Big answers to big questions (BABQ)
Are our tranquil green spaces the perfect places for public debate?
This paper was originally published in Education Congresses on the website of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). It followed a presentation at BGCI’s 7th International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens in Durban, South Africa in November 2009. A few slides from the PowerPoint presentation are included.
Janelle Hatherly 2021
Abstract
Today’s society faces many complex social and environmental challenges and botanic gardens need to examine the role they can play as unique public spaces for exploring these divisive and contentious issues.
Like museums, botanic gardens are respected for their authoritative information, integrity in collections management and political impartiality. But how impartial and value-neutral are they or should they be? Should botanic gardens be non-judgemental, provocative or determinants of moral standards? As organisations most typically visited for their tranquil green spaces should botanic gardens be taking an activist role to bring about predetermined changes in attitudes and behaviour?
This presentation will examine this dilemma for cultural institutions. It will draw on the lessons learnt from Big Answers to Big Questions, a holistic public program of educational displays, activities, debates and resources developed by the Botanic Gardens Trust (the Trust) to tackle the contentious environmental issues of water, ageing heritage landscapes and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Introduction
When Dr Tim Entwisle came on board as Executive Director of the Trust he wrote in the staff newsletter ‘Our Gardens and Domain are often described as the heart and lungs of the city but they should also be part of the mind of Sydney’. As well as telling great stories about plants and the environment through garden displays, public programs and publications, Tim advocated that our organisation should be stimulating public debate about complex environmental issues – from nature conservation to urban planning.
The Trust’s mission is to inspire the appreciation and conservation of plants and the environment and its staff are well placed to help the broader community appreciate their natural and cultural heritage, learn to care for their local environment and adopt sustainable lifestyles. The Trust’s scientific research, horticultural practices and educational programs are all designed to achieve this. But what role can organisations, like botanic gardens, play in representing contemporary contentious issues – addressing the big questions related to such matters as the energy crisis, climate change and social inequity?
The museum experience
Much has been written about the changing role of museums. Over the past 20 years museums have been displaying controversial exhibitions and providing forums for public debate and discussion of sensitive cultural issues. Notable contemporary museum directors and consultants explain how museums are much more than collecting institutions and can be powerful agents of change. For example, Museum Director Dawn Casey (2002) sees museums as a forum for debate offering a reflective space in which people can consider issues in context. Another museum Director Robert Macdonald (1996) suggests that in addition to being visually exciting, museum exhibitions and programs have to be intellectually accessible, stir the emotions and evoke serious dialogue. Other experts cast museums as centres for tolerance, places for fostering critical thinking, problem solving and self reflexivity, and for visitor participation through dialogue with the institution and other visitors. Elaine Gurian (1995) characterises museums as safe places for unsafe ideas1.
Museums are a major expression of cultural identity in every society, says George Hein2 and David Anderson (2005) describes cultural institutions as corporate citizens with obligations to foster critical cultural debates and to protect society from damage to its cultural health1.
According to David Fleming3, museums are social constructs, and powerful ones at that; and they assume their place in the mainstream of contemporary life, not sitting eccentrically on the margins.
A three-year research project with Australian and international partners investigated ‘Exhibitions as contested sites: the role of museums in contemporary society4.’ Table 1 shows results of this research outlining community expectations of museums.
From this research, Fiona Cameron concluded that the public perceive museums as safe, scholarly, authoritative, trustworthy, impartial, accessible places for contextual learning. They are trusted incubators for social activism and can facilitate audience engagement on their own terms in their capacity as expert informants.
Botanic gardens as museums
Botanic gardens, with their living and preserved collections, are museums too. They fulfil the role outlined for museums by International Council of Museums (ICOM): ‘commitment to the conservation, continuation and communication to society of the world's natural and cultural heritage, present and future, tangible and intangible’.
In Sydney, the Botanic Garden Trust is highly regarded for its scientific and horticultural expertise as well as for its ability to deliver high quality education programs. Trust scientists are often called upon to provide authoritative unbiased information on contentious contemporary scientific issues through a variety of media. The Trust’s three botanic estates are in accessible locations and visitation numbers are high. Collectively these are ideal features to facilitate public participation in discussion and debate surrounding the social implications of today’s controversial scientific, environmental and technological issues.
In 2004 the Trust experienced the bittersweet taste of controversy and realised its botanic estates were more than places for peace and tranquillity when 11 aged and unhealthy trees were removed from an avenue in the Domain, the 32-hectare heritage park adjoining the Royal Botanic Gardens. The attention raised in the media and the resulting legal action were stressful, to say the least, but there were some positive outcomes. The 33 young trees planted in their place are becoming well established and forming a distinctive and favourable landscape and there is now widespread recognition that the Trust, rather than the local council, is the steward of this historical site. The public had an opportunity to think critically about the issue of managing decaying heritage treescapes – an issue currently faced all over Australia as trees in colonial parks and gardens are reaching the end of their lives.
The NSW Government has been coordinating social research into people’s environmental knowledge, views, attitudes and behaviours for several years now5.
The fourth triennial community survey in 2003 showed that:
The environment is considered to be the 6th most important priority for government
After family and friends, the public consider the environment the most important thing in their lives
The public find environmental and conservation agencies reliable sources of information
The public are mainly informed about the environment through newspapers and television.
With the findings of this longitudinal study and the contemporary role of cultural institutions, the Education staff of the Trust set about planning a holistic public program to address three contentious environmental issues. This marked the start of our focus on Education for Sustainability (EfS).
Big Answers to Big Questions – a holistic approach
In 2004 we applied for and received an Environmental Trust grant of $50,000 to pilot the public program Big Answers to Big Questions (BABQ). The most significant environmental objective for the program was to ‘increase active and informed participation by NSW people in creating a sustainable future’. Our aim was to provide balanced information and encourage public debate around three contemporary ‘hot topics’:
Water – Priceless or free? explored water source alternatives, and built understanding of why decisions about water supply are so complex.
Urban Trees – Yours, mine or future generations? examined the relationship between plants, people and urban culture – our love of old trees but reluctance to accept their renewal.
Genetically Modified Plants – Unnatural selection or improving on nature? explored the links between traditional plant breeding and gene technology.
These Hot Topics highlighted the importance of plants in our lives and the need to protect the natural environment. With community involvement as the primary focus, we provided a wide range of learning opportunities where the general public could explore their opinions, shape their ideas in a 'safe' non-threatening environment and make informed decisions about their lifestyle behaviours and attitudes to environmental policies.
The program’s mascot was a little green man, a stylised figure representing balancing of facts and opinions. It formed an easily recognisable and appealing link to all BABQ events. Much of the $50,000 grant was used to employ additional Education staff to coordinate BABQ. The Education team devised and implemented seminars and evening lectures, weekend events, children’s theatre, outdoor debates in the Domain, tours and other public programs between March to August 2005. Over 1,400 people participated in BABQ events which were delivered alongside mainstream educational programs provided annually to approximately 65,000 people. A BABQ page, set up on the Trust’s website, provided 400,000 users with event details, additional information and relevant links. Media coverage was excellent (and important) despite very little budget allocated to promotional advertising.
This varied approach enabled the Trust to trial a new range of interpretive strategies, with the plan to incorporate the most successful ones into future programming. Familiar interpretive approaches, such as guided walks and children’s holiday activities, tackled new EfS themes.
Domain Debates
Holding debates in the Domain at lunchtimes was a nostalgic reminder of the use of this park throughout the last century as a forum for impassioned opinion. Older Sydneysiders have fond memories of spending Sundays in the Domain listening to people exercising their right to free speech. Here they heard communism, capitalism and all brands of religions aired and shared. Referred to in newspaper accounts as far back as 1888, these public assemblies had their heyday between 1900 and the late 1960s. The debates died around the advent of television. Perhaps talkback radio, the internet and other forms of mass communication have permanently relegated this arena for serious public engagement to the past.
Our BABQ Domain debates were ‘staged’. These were designed for walk-ups and attendees ranged from politicians from nearby government offices, to office workers and school children on lunch breaks, passers-by and joggers. For each of the debates, two or three experts were invited to stand on a podium and address the public on a specific theme. The discussion was then opened to the public and moderated by an Education staff member.
While speakers found it challenging to get across complex ideas without access to PowerPoint, the result was open dialogue in a more relaxed environment. We also found that topics directly relevant to Sydneysiders e.g., managing water and old trees in urban environments, were better attended than issues such as land clearing, state and national forests. We concluded that staging debates on a weekly basis for four months was a very ambitious target and that future outdoor debates should be programmed on an opportunistic basis, as an immediate and timely response to environmental and social issues.
This strategy was used again this year as part of the Trust’s celebrations of Charles Darwin’s bicentenary and 150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species. On 12 February (Darwin’s birth date) over 200 staff, volunteers, Friends and members of the public gathered at the launch of a spectacular interpretive sculpture in the Royal Botanic Gardens comprising six mirrored letters, each two metres high, spelling out Darwin’s name. As part of the celebrations Trust scientists took centre stage and talked freely about their research and the importance of Darwin’s ideas and work on plants. This augurs well for engaging the public with scientists ‘en plein air’ on future Science Open Days.
Evening Lectures
Two themed evening lectures were held as part of BABQ and their very nature attracted a new and different audience to the Royal Botanic Gardens. Instead of attracting the typical plant and gardens lover, Water water everywhere, but for how long? with Richard Denniss, Deputy Director of The Australia Institute, drew people interested in stimulating analysis of the social, political and environmental agendas while The Tree in Changing Light, with author Roger McDonald, attracted book lovers as part of Sydney Writer’s Festival.
Similar events have been held subsequently in conjunction with high profile umbrella events such as Sydney Design Week, National Science Week and Sydney Writers Festival. This collaboration also opportunistically provides free wide-reaching promotion. This year, for example, our Darwin celebrations included another Sydney Writer’s Festival evening with Roger McDonald; this time discussing his novel, ‘Mr Darwin’s Shooter’. For National Science Week, Trust scientists and a well-known astronomer lead a discussion about how Darwin and Galileo transformed the thinking of their age at part of The Sky’s the Limit! An evening lecture and star-gazing.
Dinner Debates
Dinner debates were staged to complement each of the Hot Topics. The first two were held at Trust restaurants with the third taking place in a commercial garden centre with which the Trust has an educational partnership. The dinner debates appealed to adults, who could join in the dialogue in a relaxed atmosphere, facilitated by entertainers as well as experts.
A measure of the success of this approach is that we have held dinner debates subsequently. For example, the Trust launched its year of Darwin programs on 11 February – the eve of Darwin’s actual birth date. By holding it in partnership with nearby Australian Museum we managed to attract 200 patrons.
Premiers Debating Challenge for Year 11 Students
The Trust used some of the grant funds to sponsor high school debating. School excursions must be linked to class work but extra-curriculum debating activities allow young people to explore the bigger picture. Through this forum, we were able to provide a selection of debating topics focusing on BABQ Hot Topics and other environmental issues to 16–18-year-olds. We also sent participating schools’ educational materials to which they might not otherwise have been exposed.
This relationship has continued to the present and raises the profile of the Trust as a thinking organisation in the minds of tomorrow’s adults. These particular students are potentially Australia’s next generation of politicians and policy makers. They will certainly influence their own generation and family with their opinions.
Program Evaluation
Evaluation is a vital tool for educators to endure effective learning outcomes for their public programs. As outlined above front-end research was conducted for BABQ before the grant proposal was submitted. Formative evaluation was conducted throughout the program with modifications made along the way to meet the needs of the audience. Summative evaluation was carried out to find out if we achieved the Environmental Trust’s outcome – to ‘increase active and informed participation by NSW people in creating a sustainable future’. This was also a requirement for end-of-grant reporting.
We opportunistically took advantage of an approach by a university student to evaluate an environmental program as a field assignment. Robert Wells conducted phone interviews with participants in the dinner debates and evening lectures and found that 94% of respondents thought that botanic gardens provide suitable venues for debating and exploring complex environmental issues. All said they would come again. Table 3 summarises some of his findings and highlights effective EfS.
Table 3: Evaluation, by Robert Wells BSocSc, EnvMgt; Masters in Museum Studies student, Macquarie University NSW
We also posted out a drawing survey to 10% families who took part in the two holiday activities. We received informative drawings from the children as well as positive parental feedback. The Magic Raindrop, an entertaining musical journey with Captain Splash as he follows a single water droplet through the water cycle, drew the following response from one parent:
“My boys (Nicholas 7, Jean Luc 4) did the drawings when I wasn’t with them so some additional feedback from me as a parent who also attended the show. For a while, I thought ‘Captain Splash’ overshadowed the messages for them however the drawings indicate they got more out of it than just having a good time.”
Conclusion
Mounting myriad events with a core theme in a short time (for example, in celebration of an international year) enables botanic garden educators to try new approaches and forge professional relationships with like minded institutions. We’ve learnt many lessons from the BABQ experience and have incorporated ‘the best of BABQ’ interpretive strategies into subsequent programs. BABQ changed the Trust’s approach to free-choice learning and has embedded EfS in our thinking. Most importantly we learnt that public awareness is better than public appreciation and public participation is more important than indoctrination.
References:
1) Criticality and Contention – museums, contemporary societies, civic roles and responsibilities in the 21st Century. 2003 Fiona Cameron Editor’s Introduction: Contest & Contemporary Society: Redefining Museums in the 21st Century Open Museum Journal Volume 8
2) The Role of Museums in Society: Education and Social Action George E. Hein Seminar for Museum Educators: Jyväskylä, Finland 9 November 2005
3) Managing Change in Museums David Fleming International Conference The Museum and Change, 8-10 November 2005, Prague, Czech Republic
4) Contentiousness and shifting knowledge paradigms: The roles of history and science museums in contemporary societies Fiona Cameron Museum Management and Curatorship 20 (2005) 213-233
5) Who Cares about the Environment in 2003? NSW Department of Environment and Conservation
© Janelle Hatherly
Please credit www.janellehatherly.com if you use any information in this article.
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