Dr Rachael Walshe (IAG Award for Dissertation Excellence) Citation

The IAG Award for Dissertation Excellence is made at Honours, Masters, or PhD level, and acknowledges the disciplinary contribution that the candidate has made to geography. 

Awardee: Dr Rachael Walshe

For dissertation entitled: School-based community gardens battling food disconnection as a manifestation of environmental generational amnesia

The dissertation focuses on reconnecting school children with the food system through hands-on gardening experiences. In a region of Australia where European seasons are still taught, Rachael's research addressed the important disconnect between local environmental conditions and educational practices. Working closely with a local school, Rachael developed a comprehensive understanding of the benefits and barriers to having gardens at schools. She tackled various barriers such as school curricula and provided compelling evidence of the positive impact of gardens on students' environmental knowledge and engagement. The conceptual framing and methodology have been widely recognised and awarded in Human Geography and Education.

Rachael's productivity during her PhD was exceptional. She authored six papers already garnering significant citations. Her research is in high-impact journals and featured in various media spotlights, further amplifying its reach and impact. Research findings bring novel insights to More-Than-Human and Environmental Geographies, she creatively extends methods in Geography such as walking interviews with new techniques, and her research forms part of vital discussions about how to raise the profile of Geography in schools. The impact of Rachael's research also extends beyond academia and because of her research has developed a sustainability course for early years educators and is leading food system research for a national consultancy network.

A dissertation examiner writes: “The dissertation connects Human Geography and Environmental Education. The impact and contribution of ‘rapid walking methodologies’ are particularly noteworthy and make an important contribution to the Environmental Education literature, where such methodologies are surprisingly under-utliised and has potential to shape future research trajectories in this field given its responsiveness to people, time, and place.  Further, research findings which centre on Environmental Generational Amnesia, place responsive pedagogies and student agency also brought significant findings to Environmental Education and firmly situate the importance of in place as an educative geographical concept and uses this foundation to explore the importance of creating curriculum-aligned learning through gardening. Research findings about how such learning yields benefit to student motor-skills, wellbeing, and understanding of place is another important contribution to Environmental Education.”.