So I’ve been in Singapore three weeks (almost) on my first! ever! residency!, and things are moving along. I’ve got pages of research, and I’ve had some interesting chats, and I have some ideas, but I still have a lot of data to gather.

Being an Australian in Singapore for a couple of months doing research on how sustainable education and awareness takes place, particularly in regards to cultural identity, is hard without existing networks. My focus is on meeting people and chatting with them in person, but that’s not always possible so I’ve developed a basic survey to help with some data gathering.

It doesn’t go quite into the nuance I’m after. I’m really after how traditional communities impact how people interact with climate change and sustainability education, and that can be hard to whittle down from a dozen questions. I’m doing a little bit of compare and contrast – sustainability education in Australia is focused on White Australians, and the assumption is that the standard message (designed for white Australians) works across communities. I know that’s not true, and that’s evident in many ways just from the different language used in Singapore versus Australia. So that’s a part of the compare and contrast, looking at education campaigns.

But what’s getting missed in both countries because of assumptions? What changes are due to geography versus culture versus the different roles of government? I have so many thoughts and there are so many possibilities and options.

Anyway, I’ve developed this basic survey to help with some data gathering. It’s Singapore-specific, and if you’re Singaporean or have friends are Singaporean or whatever, I would be so grateful if you’d do the survey/email me your thoughts/forward it on to your friends.

Take the survey!

Keep up with what I’m doing day to day on my tumblr