Reinvigorating our love of our home range: Exploring the connections between sense of place and outdoor education

Abstract

Abstract We all live our lives in particular places. These places play a role in shaping who we are, what we believe in and what we can do. Particular places are important to everyone. Our connections with place(s) are shaped by the place itself and our experiences of them. Our knowledge of places, through experience, can transform an unknown space into a known place. This paper examines some of the understandings of outdoor education and a sense of place in order to explore connection between these concepts. While the nomadic aspects of outdoor education may make it difficult to develop a deep-rooted sense of place, learning to be in place, exploring its detail, and not treat it as a thing or commodity, may contribute to developing stronger connections with our home places. ********** We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. T.S. Eliot. Wandering through the bush I struggle to hear it speak for the noise of the group. The students around me talk excitedly about our trip, what we have seen and what is yet to come. I step off the track and let them pass. Peace and quiet soon follows in their footsteps. I stop, I wait... and listen to the bush around me talking; it has much to say if you have the patience to listen. The whisper of the trees returns. The birds begin again to chatter to each other. The leaves close by rustle and a lizard pops its head out, seemingly to check that it is again safe to come out. What is the bush saying? I cannot be sure. I am conscious of projecting my understanding onto the messages I am receiving. Is it ambivalence, acceptance or resentment? I would like to think it is acceptance, my heart tells me that it is, but my rational side projects a cloud of doubt. Who is to say the bush has anything to say, it's only bush after all. Trees, shrubs, lichens, animals, rocks, water, it's all the same, just things that make up the bush, things to be used. But there is something greater here, something bigger than the sum of its parts! I often have an internal battle over whether or not I should take students into the bush, and even whether or not I should go myself. Part of me says that if I am genuine in my concern for saving the natural environment then I shouldn't take others there and I would stay home myself. Another side of me argues that students will be taken into the bush and I would rather have a say in how and what they learn. I also like to think that by taking students into the bush I can play a part in awakening them to the many voices of the bush, to show them that there is something about the bush that is greater than the sum of its parts. In fact, this is one of the main reasons I like taking people into the bush and why I have become an outdoor educator. But as someone who loves natural places this is never an easy debate to resolve. In a country and society where it is relatively easy to escape and 'go bush', I often contemplate how outdoor education is to provide a different perspective. I am particularly concerned with how outdoor education is to expand the conceptual world of students, to give them a glimpse of what it means to be merely a member of the biotic community rather than a conqueror of it, as Leopold (1949) puts forward in his land ethic. In an educational experience I feel it is not good enough to visit an area like a tourist. To rush in and conduct an activity and rush out again is disrespectful, damaging to the environment and only adds to the problem. Treating a place as merely a venue for an activity doesn't allow time for that place to have a say, to be 'heard' by the participants. For me, if outdoor education is concerned only with education in the environment and about the environment, it will only contribute to environmental destruction, and thus fail; it must also be education for the environment. Incorporating the voice of place into outdoor programs can build connections, dialogue and relationships between people and their environment, a sense of place. …