Dynamic Horizons: A Research and Conceptual Summary of Outdoor Education by Chloe Humphreys

Abstract

Reviewed by: Dynamic Horizons: A Research and Conceptual Summary of Outdoor Education by Chloe Humphreys Timothy S. O’Connell (bio) and Garrett Hutson (bio) Dynamic Horizons: A Research and Conceptual Summary of Outdoor Education. Written by Chloe Humphreys, Kingston, ON, Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario, 2018, 77 pp., CDN $20.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-988127-01-9 The follow-up to the well-received overview of outdoor education literature and research, Reconnecting Children Through Outdoor Education: A Research Summary (Foster & Linney, 2007), this contemporary synopsis provides a rich and illuminating examination of our current understanding of outdoor education. Dynamic Horizons: A Research and Conceptual Summary of Outdoor Education (Humphreys, 2018) expands on this previous work and explores the widening breadth and depth of how outdoor education is operationalized not only in Canada, but around the world. Sponsored by the Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario (COEO; www.coeo.org), this summary is organized around the Council’s four pillars central to outdoor education. These include Education for Curriculum, Education for Environment, Education for Character, and Education for Well-Being (Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario, 2019). Education for Curriculum relates the natural world to “real life” and the considers how school experiences further students’ understanding of the environment and related processes. Education for Environment encourages a personal connection to nature, promotes environmental ethics, and fosters awareness of how these ideas apply to a range of settings. Education for Character investigates impacts on personal and interpersonal growth, development of important individual characteristics such as leadership and empathy and focuses on group dynamics. Finally, Education for Well-Being explores how [End Page 82] participation in outdoor education activities promotes mental, physical, and spiritual health and development (COEO, 2019). While Reconnecting Children Through Outdoor Education: A Research Summary (Foster & Linney, 2007) focused on outcomes, Dynamic Horizons: A Research and Conceptual Summary of Outdoor Education (Humphreys, 2018) explores evolving themes from a whole-student perspective. Interestingly, eleven Outdoor Educators from Canada each identified five influential research articles from the previous decade. These served as a starting point for the author’s review of the literature included in this summary. A reference list including these articles and books is a nice addition to the end of the summary. As previously mentioned, the four pillars of outdoor education (i.e., Education for Curriculum, Education for Environment, Education for Character, and Education for Well-Being) serve as the main organizational framework for this work. This framework proves easy to use as subheadings help the reader navigate to topics of interest. For example, Education for Curriculum includes subheadings such as: Learning by Doing and Lived Experience, Place-based Education and Decolonization, and Gender and Feminism among others. Education for Environment is comprised of The Anthropocene, Indigenous Influence on “Place,” and Decolonizing for example. Education for Character includes Intellectual Virtues, Civic Virtues, Practical Wisdom, and Performance Virtues. Finally, Education for Well-Being encompasses such topics as Body or Physical well-being, Mental, Mind, Emotions and Heart, and Spiritual perspectives. A brief overview of the theoretical frameworks and underlying concepts discussed in each of these four areas helps situate the topics and provides insight into the author’s predispositions and analyses of the research. This is helpful in contextualizing both the “big picture” of each section as well as illuminates how the topics are intertwined together. While there are some abrupt changes between a few of the topical areas, the writing generally flows well, is coherent, and is easy to understand. Similarly, a short summary captures the flavor of each section and often asks questions about where outdoor education might be in the following decade. One feature of note in Dynamic Horizons: A Research and Conceptual Summary of Outdoor Education (Humphreys, 2018) is recognition of cultural and Indigenous aspects related to each of the four pillars and related research literature. As acknowledgement of Indigenous, First Nations, Aboriginal and Métis knowledge and ways has increased in Canada since the 2015 report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (www.trc.ca), inclusion of practical, theoretical and social-justice oriented literature is a highlight of this summary. For example, in the Education for Environment [End Page 83] section, Indigenous Influence...