This paper was written in collaboration with
Matina Pentes. This version of the paper was prepared for a conference held within the Education Faculty at the University of Sydney called “Visions, Values and Realities: Social and Environmental Studies for the 21st Century” in 1995.
Although it's an old paper I believe it contains some fundamental theory that must underpin any serious attempt at operating immersive educational field studies.
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Introduction
Preparing young Australians for an expanded role in what is loosely termed, the Asian region, is an essential requirement of contemporary Australian education. Identifying elements that should form part of education about the Asian environment for the 21st century is challenging but not particularly difficult. Economic development and technological change are having a profound impact on biophysical and socio-cultural conditions within the region. The rate of this change varies but amongst our immediate Asian neighbours it is rapid.
Indonesia's transformation, under the New Order government, from the backward agrarian economy of 1965 to an economy aiming at NIC status by the end of this decade, has captured the attention of our policy makers, miners, industrialists and even educational service providers.
Exploring environmental issues in Asia, using Indonesia as a focus, is of particular relevance given its proximity, demography and rate of change. The links between our lands pre-date the European era, their uncertain beginnings clouded in the origins of human settlement of Australia and the Indonesian archipelago.
At the simplest level the changes confronting Indonesia can be listed in a type of environmental accounting process.
Some of the more obvious issues include:
- Pollution of rivers and waterways with domestic and industrial refuse.
- Supplying clean drinking water and privatisation of clean water reserves
- Use and abuse of agricultural chemicals, impacts on air and water
- Falling water tables in response to rice intensification
- Depletion of tropical rainforest reserves
- Development of managed tropical forests
- Management of national parks
- Impact of development on the rights of traditional people
- Loss of soil resources related to farming of marginal areas and logging
- Reliance on oil and coal for power generation
- Private power generation, using inefficient diesel engines
- Development of nuclear power
- Loss of bio diversity
- Intensification of reef based and pelagic fishing
- Urban air pollution and traffic congestion
- Collection and management of non-biodegradable garbage, plastic, aluminium, chemicals
- Impacts of mining on natural and cultural environments
- Impacts of tourism on natural and cultural environments
All of these areas of change can be described, the rate and direction of change established. Change can be photographed, mapped, graphed, and monitored using satellite imagery. Even moment to moment changes can be described and disseminated through new media like the Internet.
In the Asia Pacific region the rise of post war Japan, the birth of the Asian Tigers and the Mini-Dragons, the emergence of APEC, the dynamism and uncertainty of Hong Kong and the developments in the Pearl River Delta are presenting the region with new environmental challenges. Developing a clear vision of the direction of these changes requires more than simple accounting. The reality is more complex and interactive.
Holistic models of the environment developing from notions of Space Ship Earth and evolving into the theories of the Gaiaists have added new sophistication to models of environment and environmental change. However their principal weakness is that they do not tell us much about how people perceive, understand, describe or respond to changes in their environments
Many Asian environments, unlike Australian environments, have long supported large populations and reveal the impact of up to 5000 years of intensive human intervention. Such intervention has been informed by understandings of environment that we might describe as pre-scientific.
Some theorists have described the development Indonesian wet rice agriculture, for example, as involution rather than evolution. Environmental changes associated with this system of agriculture have been understood and articulated by Indonesians in holistic terms. This is reasonably true for a range of land management systems found throughout Asia. Theories about the operation of the carbon cycle or nitrogen cycle are not part of traditional knowledge. The process involved in the decay and recycling of organic material is understood in spiritual terms.
It follows that understanding Asian environments, as they were and as they are becoming requires some knowledge of traditional systems of environmental management. It also requires understanding of traditional environmental knowledge and the extent to which this may be part of the present environmental awareness of large numbers of people.
Eleven years ago we began operating an inter-disciplinary field study program in Indonesia. Although our work now extends from North Sumatra to Irian Jaya, for this paper we will focus our attention on the island of Bali, since this is where our project began.
Our contribution to this discussion of the Asian environment is to present a model for exploring it through field work. In doing this we hope to demonstrate the importance of a holistic approach in understanding and describing Asian environments.
In the next part of this paper we will identify, explore and articulate some aspects of a Balinese understanding of environment. This involves a model of the world that is outside our more familiar Australian paradigms and has the potential to confront and engage us at many levels.
Bali is not typical of Asia any more than Ireland is typical of Europe. It does, however, provide an example of the extent to which environmental and cosmological understandings can differ from our own. It also addresses the range of elements that need consideration in educating young Australians about the Asian environment.
Secondly, we will describe some of the real life experiences confronting students wishing to learn about this world, and some of the field work strategies that seem to be appropriate in this context. Our experience has shown that the result is not merely the exploration of difference and otherness but an opportunity for self reflection and a heightened awareness of our own traditions.
Finally we will briefly explore some of the implications for social and environmental education in Australia.
A Balinese case study
From the earliest years of human occupance the people of Bali have confronted the problem of surviving within their unique bio-physical environment. This struggle for survival has shaped their socio-cultural world in many ways, some obvious, some subtle and unseen.
Balinese culture is a complex event, not just the product of a struggle against the elements, but one in which historical forces and the great movements of peoples who have come to claim the Asia-Pacific region as their home, have also played a role.
Paradise under threat
The Balinese are a unique blend of people, descendants of ancient Melanesian and Malayo-Polynesian settlers with more recent Javanese, Indian and Chinese influences. Their culture is characterised by diversity and adaptability .
A central dictum in Balinese thinking is the notion of Desa - Kala - Patra meaning Space - Time - Situation, a dynamic notion holding that traditional concepts will blend in harmony with the new.
Sekala and Niskala
The Balinese distinguish between
Sekala , the material world that can be clearly seen, heard, smelled, tasted or touched and
Niskala the eternal, that which cannot be sensed directly but only felt within.
[1] Reality is a coincidence of the world of matter and the immaterial world. One does not exist without the other.
Traditional Balinese view of Bali
In traditional thought the Balinese regard Bali as the World. Through meditation, the world serpent
Anta Boga created the turtle
Bedawang Nala, around whom coil snakes as the foundation of the World. These entities reside below the world of humans in the nether world of
Bhur. A black stone lid rests on the turtle providing a solid foundation for the world of humans.
[2]
The snakes, or
naga , called
Naga Basuki and
Naga Anta Boga , represent peoples earthly needs: safety, food shelter and clothing. Their names mean water and fire
[3], two common products of Balinese vulcanism.
The turtle's constant movements are balanced to some extent by the naga but frequently produce earthquakes and volcanic activity. Such explanations attempt to render the material world comprehensible by drawing on mystical and eternal forces from the unseen world.
The irregularity of Bali's strato-volcanos is a fact of life. When Bali's
Mount Agung, erupted from February 1963 to January 1964, it created massive disruption. Lives, property and crops were lost. Volcanic ash rained down on the island making life extremely difficult for the people, upsetting the island's ecology and inducing rat plagues and famine.
The impact of living with uncertainty
Having to deal with the uncertainty created by living in a tectonically active zone has had a significant impact on the Balinese psyche.
In the eyes of many Balinese, the eruption was a manifestation of great change that could bring good results as well as bad.
[4]
Mountains are a source of sustenance and destruction in Balinese cosmology and religion. They are spiritually auspicious places, inhabited by gods, but outside the realm of humans. Early Indonesian religions frequently involved the worship of mountain deities.
In Indonesian though, ancestors also dwell in the mountains.
[5]
Not surprisingly, much religious practice in Bali seems to have supplicatory elements. Perhaps living with uncertainty develops within the Balinese psychology a need to placate, to offer supplication.
Valleys and ridge tops: land for human habitation
Mountains influence climate deflecting monsoon winds leading to more rapid erosion of volcanic materials in the South, the islands prime rice growing area and cultural centre.
Rivers radiate out from Bali's mountains eroding deep narrow gorges through soft volcanic materials. In hilly and mountainous areas villages lie along ridge lines between valleys. Villages usually have one long main street, running along a mountain to sea axis, and at least one major cross street that intersects it.
Steep valley slopes and mountains, are regarded as magically powerful zones unfit for human habitation. It comes as no surprise that they are also prone to land slips, following heavy rain and earth tremors.
The radiating ridge valley structure contributed to the development of independent Rajadoms vying for control of their own particular segment of radiating ridges and valleys. Their competition for control aided the process of Dutch colonisation.
Space and Direction
Direction is expressed as mountain ward (Kaja) or seaward (Klod). The direction of the mountains is naturally favourable while that of the sea is less favourable.
Mountains are associated with purity, the land or middle is the realm of humans, and largely neutral, while the direction of the sea is associated with impurity, it is the place for resolution of all disease and impurity.
[6]
Bali's religion is often called a religion of holy water. Higher country is cooler and a source of pure water. Coastal areas are not only further down the drainage system but closer to potentially malarial swamps. Generally, high places are holier, possessing greater purity than low places.
Two important considerations of Space and Direction apply to many activities and have an important impact on the pattern of village life and the arrangement of functional zones.The first of these is the notion of
Tri Angga, a division of the world into three spiritual zones.
Spiritual Zone
|
Environmental
|
Ceremonial
|
Corporal
|
Nista
|
low
|
impure
|
leg
|
Madya
|
middle
|
neutral
|
body
|
Utama
|
high
|
pure
|
head
|
The second of these is the passage of the sun. The East is considered the most auspicious direction and the West the least auspicious. In addition to this, eight cardinal directions are identified.
In combining these directional and spatial concepts, a model of the Balinese cosmos emerges. It contains eleven essential dimensions, the eight cardinal directions as well as high, middle and low. All aspects of Balinese life are finely tuned to this important sense of place and direction. The arrangement of village temples, community halls, family compounds and organisation of rice fields conform to this principle.
Notions of time
Traditionally days were not organised according to the clock but rather the sun. Days are still divided into morning, middle day, afternoon/evening and night by many people.
Linear accounting of time as in the Gregorian calendar is outside the traditional Balinese frame of reference. The passage of weeks, months and years is viewed cyclically. The Balinese calendar is a blending of the Indian Saka calendar and the indigenous Pukwon calendar. Most Balinese operate with a calendar that assigns significance to days because they represent the intersection of critical times in two or more of the ten different weeks that operate simultaneously.
Rice, settlement patterns and the social order
A recurring dry season means that irrigation is necessary if two or more rice crops are to be cultivated each year. Massive investment has gone into the development of irrigation systems over the last 2,000 years or so.
Introducing the cultivation of irrigated rice had an impact on settlement patterns leading to the development of small compact self-sufficient villages surrounded by rice fields (sawah) where neighbours work and plan together.
Successful irrigation requires co-operation, influencing attitudes to work and social organisation. Irrigation requires careful engineering and planning of hydraulics and community efforts directed towards the construction, maintenance and improvement of irrigation systems. Co-operation is a mainstay of life and there is little room for individualism.
Since water must be measured out and channelled to crops, fields must be grouped together. A very clear distinction emerges between irrigated and non-irrigated (tegal) fields. As a consequence, systems for classifying land by use and ownership are clearly developed.
The development of irrigated rice agriculture is also associated with the development of hierarchy. Records show the involvement of the Rajas and their ministers in regulating the expansion of irrigation systems and the control of water in rivers and from springs. A water tax was imposed and irrigation organisations paid the Raja for their water.
The development of irrigation is also associated with grassroots democracy. Groups of water users known as Subaks. These irrigation organisations are managed by an elected head. They are responsible for maintaining all aspects of the irrigation system from the main channel to individual holdings; the timing of planting and cultivation and the regulation of water; as well as rituals and observances at the Subak temple and at the shrines to the rice spirit Dewi Sri which are located throughout the sawah.
Recycling in the village
In the traditional Balinese village, there was an obvious strategy for disposing of refuse. Almost everything was biodegradable and could be recycled after use. These traditional practices persist.
Irrigation and drainage canals carried much of the lighter wastes away while others were burned or allowed to rot. Human and animal wastes enriched rice fields and domestic gardens. Legumes were grown to fix and recycle atmospheric nitrogen in the rice fields.
The apparently magical transformation and recycling of organic refuse is the responsibility of Bhoma, child of Mother Earth and Vishnu the protector and conserver. Bhoma skims across the earth transforming rubbish into the food of life.
In traditional Balinese society, there was no need to understand the chemical processes that help the decay of leaves and food scraps, or the way soils are formed. These things were Niskala, all part of the unseen and magical work of the Gods. This was sufficient understanding for the traditional Balinese.
Unfortunately, Bhoma's powers are limited, he may be the God of recycling but he doesn't know much about 20th-century products like plastic, agricultural chemicals and aluminium.
Indic notions of the social order
Indic notions of caste were easily assimilated into the Balinese system. Four distinct social groups known as Catur Warna emerged. Western observers often refer to these groups as castes, they are:
Brahmana
| Scholars and Brahmanic priests |
Ksatria
| Rulers, administrators and warrior kings |
Wesia
| Court officials and knights sometimes with commercial interests |
Sudra
| Village priests, lower court officials, peasants and traders |
Today about 95% of the people of Bali are Sudra.
Caste is no longer an immediate indicator of wealth and power. Bali's emerging middle class contains many wealthy Sudras.
The Balinese village
Villages are surrounded by sawah. Each village has three principal temples with active congregations. In addition there is a diversity of other social organisations.
Rural population densities now exceed 1000 persons per sq kilometres in the most fertile areas.
The village of Ubud with a population of about 9,000 people, for example, is divided into 12 wards or Banjar. These associations contribute to village life and projects, assisting with members' ceremonies at times such as marriage, death and cremation. In addition there are 26 other groups and clubs. with surrounding sawah administered by 14 Subak.
As well as these bases of association there are often organisations that may form to achieve a short term goal which then disband.
Group membership is an essential element in every aspect of Balinese life. Individualists are uncommon. The Balinese sense of social responsibility is best stated in their principle of Tat Twam Asi, which translates as “I am you, and you are me”.
Bali continues to maintain a tightly networked society with an enormous number of overlapping and interlocked organisations. Given these linkages, information moves rapidly from mouth to mouth.
The close association of people seems to foster an intuitive 'right-brain dominant' communication. Just how the recent introduction of telephones, fax machines, satellite dishes and laser discs will fit into to this pattern is an issue for further study.
Decision making
The decision making processes of the Balinese village reflects the traditional approach found throughout Indonesia called Musyawarah or deliberation. The purpose of deliberation is to reach a consensus or agreement Mufakat. This consensus style democracy is associated with the practice of social co-operation and mutual assistance known as Gotong Royong.
Consensual decision making suits complex situations. Consensus avoids polarisation. Each member shares a proportion of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the decision.
Religious thought in village society
The word Bali comes from an ancient word meaning offering.
Balinese religion involves the practice of Bhakti, or devotional acts and ritual, designed to bring about balance and harmony between people; between people and God and between people and their bio-physical environment. Balance and harmony are important objectives of Balinese life.
Balinese religion is a blend of primal religions overlaid with generations of subsequent religious belief, insight and practice. Elements of ancestor worship, Buddhism and Hinduism, and traces of Taoism combine to form contemporary Balinese religion.
Balinese
... worship their own ancestors both directly in 'genealogical' temples and indirectly as village gods, and founders of villages, wards(
banjars), irrigation societies(
subaks) and other organisations.
[7]
The religious ceremonies and rituals of the Balinese village
... are essentially community rituals firmly anchored to the ownership of houses and land and to membership in village (
desa) and ward (
banjar) as well as other basically egalitarian village organisations such as the irrigation societies.
[8]
Balinese religion is not portable like Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
To own property, to live in a house yard, to cultivate either wet or dry fields, means in traditional Bali to have inescapable ritual obligations as a member of a set of temple organisations. Not to fulfil those obligations means the end of social existence and the loss of all rights to property and inheritance, as well as, in terms of belief, the impossibility of reincarnation and either an eternity of wandering as a miserable spook or rebirth as some form of lowly animal .
[9]
Dharma and Adharma
According to the Balinese there are both organising and disorganising forces in the world. Disorganisation and disorder can never be completely eliminated because it is just as much a part of the world as order. The presence of order and balance is called Dharma and the absence of order leading to disharmony and chaos is called Adharma.
Over the many centuries the Balinese people developed ways of seeking order and balance in their environment. Seeking to maximise Dharma as a way of counterbalancing Adharma is an important strategy.
Human action is designed to maximise Dharma must be based on the Dasasila, a set of ten principles:
1 not to kill
2 to live a pure life to free oneself from the attachment to sexual pleasures
3 not to lie
4 not to be greedy
5 not to steal
6 not to be angry
7 to respect one's teacher and one's elders
8 to purify oneself spiritually and physically
9 not to be too eager to eat and drink
10 to live a life carefully based on moral values
Aspects of God
Brahmanism brought the notion of Shiva as the supreme God. However, in Balinese thought, there is the concept of an ultimate unification of all aspects of the cosmos, including both the upper world of the Gods and the nether world of the Demons, in the supreme God, Sanghyang Widi Wasa, the unmoved mover of the universe.
The Balinese family
Balinese families are patrilineal. Membership of a Balinese family is not confined to the living. Every family has an ancestor spirit shrine in the most mountain ward and eastern corner of its compound. Without this the family is not complete because this is where the unseen spirits of ancestors will take up residence at appropriate times.
Families have obligations to many unseen forces. Those that forget their duties to the ancestor spirits are likely to be sent suffering in the form of illness or a disrupted household. Families that observe their duties can expect prosperity and abundance.
Tourism, culture and the environment
Since the mid-1980s the Indonesian government has been making efforts to boost the tourism industry as a way of compensating for a loss of revenue from oil and gas exports resulting from a fall in the international price for these commodities.
Tourist arrivals in Indonesia now exceed 3,000,000 per year, about 50% of tourists visiting Indonesia also visit Bali.. Visitor arrivals will increase to about 5,400,000 by the year 2,000.
Tourist destinations like Bali both give and receive cultural influences. In discussing the history of travel Eric Leed argues that... travel suggests that collective and individual identities arise from and are transformed by processes of mutual reflection, identification, and recognition in human relationships: that neither collective nor personal identities are implicit in the organisation or the collective but arise from relations to others.
[10]
Tourism has encouraged Balinese to reflect on their own culture producing... both a sense of pride in their cultural identity as Balinese, and an ability to sum up what may be considered as essential aspects of culture - such as Hinduism, caste, priestly rituals and dances - in a way that can be conveniently understood by others.
[11]
Tourism changes culture, but it does not necessarily threaten it. The impact of Tourism on the bio-physical environment, like that of agricultural intensification and the development of new industries, is less positive.
Uncontrolled or poorly regulated development has polluted rivers and water tables with sewage and other wastes; induced coastal erosion; created traffic congestion, noise and air pollution, placing many ecologically sensitive areas at risk.
Winners and losers in tourism
While tourism does not totally determine who is rich and who is poor on Bali, it emphasises the inequalities in Balinese life, and supports the cultural activities which are the focus of much Balinese attention. Tourism has created a new middle class of hoteliers, art shop owners and tour guides...
[12]
The poorest areas are those with long periods of drought or crop lands that have been disturbed by recent volcanic eruptions. They are also areas that have little or no access to tourist income.
The impact of development on Balinese values
Changes in Bali's socio-cultural conditions are not merely the result of tourism.
It must be remembered that changes are also caused by the development process as a whole even by the global process resulting from the development of knowledge and technology.
[13]
Industries like silver jewellery manufacture, clothing and apparel have been growing at rates of up to 16% per year. Laser disc technology and satellite television appear to be more widespread than in many developed countries. Some observers report an increasing consumerism amongst the younger generation. For many of the 38% of Indonesians who are 15 years or younger, there is a clear perception that their country is part of the Asia-Pacific economic boom.
Precisely how Bhoma will cope with the environment of the 21st century will be determined, to a large extent, by the complex of forces that underpin the Balinese understanding of the impact of change on their environment.
In the Field
Introduction
AFSC designs and operates cultural and educational study tours into Indonesia from Sumatra in the West to Irian Jaya in the East. These tours vary in length from 7 to 16 days.
The scene has been set by describing Case Study: Bali. In this part of the paper we will show how we operate a program. The educational content of our programs is supported by processes and structures informed by educational and behavioural theory.
Teaching about Environmental issues in the classroom can be a challenging event. Environments can be described and modelled but they invariably must be simplified and usually conveyed with cognitive strategies.
Immersion
Teaching about the environment in a field study setting is even more challenging since the very process itself is immersed in the environment, an environment which must be experienced, survived and articulated. Teaching becomes a more complex event. There are no shortcuts. The cognitive, the affective, the psychomotor and the spiritual are all in play, and at the same time.
Sending a student to sick-bay is not an option. Ensuring that students have breakfast, and monitoring their fluid intake is a is an unavoidable part of an effective teaching strategy. This is not simply a question of survival, but the first step in developing environmental awareness. A teacher in a tropical field work setting must be aware of these things and work with them as they arise.
The classroom teacher doesn't need to be too concerned about the student who does not immediately grasp a concept. In the field there are times when the group can't move on unless a particular concept is understood. Students can't simply go home and do a little homework on it. If a student feels uncomfortable or alienated from the cultural environment tor gets homesick, the matter can't wait until tomorrow or be referred to the school counsellor. For the teacher in the field these challenges must be dealt with on the spot and are a legitimate part of the educational process.
Responses to the environment, whether bio-physiological, cognitive, affective, or spiritual has an intrinsic relevance and unavoidable immediacy. The interaction between internal environments and external environments is the substance of each moment in the field. It is never possible to be certain what else may lie around the next corner, in addition to those things that lay there last time! Both students and teachers report that they are able to apply this interdisciplinary, holistic, interactive method to their work, in general.
Many elements simultaneously in play
Epigenetic approach
We take a "epigenetic" approach in program construction. We maintain that people need to "crawl before they can walk". We may introduce an idea early in the program and keep coming back to it, building on it each time, as the opportunity presents itself in the field.
We incorporate Maslow's
14 concept of a Hierarchy of Needs into program sequencing. We know that unless an individual's physiological needs are met they can't begin to consider safety issues. They basically can't worry if a "bemo" runs over them if they are hot and thirsty. If they are not feeling safe, we can't expect them to be interested in working on group cohesion. Without feeling a real member of the group, we can't expect an individual to be too concerned about working on their self-esteem or to be too bothered about self-actualization.
Critical thresholds
We can identify certain "critical thresholds" in a program before which students are not ready to deal with some ideas or experiences. For example, recently, villagers invited a school group to attend a cremation ceremony on the second day of their program. At this stage the event could only be experienced at spectator level so the offer wasn't taken up. Later in the program the opportunity presented itself again, this time it was taken because the students were ready to be active learners rather than interested spectators.
Pulse checks
At key points in the program, we do we call "pulse checks" to identify any difficulties that students may be having. Sometimes these difficulties may be with other members of the group. There may be problems with the physical environment. It may be a difficulty associated with the socio-cultural context. It could be difficult coming to grips with the spiritual environment, or simply being overwhelmed by challenging concepts.
We do a routine "pulse check" on about the fifth day of a program. This is when most students have what we call a "down day" or experience what mountaineers call "five-day drop". This is a time when travellers find they have been away from home for long enough and immersed in the new culture for long enough to start experiencing some level of stress
15. This stress is often called "culture shock". Hardly anyone escapes this phenomenon so participants are offered strategies for dealing with it. We try to do easy and familiar things at this time.
Another key point for a "pulse check" is before moving to a new destination. A group needs to be in good shape to travel, to deal with letting go one situation and re-engaging with another, which means they need to have dealt with the main challenges they have been facing so they can face the new. Loose ends need to be tied up and unfinished business more or less dealt with.
Group processes
Acknowledging and working with the group process is an essential strategy. Understanding about developmental stages helps us to facilitate a group environment that optimises learning. When constructing a program we build in activities that are appropriate to the group's expected development. Watson, Valee and Mulford
16 of the Curriculum Development Centre in Canberra in the early 80's produces a useful framework. There are many frameworks, but this one is fine.
Basically we work with the notion that groups pass through five developmental stages:
- Forming;
- Storming;
- Norming;
- Performing; and,
- Mourning.
In the first two days when a group is "Forming", we don't ask members to attempt tasks that require high levels of trust or that require them to move out of their comfort zone.
In the second stage, called "Storming" groups will be dealing with control issues, stress, worrying about group rules and the rules of the host culture, struggling to handle being wrong and so forth. This is the best time to focus on customs and etiquette.
After "Storming" comes "Norming". Most groups will move into "Norming" when they successfully negotiate their "five-day drop" experience. This is when members are prepared to listen, to be more open-minded, the group starts to show cohesion and shares information.
To move on to the next stage called "Performing" members must be willing to change behaviour and attitudes, be able to display higher levels of trust and be able to reach consensus. "Performing" stage is the most effective time both in terms of task accomplishment and effective human relations. This stage takes about six or seven days in the field. Groups in "Performing" mode show high levels of interdependence and independence, high commitment to the group's objectives, group members display warmth towards one another and feel the freedom to explore issues innovatively.
Members at this stage are concerned with problem-solving in a creative and self-rewarding way. Members are quite comfortable about "agreeing and can adapt to changes more easily.
This is the time when we ask students to attempt small group work which will require a deeper engagement with the setting. Small group activities involve a division of responsibilities, independent travel and the collection of data. Deeper communication with local people and a more rigorous observation of the biophysical environment is asked for.
All good things come to an end, and so do study tours. This stage is called the "Mourning" stage. Group members will be concerned about disengagement, evaluation of their experiences, they will typically feel confused, feel lethargic, they will display increased warmth among members. Task related activities decline in favour of relationship related matters. It is important to allow these developments to unfold. This isn't the time to set students new tasks. This is a time for tying up loose ends.
This is when we administer our Evaluation Questionnaire. This is a useful tool for us to obtain important information to improve our programs and offers students a structure to systematically review their experiences.
Environments
We will now turn our attention to the many environments within which students will find themselves.
Bio-Physical environment
Our programs are delivered in a tropical setting with heat, sun and humidity that need to be dealt with. Obtaining safe drinking water and eating an appropriate diet to avoid dehydration are important considerations.
Students learn to understand the interactions of nature's forces: water, tectonic activity, wind and sun, and the processes by which they have created the landscape. They may find that there are alternate ways of understanding about and experiencing these processes.
For example, a ridge between two rivers is regarded in Asia as a place with special energy. The confluence of rivers is often deemed a sacred place and frequently the site of a temple.
The student is confronted with the question "why is this so?" Is it because of the mystical energy invested in such places by the Gods, is it the build up of a tunnel of negative ions generated by the constant action of water over stones, or is it just a cool place with the soothing sound of running water?
Socio-cultural environment
What about the Socio-Cultural environment. Ground rules are different. What students assume they see may not be what is going on. Society's basic unit, the family, is different. The way villagers organise themselves around the tasks of daily living is different. Home base becomes the culture that the group brought from home and recreates about itself.
Western cultures have developed in the direction of valuing the individual. Child rearing, community values, work ethics, approaches to material wealth, all reflect the valuing of the individual above the group. Balinese culture places a great emphasis on the group above the individual. It is often difficult for Western people to grasp the implications of this major difference, or even to allow themselves to experience this difference.
Western people value sitting down to a meal together. They enjoy the rich opportunity for conversation that this event can offer. Good conversation vies closely with good food as the purpose of a dinner party. Balinese people on the other hand mostly don't sit down at a table to eat together. They may even sit apart, with their backs to one another. Conversation is not a feature. Eating is understood as a meditation, a time for communing with Dewi Sri, the rice Goddess.
Spiritual environment
Spiritual environment. The way that people make sense of the "meaning of life, the universe and everything", is different. How people understand and value locations or natural phenomena, is different. A rock may not simply be the rock it seems to be. It could well be the energy centre of a family compound, or, if located to the right of the steps into the main bale (house) of a compound, it could be the resting place of the placenta and other birth products of a child born to that family. These products have a spiritual sibling relationship with the person to whom they belong. They must have offerings placed upon them at appropriate times. When their owner departs for a lengthy period, proper leave must be taken.
Encountering the Balinese belief in the presence of ancestor spirits and their impact of their presence on the living may at first appear as an intriguing curiosity. The power of this Balinese belief is undeniable. Some students find parallels in our own practices, recognising a connection between the monuments of the Australian graveyard and the Balinese family temple.
The Balinese belief in the constant presence of demons about their ankles or
spirits of transformation such as Bhoma, can frequently be appreciated at a metaphoric level.
Cognitive environment
We also live in a world that we create with language and ideas, our cognitive environment. We define, explain, interpret, analyse formulate hypothesise and make judgements about our world using cognitive maps.
Students encounter words from the Indonesian or Balinese languages that may articulate ideas that remain unexpressed in English. This has an impact on their understanding of the world.
In the field words may be linked with sound scapes, smells, temperature, time of day, touch and movement, bringing language from the hypothetical to the experiential. For example “sawah” takes on a fuller meaning, after it is linked with its perceptual context.
Alternately, in colloquial Balinese usage, the word “ramai” can mean a large purposefully busy crowd, involved in a devotional activity or a rite of passage ceremony. There is probably no Australian English equivalent.
Program Flow
By drawing together a number of elements that are in play simultaneously we begin to get a picture of the context in which our programs operate.
We take into account the epigenetic nature of some learning; the notion of the existence of "critical thresholds" for introducing specific concepts or experiences; we use the strategy of "pulse checking"; we sequence units in harmony with group dynamics and development; and, the take into account both internal and external environments in which students find themselves.
All educational content and focus of AFSC programs are developed in consultation with the teacher leading a group. We attempt to position our programs within the structure of the National Profiles. We attempt to assess the entering levels of students, the educational outcomes sought by the teacher and to pitch material at the appropriate level taxonomically
17 & 18. We evaluate programs at completion.
It is impossible to be comprehensive about the content of programs because it is a moveable feast. Here are some examples to give you a sense of program sequencing.
Immediate issues
Some immediate issues that we deal with are: ground rules, the educational contract between AFSC, teachers and students; health and safety in the tropics; survival customs and etiquette, and an overview of the village.
Ground rules
Ground rules clarify the disciplinary boundaries for students in a strange cultural environment as well as clarifying who is responsible for what and to whom, for all players.
Reaffirming the educational outcomes that are sought by the group brings focus at the right time. Asking students to articulate their educational and personal goals for the field study program, also gives them a clear starting place.
Health and safety
Briefing groups on health and safety in the tropics addresses the issue of the individual in their immediate physical environment and begins dealing with anxieties by giving people workable survival strategies.
Customs and etiquette
A briefing on local customs and etiquette gives group members basic information about correct dress codes, behaviour and attitudes helping them deal with the anxiety about how they are regarded by the host culture.
Overview of the village
Introducing students to the elements and precincts of a typical Balinese village orients them spatially and provides a foundation upon which they can build their understanding of the local environment.
Intermediate issues
In the mid term, and often by returning to material that has already been encountered, we begin to deal with intermediate issues such as: how people live work and grow their food; markets and transport; traditional crafts; the performing arts; vulcanism and tectonic activity; religion and cosmology; adjusting to the rhythm of the tropical day.
How people live, work and grow their food?
Exploring how village people live, work and grow their food begins to add detail to social organisation, the rice cycle and water management, classification of land, customary law, the material and the spiritual, family life and cottage industry.
Traditional markets
Visiting traditional markets and comparing and contrasting them with modern supermarkets gives students some insight into the nature of production, into regional, national and international links and, into economic development.
The performing arts
Attending performances, observing and participating in craft work, and having briefings on the history and development of Balinese performing arts and crafts, begins to flesh out the relationship between religion and the arts.
Traditional crafts
Students will usually work on an art or craft project of their own choice. They are immersed in daily life, usually in a family compound, pursuing the creation of a "piece of work", perhaps a batik painting, perhaps a wood carving, sometimes a dance fragment or a martial arts sequence. This counter-balances the inevitably high proportion of energy-in mode activities in a program.
Vulcanism and tectonic activity
Exploring the landscape through guided walks enables students to recognise the impact of vulcanism on the biophysical and the socio-cultural environment.
Religion and cosmology
By this time students are ready to attend a ceremony with some understanding of the proceedings. They would be able to observe correct codes of dress and behave appropriately for the occasion.
Consolidation issues
As the program matures and develops, activities that facilitate the integration of the many threads of the program, are introduced. These activities include: treks into more remote areas, independent small group work, the Farewell Dinner and Presentation Ceremony, and, Evaluation. These are all more complex activities.
Trekking
A three hour, 9 km trek through villages and rice lands provides an opportunity to draw together place, space, culture, resources and natural and social environments.
Independent small group work
Small group work in the field helps students try out their newly learned skills in investigating the natural and social environments. Small group work can be conducted at various levels. The focus could be Geography, History, Bahasa Indonesia, Asian Social Studies, whatever. Communicating and discussing the experience in debriefing sessions is a central strategy and important for dealing with cultural material.
Presentation Ceremony and Farewell Dinner
The Presentation Ceremony and Farewell Dinner offers a wonderful opportunity for students to articulate what they have learned, show the group their piece of finished work from art or craft option, to give lots of speeches about their experiences and to celebrate the "distance they have travelled".
Evaluation
Completing the Evaluation form is a systematic way for group participants to review the elements of their program and to express an opinion about it. It is an opportunity to participate in improving the program for others by giving comments while they are freshly felt.
Final Words
So, there is no doubt that young Australians should be prepared for an expanded role in the Asian region. In this paper, we have identified elements that should form part of education about the Asian Environment for the 21st century.
Using Bali: a Case Study we have identified some of the environmental issues generated by changes confronting Indonesia and some approaches to understanding their implications by offering an interdisciplinary view of the Balinese environment.
We have offered a model for exploring the Asian Environment through field work and in doing so we hope to have demonstrated the importance of a holistic approach.
The implications for social and environmental education in Australia seem clear. We need to expand on cognitive strategies. The way forward must be holistic. We need to complete the picture.
Several years ago we had a teacher in Bali who, on a Rice Walk, sank to her knees and "embraced" the rice. With tears of joy in her eyes, she exclaimed, "I've been teaching about wet rice agriculture for 10 years and I have never felt the rice!" If you want to learn about the environment you need to stand in, touch it, smell it, hear it, see it, taste it. If you want to learn about the Asian Environment, you need to "be" in it.
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[4] Vickers, A. Op. cit. pp.167
[5] Kempers, B. A. J.
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[6] Moerdowo, Dr R.
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[11] Vickers, A. Op. cit pp.198
[12] Vickers, A. Op. cit pp.200
[13] Bagus, I.G.N. The socio-cultural impact of tourism in the perspective of sustainable growth: The Bali case. Proceedings - The international seminar on human
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14 Lefrancois, Guy R
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15 Haber, J Hoskins PP, et al
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16 Watson, HJ, Vallee, et al
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18 Bloom, Benjamin S, et al Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. The Classification of Educational Goals. Book 11. The Affective Domain. Longman Group, London, 1971
