Outdoor excursions in Swedish school-age educare centres

Abstract

ABSTRACT Societal changes during the last few decades have given rise to the expansion of extended systems in nations across the world. Despite differences regarding age groups and relations to compulsory school, the task of extended education is primarily to provide participants with possibilities to learn general or specific content and foster their’ socioemotional and academic development and learning. In Sweden, the great majority of the younger pupils attend extended education in terms of the school-age educare centres (SAEC), where they meet teaching connected to four different central content defined in the curricula, of which one relates to games, physical activities and outdoor excursions. This study aims to explore and understand how outdoor excursions in school-age educare can be understood in terms of human practising. Based on observations and the philosophy of human practising four themes are discussed: meaningful challenges, content to learn, standards of excellence and time.