‘From lone-sailor to fleet’: Supporting educators through Wild Pedagogies

Lewis Winks,Paul Warwick

doi:10.1177/1478210320985706

Abstract

Enabling educators to meet new and challenging times requires fundamental shifts to ways of imagining and enacting their practice. A central yet often understated aspect of this educational change are the various ways in which educators receive training and development. From initial teacher training through to continuing professional development, cultures which underpin policy change in educational institutions emerge from the practices of educators. In this paper we examine educators’ experiences of a Wild Pedagogies gathering which took place over three days in central Devon in late spring 2019. Part workshop, part informal social gathering and mutual exchange, this continuing professional development event enabled conversations, sharing (and shaping) of practice, and imagination of the future of personal and institutional educational priorities. This paper positions itself as an account of a gathering of wild pedagogues – captured as reflection, discussion and activities – and brings the participants’ reflections into conversation with wider themes emerging from previous Wild Pedagogies gatherings. It makes the assertion that such dialogic continuing professional development, constructed on foundations of relational and place-responsive pedagogies, can underpin future practitioner development in the event of a policy shift toward greater availability of outdoor learning and nature connection in the UK. The paper ends with four principles for infusing new or existing environmental education continuing professional development with place-responsive and wild pedagogical approaches.

Highlights

At the time of writing this paper the UK is engaged in a systemic response to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic
Gaby Hinsliff noted in one such article that ‘our relationship with the natural world is changing as this crisis strips away the layers between humans and the surroundings we used to be too busy to take in’ (Hinsliff, 2020)
Mannion et al (2013: 805) comment on this by suggesting that ‘place-responsive curricula as lived are brought about by a co-authoring or intermingling of the human and non-human via teachers’ responsiveness to a changing and contingent environment’. Such intermingling is arguably inevitable for outdoor education; it is the development of competencies and experience in facilitating this which wild pedagogies continuing professional development (CPD) might focus on

Summary

Introduction

At the time of writing this paper the UK is engaged in a systemic response to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Mannion et al (2013: 805) comment on this by suggesting that ‘place-responsive curricula as lived are brought about by a co-authoring or intermingling of the human and non-human via teachers’ (and pupils’) responsiveness to a changing and contingent environment’ Such intermingling is arguably inevitable for outdoor education; it is the development of competencies and experience in facilitating this which wild pedagogies CPD might focus on. Jickling et al (2018) provide six touchstones for developing wild pedagogies in practice, while Mannion et al (2013) have made assertions regarding teacher education and professional development for preparing teachers to become place-responsive Bringing these previous observations together with the reflective discussions that have emerged from our own wild pedagogies work, a particular need surfaces – that of community and mutual support. As one educator we have worked with puts it, how do we find ‘connection and fellowship held in a landscape of acceptance and nourishment which allows us to let go, embrace change, and draw collective strength?’

A Devon Wild Pedagogies gathering

Co-creating within an open structure

Learning through service and shared responsibility

Creating intimacy without obligation

Learning about and learning from place