An educational tool for outdoor education and environmental concern

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to suggest an outdoor education model that respects the need to critically discuss the general belief in a causal relationship between experiences of nature, environmentally-friendly attitudes and behavioural change, but that at the same time respects the legitimate claims on the part of outdoor education practice for concretisation and clarity. The foundation of this model consists of a combination of theoretical perspectives and models that have been generated through a number of Swedish interdisciplinary research projects concerning human interrelationships with the landscape during the last decade. The paper first focuses on the subtleties of environmental concern with the aid of an environmentally historic model of how care for nature and environmental protection successively developed during the last century. It then addresses different aspects of outdoor education by presenting two specific models: a model of two principally diverse motives for this education, and a model of three different approaches to the landscape when executing outdoor education. In the final section these models are assembled in a suggested model for outdoor education and environmental concern, and identify a handful of main educational paths. The paper concludes with a brief discussion about continued research and examples of what can be regarded as particularly important developments and additions to the suggested model.

Keywords:

• Conservation
• Nature experience
• Sustainable development
• Landscape approaches
• Conceptual framework

Acknowledgements

Research projects on which the article is based include: Outdoor Life and Environmentalism (financed by the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research), Image of, and Common Access to, Landscapes for Outdoor Recreation (financed by the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research), Landscape as Arena (financed by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation), Sustainable Development and Environmental Moral Learning (financed by the Swedish Research Council) and Outdoor Recreation in Change (financed by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency).