Building resilience and teaching learners about sustainable living through outdoor swimming and water safety learning

ABSTRACT

A new curriculum was implemented in Norwegian schools in 2020 that aimed to teach learners about sustainable living through outdoor swimming and water safety (SWS). Employing sense of coherence (SOC) as a theoretical framework, this study examines how teachers built resilience and taught learners sustainable living through outdoor SWS lessons, focusing on comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness. It was conducted in Norway during outdoor SWS lessons at a local beach. Observations and photo-elicitation interviews (PEIs) were conducted with two primary school teachers. Data were analysed using template analysis, with SOC forming the a priori themes. Findings revealed that teachers facilitated resilience building through experiential learning, allowing learners to engage with tasks, peers, and their environment. Exposing learners to adverse water situations and giving them control over their learning process may build resilience and well-being. Furthermore, teachers’ insights into outdoor learning processes can inspire better policies and practices for sustainable, health-promoting education.

KEYWORDS:

• Outdoor education
• swimming and water safety
• sustainability

Introduction

Sustainable development has become increasingly important in recent years, affecting educational curricula. According to the Norwegian curriculum, learners must ‘experience nature and see it as a source of utility, joy, health and learning’ to embrace sustainable living (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, 2020b). Likewise, developing resilience is essential to learners’ coping abilities and well-being (Chawla et al., 2014). The nature of resilience is interactive and includes social support from parents and teachers (Herrman et al., 2011). In this study, learners interact with teachers and peers by working on the curricular goals of being safe in, on and around water (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, 2020a). However, the teachers’ supportive role depends on their competence in water safety and outdoor education. Most teachers in Norwegian primary schools have little or no formal competence in physical education (PE) (Waagene et al., 2018), which is also the case in Britain and Australia (Jones & Green, 2017; Morgan & Bourke, 2008). Currently, only 2% of Norwegian schools practise outdoor swimming and water safety (SWS) lessons (Waagene et al., 2018). Gjølme and Grydeland (2021) associate outdoor SWS lessons’ absence in PE in primary school to teachers’ lack of formal competence, which seems to be a problem in other countries as well (Jones & Green, 2017; Morgan & Bourke, 2008).

Moreover, examining teachers’ experiences with facilitation resilience development through SWS not only assesses progress in students’ resilience, but also can improve didactic SWS practices. Outdoor swimming in lakes, rivers and oceans is characterised by more unpredictable conditions than indoor swimming pools. Although such learning activities can be dangerous and invite learners to take risks, adjusting to these conditions can improve their water safety awareness. Learning to deal with variations can facilitate the ability to cope with changes and explore learning opportunities in unforeseen situations. These are the benefits of outdoor learning processes and can be described as experiential learning through challenges moderated by choice and safety assessment (Williams & Wainwright, 2020).

The new curriculum provided the opportunity for this study to examine teachers’ experiences with outdoor learning processes. Historically, PE has been criticised for focussing too much on superficial activity and not enough on learning (Kirk, 2010). Although outdoor activities are prevalent in Norwegian primary schools, particularly during the first four years (Leirhaug & Arnesen, 2016), studies that examine outdoor learning processes and sustainability outdoors are lacking in Nordic outdoor education research (Remmen & Iversen, 2022). Therefore, this study aimed to examine outdoor learning practices in schools by seeking an answer to the research question: How do teachers help learners build resilience and teach them about sustainable living through outdoor SWS learning?

Theoretical framework and literature review

In this study, the salutogenic model, sense of coherence (SOC), functions as a theoretical framework—along with concepts such as resilience, experiential learning and sustainability, as presented in Figure 1 – through which to examine how teachers help learners build resilience and teach learners sustainable living through outdoor SWS learning.

Figure 1. Adapted versions of generalised resistance resources (GRR) and SOC (Antonovsky, 1987), combined with the experiential learning model (Kolb, 2015), were used to examine building resilience and teaching learners about sustainable living through outdoor SWS learning.

Sense of coherence

Salutogenesis can identify and explain health-enhancing and protective factors that increase well-being and quality of life (Eriksson, 2022). The SOC concept focusses on people’s resources to ‘create health’ (salutogenesis) and does not focus so much on ill-health and disease (pathogenesis) (Antonovsky, 1987). SOC comprises three dimensions: (1) comprehensibility—a belief in predictability; (2) manageability—a belief that resources are available, manageable and within personal control; and (3) meaningfulness—a belief in purpose (Antonovsky, 1987; Lindström, 2005).

SOC is a person’s capacity to cope with what comes their way by using resources within themselves and their surroundings (Antonovsky, 1987). In a school setting, these resources, referred to as generalised resistance resources (GRR) (Antonovsky, 1987), are viewed as other learners, teachers and the head teacher. Those with a strong SOC are better at understanding GRR possibilities and how to use these resources to remain healthy (Eriksson, 2022). Furthermore, the environment also can be viewed as a GRR—such as sheltered water locations protected from weather, waves and wind—providing a suitable learning environment for outdoor SWS lessons.

Resilience

Resilience is defined as ‘positive adaptation despite adversity’ (Luthar, 2006) and relates to diverse situations during outdoor SWS lessons. Through outdoor education, learners can build resilience (Blaine & Akhurst, 2022; Booth & Neill, 2017; Shellman & Hill, 2017). Experiences from outdoor education enable learners to escape stress, maintain focus, build competence and form supportive social groups (Chawla et al., 2014). However, recent work examines how certain resilience factors may be adaptive in one context, but maladaptive in others (Mahdiani & Ungar, 2021). Direct and implicit encouragement from teachers and peer role models to adopt proactive coping responses also appears to be essential. Teachers in Singaporean outdoor educational programmes ranked increasing resilience in learners as the most crucial learning outcome, followed by developing group cooperation and rising personal responsibility (Martin & Ho, 2009). In Norway, learners from outdoor education programmes at a university reported the following key learning outcomes: improved interpersonal relations and abilities; self-control; communication; and caregiving (Horgen, 2015). Norway has a tradition of integrating outdoor learning in primary school (Jordet, 2007). These studies demonstrate the connection between resilience and outdoor education. The level of challenges varied from advanced ski tours, in which learners benefited in personal development and improved leadership skills by adapting to challenging tasks (Horgen, 2015), to challenges provided through outdoor learning in primary schools, in which learners practise withstanding rain and cold weather, as well as coping with physical challenges (Jordet, 2007).

Sustainability

According to the Norwegian curriculum, ‘sustainable development refers to protecting life on earth and providing for the needs of people who live here now without destroying the possibilities for future generations to fill their needs’ (Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, 2020b). Furthermore, social, economic and environmental factors are interdependent in sustainable development. As a result, how people live and consume makes impacts locally, regionally and globally. The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were designed to address environmental and climate issues, poverty, education, resource distribution, conflicts, health, and equality issues (UNESCO, 2012). When teaching learners about sustainable living through outdoor SWS learning, the goal is to provide them with the skills needed to make ethical, healthy, and environmentally friendly choices, as they need to learn that their decisions and actions are significant.

Experiential learning

Experiential learning refers to individual and social changes in thinking and acting, characterised by concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation, and active experimentation (Kolb, 2015). In the outdoor SWS context, learners discover what is possible in the water and acquire skills through experimentation and reflection. In this way, they learn from the weather, temperature, waves, beaches, and interactions with teachers and peers. Learning is situated and task-driven, and experiential learning outdoors can complement traditional classroom learning. According to Harris (2018), an outdoor environment provides new opportunities for learners and teachers to interact, learn and co-create a learning environment and may reduce boundaries between classroom and outdoor learning. It has been demonstrated that outdoor locations may offer a more flexible and responsive learning environment than the classroom (Harris, 2018).

Through outdoor education, learners can be exposed to sustainable living (Almers et al., 2018; Asfeldt et al., 2022; Tönük & Kayihan, 2013; Vergragt et al., 2016; Wollf et al., 2018). Competent teachers can facilitate sustainable development education through outdoor experiences by being role models and driving small-scale changes (Prince, 2017). Outdoor education in Canada shares some core values with European outdoor education, emphasising on personal and social development, as well as environmental and place consciousness (Asfeldt et al., 2022). Extant studies have found that during outdoor education, such as farming, learners study subjects such as biology and develop skills such as communication (Wollf et al., 2018). They also learned that trust, diversity, learning capacity, and self-organisation are crucial in a sustainability context. Through outdoor education, learners learn to garden, prepare food from the forest (Almers et al., 2018), and use critical thinking to solve environmental problems (Ampuero et al., 2015). Moreover, the learners’ embodied knowledge about changing weather conditions can be a cultural exploration based on local habits and a path to a sustainable way of life (Ødegaard & Marandon, 2019).

Experiential learning activities at many schools have been criticised for lack of structure, high costs and the absence of compliance with what learners perceive as significant learning activities at school (Williams & Wainwright, 2020). The challenge for teachers is to help learners become aware of the connection between their experiential learning activities and curricular goals in primary school (Jordet, 2007, p. 210). This study focusses on experiential learning processes, particularly in outdoor SWS lessons, together with SOC in terms of comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness, as presented in Figure 1, to examine how teachers build resilience and teach learners about sustainable living.

Materials and methods

This study utilised a qualitative approach to examine subjective experiences and provide an understanding of an exemplary and unique school practice (Postholm, 2019). A visual- and narrative-based methodology was used because it stimulates critical awareness, examines embodied knowledge and generates creativity in outdoor studies (Gurholt, 2019). Teachers’ experiences were examined through the utilisation of observation and photo-elicitation interviews (PEIs) to obtain a deeper understanding. With PEIs, the researcher takes photos of a topic and uses them to elicit dialogue with the research participants to make personal interpretations (Torre & Murphy, 2015). PEIs have been used as a research method for studying and interviewing experiences in outdoor education (Leather & Nicholls, 2016; Loeffler, 2004; Smith et al., 2012).

Photography enables participants to identify peaks or significant moments during and after the experience. PEIs are more effective for gaining insider views than exclusively verbal methods (Hurworth, 2004). This study is based on four days of video observations and PEIs with two teachers.

Research design and setting

The research site was a Norwegian primary school with a tradition of starting the fall semester with one week of outdoor education. Altogether, 33 learners from Grades 3 to 6 (ages 8 to 12) attended the multi-subject learning activities in PE, arts and crafts, mathematics, food and health, and natural science. The child-to-teacher ratio was seven to ten learners per teacher. The SWS lessons were conducted on a beach within walking distance of the school. During the week, the air temperature fluctuated between 15 and 20°C, while the water temperature ranged between 14 and 16°C. The swimming area was 40 meters wide and shallow, with a standing depth no deeper than 120 cm. The swimming area’s outer boundary was 15 meters from the shore.

The teachers cleared a campsite, set up lavvos and prepared a bonfire in a small forest above the beach. A lavvo is a conical-shaped tent that the Sami people in northern Europe traditionally have used, and it has become part of the standard equipment used in Norwegian schools. The campsite served as a meeting and lunch site. The tents functioned as wardrobes and storage for equipment for the whole week. The outdoor education week programme explicitly stated criteria and goals for SWS competencies: The learners should be able to enter the water, float, control their breathing, dive and rescue each other. The teachers discussed safety with the learners; the area was restricted, and they had to follow specific rules for safe behaviour. For further details, see Lundhaug and Eriksen (2022).

Participant recruitment

The PEIs were conducted with two teachers at the forementioned primary school, which was selected based on colleagues’ recommendations from the researcher’s university and other researchers. Herman (pseudonym) is a classroom and PE teacher, as well as an experienced swimming coach, and most learners knew him from swimming courses as their coach and their teacher in previous SWS lessons. He was responsible for all the SWS lessons during the outdoor education week. Another classroom teacher, Wendy (pseudonym), was responsible for arts and crafts and mathematics during the outdoor education week. She participated in all workshops throughout the week.

Four full days of video observations of the SWS lessons were conducted. The researcher and a research assistant video-recorded all SWS lessons with learners and teachers. The researchers and assistant were out in the water wearing wetsuits and using hand-held waterproof action cameras. They did not participate in the lessons, but observed the group from a close distance. The video observation was part of preparing the two individual PEIs with both teachers. The process of selecting still photos to be used in the PEIs were conducted in three stages. First, the author and assistant viewed all video shots to familiarise themselves with the data. Second, themes were identified based on events resonating with resilience and sustainability. In choosing the video shots, the author and assistant looked for body language that indicated learners’ emotions, moods, and mastery of the outdoor SWS lessons. Finally, five still photos, also called keyframes (Hannane et al., 2016), were derived from selected video shots. The still photos were used during the interviews to trigger recall of incidents during the lessons and facilitate conversations, associations and reflections on specific experiences during the lessons (Torre & Murphy, 2015). The interviews were semi-structured, with an interview guide focussing on the key topics: learning goals; learning process; content; learning conditions; setting and assessment.

This study collected data from video observations and PEIs, as presented in Table 1. The researcher and assistant reviewed the video recordings and selected still photos from the videos on the same day they were created. The PEIs with the two teachers were transcribed and analysed using four condensation steps on (Malterud, 2012): (1) reading the transcripts several times; (2) identifying themes; (3) identifying subthemes; and (4) summarising and validating the analyses. The interviews were conducted in Norwegian, and the English translations were made after the coding, first by the researcher and then by a professional bilingual translator based on van Nes et al. (2010) recommendations.

Table 1. Overview of the collected data.

Method	Participant specifications		Data
PEIs were used as the primary method.	Teacher Wendy		60 min
	Teacher Herman		64 min
Four consecutive days of video observations (leading to five still photos) were conducted to support the PEIs.	Learners’ grade level	Number of learners	Duration of video shots (sec)	Number of video shots
	3	8	17–86	21
	4	7	15–182	39
	5	10	32–202	24
	6	8	11–61	8

Ethical considerations

The study was part of a larger research project (No. 640611) and was approved by the Norwegian Centre for Research Data Protection Services. In this study, the participants were teachers, not learners, but all learners provided informed and written consent, as did the learners’ parents. Participation in the study was voluntary, with both teachers and learners were assured that they could withdraw at any time without giving any reason and without losing SWS lessons, and that all video footage would be deleted. No participants chose to withdraw from the study. Pseudonyms were used for the teachers. The data were stored and encrypted, and all personal information was treated confidentially. The teachers and learners did not know the researcher ahead of time. The main teacher introduced the researcher to the learners, colleagues and parents through an information letter and a physical meeting with his teacher colleagues ahead of the outdoor lessons.

Reflexivity

When using PEIs as a research approach, recognising how the researcher’s interests and assumptions influence the research process is important (Olive, 2019). The researcher in this article possesses expertise in outdoor learning and has helped develop a curriculum and certification programme that equips teachers with the safety measures needed to conduct outdoor SWS lessons with learners. An insider’s perspective allows the researcher to develop an embodied understanding of how teachers experienced outdoor practices, the environment and interactions with the learners. Nevertheless, an insider perspective also can blind the researcher and hinder critical thinking (Olive, 2019). It may be difficult to criticise and discuss practice and interactions between teachers and learners when the researcher loves outdoor practice. As a practical matter, it is helpful that the researcher knows the skills and culture, and has no problems getting wet while observing the SWS lessons. The researcher’s love of the outdoors must be factored in; therefore, the researcher and assistant aimed to be transparent about interests and answer questions about the research project, familiarise the learners with the equipment (the waterproof action camera) and be recognised as extended members of the school staff, instead of mere visitors from the university.

Findings and discussion

The findings were analysed using SOC terms such as comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness, thereby creating the a priori themes. The next section discusses how teachers foster resilience and sustainability through SOC, experiential learning, and GRRs.

Comprehensibility

The teachers were concerned with comprehensibility and problem-solving during the SWS lessons. The school planned the outdoor education week and made the learning activities understandable and predictable. Although the lessons were designed to help develop aquatic skills and safety awareness, this required the learners to comprehend the lessons’ overall aims. As the teachers declared, the relevance made sense only when the learners understood the link between the PE lessons and aquatic activities in their lives outside of school. Herman aimed to create authentic lessons by making conditions in school similar to learners’ experiences with friends and families in their leisure time. Herman noted that the lessons should include these dimensions:

We wanted somewhere close to the water, where we could go in the water several times during the week. And, of course, the temperature of the water. The temperature is comfortable now in the late summer. But then, when the children are at the beach with their parents, and they’ve been given buckets and spades, you’re not going to get parents turning around after five minutes and saying, ‘No, you’ve been playing at the water’s edge long enough now; it’s time for you to get into the water.’ They’re allowed to stay at the water’s edge if they want. (Herman)

According to the teacher, the resources such as the learning environment needed to create a familiar scenario for the pupils to evoke the SOC concept of comprehensibility, which was facilitated partly by the outdoor location’s easy accessibility, thereby enabling repeated visits. Another contextual factor was ensuring the most comfortable water and air temperatures possible in this location. Compared with warmer water further south in Europe, the typical Nordic summer’s 15°C water is about as mild as it gets in this region. It was perceived as comfortable while wearing a wetsuit. The third resource was the teacher’s supportive interaction with the learners. Allowing the learners to experience agency and offering them possibilities to take control over their learning process enabled most of the learners to experience satisfaction from the learning activities and become involved in decision-making processes regarding their own and their classmates’ safety. The teachers aimed to use an experiential approach similar to what parents do with their children:

And they (the learners) are allowed to swim away from the shore, maybe as far as their parents say: ‘No, you’re too far from land now; you must come closer to land.’ And that makes them want to swim farther away and test it out. And that’s what I want them to have the opportunity to do in a week like this because then they’re making decisions for themselves and doing it because they want to. It’s like it’s internally motivated. (Herman)

SWS lessons also included real-life scenarios in which the teacher asked the learners questions that made them ponder their choices more clearly. The teacher organised the class into small groups of seven to ten learners to enable time for reflection. Herman asked what they would do if he were drowning. One of the learners suggested swimming out and bringing him to land. Herman demonstrated how a drowning swimmer could pull him underwater in panic. The learners were invited to explore different items to reach out to the person who needed help to minimise the risk to themselves. They tested the pros and cons of various equipment, such as a throwline, rope, or branches. Many learners found it challenging to use the throwline and did not seem motivated to learn this skill. Through problem-solving, most learners preferred to get into the calm and shallow water to reach the victim with a short, thick rope. Herman added:

And maybe they get to realise that it’s not just a case of throwing out a rope or picking up any old branch. After all, the branch we used did not even float. It’s not enough to pick up any old branch. (Herman)

When a learner struggled with a problem, the teacher stressed to the learner that the challenge was something they needed to explore and handle. Thus, with the teacher’s support, the learners overcame problems with new insights and perseverance. When the learners realised the learning activities’ importance for their safety, they became fully engaged.

As demonstrated, competent teachers can include comprehensibility and problem-solving in SWS lessons, but previous research indicates that primary school teachers lack formal competence in PE (Jones & Green, 2017; Morgan & Bourke, 2008; Waagene et al., 2018). Facilitating resilience building is an interactive process and includes support from experts (Herrman et al., 2011). As the findings demonstrate, the teacher’s (Herman) competence was a significant factor in achieving the curricular goal of being safe in, on and around water. As an example, the SWS skills varied from child to child, making it difficult for the teacher to individualise learning activities. Some learners had been on vacation in southern countries and learned SWS by playing in warmer water, while others could not swim and had little or no experience with outdoor SWS with family and friends. Thus, the teacher’s competence was essential in individualising the outdoor SWS lessons and making learning activities manageable, comprehensible and meaningful from child to child.

Some learners may be good sports swimmers but have little experience with choppy water and swimming in bad weather in line with what Stallman et al. (2017) termed ‘water competence,’ as fewer people today develop holistic skills that enable independent and autonomous outdoor SWS. The challenges provided in outdoor learning vary from withstanding rain and cold weather, and coping with physically demanding tasks, to co-working in groups (Horgen, 2015; Jordet, 2007). To facilitate learners’ resilience development, our research observed that the SWS lessons included cold water, progressed over a week, were located at the seashore near the school, integrated multi-disciplines, comprised smaller groups and had significant support from the teacher. Consequently, the inherent progression of the learning process in SWS education in school also makes lessons more than just a one-time event.

As demonstrated, positive reinterpretations of challenging scenarios or events are essential for building resilience (Booth & Neill, 2017). Through encouragement from the teacher, the learners learned that getting warm through physical activity could be a crucial coping strategy in cold water. Accordingly, the teacher (Herman) introduced the word ‘central heating’ to the learners as a positive term to help the learners remain physically active to stay warm to cope with cold water temperatures. Thus, the GRRs were identified in this study as competent teachers, supportive co-students, and positive relations with the water environment.

In line with previous studies (Booth & Neill, 2017), the teachers also facilitated building resilience by accepting a challenging situation’s reality. Learners need to be exposed to everyday stress and strains for their future well-being while keeping them safe and allowing them to learn outside in wild spaces (Gray, 2019). As demonstrated, the teacher (Herman) analysed the situation in the environment to find appropriate learning activities. He preferred to have waves in the water, which would provide a learning opportunity for swimming sideways as waves make it more challenging to keep track of the shore. By accepting the choppy conditions, they would practise following wave movements and spot land on top of the waves. However, Herman considered how each child uniquely experienced the challenge of being in cold water and accepted that some learners may have wanted to observe from the land, oftentimes returning to the water with stronger motivation to participate. The learners seemed to increase in confidence in terms of their coping abilities and frequently sought to choose more challenging tasks. Accordingly, direct and implicit encouragement from teachers and peers will help them adopt a proactive coping response significantly (Booth & Neill, 2017). More importantly, teacher education institutions are vital in encouraging teacher- learners to support all learners during SWS lessons.

Manageability

One of the challenges for the teachers was to provide a sense of manageability for all learners during the SWS lessons. The learning activities and routines were new for the learners at the start of the week. The teacher (Herman) adjusted how he supported learners during the week to create a learning environment that fostered resilience and decision-making. He tended to take more substantial precautions regarding the learners’ safety and supported them to a greater extent at the beginning of the week. The learners’ freedom to play was restricted, as the teacher stood close to them and supported them while floating. In keeping the risk as low as possible from the dangers in the environment, he aimed to build trust in his relationship with the learners. Later in the week, the learners could move around more independently of the teacher. They explored more of the environment and used their aquatic skills to learn how to float, propel themselves in the water, and dive. It was clear from the learners’ body language that they enjoyed themselves a lot more with the increased freedom to play independently in the water.

Herman viewed it as essential to build relationships with the class, and relationships formed as their swimming coach from an early age assisted in this process. Highlighting the significance of the interaction between teacher and learner in understanding the learning outcomes’ logic and the importance of safety, Herman found it important to introduce the lessons’ rules and expectations, and to learn all the learners’ names at an early stage:

Yes, I’ve had swimming lessons with them in the pool before, and I think that’s part of the key to getting it working: They’re already familiar with the rules and expectations. (…) They’re used to swimming lessons (…) starting with going through the rules and expectations. (…) There are clearly stated goals for each lesson and safety rules for swimming lessons. That, and I’ve spent a good deal of time and energy learning all their names. (…) I think they feel they have a good relationship with me. (Herman)

The rules and expectations were coherent in the swimming pool and the outdoor setting, which evoked the SOC concept of manageability. Some learners found it challenging to enter the cold water and did not participate in the learning activities that involved immersion in the water at the beginning of the lesson. This lack of feeling able to manage cold water could lead to not wanting to participate in the rest of the learning activities throughout the week. The teacher alternated between having activities on land and in the water. During the interview, we showed the teachers a picture of the class playing a running game on the beach, and we asked what connection this activity on land had to the SWS lessons. Herman replied:

It’s to get the ‘central heating’ going! (Laughs). Many learners know that when I refer to ‘central heating,’ I’m talking about getting the heart pumping faster. So, it’s all about being one step ahead so that you get heat distributed around the body a bit, so it does not feel so cold. When you’ve been in the water for some time and got water inside the wetsuit, it drains heat energy from the body. And then we return to the land for running games every so often, before you get into the water, and every so often after that, to maintain body heat. It depends on the weather conditions how much we need to run on the beach. But basically, it’s a matter of getting the heart pumping harder. (Herman)

The purpose of advising the learners to be physically active to cope with the cold, wet and uncomfortable environment was to teach them strategies to take care of themselves in demanding situations. Wendy added that the running games on land helped build up the learners’ courage and motivation for the SWS lessons:

I think there are two functions (of the running games): just creating a setting where it’s fun, at the same time as getting their circulation going and getting a bit warmer. But playing is vital in all learning activities. (Wendy)

The learners who at first did not participate, but observed their classmates in the water from the shore loosened up after running and gradually joined in the swimming and water safety activities. Learning activities were adjusted to the learners’ skill levels and sense of control. The learning outcomes were realistic for the learners to achieve, with equipment provided (e.g. wetsuits and throwlines) to ensure that these outcomes were more manageable to accomplish. Learners used wetsuits for buoyancy and to insulate themselves from the cold water. Most learners found these strategies manageable and embraced them to avoid drowning later in life.

This study’s findings demonstrate that teachers integrate demanding and complex problems that arise spontaneously as a learning opportunity. As Williams and Wainwright (2020) maintain, competent teachers can turn unforeseen situations into golden learning opportunities. The learning outcomes—such as floating, breath control, diving and rescuing—were perceived as beneficial for the learners’ confidence in challenging sea-related situations. These learning activities were adjusted to the learners’ SWS skill levels, making learning manageable. They could cope with unpredictable situations—such as variability in waves, currents, and wind—and learn to adapt to the environment by overcoming practical challenges together. The learners seemed to develop an awareness of water safety, interacting with nature and sensing the seashore through touching, movement, smelling, tasting, seeing, and hearing. In this way, learners can foster embodied knowledge through experiential learning (Kolb, 2015). The teachers also reported that the learners discussed their outdoor experiences during art and math lessons. By reflecting on their experiences in nature, the learners also may learn how to handle challenges related to water activities. Thus, the outdoor SWS lessons can develop the learners’ practical and verbal coping strategies, enhance their resilience, and develop their awareness of drowning prevention.

The experiential learning process offers young people multiple resources to make sense of the world (Williams & Wainwright, 2020). Likewise, the experiential learning activities during the outdoor SWS lessons seemed to strengthen the learners’ SOC. However, teachers and schools need to reflect on outdoor activities’ relevance and not stick to traditional activities. The activities need to be adventurous, meaningful and grounded in the learners’ local culture (Williams & Wainwright, 2020). The teachers also focussed on social well-being, as evident in facilitating a flexible and experiential learning environment. The school prioritised teaching SWS skills so that learners could take responsibility for their safety after school. Furthermore, the teachers encouraged the learners to gather for outdoor activities in their spare time at the beach. More focus on well-being in outdoor activities corresponds well with current research on facilitating resilience (Shellman & Hill, 2017).

Nevertheless, the teachers focussed on providing the learners with a suitable level of challenges to make them believe in their mastery of the tasks. However, if the learners have unrealistic high hopes and expectations, such optimism can harm them (Mahdiani & Ungar, 2021). The teachers cannot know all learners’ history with experiencing adversity. As demonstrated, the teachers adjusted tasks based on learners with less experience. According to Hochwälder (2019), SOC among vulnerable groups potentially could be changed because they have much to gain. Thus, the teachers’ knowledge of the learners’ background is significant to adapt to the level of the challenges.

Meaningfulness

The teachers’ goal was to make SWS lessons meaningful and motivational for the learners. One way of achieving this was to explain the purpose and reasons for swimming outdoors, such as learning to be robust and capable of self-rescue at sea, as well as learning about ecological sustainability at the local beach. Building trust and responsibility among the learners was also necessary for the teacher. Furthermore, the teachers found it essential that learners experience support and encouragement from home and school. During the outdoor education week, the learners also went fishing and prepare fish on an open fire, and they visited workplaces in the local community. They also shared local swimming traditions and were encouraged to reflect on dangers. When asked whether he would prefer a calm sea or slightly more waves, Herman replied:

Ideally, I’d have liked more waves to practise sideways swimming strokes, especially for the oldest learners. (…) So, I spend quite a bit of time on sideways swimming, and that is the swimming technique that is best suited for swimming in waves. (…) If they’re swimming in the sea, but there are no waves, they cannot grasp why they cannot just swim on their stomach and look straight ahead. After all, they can see the shore. But if there are waves, you must keep track of where the next wave is coming from, when you are on the crest of the wave, and ‘Oh, now I’m on the crest, now I can see the shore.’ So, it’s an entirely different approach, then. So, for the oldest learners – yes, I’d like to have conditions with a bit more waves. (Herman)

Outdoor SWS lessons evoked the SOC concept of meaningfulness in learners by giving them feedback from nature, such as the waves. Even though the weather conditions were not that challenging, there were some small waves. Herman supervised the learners in the choppy water as they learned to adapt to various water conditions. He said that learning to swim and play in choppy water early on is important in ensuring confident participation in different kinds of activities in, on and around water later in life.

In addition to the SWS lessons, Wendy stressed the importance of working with multiple school subjects during the outdoor education week:

It’s a multi-subject week. (…) Our task is to see what we can do outdoors with mathematics, and food and health. Those subjects are part of the week’s timetable, so we do them outdoors. We could go for a walk, but that would not be the same. There must be some curricular goals. They (the learners) measured the temperature in the water and on land, measured wind strength, studied clouds and had a sky atlas. (Wendy)

Implementing goals in the curriculum from multiple subjects was also the teachers’ way of making the outdoor activities relevant and meaningful for the learners. The teachers considered that the learners were taught about sustainable living as part of the SWS lessons. Rather than driving to the swimming pool as they typically did when taking SWS lessons, they walked to the beach nearby instead. Not much equipment was required, only wetsuits that the school provided. Consequently, the outdoor SWS lesson was inexpensive for the school and learners. Furthermore, by not driving and choosing a natural water body instead of a heated pool with chemicals, the environmental impact was kept to a minimum. The outdoor SWS lessons were part of an outdoor education week that included multisubject learning activities in PE, arts and crafts, mathematics, food and health, and natural science. This addresses the challenges of implementing experiential learning activities in primary school, namely, to help learners become aware of the connection between learning activities and curricular goals (Jordet, 2007, p. 210). By harvesting local fish and cooking the food themselves, the learners learned about sustainable food and health. Evidently, this practical knowledge enables the learners to survive crises, and the dialogue offers learners new solutions for sustainable living (Ødegaard & Marandon, 2019).

As demonstrated, the potential for developing resilience is linked to sustainable living. For future generations to choose sustainable living, they will need to handle uncertainty and be able to recover, adapt, innovate and grow. This was evident in the learners’ ability to withstand the cold water and adverse conditions from the unpredictable natural water environment, rather than predictable conditions from an indoor pool. With repeated outdoor SWS lessons at the beach during a whole school week, the learners also opened their senses as they observed the patterns of waves, high and low tides, crabs and sea plants, and how they are interconnected within the marine environment. Consequently, the learners learned to understand nature from embodied knowledge and dialogue.

The study’s limitations

The PEIs and video observations described and analysed in this study do not provide complete insights into outdoor SWS practice. While the data reflected two teachers experiences, these experiences cannot necessarily be generalised to all teachers in their schools, and certainly not to all teachers in Norway. However, the data do raise essential questions about the learning possibilities and constraints in implementing curricular outdoor SWS learning. The video data indicated how teachers interacted with the learners and engaged in supportive, playful and educational ways. The teachers’ behaviour seemingly targeted learning goals and primarily facilitated experiential learning. Together with the PEIs, the data may provide an understanding of dynamics in teachers’ practices. The PEIs demonstrated how the teachers viewed their strategies as helping learners improve their SWS competence and build resilience while teaching them about sustainable living.

Implications

Our finding demonstrate that teachers exposed learners to outdoor water environments with various challenges as learning opportunities. This finding suggests that teachers use challenges such as cold and choppy water, dealing with changing weather conditions or working together to accomplish tasks to encourage learners to overcome challenges. Through outdoor SWS lessons, teachers can help learners develop resilience by ensuring they adapt positively despite adversity in diverse situations. The findings also indicate that exposing learners to SWS challenges must be conducted under certain conditions that involve teachers dividing learners into small groups (teacher-student ratio − 1:10), ensuring the swimming area’s safety, choosing a location near the school, working with multi-subjects and collaborating with colleagues.

Another finding revealed that teachers gave learners space to interact with the tasks, their peers and the place, suggesting that teachers’ support and guidance are situated in time, place and context. The teacher may offer guidance, encouragement, and assistance when needed while also allowing the learners to experience a certain degree of autonomy and independence. Another finding indicated that teachers should foster connections with nature, as they can facilitate SWS learning activities that promote appreciation, exploration, and understanding of the natural world. Furthermore, teachers’ perspectives on outdoor learning processes can inspire better policies and practices for sustainable and health-promoting outdoor education.

Conclusion

This study aimed to examine a primary school’s outdoor learning practice by seeking an answer to this research question: How do teachers help learners build resilience and teach them about sustainable living through outdoor SWS learning? As demonstrated, fostering resilience in learners is rooted in a salutogenic approach to health to facilitate comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness in line with SOC dimensions (Antonovsky, 1987). In this way, teachers encouraged learners to cope with challenges by teaching outdoor activities and creating safe and supportive learning environments. Through outdoor SWS, the teachers provided opportunities for the learners to set goals and reflect and develop an awareness of water safety in line with an experiential learning approach (Kolb, 2015). The teachers encouraged open communication, promoted teamwork and provided constructive feedback on effort and growth rather than just outcomes.

This study argues in favour of what teachers do and, in line with the SOC framework, provides a richer understanding of how resilience is facilitated, and how sustainable living is promoted through outdoor SWS lessons in primary school. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate that the teachers participated in modelling sustainable living by initiating small-scale changes, in line with Prince (2017). By walking with the class to the beach and letting the learners participate in harvesting fish and preparing a meal themselves, the teachers helped implement sustainable living through embodied knowledge and dialogue. Thus, sustainable living results from a holistic approach that seeks change to minimise the ecological impact (Vergragt et al., 2016).

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Torbjørn Lundhaug

Torbjørn Lundhaug is Associate Professor in Physical Education and Outdoor Education. He is the Program Coordinator of Aesthetic and Outdoor Education at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. His research interest is around primary school physical education, resilience, sustainable living, and outdoor education. https://www.hvl.no/person/?user=Torbjorn.Lundhaug