Questions of ecopedagogy in tropical oceanScapes in the age of coral ecocide: An autoethnographic description

ABSTRACT

OceanScaping/scoping and the ecopedagogy of snorkeling are not well documented in the environmental education literature. This article focuses on the educative value of immersive saltwater experiences as pedagogical experience/s within coral reefs offshore from the tropical Australian city of Cairns. Drawing on a series of autoethnographic accounts of snorkeling journeys undertaken over the period 2015–2017, the article describes educators experiencing changes on coral reefs, temporally and spatially, during a time of reef ecocide. The author argues that offshore immersive learning enables a much deeper sense of understanding and integrated theoretical and practical ecopedagogy to unfold. However, in the Anthropocene, any discussion or practice of oceanScape ecopedagogy cannot escape the matter of marine ecocide. The professional implications for environmental educators are that if we are going to continue to educate with authenticity, then the timeliness, or not, of the antecedents and consequences of anthropogenic climate destabilization has to be front and center of every ecopedagogical discussion we have.

KEYWORDS:

• autoethnography
• coral reefs
• gecocide
• ecopedagogy
• Great Barrier Reef
• oceanScapes
• reef education
• snorkeling