The challenge to care in outdoor education - what Forest School offers. A response to McKenzie and Blenkinsop (2006)

The research reported in this paper sought to determine the level of awareness among school principals in primary schools in Ireland where homophobic bullying is concerned. International research has previously shown that school leaders as animators of school climate are often lacking in their responses to this type of bullying [Walton, G. 2004. “Bullying and Homophobia in Canadian Schools: The Politics of Policies, Programs, and Educational Leadership.” Journal of Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education 1 (4): 23–36; Pizmony-Levy, O., and J. G. Kosciw. 2016. “School Climate and the Experience of LGBT Students: A Comparison of the United States and Israel.” Journal of LGBT Youth 13 (1–2): 46–66; Taylor, C. G., E. J. Meyer, T. Peter, J. Ristock, D. Short, and C. Campbell. 2016. “Gaps Between Beliefs, Perceptions, and Practices: The Every Teacher Project on LGBTQ-Inclusive Education in Canadian Schools.” Journal of LGBT Youth 13 (1–2): 112–140]. We sought to ascertain whether school principals in Ireland have had experience of dealing with this type of bullying, whether they believe it is a significant issue and what they perceive their role to be in relation to addressing homophobic bullying. The research focused on the views of school principals because of the critical role they play in policy implementation and school organisation. The research revealed that one in every two school principals had responded to homophobic bullying and that these same principals did not always consider the use of homophobic pejoratives to constitute homophobic bullying. The paper points to the need for further education and training for school leaders on the topic of homophobic bullying otherwise their perspectives will contribute to the many silences that surround this topic in primary schools in Ireland.

Parents reported experiences of support for diabetes management in schools are variable. Recent data from European countries are sparse and experiences in the Irish primary school setting have not been described previously. To describe parents' experiences of support for diabetes management in primary schools in Ireland. Questionnaires were distributed through nine regional and tertiary paediatric diabetes services to parents of children aged 4-13years with type 1 diabetes attending primary school. Data sought included patient demographics, treatment regimens, diabetes education of school staff, assistances received, and interactions between the school and family. Responses were received from 418 parents of primary school children with type 1 diabetes. Twenty-six percent of children were not on intensive insulin therapy. Children on a multiple daily injection regime who were unable to self-administer insulin had administration facilitated by attendance of a parent in 95% of cases. Seventy-eight percent of parents were phoned by the school regarding diabetes management, particularly those of younger children (p < 0.001). More than half of parents attended the school at least once per month to assist with diabetes management, particularly those of younger children (p < 0.001). Younger children were also more likely to have a special needs assistant (p < 0.001) and have a written management plan (p = 0.001). Our research has demonstrated deficits in care with respect to access to intensive insulin therapy, individualised care plans and a high burden on families which should be addressed through the National Clinical Programme for Paediatrics and Neonatology and relevant government departments.

Prouty, D., Panicucci, J., & Collinson, R. (Eds.). (2007). Adventure education: Theory and applications. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. 255 pages. ISBN-10: 0-7360-6179-7. I've never been a big fan of text books and I really only picked this one up because it does not look like one. I confess to having a soft spot for colour covers adorned with adventure photos. With the name Dick Prouty and Project Adventure jumping from the cover at me, I was looking forward to an informative, enjoyable walk through the world of adventure education. In this respect the book delivers. Adventure Education: Theory and Applications is a concise overview of some of the basic components that form the foundations of outdoor and experiential education. It is set out in three easy to digest sections. Part one explains the theories, philosophy and cornerstones of adventure education. Part two explores the skills, competencies and responsibilities of adventure practitioners. The third section of the book deals with core Project Adventure business such as portable 'groupies,' low and high ropes courses, leader training, teaching strategies and programming. The book is aimed at the North American college audience studying outdoor education, recreation and experiential education courses at an introductory level. Some attempt has been made to make the publication more global in its outlook with one page biographical reviews from adventure education workers from Scotland, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia. However, references to Kurt Hahn and the early development of Outward Bound in the UK is where the international flavour ends. There are review questions and student learning activities to help students relate their own experiences and thoughts to the content being presented. Some web links are interspersed throughout the text providing readers with external links and references. The introductory chapter on the history and definition of Adventure Education: Theory and Applications was confusing. The terms experiential education, outdoor education and adventure education are used interchangeably. Grappling with these definitions however, has long been an issue for writers in this field. Prouty defines outdoor recreation as "a rapidly evolving field of adventure education that uses many mediums and has an outcome of personal and spiritual growth" (p. 13) The lack of reference to other published material in supporting this and other definitions, is a weakness of the text. Chapter five explores some of the outcomes that can be achieved through adventure education programmes. The authors, Stiehl and Parker, provide a solid review of how to develop programmes to achieve specific educational goals. They also identify the need to quantify programme outcomes and benefits, yet they provide no tools or resources to assist practitioners in this task. The chapter on 'Risk and Safety in Adventure Programming' by Charles Gregg is quite a good overview of a modern approach to risk management. Gregg summarises this chapter by saying, "the primary concern for an adventure program is not legal liability, but the development and maintenance of a quality program - one that reasonably manages the risks to participants and achieves the goals of the program and participants" (p. 60). The content in this chapter resonates with the discussions and presentations made during the 15th National Outdoor Education Conference in Ballarat, this year. …

This study aims to explore the professional learning and development needs of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) as strategic leaders in primary schools in Ireland. With the SENCO role lacking formal recognition in Irish policy, this research is important to identify the support structures necessary to enhance their effectiveness in leading inclusive education. Employing a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design, theoretically framed by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory and Wenger’s Community of Practice model, the study first surveyed 371 SENCOs to assess their professional learning experiences and needs. This was followed by semi-structured interviews with nine school leaders, including SENCOs, SENCO principals, and principals, to gather in-depth insights into the role’s dynamics. The Department of Education’s school database was used to contact participants. Data analysis utilised descriptive statistics for the survey and reflexive thematic analysis for the interview data. Key findings indicate a significant demand for formal SENCO-specific professional learning programmes, with a focus on leadership, evidence-informed practices, and community engagement. The study concludes that professional learning for SENCOs should be structured around transformative social learning models and should include postgraduate courses and communities of practice. The research calls for policy development to formally recognise the SENCO role, and provide a coherent framework for their professional learning and development to ensure inclusive educational practices are effectively led and implemented in Irish schools.

Issues of pedagogy are critical in all aspects of early childhood education. Early childhood mathematics is no exception. There is now a great deal of guidance available to teachers in terms of high‐quality early childhood mathematics teaching. Consequently, the characteristics of high‐quality early childhood mathematics education are clearly identifiable. Issues such as building on young children’s prior‐to‐school knowledge; engaging children in general mathematical processes; and assessing and documenting children’s learning are some of the key aspects of high‐quality early childhood mathematics education. The extent to which teachers of four‐ and five‐year‐old children in primary schools in Ireland incorporate current pedagogical guidance in early childhood mathematics education was explored in 2007 in a nationally representative questionnaire survey of teachers of four‐ and five‐year‐old children attending primary schools. This paper presents some of the findings of the study in relation to teachers’ self‐reported challenges, difficulties and priorities in teaching early childhood mathematics. Implications are drawn for professional development, curriculum guidance and educational policy.

Background Family–school connections during the transition from preschool to primary school are crucial, as they serve to bridge the gap between the home and school learning environments. In order to support children’s learning and engagement throughout their school career, more needs to be understood about the factors that contribute to successful or difficult transition experiences during this critical period. Purpose This case study was part of the Children’s School Lives (CSL) national longitudinal study of Irish primary schooling. It aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of mothers’ experiences of family–school connectivity during their child’s transition to primary school in Ireland, exploring how these connections helped them manage their experiences of the transition. Method A qualitative, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach was used to investigate mothers’ experiences of the transition to primary school from preschool. The analysis drew on data collected from semi-structured interviews carried out with five mothers of children who had started primary school. Findings Overall, findings from the analysis suggested that mothers had positive experiences of family–school connectivity during the transition period and indicated high levels of trust in their children’s teachers and their abilities. Mothers expressed a desire to be active participants in their child’s learning and transition experience, as well as to develop quality connections with their child’s school and teachers through regular communication and familiarity with the school environment. However, the analysis identified that experiences among the mothers were mixed. Conclusion This study offers insight into the need to develop consistent policy and practice across schools in terms of opportunities to contact teachers, parent–school communication and transition activities held by schools. It highlights the importance of creating strong bridges between families and schools and positive transition experiences for children entering primary school.

This book seeks to bring together the two disciplines of informal and outdoor education, and challenges readers to think differently about outdoor and adventure education. It develops core ideas and thinking about informal education within outdoor settings, and explores how its principles and practice can enhance outdoor education. A wide range of contributors look in detail at the concept of change in the outdoors, whilst also considering the ways in which this expanding field might exploit opportunities offered to young people and adults to engage in reflective informal education. It encourages outdoor educators to experience their immediate surroundings in new and innovative ways and grasp the challenge of promoting a sustainable lifestyle. Offering a fresh perspective on shifting the outdoor education agenda from that of skills acquisition and ‘narrow learning’ to the social and political, as well as aesthetic and philosophical opportunities embodied within the outdoor experience, this book will be valuable reading for those studying or working in the field of outdoor education.

Radical transformation of Ireland’s special education system has occurred over the past three decades. National and international policy and legislative drivers for a more inclusive approach to education have resulted in greater levels of mainstreaming, with one exception. Provision for autistic children is increasingly provided through special classes: discrete classes attached to mainstream schools. This paper presents findings from a qualitative exploration of the benefits and challenges attributed to autism class provision in mainstream primary schools in Ireland, from the perspective of teachers and school principals. The findings reveal a role for autism special class teachers that is multi-faceted, rewarding, challenging, and directly related to the extent to which the special class is systematically included with whole school policy and practice. The significance of leadership and collaboration in promoting inclusive approaches to autism class provision features strongly in the findings and influences schools’ willingness to establish special classes. Micro-exclusion emerged as a theme and is linked to school culture and ethos. Findings contribute unique perspectives of school personnel, and recommendations create awareness of the benefits and challenges associated with autism special class provision and inform future innovation at a time when inclusive policy agendas and practices relating to autism provision arguably contradict each other.

All learning is emplaced. It happens somewhere and it involves material things. It is located and situated. This paper focuses on spaces and places outside of the classroom where lessons about ‘self’ and ‘other’ are learnt. Drawing on recent research (‘Space, place and the making of masculinities in primary schools in Ireland’, O Donoghue, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 2006, volume 3), the paper analyses the stories/narratives of a group of ten and eleven year old boys, stories that tell of how they learn to speak, act and perform masculinities in school spaces and places. These performances, ‘naturalized’ through repetition and regulation, happen in spaces that exert significant effects on boys by opening up/closing off certain behavioural possibilities. The paper makes visible processes of doing and re/presenting research into masculinities and schooling in, with and through art. It argues that a research approach drawing on theories and processes of contemporary art practice offers much for conceptualizing, doing and representing research and provides opportunities that other research methods close off.

Teacher education and child protection: Complying with requirements or putting children first?

The fields of environmental education, outdoor education, adventure education, and experiential education are linked by shared goals, objectives, and characteristics. National standards connect these fields to secondary education. In this preliminary study, the authors describe how aspects of the 4 fields are used by environmental educators in Idaho secondary schools and what importance such educators place on goals related to the fields under study. Environmental educators (N = 52) completed an online survey. Results suggest that although the goals of environmental education are important to respondents, the programs represented depart from key characteristics described in the literature. The goals of outdoor, adventure, and experiential education were of mixed importance to respondents, and the characteristics of these fields were variably present in Idaho secondary schools.

Technical Graphics is one of the technology subjects taught at Junior Certificate level in post- primary schools in Ireland. The Junior Certificate examination is held at the end of the Junior Cycle in post-primary schools, which caters for students aged from 12 to 15 years. As a teacher of Technical Graphics for the past seven years, I have gained a great understanding and insight into the different topics in the subject and how they are perceived by students. I concur with the State Examinations Commission report (2008) that students lack an understanding of the rotation element of transformation geometry, one of the six topics covered on the Junior Cycle Technical Graphics course. The purpose of this study is to implement a new teaching methodology through the use of SolidWorks in an effort to improve the students’ visualization, spatial awareness and understanding of transformation geometry. I engaged in an action research study of my own practice as I investigated if SolidWorks could actually be used at Junior Certificate level to improve student understanding of transformation geometry. The action research took place over a five-week period and included three cycles of research. The research was carried out with a third-year Junior Cycle group aged between fifteen and sixteen years of age and all students in the class took part in the study. The first stage of the research examined student progress as they worked through the topic following teacher instruction on SolidWorks. The second stage of the research examined the students’ progress as they used the software for themselves. I carried out an assessment task with students towards the end of the study, which showed that student learning had improved in comparison to previous years.

This paper contributes to the growing body of research concerning use of outdoor spaces by educators, and the increased use of informal and outdoor learning spaces when teaching primary school children. The research takes the example of forest school, a form of regular and repeated outdoor learning increasingly common in primary schools. This research focuses on how the learning space at forest school shapes the experience of children and forest school leaders as they engage in learning outside the classroom. The learning space is considered as a physical space, and also in a more metaphorical way as a space where different behaviours are permitted, and a space set apart from the national curriculum. Through semi‐structured interviews with members of the community of practice of forest school leaders, the paper seeks to determine the significance of being outdoors on the forest school experience. How does this learning space differ from the classroom environment? What aspects of the forest school learning space support pupils’ experiences? How does the outdoor learning space affect teaching, and the dynamics of learning while at forest school? The research shows that the outdoor space provides new opportunities for children and teachers to interact and learn, and revealed how forest school leaders and children co‐create a learning environment in which the boundaries between classroom and outdoor learning, teacher and pupil, are renegotiated to stimulate teaching and learning. Forest school practitioners see forest school as a separate learning space that is removed from the physical constraints of the classroom and pedagogical constraints of the national curriculum to provide a more flexible and responsive learning environment.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the greatest disruption to children’s schooling in generations. This study analyses primary school children’s emotional engagement with remote schooling during the Spring 2020 lockdown in the Republic of Ireland, which involved one of the longest school closures among rich countries at the time. It investigates whether children’s engagement with their remote schooling varied by personal and family characteristics, using data from the Children’s School Lives (CSL) surveys. CSL is a nationally representative study of primary schools in Ireland, which collected information from children aged 8–9 years in May – August 2019 and in May – July 2020. Linear regression estimates with school fixed effects are based on the analytic sample of nearly 400 children (from across 71 schools) who took part in both waves and have complete data on all the key variables. Emotional engagement with schooling is measured using child-reported items on satisfaction with schooling. Everything else being equal, children who reported higher engagement with schooling before the pandemic were more engaged with remote schooling during the lockdown. Although there were no significant differences by family affluence, children with greater resources for home schooling reported higher levels of engagement. This includes having a computer or a laptop for schoolwork, having someone to help with schoolwork if the child is worried about falling behind, and having schoolwork checked by a teacher. This points to the paramount importance of adequate digital technologies in the home as well as the availability of help during periods of remote schooling.

Outdoor educators allege a difference from outdoor recreation based on the intent of the programs they run. That outdoor education seeks outcomes beyond introduction to leisure activities, social involvement, or personal enjoyment seems clear enough.. However within outdoor education, ideology and outcomes are still quite diverse. Outdoor educators variously lay claim to personal empowerment, group development, environmental stewardship, team co-operation, rehabilitative powers, and more. I have previously argued for the uniqueness of a socially critical outdoor education which examines human-nature relationships (Martin 1998). Within the diversity of outdoor education, one of the commonalities which I believe may bind the profession is an ethic of care - care for humanity and non-human nature. The practices predicated on an ethic of care for humanity are not strangers to traditional outdoor educators - but what of an ethic of care for non-human nature? How might an ethic of care for nature influence the practice of outdoor education? Of the contributions that outdoor educators can make to education and global well being into the next millennium, developing an ethic of care for nature must surely be significant. In this viewpoint article I explore some of the philosophy and resultant practices suggested by an ethic of care for non-human nature. Caring Caring translates to action to improve the lot of the Other', be it nature, other person, or self. When I look at and think about how I am when I care, 1 realise that there is invariably this displacement of interest from my own reality to the reality of the other (Noddings 1984 p.14). Noddings (1984 & 1990) is a feminist philosopher who has examined the notion of caring. She argues that caring exists on a continuum from natural to ethical. In natural caring people experience a powerful subconscious obligation to care and act, such as that commonly experienced for immediate family or partners. In ethical caring more choice creeps in - obligation and intensity to act decrease until the imperative yields to the suggestion 'someone (else) ought to do something'. Noddings (1984 & 1990) argues that what determines the imperative to act out of care, is a combination of three factors: relatedness, reciprocity, and particular modes of thinking. For outdoor education practice there are some potent implications from her work. Relatedness Proximity is the most powerful determinant of caring behaviour, proximity is a precursor to relatedness. Despite encouragement of global egalitarian attitudes, people most actively care for those to whom they feel closely related. If outdoor education seeks caring outcomes then relatedness must be deliberately built and fostered. In caring for nature, students need to understand their relatedness to the bush. Caring demands subject to subject relatedness, individual to individual. This is an immediate challenge to outdoor education that interprets the bush as an external generic object rather than an individual subjective identity. Nature caring outdoor education must see nature as an 'ecology of individuals' with whom students develop specific personal relationships. Relationships for example with: that big snowgum in the saddle, the possum that lives in the hollow near the creek, that airy but welcoming ledge on the second pitch which lets you look across to the falcon's nest. Outdoor education seeking caring outcomes must recognise that one-off tourist-like visits to remote places are in essence voyeuristic one night stands with unpredictable outcomes. Building relatedness demands students get to know specific individual nature over extended time and in multiple contexts. Most importantly this suggests that revisits to the same location,, to meet again the 'nature individuals met previously, is essential. I have experienced the growing relatedness, bond and resultant caring that has developed with multiple visits to Mt Arapiles to climb, ! …