Contemporary schools of thought in Outdoor Education
by Tony Pammer
When an individual educator teaches or leads a group in any subject or co-curricular area, there is likely
to be an underlying ethos shaping their educational process, irrespective of the stated curriculum.
In addition to the impact of this personal ethos, and in comparison to more traditional areas of learning,
a students outdoor education experience(s) is further diversified firstly by a broad definition of the
outdoor education curriculum in the school, state (eg VELS1 in Victoria) curriculum framework; and
secondly by increasing divergence in ‘schools of thought’ about ethos in outdoor education.
The scope of ethos2 in outdoor education is the topic of this article. For example Mary might teach VCE
Outdoor and Environmental studies. Her ethos is around physical skill capability and development.
Whilst covering all the requirements of the curriculum, the experience Mary runs focuses on the activity
and its associated skills. After two years, Fred takes over Mary’s classes, his ethos is around sense of
place, and again whilst covering all the requirements of the curriculum, the experience Fred runs is
about relationship(s) with place. So where Mary’s students canoed and develop specific stroke
technique, Fred’s students in the same subject at the same school, are spaced out along the river bank,
for mini “solos” whilst they draw their surroundings and reflect on their connection with place.
Such a dichotomy is not unusual. The experience my own four children have in the same traditional
subjects (say mathematics and English) under the guidance of one teacher has for them sometimes been
markedly different when they had a mid term change of teacher. Thus it is likely teachers, schools and
parents are already familiar with the idea of divergent individual approaches to the same curriculum.
Whether schools are comfortable with the idea of divergent individual approaches to the same subject,
is a different point. Firstly, where it can be argued that the outcome for the student is similar or the
outcome is consistent, with the stated curriculum irrespective of the approach, then the difference is
likely to be more acceptable to school and parent.
However it seems reasonable to conclude that where divergent approaches by teachers result in
outcomes different to another cohort of students in the school, or are different to the stated curriculum,
then the school and/or parents may be less comfortable.
The topic of this article, ethos, is a much deeper affect than just “approach”, so a teacher’s ethos
related to the subject is likely to be a much greater influence on student outcomes than simply
differences in approach. Further, a teacher’s ethos in traditional subjects is more likely to result in
1
Victorian Essential Learning Standards
Ethos = “shared fundamental traits” the fundamental and distinctive character of a group, social context, or
period of time, typically expressed in attitudes, habits, and beliefs
2
similar student outcomes than in co-curricular pursuits like outdoor education, which have a much less
established “curriculum”3, educator training program, or common understanding in society.
In the outdoor education sphere, there is increasing differentiation in this underlying ethos.
The following labels aren’t accepted groupings of types of ethos in outdoor education. They are for ease
of understanding only and are not necessarily those of the individuals or group I have later indicated for
the reader as a reference for further reading. Space does not permit discussion of their elements.
Sense of Place
Brian Wattchow and Mike Brown co-authored a book called “Pedagogy of Place”, outdoor education for
a changing world. They are certainly not the only proponents of the “sense of place” ethos. OF
particular interest is the authors effort is their examples and their desire to “…offer alternatives to the
dominant forms of contemporary outdoor education practice” (page xiv).
The following excerpt from their introduction (page xxi), offers a concise overview:
“The concept of place has to do with how people develop and experience a sense of attachment to
particular locations on the Earth’s surface. It also has to do with how people are affected by and affect
those places. Therefore place is suggestive of both the imaginative and physical reality of a location and
its people, and how the two interact and change each other”.
Healthy Parks Healthy People
Healthy Parks Healthy People is a Parks Victoria concept, but I have used it as a label here to typify an
ethos that “ ….Wondered why people so often saw parks as valuable only for their flora and fauna and
perhaps scenery and recreation. Why, they asked themselves, do people not also recognise the
connection between a healthy environment and a healthy society? “4 An important aspect of this motto
relates to the order – that a healthy environment is first required before we can consider healthy
people. This is in contrast to a long-standing sense within the US Parks service that ‘Parks are for
people’
The ethos is summarized on the website (see footnote) as:
 Parks are integral to healthy people and a healthy environment
 Human health depends on healthy ecosystems
 Parks conserve healthy ecosystems
 Contact with nature can improve human health
 Parks contribute to economic growth and wellbeing
 Parks contribute to cohesive, vibrant and healthy societies
Self-Others-Natural World
3
Many schools or curriculum bodies tend not to have defined curricular for co-curriculum areas, which outdoor
education often tends to be. As a result even where a curriculum exists, its real intent can often be relatively
unknown to the majority of teaching staff.
4
http://www.hphpcentral.com/congress/the-melbourne-communique
Arguably this ethos “sits on the fence”, relative to the others! It sees outdoor education5 as being an
intersection between experiences that help participants think about themselves, others and the natural
world and the relationship between these three.
This paradigm (Self-others-natural world) is endemic to indigenous peoples, who would find it difficult ,
if not impossible, to talk about themselves, without talking about their country or their people.
Perhaps rather than sitting on the fence, Self-Others-Natural World, recognizes a diversity of
curriculum6.
Values Based or Values Education
The Spirit of Adventure Foundation7, which was founded by Colin Mortlock, whose vision is “To
influence modern societies to become a global civilisation based on love and unity with Nature”, is just
one of a number of examples of this ethos.
The ethos is summarized on the website as:
 Underline the importance of having a positive and adventurous approach to life, along with
careful evaluation of all experiences.
 Inspire individuals to look carefully at how they live.
 Work out how best to achieve personal potential in all positive senses – physically, emotionally,
intellectually and spiritually.
 Promote awareness of the importance of spirit as the basis of the human adventure.
 Encourage people to become more aware of self, others, and the world in which we live; to
recognise especially that there is an underlying unity to everything natural, including human
beings.
 Inspire people to learn to be as honest as possible and to accept freedom with responsibility.
Hahn
Kurt Hahn’s thinking has been responsible for the founding of a number of organisations, like Outward
Bound.
Hahn’s school of thought is eclectic and diverse, making it difficult to summarise concisely. Given the
weight of its influence on contemporary outdoor education, the best approach seemed a collection of
his quotes, taken from the website.8

5
"I regard it as the foremost task of education to insure the survival of these qualities: an
enterprising curiosity, an undefeatable spirit, tenacity in pursuit, readiness for sensible self
denial, and above all, compassion."
http://wilderdom.com/history/WhenDidOutdoorEducationBegin.html
http://wilderdom.com/definitions/definitions.html
6
http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/hpe/outdoor_education.html
7
www.soadventure.org/
8
http://www.kurthahn.org/quotes/quote6.html



"The experience of helping a fellow man in danger, or even of training in a realistic manner to be
ready to give this help, tends to change the balance of power in a youth's inner life with the
result that compassion can become the master motive."
"It is the sin of the soul to force young people into opinions - indoctrination is of the devil - but it
is culpable neglect not to impel young people into experiences. "
"Education must enable young people to effect what they have recognized to be right, despite
hardships, despite dangers, despite inner skepticism, despite boredom, and despite mockery
from the world. . . ."
Situationist
Perhaps not a specific ethos, and as difficult to summarise as Hahn’s ethos, this term is worthy of
inclusion. I have taken the term and summary from serially critical academic writer Andrew Brookes’
work9. Don’t let Brookes’ negative “put down” tone and almost incomprehensible academic speak put
you off – he’s got some interesting things to say!
If a summary of Brookes “situationist” ethos is possible, this might be it:
“Attention to situations introduces to outdoor education an imperative to pay attention to specific
geographical, social, political, cultural and personal circumstances, While it is unsafe to generalize
about such a loosely defined field, outdoor adventure education theory has tended to lean on
psychology (albeit selectively) at the expense of attention to the social sciences and humanities” 10
Summary
Since the first Outward Bound program in 1941 outdoor education ethos has diversified, particularly in
the last 30 years. This diversity is not well known, as some ethos’s are the domain of academics, others
are characterized by the aims of foundations, governments and practice. Popular modern outdoor
education in its curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular forms, continues to be largely activity
focused.
An understanding and determination of an organisation or schools position among the scope of these
ethos’s can be useful, as it is not uncommon for an outdoor education program’s ethos to be governed
by the personal ethos of individual educators, coupled with a lack of curricular definition and diverging
schools of thought in the profession.
9
Brookes A. (2003) A critique of neo-Hahnian outdoor education theory part one and part two. Journal of
Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning. 3 (1), 49-62 and 3 (2) 119-132
10
Brookes A. (2003) A critique of neo-Hahnian outdoor education theory part one and part two. Journal of
Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning. (2)P130