Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T05:05:41.738Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Outdoor Education: Environmental Education Reinvented, or Environmental Education Reconceived?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Andrew Brookes
Andrew Brookes*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, Bendigo College of Advanced Education
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In most Victorian schools outdoor education has meant the weekend bushwalk or the end of year camp. It has been extra-curricula. But that is changing.

Outdoor education appears poised to achieve subject status is Victoria. It is included in official curriculum developments and is served by recognised specialist tertiary courses.

Outdoor education has been distinguished from physical education by its focus on environmental education, and a converse argument probably applies. But is the environmental education which occurs in outdoor education distinguished by anything other than an association with adventure activities? After all, field trips are not a new idea.

This paper argues that the distinctiveness of outdoor education as a form of environmental education is derived from its physical and conceptual isolation from schooling. Conceptual isolation provides the opportunity to construct powerfully affective forms of de-schooled environmental education.

The ways in which an outdoor education context can provide different situational constraints from those existing in schools or other institutions are outlined. An action research project is used to exemplify ways in which teachers might reconceive education within those new constraints.

The paper concludes that outdoor education can allow powerful forms of environmental education to develop, but that a technocratic rationalisation of the field associated with its increasing institutionalisation threatens to negate that potential.

Type
Feature Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 5 , August 1989 , pp. 15 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

References

Alpine Planning Team Victoria. Alpine Area Planning Proposals, Department of Conservation Forests and Lands, Melbourne, 1987.Google Scholar
Baxter, C. “An Unholy Alliance”, Wild Issue 30, Wild Publications: Melbourne, 1988.Google Scholar
BCAE. The Bachelor of Arts (Outdoor Education), Bendigo College of Advanced Education, 1988.Google Scholar
Brookes, A. “Institutionalised outdoor education: A contradiction in terms? First Report”. The Deakin Action Researcher, Deakin University Press, 1988a.Google Scholar
Brookes, A. “Institutionalised outdoor education: A contradiction in terms? Third Report”. The Deakin Action Researcher, Deakin University Press, Geelong, 1988bGoogle Scholar
Brown, B. Wild Rivers. Peter Dombrovskis Pty Ltd., Sandy Bay, 1983.Google Scholar
Gorman, A. “Affective education (an abstract)”, in Shlomo, S., Hare, P., Webb, C., Hetz-Lazorowitz, R. (eds.), Cooperation in Education, Brigham Young University Press, Utah, 1980.Google Scholar
Ministry of Education Victoria. The Personal Development Framework P-10 Discussion Draft, 1987.Google Scholar
Ministry of Education Victoria. The Report of the Ministerial Review of Outdoor Education (Draft), 1987.Google Scholar
Robottom, I “Towards inquiry-based professional development in environmental education”, in Robottom, I. (ed.). Environmental Education: Practice and Possibility, Deakin University Press, Geelong, 1987.Google Scholar
Stenhouse, L. An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development, Heinemann, London, 1978.Google Scholar
Stevenson, R. “Contradictions in purpose and practice”. Environmental Education: Practice and Possibility, Deakin University Press, Geelong, 1987.Google Scholar
Tinning, R. “The good ship physical education -- A view from the crows nest”. Plenary Papers, the 17th ACHPER National Biennial Conference, ACPHER Inc., Parkside, 1988.Google Scholar