Editorial update

Taylor and Francis have published JAEOL for eight years. During that time the Journal has gone from strength to strength, most notably increasing from two issues a year in 2006 to four issues in 2015 and there has been a number of special issues: Journey(s)  vol. 10 (2); Outdoor and Adventure Therapy vol. 11(2); Cultural Perspectives on Experiential Learning in Outdoor Spaces vol. 12 (3); Outdoor Play and Learning in Early Childhood from Cultural Perspectives vol. 13 (3); and Space, Place and Sustainability and the Role of Outdoor Education vol. 14 (3).  The forthcoming special issue focuses on Adventure and the call for inclusion in that edition closes in March 2016. A themed issue focusing on Latin America is in progress and due in 2016.  If you wish to propose a special issue please visit the website and read the special issue guidelines available at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/pdf/education/SI_guidelines_JAEOL.pdf. Do refer to the aims and scope of the Journal when developing your theme

Developing a whole campus approach to learning for sustainability: Challenges and opportunities for embedding and sustaining change

Learning for Sustainability (LfS) is a key component of Scottish Education. However, policy interpretation and enactment is a complicated process and there can often be a difference between policy intentions and implementation. The following research explores how one campus (for pupils aged 2-18) in Scotland undertook a year-long all staff career long professional learning programme (CLPL) to develop a whole campus approach to Learning for Sustainability. The aim of this research project was to better understand the implications (opportunities and challenges) at a whole school / campus and teacher level when developing a whole school / campus approach to Learning for Sustainability. Three semi-structured interviews were carried out, with focus groups made up of a small group of teaching staff, members of the senior management team, as well as a follow up interview with the head teacher. A theoretical thematic analysis was used to identify themes from the data and applied to further explore the emergence of these elements from the CLPL discussion forums including contributions from all participating staff members. The three main themes identified were: collaboration and collegiality; processes of change; and attitudes to learning and to change. The study revealed a tension between the need for both teachers and management to have an identified person ‘leading’ the agenda, and the need for that agenda to develop in a culture of collegiately and shared responsibility. There was also an interesting contrast between deep and shallow learning for both teachers and managers. The study also provided useful learning for other organisations leading the agenda for change, which can be summarised into three key recommendations: (1) Organisational leaders should engage with suitable learning prior to developing a leadership of change model for their organisation, which includes a distributed model of leadership. (2) Methods of professional learning for all practitioners should include an engagement with reflective activities, which enables them to access deeper and more transformational learning. (3) Large organisations should work with community-led groups and be sensitive to local contexts to establish a vision, which clearly articulates the imperative is the responsibility of all

Climate justice education: From social movement learning to schooling

Chapter 36This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Routledge Handbook of Climate Justice on 1 November 2018, available online: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Climate-Justice/Jafry/p/book/9781138689350In recent years, the insurgent discourse of climate justice has offered an alternative to the dominant discourse of sustainable development, which has arguably constructed climate change as a global 'post-political' problem, with the effect of erasing its ideological features. However, even climate justice can be considered a contested term, meaning different things to different social actors. Accordingly, this chapter offers a theoretical analysis of the challenges and opportunities for a climate justice education (CJE), which prioritises the distinctive educative and epistemological contributions of social movements, and extends analysis of such movements, by considering how the learning they generate might inform CJE in schools. Regarding the latter, we focus on the Scottish context, both because it represents the context in which our own knowledge claims are grounded, and because the mainstreaming of Learning for Sustainability (LfS) in policy presents an ostensibly sympathetic context for exploring climate justice. We conceptualise CJE as a process of hegemonic struggle, and in doing so, consider recursive 'engagement with'-as opposed to 'withdrawal from'-the state (Mouffe, 2013), via schooling, to be a legitimate dimension of social movement learning.https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Climate-Justice/Jafry/p/book/9781138689350div_PaSpub5240pu

Comparing education for sustainable development in initial teacher education across four countries

Purpose: This paper undertakes a cross-comparative inquiry into Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) related to governance, initiatives and practices in initial teacher education (ITE) across four countries with very different contexts – Sweden, Scotland, Canada, and Australia. It provides insights into issues arising internationally, implications for ESD in ITE, and offers learnings for other countries and contexts. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-comparative study design with overarching themes and within-case descriptions was applied to consider, compare and contrast governance characteristics, initiatives and practices from each context. Findings: The approaches to governance, initiatives and practices that each country adopts are unique yet similar, and all four countries have included ESD in initial teacher education to some extent. Comparing and contrasting approaches has revealed learnings focused on ESD in relation to governance and regulation, practices, and leadership. Research limitations/implications: Making comparisons between different contexts is difficult and uncertain, and often misses the richness and nuances of the individual sites under study. However, it remains an important endeavour as the challenges of embedding ESD in initial teacher education will be better understood and overcome if countries can learn from one another. Originality/value: Scrutinising different approaches is valuable for broadening views about possibilities, and understanding how policies and initiatives translate in practice

Opioid-related (ORL1) receptors are enriched in a subpopulation of sensory neurons and prolonged activation produces no functional loss of surface N-type calcium channels.

The opioid-related receptor, ORL1, is activated by the neuropeptide nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) and inhibits high-voltage-activated (HVA) calcium channel currents (I(Ca)) via a G-protein-coupled mechanism. Endocytosis of ORL1 receptor during prolonged N/OFQ exposure was proposed to cause N-type voltage-gated calcium channel (VGCC) internalization via physical interaction between ORL1 and the N-type channel. However, there is no direct electrophysiological evidence for this mechanism in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons or their central nerve terminals. The present study tested this using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings of HVA I(Ca) in rat DRG neurons and primary afferent excitatory synaptic currents (eEPSCs) in spinal cord slices. DRG neurons were classified on the basis of diameter, isolectin-B4 (IB4) binding and responses to capsaicin, N/OFQ and a μ-opioid agonist, DAMGO. IB4-negative neurons less than 20 μm diameter were selectively responsive to N/OFQ as well as DAMGO. In these neurons, ORL1 desensitization by a supramaximal concentration of N/OFQ was not followed by a decrease in HVA I(Ca) current density or proportion of whole-cell HVA I(Ca) contributed by N-type VGCC as determined using the N-type channel selective blocker, ω-conotoxin CVID. There was also no decrease in the proportion of N-type I(Ca) when neurons were incubated at 37°C with N/OFQ for 30 min prior to recording. In spinal cord slices, N/OFQ consistently inhibited eEPSCs onto dorsal horn neurons. As observed in DRG neurons, preincubation of slices in N/OFQ for 30 min produced no decrease in the proportion of eEPSCs inhibited by CVID. In conclusion, no internalization of the N-type VGCC occurs in either the soma or central nerve terminals of DRG neurons following prolonged exposure to high, desensitizing concentrations of N/OFQ.NHMRC Grant: 056992

Adventure education and outdoor learning: examining journal trends since 2000

Academic journals should reflect currency in a subject area or discipline. Relatively quick response times from submission to publication enable journals to capture the dynamic nature of a discipline more readily than many other forms of academic literature. Additionally, unique publications such as special issues offer the potential to embrace a range of papers from cognate areas, which may reveal and deepen a discipline’s understanding of wider contemporary questions and issues. The Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning incorporating Outdoor Adventure Education and Experiential Learning (EOE) is presented and its position as a gatekeeper, publishing quality international papers, is appraised. An empirical key word analysis of the journal was conducted and the results were analysed critically against perceived trends in the subject area more generally. This process enables an examination of emerging foci and pedagogy in Europe since 2000 through journal emphases, and considers the significance of the journal as a signpost of, and to, the field