Outdoor School in Germany. Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Findings

Abstract

AbstractThis article presents for the first time in a systematic summary the key theoretical considerations and empirical findings from a three-year-long longitudinal research project which examined ‘outdoor school’ in Germany from multiple perspectives. The study uses the following four parameters to discuss the merits and shortcomings of outdoor school: the structural characteristics of the approach (1), social, material and temporal changes (2), pedagogical thought and action (3), and children’s agency (4). The findings indicate that outdoor school deserves to occupy a rightful place among teaching and learning methods in schools—provided that the challenges posed by dissolving the children’s socio-material and real-world boundaries between school and learning are given sufficient consideration in teaching methodology.