You are never alone: understanding the educational potential of an ‘urban solo’ in promoting place-responsiveness

Abstract

Solos have a long history in outdoor learning (education) for their use in ‘wilderness’ settings. They have been theorised in experiential education literature and through phenomenological concepts where dwelling and solitude provide unstructured time for individual reflection. Place-Based Education provides opportunities for educators to develop place-responsive practices in areas local to where people live, work and study. This paper reports on an exploratory investigation into a Masters-level course. Students were required to undertake an ‘urban solo’ in a familiar place and consider how ontological disruption might be nurtured in city-based locations. Six students participated in semi-structured interviews which were then analysed thematically using a constructivist grounded theory approach. Findings revealed that their solo experiences had had a profound and unexpected effect on all students. These changes seemed to occur as the result of an ontological shift in the students from being passive receptors of stimuli to engaging more actively with their surroundings. We concluded that, because of its simplicity and close proximity to school grounds, the urban solo is one way for teachers to overcome the barriers they consistently report to outdoor learning. We recommend that future studies draw further on urban theorists to develop more city-based, place-responsive practices.

Keywords:

• Place-based education
• outdoor learning
• urban solo
• experiential education
• ontological disruption

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robbie Nicol

Robbie Nicol is a Senior Lecturer in outdoor and environmental education in the School of Education, University of Edinburgh. His life motivation comes from the realisation that human activities are fundamentally altering the planet’s ability to sustain all species including the human race in the long term. As an educator, he believes that the outdoors provide places where individuals can rediscover their direct dependence on the planet through embodied experiences. His teaching and research interests are directed towards the theoretical development and practical implementation of Place-Based Education and epistemological diversity particularly in the outdoors.

Pauline Sangster

Pauline Sangster was until recently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, University of Edinburgh, where she is now an Honorary Fellow. She has taught on Professional Graduate in Education (PGDE) programmes, Masters’ programmes and on the Doctor of Education (EdD) Programme, and she was the Programme Director for both the EdD and the PhD programmes for many years. She has researched extensively and supervised many doctoral theses in a wide range of areas such as language and literacy learning, critical literacy and critical pedagogies, English as an additional language (EAL) learners, student teachers’ reflective practices, Chinese students’ experiences of undertaking higher degrees in the UK, environmental- and place-based learning, and identity formation.