Nature-based solutions: democratising the outdoors to be a vaccine and a salve for a neoliberal and COVID-19 impacted society

ABSTRACT

Extant research reveals time in nature is causally associated with children’s health and well-being, including a child’s intra and interpersonal skills, socioemotional growth, physiological function, and cognitive development. In today’s neoliberal and COVID-19 era, nature-based solutions, alongside a broader outdoor and experiential learning ‘suite’ may be well placed as both a vaccine and a salve for our current societal challenges. However, contemporary school education is underpinned by an audit or performative culture evidenced by standardised national testing that may diminish access to outdoor or nature-immersive experiences. Looking forward, the authors contend that contemporary education, and more broadly society, requires nature-rich experiences for a flourishing sustainable future. Drawing upon Foucault, this paper highlights the need to critique education and society’s dominant ideologies and practices. These counter-narratives advocate for emancipatory change in contemporary education—especially infusing different voices such as Indigenous knowledges—offered in and through a democratised access to the outdoors.

KEYWORDS:

• Outdoor
• experiential
• neoliberalism
• COVID-19
• Foucault
• nature

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the shoulders of the many families, friends, colleagues, and students upon whose shoulders we stand. We also acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands upon we which we have walked, learned, and grown in our own theory and practice and thus our own praxis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tracey J. Dickson

Tracey J. Dickson is an Associate Professor of Event and Tourism Management in the Canberra Business School, and an Associate Member of the Research Institute of Sport and Exercise (UCRISE), University of Canberra. Tracey’s research is informed by her earlier experiences working in outdoor and experiential education. This experience piqued her interest about how we can minimise the physical risks of being outdoors in order to maximise the benefits of being outdoors across the lifespan. This has led to a diverse range of research projects on snowsports, injury prevention, accessibility, and disability.

Tonia L. Gray

Tonia L. Gray Senior Researcher Centre for Educational Research, Western Sydney University, Australia. Tonia’s scholarship includes nature-based learning for health and wellbeing and the intersectional examination of gender leadership and climate justice. She was the Chair of the Australian Tertiary Outdoor Educators Network (2018-2022) and co-editor of the Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education. In 2014 Tonia received the prestigious Australian Award for University Teaching for excellence in outdoor experiential education and in 2019 received the Association of Experiential Education’s Distinguished Researcher of the Year. Tonia also was selected on the Homeward Bound Project, a female-only expedition to Antarctica to investigate Climate Change.