programs are mounted. Most forms of education occur in the bottom part of this model and, as such, tend to reinforce extant power relations. Where the educator claims to be neutral and just “delivering facts” they are reinforcing extant power relations. However, those “teaching against the grain” from a neo-marxist, critical or radical humanist perspective or a more materialist or radical functionalist perspective are challenging extant power relations. Using the Map The model contains four world views that, if adopted, would require different kinds of program content and pedagogical approaches. The four world views in Fig. 2 help natural resource and other educators in a variety of ways. First, the map shows the interrelationship between most of the theoretical “- isms” that inform education theory and practice. Secondly, this mapping of discourses and territorial disputes provides space for a plethora of perspectives. It avoids the seduction of proposing some singular or universal approach to education. Thirdly, like a nautical chart or geographic information system, it provides the academic traveler and exhausted teacher with landmarks in what can be a hostile academic world. As well, it enables an academic to locate themselves and get an aerial view of those in close proximity or on the other side of the ontological or power relations divide. If a traveler is not happy with their current location this map, like a loran or GPS, shows the way to alternative destinations. Before analyzing how each of the world views inform the work of natural resource educators, it is important to point out that this map is neither neutral or benign. Functionalism is the epistemological servant of globalization and global competitiveness. Particularly in the U.S., but also in Europe and Oceania, there is an obsession with performativity, “pragma-
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