Celebrating AAEE’s first president: Peter James Fensham AO

[...]he believed that science was not only a subject matter but also a tool for social change, and he argued for access to science for all students as opposed to a select minority of future scientists, in the hope that they would use it as a force for good in the wider world — that is, Science for All (Fensham, 1985). [...]because of a succession of issues, including an election in Australia stopping the Minister attending (Fensham, 2015), he headed the delegation. Given his standing, leadership and thinking around environmental education, and his experience in leading other associations (e.g. he was President of the Australian Science Teachers’ Association, 1972–1974) and founded the Australian [now Australasian] Science Education Research Association in 1970), it is not surprising that he was asked to be the first AAEE President (1980–1982). Reflecting back on his 1977 writing in 1987, he noted with respect to the characteristics of Australian environmental education as he saw them in 1977, ‘we were not to see ourselves as apart from but integrally part of the Australian environment(s)’ and ‘action and learning were seen as being symbiotic aspects of environmental education in all its stages — a very different pedagogical view from that which prevails in much of substantial learning’ (Fensham, 1987a, p. 22).