Letting them go - outdoor education with/without the teacher educator

ABSTRACT

This research is an autoethnographic account of teaching and learning during outdoor education experiences in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE). Through the process of writing as a method of inquiry, I use a framework of outdoor experiences that went wrong, to identify the symbiotic relationship between teaching and learning in outdoor contexts. By making some experiences visible, through autoethnographic portrayal, I wanted to make sense of risk and errors by focusing on the educational opportunities of the outdoor setting, and the teaching and learning that occurs but might otherwise remain hidden. Accessing teachers knowledge of teaching is crucial to enhancing student learning in meaningful ways. The narrative integrates theory related to learning, teaching, and teaching practice through outdoor education. Knowledge and perspectives from this inquiry aim to provide understandings of pedagogical reasoning, underpinning educational thinking, and vulnerability as a professional in outdoor education.

KEYWORDS:

• Narrative
• autoethnography
• outdoor education
• teacher education
• physical education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Te ao kori—the world of movement of the indigenous Māori people of New Zealand includes, games, pastimes, outdoor activities, and dance.

2. Robert Havighurst (1953) developed an influential theory of human development. The centre piece of this theory were seven periods of developmental tasks in a lifespan. His theory stressed that for the developmental tasks to be achieved educators had to introduce students to them at the right time. He described the right time as the ‘teachable moment’.

3. I used Māori language to name the groups in keeping with a culturally responsive pedagogy. Mangai tahi—group one.

4. OMG (oh my goodness/gosh/God) a commonly adopted phrase to represent surprise or emphasis.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maureen Legge

Dr Maureen Legge has been a teacher educator in physical education teacher education for thirty years. Maureen’s research is practice based and about lived experience. Her research is concerned with being bicultural, outdoor education and critical pedagogy. Maureen presents her work as autoethnography, narrative inquiry and visual ethnography. Currently she is working as an education consultant and resource developer in physical education.