The Environment/Society Disconnect: An Overview of a Concept Tetrad of Environment

In the Western world, a paradigm exists that sees environment treated as one extreme of an adversarial binary, balanced in opposition to society. This paradigm, which I call the environment/society disconnect, infiltrates the secondary school system, leading to serious deficiencies in how students understand the social dimensions of environmental problems. The environment/society disconnect has been imagined and re-imagined by various philosophers, ethicists, historians, ecofeminists, and environmental educators. This essay contends that there are four interconnecting, overlapping, and reinforcing views of environment that maintain the environment/society disconnect. Together these views form a concept tetrad of environment. The concept tetrad of environment provides educators with a neat, if general, typology to explain the historical and cultural roots of our thinking on environment.     

HIV/AIDS education for health care workers: needs assessment for a model tertiary curriculum

This paper deals with the learning needs of Health Care Workers (HCWs) in the field of HIV/ AIDS. Essentially the paper covers their perceived initial education and training needs at tertiary level through to the continuing vocational professional development of HCWs who are involved in the practice of health care of people living with HIV/AIDS. The focus of the paper provides an illustration of the theme of adult education that searches for roles of social relevance in both a community and continuing professional setting, notably in the context of challenging human needs. In this illustration, the identification of the tertiary level education and training needs of HCWs by the practitioners themselves, as well as other interested stakeholders, is designed to help others who follow them practice with competence and confidence in this complex area of human need. Ultimately the continuing education of HCWs in such a challenging context is concerned with empowering people living with HIV/AIDS to come to realistic and positive terms with their condition.