A look at the state of the environment and how it relates to Outdoor Environmental Education

1. OEEDU5001 Concepts in
Outdoor Education
Week four
State of the environment

2. What role education takes is
determined by the underlying
educational ideology
An educational ideology = 2
meanings

3. 1. Worldview
• shapes personal and group identity,
• provides a view of what the world should
be like,
• acts as a guide and control on individuals
and groups.

4. 2. Hegemonic
• system of beliefs that render power
asymmetrically.
• “Promotes the vested interests of the most
powerful groups”

5. Three broad educational
ideologies
• To prepare students for work
• A prior determination of contentVocational
• Preparation for life. Personal development
• Curriculum based on major disciplines
Liberal
progressive
• Active social members to create a fairer and
less troubled world
• Knowledge is socially constructed. Reflection
and critique are central
Socially
critical

6. Three broad educational
ideologies
• End job analysed and delineated
• Master/teacher is authorityVocational
• 3 ‘R’s’ to develop practical, social and
expressive knowledge
• Progressively yields control, strong knowledge
base
Liberal
progressive
• More negotiated learning
• Teachers as co-ordinator / facilitator
Socially
critical

7. Three broad educational
ideologies
• Competency based assessment
(CBT)
• Reproduction of social order
Vocational
• Middle order knowing (Meritocracy)
• Serves conservative interests
Liberal
progressive
• High order critical thinking and
evaluation. Constructed knowledge
• Critique and emancipation
Socially
critical

8. Academic and VET pathways
differ ideologically
Responsive to
workplace
Analysis of
workplace
Specific pre-
determined
tasks
Assess what
students can do
Vocational Responsive to
research &
scholarship
Critique of
current & future
practice
More liberal as
the future is
uncertain
Assess thinking,
embed
experience and
time
Academic

9. Distinctions
The practice of
Outdoor Recreation aims
to develop
The practice of
Critical Outdoor Education
aims to develop
Opportunities for leisure,
enjoyment through:
Understanding of human/nature
relationships, seeking:
1. Competence mastery (skill
development)
1. Personal ongoing relationship with
subjective nature
2. Escape (relaxation) 2. Sense of self as part of ecology of
beings (extended web of relationships)
3. Socialisation (increased leisure options) 3. Increased environmental
responsibility at home and in the
bush
4. Intellectual stimulation 4. Critique of cultural environmental
practices (sustainability, land
management)

10. Disconnections?
The practice of
Outdoor Recreation aims
to develop
The practice of
Critical Outdoor Education
aims to develop
Methods Methods
• Instructor or leader • Teacher or facilitator
• Experience as the essence • Experience is a means to
moral/ethical issues
• Perceived freedom • Activities are a means to an end
• Activities for own sake

11. Disconnections?
Content central to
Outdoor recreation
Content central to
Critical Outdoor Education
• Outdoor living and travel skills for
competence
• outdoor living and travel skills for
safety
• Minimal environmental impact
skills/knowledge
• ways of seeing and understanding
nature (construction of knowledge)
• Safety knowledge and skills • knowledge and experience of place
(eg. Story/history)
• Places are venues for activity

12. Outdoor Education can be
a valuable tool for
considering how we live

13. Deliberately constructing
alternate worlds
Enabling critical reflection
Looking back…

14. The current world and
state of environment
=
the anthropocene

16. • http://vimeo.com/anthropocene/shortfilm

17. Evolved from hunter gatherers
But now miss nature and 19km a day!

18. Biophilia hypothesis
There is an instinctive bond between human
beings and other living systems. (Wilson, 1984)

19. Biophilia hypothesis
“That human identity and personal fulfilment
somehow depend on our relationship with
nature” (Kellert, 1993)

20. Lost our connection to the land on
which we live = fail to understand
our connection to the carrying
capacity of the planet.

21. Biophilia hypothesis
Lack of nature connection is a
health and wellbeing issue.

22. Biophilia hypothesis
Nature deficit disorder

23. Impact is deferred in both
time and place.

28. Let’s check the figures
Worldometer…

29. Ecological footprint
– a tool for measuring how much nature is available
and how much is being used
• The Earth provides for about 1.8 global hectares per
person per year, shared with all other species.
– Average = 2.7 gHa/per
• Overshoot ~ 30%
• USA ~ 10 gHa/per
• Australia ~ 8 gHa/per
• Singapore ~ 6 gHa/per
• Malaysia ~ 3 gHa/per
gHa = biologically productive hectare at average productivity

30. Let’s check the figures
Ecological footprinting…

32. How should we live and
educate our children to
live?

33. Schooling teaches well the
tools of modernism, but ignores
how to live well in a place.

34. Language literacy
Mathematical competence /
numeracy
Rational thinking
Ecological literacy

35. Only if we can re-establish our
most basic relationship with the
natural world might we find a way
out of this regression.