Toward a relational understanding of outdoor environmental education: A case study of two residential learning settings in South Devon, UK.

This thesis examines the ways in which outdoor environmental education can be understood in the context of relational-environmental encounters. The study focuses on residential learning programmes with secondary school students in the UK. The research aims to explore the extent to which current educational practices, structures and pedagogies in two case study locations can be said to occur as continuous lived experiences; invoking relational ontologies. Furthermore, this research examines the environmental encounters of students and considers how these encounters shape and challenge environmental narratives consisting social and cultural norms. Making use of developments within behaviour change theory, ecological ethics and environmental pedagogy, this thesis brings together ways of understanding environmental and sustainability education, notions of relational ways of being, and models for transformative societal change. The research methodology makes use of ethnographic encounters in two case locations comprising residential education centers in South Devon, UK, chosen for their representation of instrumental and emancipatory pedagogies. Participating in fifteen outdoor environmental education programmes over ten months, participant observation, focus groups, interviews and photo elicitation were deployed. In-field and subsequent thematic analysis, using structured coding elicited four central themes: structure, choice, relationships and discomfort. These themes formed the core empirical analysis and enabled an exploration of relational practices occurring across the spectrum of contemporary environmental education. The research therefore provides a narrative of residential experiences in a subjective, emergent and reciprocal environment, whereby both lived and learning experiences provide space for instrumental and emancipatory learning. Consequently, contributions are made to geography and education in four key areas; firstly, the articulation of a pedagogy of discomfort deployed explicitly and implicitly within environmental education; secondly, an advancement of relational connotations of place-making within environmental education as being emergent of agency, structure and the setting itself; thirdly, through the ecotheraputic ‘performance’ of other-than-human material and ecological environments in education discourses; and finally, through an advancement of a blended approach to environmental education, understood from an ecological-ethical, as well as a behavioural-practice perspective.Field Studies CouncilWhitley Wildlife Conservation Trus

Real World Learning: toward a differentiated framework for outdoor learning for sustainability

Síť RWLn (Real World Learning network) byla založena v roce 2011, aby zkoumala prvky, které přispívají k „hlubokým a smysluplným“ zkušenostem v outdoorovém vzdělávání. Po třech letech práce RWLn vyvinula model „Ruky“ určený na podporu pedagogů při navrhování programů outdoorého vzdělávání pro udržitelný rozvoj (OLfS). Od svého spuštění počátkem roku 2014 byl model používán pro plánování, realizaci a reflexi zkušeností s tímto typem vzdělávání (OLfS). Vycházeje z poznámek v příspěvku Činčery (2015) Real World Learning: a critical analysis, který zdůrazňuje nesrovnalosti ve vnitřní logice tohoto modelu, stávájící článek se zabývá vnímaným rozporem mezi emancipačně a instrumentálně založenými přístupy k učení. Začíná povšechným úvodem do modelu „Ruky“, pokračuje diskusí teoretických rozporů uvnitř modelu – existujících mezi znalostně založeným přístupem, vyplývajícím z jeho zaměření na porozumění a hodnoty, a pluralisticky a experimentálně založeným přístupem, na který poukazuje důraz na posilování (sebe)uvědomění a využití zkušeností ve vzdělávání. Na tomto základě (a s využitím dalších příkladů) je zde prezentován diferencovaný koncepční rámec, a to s cílem usnadnit aplikaci modelu v praxi, přičemž je využíván tzv. kombinovaný přístup, který zároveň v tomto případě zohledňuje různou míru nekonzistence či nesouladu plynoucího z teoretické perspektivy. Navíc je tento model zkoumán z kontextově založené perspektivy, a jsou tak položeny otázky týkající se vhodnosti jednotlivých přístupů v závislosti na prostředí, ve kterém výuka probíhá. To vše s nadějí, že pokud úvahy vyjdou za rámec teoreticky zakotvených principů, budou nalezeny vhodné způsoby aplikace modelu v praxi.The Real World Learning network (RWLn) set out in 2011 to explore elements which contribute to a ‘deep and meaningful’ outdoor education experience. Following three years of work, the RWLn developed the ‘Hand Model’, a learning model designed to support educators in the development of Outdoor Learning for Sustainability (OLfS). Since its launch in early 2014, the model has been used for planning, delivering and reflecting upon OLfS experiences. Making use of the comments made in Činčera’s (2015) Real World Learning: a critical analysis which highlights inconsistencies existent within the model’s internal logic, this paper considers the perceived contradiction between emancipatory and instrumental approaches to learning. Beginning with a comprehensive introduction to the Hand model, this paper goes on to discuss the theoretical divide which the model spans between a goal-led, knowledge based approach promoted by the model’s focus upon understanding and values, and a pluralistic and exploratory approach typified by aspects of educational empowerment and experience. In response to this and augmented by examples, a differentiated conceptual framework is presented to facilitate a pragmatic application of the model from a practice perspective, making use of what has been termed a ‘blended approach’, whilst acknowledging degrees of inconsistency and dissonance from a theoretical perspective. Additionally, the model is viewed from a context perspective where questions are asked regarding the appropriateness of particular approaches depending upon the setting in which learning takes place. It is hoped that by moving beyond theoretically entrenched positions a mediated middle ground for the model’s application may be established