Moral deliberation and environmental awareness: reviewing Deweyan-informed possibilities for contemporary outdoor learning

Abstract

His main research interests are on of professional change issues for teachers, especially in terms of conceptualizing educational values, curriculum planning and enhancing pedagogical practices. His recent publications cover a range of educational journals including as first author, recent articles in:

Embodied experiences: Critical insights from Dewey for contemporary education

“…Dewey also considered that social interaction was pivotal to integrating the cognitive and emotional dimensions of behavioural responses, on the basis that habits comprise environmental features that merge inseparable mental and physical means and promote corporeal reflection. In a more social interactive context, Thorburn (2018b) exemplifies, in relation to hillwalking, how, in group contexts, fragility issues surrounding walking and the environment could be raised in order to influence students' collective decision-making about how to move across the ground in the most sustainable way possible. This matches Hill's (2012) view that imagination is a component of extending activity and that imagination (as with the walking example described) is required whenever activity is impeded and/or when a problem requires to be overtaken to extend or improve the quality of activity.…”

Personal well-being and curriculum planning: a critical comparative review of theory, policy and practice coherence

“…Only nine brief one page examples are currently provided in the broad areas of partnership, professional learning, learners' voice, leadership and self-evaluation. Thus, the extent to which middle path progress is being made in schools in the manner anticipated by Education Scotland (2014) and outlined as being conceptually possible by Thorburn (2014Thorburn ( , 2018 is of concern.…”

Ethical (practice) perspectives in the outdoors

“…Indeed, within the field, pressing issues with ethical dimensions have been discussed. In practice terms, much attention has been devoted to the environmental sustainability of adventure tourism and outdoor education (Prince, 2017;Ross, Christie, Nicol, & Higgins, 2014) and opportunities for moral deliberation (Thorburn, 2018), moral relations (Andersson & Ohman, 2015) and ethics of care (McKenzie & Blenkinsop, 2006) in outdoor educational practice. Similarly, the incongruousness (and ethical ambiguity) of 'outdoor' experiences often, if not predominantly, occurring in indoor spaces framed by business principles, and market logics (Beames & Brown, 2014, 2017 has also received attention.…”