Outdoor education and the national curriculum in Australia

Abstract

Australia is in the midst of an education revolution driven by federal government reform. The centrepiece to that reform is a national curriculum that will wrest power from state education authorities and ultimately see a nationalised education process that determines what is taught and learned in all Australian schools. At present, outdoor education is not a subject in all state curricula and so stands to be disempowered by the channelling of resources into a national agenda. In this paper I describe the strategic directions taken by Outdoor Education Australia in an attempt to position outdoor education as a subject with distinctive contributions to make to a national curriculum in Australia. The national curriculum submission was framed around the distinctiveness of outdoor education in promoting a connection to nature, a capacity for critical thinking about human nature relationships leading to ecological literacy and the importance of teaching young Australians how to assess and manage personal risks. It acknowledged also the role of outdoor education in personal and group development, while accepting such outcomes were not unique in schooling. The veracity of the claims made is contestable and highlights the need for ongoing research that is both targeted and co-ordinated. This paper also invites response to the question of whether a professional consensus on the distinctiveness of outdoor education in schooling is a worthy goal.