Rewilding education? Exploring an imagined and experienced outdoor learning space

Abstract

fern… As Macfarlane writes, these nature-words were recently deemed no longer relevant to modern-day childhood and deleted from a new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary. The entries that replaced them included attachment, blog, broadband, bullet-point, celebrity, and chatroom. According to the head of children's dictionaries at Oxford University Press, the substitutions made in the dictionary reflected the consensus of experience of modern-day childhood-a childhood in which the outdoor and the natural has been displaced by the indoor and the virtual (Macfarlane, 2015). This paper considers some of the undercurrents of modern-day childhood that are portrayed by OUP's decision-of feelings about children's access to and engagement with nature, and the educational management of the relationship between children and nature-by following the progress of a small rural primary school in the UK as it goes about transforming its outdoor spaces. The paper does not seek to evaluate the benefits of outdoor learning, but explores the significance of these outdoor spaces as they are imagined, made, and experienced, from the first design stages to the first days of use. It is a whole school project, blending the voices of adults and children to document a process. Combining observations and insights gathered over two years, including four site visits, interviews with teachers, ethnographic observation in classes and at break times, observant participation at design workshops, and multimodal methods workshops conducted with the school's pupils, the paper tracks the ways in which outdoor spaces are created by adults and children, and considers the ways in which the creation of spaces can influence and shift school practices and cultures. As such, the paper is concerned with the creation of different possible futures. The paper consists of four sections. The first section, 'School spaces and childhood places' reviews sociological and geographical work on childhood and space in order to consider what is at stake in the relationships between children and nature. Section two, 'Fieldwork' introduces the school project and expands on the multimodal methods that I used. The next two sections, 'Imagining a new future' and 'Experiencing a new outdoors' portray the hard work done by one primary school, and discuss how participation, imagination and risk shape and are shaped by the ambition to create a new future. In conclusion, I suggest that there is much to learn from

Effect of environmental education on the knowledge of aquatic ecosystems and reconnection with nature in early childhood

“…In addition, in the laboratory class (before M3) they analyzed diverse leaves and images of riparian trees and learned their names, reinforcing the field observations. The importance of hands-on and outdoor activities, and systematic teaching in the scientific knowledge is well studied (e.g., [ 28 , 29 , 50 , 51 ]. Our study also confirmed that environmental programs should not be restricted to sporadic activities as a longest duration is more likely to change behaviors [ 52 ].…”

“…Our results are aligned with current outdoor learning movements that supports the mission of reconnecting children with nature, through ‘wild time’ and outdoor play and learning activities. Outdoors activities and biodiversity-focused programs bring physical benefits, such as preventing sedentary lifestyle and promoting mental and behavioral health while increasing children cooperation, academic performance and sustainable behaviors [ 28 , 29 , 50 , 51 ]. And raising awareness in children on the importance of preserving and recover nature within cities and freshwater ecosystems is essential to promote their rehabilitation and create more sustainable cities.…”

Immersive encounters: video, swimming and wellbeing

“…Emphasising the ability of the headcam to help us understand embodied, multisensory ways of knowing and experiencing landscapes, they pointed the way towards using video as a sensory and mobile method. Since then, head and chest mounted cameras have been used with dog walkers (Brown and Banks, 2015), children (Green 2016;Bates 2019), outdoor adventurers (Vannini and Stewart, 2017), and runners (Palmer, 2016;Smith, 2019), to conduct research on the move and to explore our relationship with different landscapes. GoPro's, and their technological predecessors, have also and more frequently been strapped to bikes (Brown and Spinney, 2010;Spinney, 2011;Hatzius and Wakeford, 2015;Jungnickel, 2015;McIlvenny, 2015;Pink et al 2017) in order to research this highly mobile and physical practice.…”

Clinical geography: A proposal to embrace space, place and wellbeing through person-centered practice

“…This approach complements traditional clinical fields (e.g., clinical psychology, social work, occupational therapy), by explicitly integrating and emphasizing spatial interventions. Clinical geographers could operationalize geographic theory such as critical approaches to access and disability ( Crooks et al, 2008 ), environments of learning ( Bates, 2019 ), geographic information science ( Miller, 2018 ), sustainable urban design ( Di Ludovico et al, 2020 ), and community resilience and recovery ( Burton, 2014 ).…”

“…This can be as simple and low-cost as using an old bedsheet or cardboard boxes to make a fort. Transforming indoor and outdoor spaces enables children greater freedom to live, learn, and grow together ( Bates, 2019 ).…”