The Babatana Rainforest in Solomon Islands: a practice-based field trip for unlearning the world

This paper explores practice-based learning pedagogies to support unlearning amongst Australian-based students. Drawing on reflective practices from students as part of a field trip to the Babatana Rainforest Conservation Project in Solomon Islands – an Indigenous-led conservation and carbon offset project – our paper reveals the myriad of ways fieldwork experiences disrupted students’ prior knowledge, including in ways that supported them to unlearn the world. A range of dynamics supported this unlearning, including: embodied experiences of “unease”; the relational effects of practice-based experiences; deepening understandings of, and connections to, climate change impacts; and an appreciation for well-designed Indigenous-led rainforest conservation. The paper provides evidence of the intrinsic value of practice-based pedagogies in reconnecting increasingly neoliberalised education with global stewardship for nature and people. It also demonstrates the importance of supported, disrupted learning experiences to chart alternatives for ongoing unlearning in a climate-constrained future.