Associate Professor Amy Cutter-Mackenzie BEd(Hons)(Griff), PhD(CQU) Has also written under the name Amy Cutter. Dr Amy Cutter-Mackenzie joined Southern Cross University in December 2011 as an Associate Professor in the School of Education in the area of Sustainability, Environment and Education. She is the Director of Research for the School of Education, and Research Leader of the Research Cluster ‘Sustainability, Environment and Education’ (SEE). Amy commenced her career as a primary school teacher in Queensland Australia and later moved into academia after completing her PhD. Amy’s research is clearly situated in the area of children’s and teachers’ thinking and experiences in environmental education and sustainability in a range of contexts and spaces (including early childhood education, schools, teacher education, higher education, research and communities). She has published substantially in the form of books, book chapters, journal articles, conference publications and creative works. Amy is the Editor of the Australian Journal of Environmental Education (Cambridge University Press) and Consulting Editor for the international Journal of Environmental Education, the International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education (NAAEE) and International Journal of Environmental and Science Education. Amy has been awarded a prestigious Australian Learning and Teaching Council (OLT) National Teaching Excellence Award, in addition to an ALTC (OLT) citation (2008) and the Monash University VC’s Teaching Excellence Award (2009) for “leading school-community teaching and learning practices and partnerships to influence, motivate and inspire pre-service education students and schools to engage in environmental education and sustainability”. Since arriving at SCU Amy has continued such teaching practices and is now working with School of Education (SOE) academics in applying school-based learning pedagogies.
Books
Experiencing environment and place through children's literature (with Phillip G. Payne and Alan Reid), (2011)
Recent scholarship on children's literature displays a wide variety of interests in classic and contemporary...
Book chapters
Making links between science and the learner’s world (with Marianne R. Logan), Learning and teaching primary science (2013)
Learning and Teaching Primary Science brings primary science to life through the stories and experiences...
Children as active researchers: the potential of environmental education research involving children (with E Barratt-Hacking and R Barratt), International handbook of research on environmental education (2012)
Environmental education as a content area in early childhood education and curriculum (with S Edwards), Podmiotowość w edukacji- wymiary i konteksty (Subjectivity in Education- various dimensions and contexts) (2011)
The development of professional teacher standards and professional learning in environmental education (with Barbara Clarke and Phil Smith), Wczesna edukacja dziecka wobec wyzwa (2011)
Framing play for learning: professional reflections on the role of open-ended play in early childhood education (with Susan Edwards and Elizabeth Hunt), Challenging play (2010)
This book takes a detailed look at the complex area of young children's play as...
Journal articles
Pedagogical play types: what do they suggest for learning about sustainability in early childhood education? (with Susan Edwards), International Journal of Early Childhood (2013)
Sustainability education is increasingly understood as necessary for young children. An important aspect of early...
Promoting obesity prevention together with environmental sustainability (with Helen Skouteris, Rachael Cox, Terry Huang, Leonie Rutherford, and Susan Edwards), Health Promotion International (2013)
There is mounting evidence that current food production, transport, land use and urban design negatively...
Toward a model for early childhood environmental education: foregrounding, developing, and connecting knowledge through play-based learning (with Susan Edwards), The Journal of Environmental Education (2013)
Environmental education represents a growing area of interest in early childhood education, especially since the...
Beyond “killing, screaming and being scared of insects”: Learning and teaching about biodiversity in early childhood education (with Suzy Edwards and Deb Moore), Early Childhood Folio (2012)
Learning about sustainability is now understood to be an important part of early childhood education....
Generating new knowledge in early childhood education: aligning contemporary health, wellbeing and sustainability issues with research into children's play (with Helen Skouteris, Leonie Rutherford, and Susan Edwards), (2012)
Editorials, interviews, books reviews, columns
The 'ness' of environmental education, Australian Journal of Environmental Education (2011)
The article presents an untitled poem and discusses various reports published within the issue, including...
An 'issue' of serendipity: the discourse of sustainability and environmental (in)action, Australian Journal of Environmental Education (2010)
Experiencing environment and place through children's literature (with Phillip G. Payne and Alan Reid), Environmental Education Research (2010)
Early childhood environmental education: making it mainstream, Australian Journal of Early Childhood (2005)
Editorial (with F Araghi, D Burch, and G Lawrence), International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food (2003)
Theses
Eco-literacy : the "missing paradigm" in environmental education, PhD thesis, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Qld. (2003)
This thesis is about the knowledge and beliefs of primary school teachers. The study is...
Integrated pre-service environmental education : the abandonment of knowledge : the relationships between primary pre-service environmental education preparation and student teachers' willingness to practise environmental concepts in their teaching, B Ed. (Hons) thesis, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Qld. (1998)
Conference publications
Looking for direction: climate change education: engaging, understanding and listening to children and young people, 46th GTAV Annual Conference (2013)
Young children's play experiences in contemporary environments, North Coast Regional ECA Conference (2013)
This keynote presents arguments associated with young children's play experiences in contemporary environments. The notion...
Creating our next creative steps in research: getting published in the Australian Journal of Environmental Education, Creating our next courageous steps: AAEE National Conference: Program and abstracts (2012)
This highly interactive workshop provides a unique opportunity for researchers (including early career researchers and...
Engaging young people in environment, NSW Department of Education and Communities 2012 Environmental and Zoo Education Centres Conference (2012)
Environmental education reforms in India: teacher educators’ experiences, issues, and the policy-practice gap (with S Almeida), Non satis scire to know is not enough: 2012 Annual Meeting Program: American Association for Educational Research (2012)
Reports
Schools Insights Project final research report (with J Brooks, S Almeida, and N Prince), Schools Insights Project Final Research Report (2011)
Multicultural School Gardens: research report 2 (with Kate Eastwood), School of Education (2008)
This report contains the research findings of the 2007 Multicultural School Gardens project evaluation. The...