Exploring a pluralist understanding of learning for sustainability and its implications for outdoor education practice

ABSTRACT

This article explores a pluralist understanding of learning for sustainability in educational theory and relates it to outdoor education practice. In brief, this kind of learning can be described as a deep engagement with an individual’s multiple identities and the personal location in diverse geo-physical and socio-cultural surroundings. I identify the intersection of learning for sustainability and pluralism in three themes: learning as transformation, learning as participation and learning about identities and spaces. The reflections on what kind of learning outdoor education could seek to promote potentially help the field to clarify its role as a sustainable education approach. A programme designed to be responsive to both sustainability and pluralism would enable learners to explore the multifacetedness of a location and provide space for them to share and exchange individual experiences, perceptions and worldviews.

KEYWORDS:

• Learning for sustainability
• pluralism
• outdoor education
• diversity
• place-based education

Acknowledgements

This article has been reworked from the author’s MSc Outdoor Education dissertation, Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, UK. The author would like to thank supervisor Dr Gale Macleod for her thought-provoking and reliable assistance, and colleague David Clarke for comments on an earlier version of this paper. The author’s sincerest gratitude goes to the anonymous peer reviewers whose critiques have strongly enhanced the quality of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Transformative learning theory has been developed and theorised with reference to adult education and may not be transferable to other age groups. Furthermore, it needs to be clarified that the confrontation with diverging views does not necessarily lead into an open-minded integration of new aspects, but rather can trigger withdrawal and devaluation of the perceived difference if the context is not supportive of a positive encounter (Pettigrew & Tropp, 2011).

2. See Tajfel and Turner (1979) and Pettigrew and Tropp (2011) for a more profound understanding of processes of self-categorisation. These are significant for forming individual and social identities since they generate meaning through a location of the self while concomitantly influencing our perceptions of others.

3. As far as ‘templates’ which these views can be contrasted with are concerned, Parkison (2005) points out that there are a variety of ‘asserted Truths within education […] founded upon technology, science, reason, empiricism, and/or social constructions that struggle for dominance’ (p. 141). A pluralist approach would integrate this variety.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susanne C. Paulus

Susanne C. Paulus works with the foundation éducation21, National Centre of Expertise for Education for Sustainable Development in Switzerland, and continues to work independently in outdoor education and social justice education projects. As a graduate from the MSc Outdoor Education programme at the University of Edinburgh, and from the MEd Intercultural Education programme at the Free University of Berlin, the author’s research interest lies in the integration of diversity issues within the outdoor and sustainability education field.