Norwegian teachers’ safety strategies for Friluftsliv excursions: implications for inclusive education

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to explore how teachers in friluftsliv (the Scandinavian equivalent of outdoor education and outdoor recreation) reflect upon their safety strategies in relation to pupils’ friluftsliv abilities in the upper secondary school ‘Sport and Physical Education programme’. This article is based on six focus group interviews of friluftsliv teachers. The analysis of the empirical material is inspired by John Evans’s understanding of the concept of abilities as dynamic sociocultural constructs and processes. In the findings, different challenges related to teachers’ experiences of a general decline in pupils’ winter friluftsliv abilities are identified. Furthermore, the article identifies and discusses challenges related to teachers’ safety strategies, which led to both inclusion and exclusion of pupils. The findings in this study reveal a tension between important winter outdoor skills and inclusive friluftsliv.

KEYWORDS:

• Safety
• friluftsliv
• upper secondary school education
• outdoor education
• inclusion

Acknowledgments

This research is based on data that will be used in the first author´s doctoral dissertation. Thanks to the teachers who spent time participating in the focus group interviews.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lena Dahl

Lena Dahl, PhD fellow, focuses her research on accident and safety perspectives in friluftsliv and outdoor education. Her work deals with safety culture among teachers, and risk and teaching perspectives in upper secondary school.

Oeyvind Foerland Standal

Oeyvind Foerland Standal is a professor of physical education whose research is about movement activities for people with disabilities and inclusion in physical education. Oyvind is interested in pedagogy, phenomenology and qualitative research.

Vegard Fusche Moe

Vegard Fusche Moe is an associate professor whose research is about learning, teaching and knowledge development in sport, outdoor education and in physical education. He works within philosophical and pedagogical perspectives and is particularly interested in how people experience movement, learning and knowledge sharing.