This book brings together an international group of authors to discuss the outdoor environmental education (OEE) theory and practice that educators can use to support teaching and learning in higher education. The book contents are organised around a recently established list of threshold concepts that can be used to describe the knowledge and skills that university students would develop if they complete a major in outdoor education.
There are six key sections: the theoretical foundations and philosophies of OEE; the pedagogical approaches and issues involved in teaching OEE; the ways in which OEE is a social, cultural and environmental endeavour; how outdoor educators can advocate for social justice; key approaches to safety management; and the need for on-going professional practice. The threshold concepts that form the premise of the book describe outdoor educators as creating opportunities for experiential learning using pedagogies that align their programmes purpose and practice. Outdoor educators are place-responsive, and see their work as a social, cultural and environmental endeavour. They advocate for social and environmental justice, and they understand and apply safety principles and routinely engage in reflective practice.
This book will provide clarity and direction for emerging and established outdoor educators around the world and will also be relevant to students and professionals working in related fields such as environmental education, adventure therapy, and outdoor recreation.
Chapter
1. Preparing outdoor educators to be transformational teachers
and leaders.- Part I: Theoretical foundations and philosophies.
Chapter
2.
Philosophizing in outdoor environmental education: How might experience
work?.
Chapter
3. Worldviews, environments and education.
Chapter
4.
Human-nature relationships: Navigating a privileged white landscape.
Chapter
5. Developing a sense of place.
Chapter
6. Leadership theory: From effective
to extraordinary.- Part II: Pedagogical approaches and issues.
Chapter
7.
Beyond experiential learning cycles.
Chapter
8. Adventure and risk in
outdoor environmental education.
Chapter
9. Place-responsiveness in outdoor
environmental education.
Chapter
10. Wild pedagogies.
Chapter
11. Outdoor
therapy: Benefits, mechanisms and useful principles for activating health,
wellbeing, and healing in nature.
Chapter
12. Intentionality for outdoor
educators.
Chapter
13. Digital technology in outdoor education.
Chapter
14. Journeying in outdoor andenvironmental education.
Chapter
15. Outdoor
education and pedagogical content knowledge: More than class five rapids.-
Part III: Outdoor environmental education as a social, cultural and
environmental endeavour.
Chapter
16. Nature connection.
Chapter
17. Reading
landscapes: Engaging with places.
Chapter
18. Embracing Country as teacher
in outdoor and environmental education.
Chapter
19. Postcolonial
possibilities for outdoor environmental education.
Chapter
20. Embracing
local community through post-activity outdoor education.
Chapter
21. Social
capital: A common purpose.- Part IV: Advocacy.
Chapter
22. Diversity and
inclusion in OEE.
Chapter
23. Is outdoor and environmental education making
a difference? Gender and binary heteronormative cisgenderism.
Chapter
24.
Topographies of hope: Social justice, outdoor environmental education, and
accomplice-ship.- Part V: Safety Management.-
Chapter
25. Fatality
prevention in OEE.
Chapter
26. Place-based fatality preventionin action.-
Chapter
27. Systems thinking approaches to safety in outdoor education.- Part
VI: Professional Practice.
Chapter
28. On being a reflective practitioner.-
Chapter
29. Outdoor environmental education research and reflective
practice.
Chapter
30. Professionalism, professionalisation and professional
currency in outdoor environmental education.
Chapter
31. Introducing
ecologies of skill for outdoor leaders.
Chapter
32. Managing outdoor
education fieldwork.
Glyn Thomas is the co-ordinator of the Bachelor of Recreation and Outdoor Environmental Studies program at the University of the Sunshine Coast, in Queensland, Australia. He is a co-editor of the Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education. His research focuses on teaching and learning in outdoor environmental education.
Janet Dyment is the Director of the School of Education at Acadia University, in Nova Scotia Canada. Her research and teaching focuses on teaching and learning in outdoor learning environments and has an interest in every day local sites as contexts for learning. She sits on several editorial advisory boards and is an active reviewer for many journals.
Heather Prince is Professor of Outdoor and Environmental Education at the University of Cumbria, UK. She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in outdoor studies, and researches pedagogic practice. She is Associate Editor of the Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, Co-editor of the Routledge International Handbook of Outdoor Studies and Research Methods in Outdoor Studies, and is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
