Narratives of teaching in outdoor and environmental education: what can we learn from a case study of outdoor education pedagogy?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper draws on data collected during an outdoor education camp in regional Australia, where the researchers observed the teaching practice of a veteran outdoor educator. We first situate the study in a summary of the outdoor education literature and policy that informed our research. We then present the observed teaching strategies, detailing narratives of role-based learning and a yarning circle. These demonstrate the educator’s intentional enactment of a range of teaching and learning strategies that span across the behaviourist – constructivist – socio-constructivist spectrum to facilitate learning. Discussion then focuses on two distinguishing features of the educator’s pedagogic practice:nurturing expanded understandings of self through place-responsive teaching and pedagogic agility. In exploring the practice of an experienced outdoor educator, this research provides insight into the intentional use of a suite of specific teaching and learning strategies, which extends and enhances the current field.