PROFILE : Dr Lynn HURRY
South African Dr Lynn Hurry’s interest in Environmental Education and Education for Sustainability goes back to back to his teen-age years on a farm where his parents kept jersey cows and grew vegetables. Apart from the farm-work (driving tractors, milking cows and generally mucking in), he was left pretty much to his own devices and so developed an interest in birds (mentored by people such as birding specialist Ken Newman of Newmans Birds of South Africa fame) which later grew into a general interest in ecology and a passion for Environmental Education.
As his interest in the environment grew Lynn took courses at various universities, with each one helping him further along the road of environmental understandings. Along the way he completed graduate studies in Geography, Social Anthropology and Sociology, an Honours degree in Ecotourism, a Master’s degree in Ecology (Aberdeen University) and a Doctorate in Environmental Education focusing on curriculum development in the field of teacher training. These degrees, when taken together with a life-time of experience, have kept him engaged with issues affecting people - particularly the ways in which their culture and resultant behavior affects the socio-economic-ecological environment of which they are part.
Along the path of his consultancy life Lynn has held two regional directorships – one as Director of Education in KaNgwane (1989 to1991), and the other as the first Director of Environmental Education in Mpumalanga (1995 to 1997). Both of these positions have provided useful insights into the way that curriculum is both developed and implemented at schools in all phases of education.
As an education specialist Lynn works both as a consultant in the linked fields of Sustainability Education and Eco-business development. Lynn also is a prolific writer/ publisher having written over 50 text books – from school-based geography and college ecotourism texts to general books such as his recent “Gardening is Fun” co-authored with gardening guru Keith Kirsten.
A separate but equally important part of Lynn’s creative life is Aardvark Publications – a family business run by himself and wife Derryn. Together they have produced a number of “Eco-Logical” activity books and other informational materials for families with young children.
More recently Lynn consulted in Mozambique where he developed an Environmental Education / Eco-business proposal for the management of the Limpopo National Park – faced with the challenge of over 20 thousand people living inside the Park along the banks of the Limpopo and Olifants rivers.
Lynn is currently working with the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg – helping to launch the Mathuba Schools and Citizens River Health Programme. Developed out of a concern for the constant deterioration of rivers in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal the programme involves people of all ages in the use of cell-phone technology to monitor and comment on factors affecting the health of local rivers and their catchments. A dedicated monitoring team accepts the images and displays them with their comments via the Flickr programme on Google-Earth maps.
Pietermaritburg, kwaZulu-Natal, South Africa January 2013 lynn@ecology.co.za
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