Rain and Romanticism: the environment in outdoor education

Abstract

Outdoor education provides an opportunity to engage with natural environments in ways that are distinct from other physical education teacher education (PETE) courses. This research examines how pre-service teachers (PSTs) within a PETE degree experienced ‘environment’ on an outdoor education camp. Using self-study methodology and drawing on responses of students and my reflections, I sought to interrogate my Romantic assumptions. A particularly rainy camp provided rich opportunities and PST responses to the weather were diverse, because the rain prompted environmental responsiveness in ways that would not have occurred in fine weather. PSTs generally valued the affordances of the outdoor setting which they saw as distinct from daily schooling. However, contrary experiences also emerged, problematising my Romantic framing of the environment and indicating that my approach was marginalising some students. Implications for teachers and teacher educators are discussed.

Keywords:

• Outdoor education
• teacher education
• environment
• Romanticism
• self-study

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the reviewers and also to Tim Fletcher for his comments which strengthened this article considerably.

Notes on contributor

Chris North lectures in outdoor and environmental education at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Chris’ research interests lie in the areas of outdoor education practices, adventure education, sustainability and environmental education and initial teacher education.