The purpose of the survey was to find out how early childhood teachers work with the curriculum of I Ur och Skur with children between 1-3 years in the forest and how such educators are using the outdoor pedagogy in the forest environment in preschool. In order to answer the study's aim and objectives interviews were performed with six teachers in I Ur och Skur kindergartens. What emerged from this study is that forest excursions are a central part of the curriculum and is seen as their educational place. The teachers are working to create a feeling of security among the youngest children of enjoying the woods and also to raise an interest in the children. Natural materials are used during the forest stay and no other toys or materials. The results reveal that educators work to get the smallest children to use and develop their imagination at play and at the same time they are involved with the children in their discovery of the woods. With the smallest children in kindergarten it involves being on the level of children and as a teacher to have the flexibility to change the forest stay environment if needed.

Syftet med studien är att studera fritidspedagogers olika uppfattningar om barns lärande utomhus på fritidshem. I studien har det använts av kvalitativa intervjuer och frågeformulär där fenomenografi används som perspektiv för att fånga pedagogers olika uppfattningar om lärande utomhus. I resultatet har det förekommit att lärande sker i olika former bland annat ute i naturen, tematisk, i leken och att lärandet utomhus främjar olika förmågor hos barnen. Studien visar att lärande utomhus är obegränsad och att det lärande sker ständigt ute bland annat i naturen, i leken, individuellt så som socialt.

I Ur och Skur preschools base their teaching on outdoor activities and all educators are called leaders, disregarding their educational background. The purpose of this study is to find out how the leaders of six I Ur och Skur preschools are working, specifically with the written language, in the outdoors environment. The study discusses the concept of literacy, methods leaders use and the advantages and disadvantages they experience with outdoors education and the thoughts they have about outdoor activities. The basis for this study is the objective pursued in the curriculum: "preschools should strive to ensure that children develop an interest in written language and an understanding of symbols and their communicative functions". Respondents have also been asked what outdoors education means to them on a personal level. To achieve my research results five qualitative interviews, with room for follow-up questions, were conducted. One of the respondents felt that she lacked time but still wanted to participate and doing so by answering questions by email. A total of six interviews were conducted, transcribed and analyzed. All respondents in this study are active leaders in I Ur och Skur preschools in a major city in Sweden. The results of the six interviews from the leaders show how they work with written language activities for children outdoors. The methods used seem quite similar between the various preschools. The leaders exploit the opportunities that are given, e.g. they write in the snow with watercolors or draw in the sand with sticks. They also read books outdoors for the children. The advantage, according to respondents, is that the material never ends, it is possible to write with almost anything. Possible disadvantages are bad weather conditions or too much background noise that may distract the children at times when they need to concentrate.

Friluftsliv täcker en stor del av det centrala innehållet i Lgr11 i ämnet idrott och hälsa. Syftet med undersökningen är att få en bild av idrottslärarnas syn på, och vision med friluftsverksamheten i skolan, hur den egentligen ser ut samt vad lärarna anser behövs för att visionerna ska uppfyllas. Frågeställningarna är därför: Hur uppfattar lärarna att friluftsundervisningen ser ut i skolan idag? Vad är lärarnas vision av friluftsundervisningen? Vad behövs enligt lärarna göras för att visionerna ska uppfyllas? Undersökningen har genomförts genom fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer med idrottslärare som arbetar på högstadiet. Dessa har sedan transkriberats och analyserats. Resultatet av deras uppfattningar visar att friluftsundervisningen i skolan skiljer sig gentemot deras vision. Den friluftsundervisning som finns i skolan idag är oftast kopplat till ett större projekt som t.ex. friluftsdagar vilket resulterar i punktinsatser. Den samlade bilden av lärarnas vision är att minska punktinsatserna och samtidigt ha möjligheten till att ta med eleverna på längre resor där de kan testa på skidåkning, vandring, fiske, tälta m.m. För att lärarnas vision ska kunna uppfyllas menar de att det behövs tid, pengar och material enligt respondenterna, precis som tidigare forskning också visar. / Outdoor education covers a large part of the core content of Lgr11 in physical education. The purpose of the survey is to get a picture of a group of PE teachers' views on, and visions with outdoor education in school. I´m also interested in how, in fact, the reality looks like and what teachers believe is needed to visions will be achieved. Therefore the questions will be: How do outdoor education looks like in school today, according to the teachers? What is the teacher's vision of outdoor education? What´s needed so the vision will be achieved according to the teachers? The survey was conducted by four semi-structured interviews with PE teachers working at high school. These were then transcribed and the result of their beliefs is that outdoor education in school differs from their vision. The outdoor education that is available in schools today is usually linked to a major project such as sports days and it results in point actions. The overall picture of the teachers´ vision is to reduce point actions while still having the ability to take the students on longer trips where they can try to go skiing, hiking, fishing, camping etc. In order for the vision to become reality it requires time, money and materials according to the respondents, as previous research also shows.

Syfte: Undersöka hur fritidspedagoger arbetar med utomhuspedagogik och deras förhållningssätt till ämnet. Metod: Kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes med åtta fritidspedagoger, fyra från landsbygden och fyra från staden. Resultat: Samtliga pedagoger fann ett personligt intresse för att vistas utomhus och detta syntes i deras verksamhet. Pedagogerna definierade Utomhuspedagogik som att vara utomhus och att bedriva verksamhet där. De anser att man lär sig lättare och på ett annat sätt utomhus. Fritidshemmen hade olika tillgång till natur respektive kultur och de hinder som uppstod för pedagogerna att bedriva utomhuspedagogik var bland annat tidsbrist, tillgänglighet, barnens brist på bra kläder och barngrupper och personal. Slutsats: Kunskapen hos pedagogerna angående utomhuspedagogik var relativt liten men deras personliga intresse höll ämnet vid liv i deras verksamheter. Mängden utomhuspedagogik skiljde sig inte avsevärt mellan fritidshemmen utan det som gick att se var hur utomhuspedagogiken tillämpades. Pedagogerna fick planera och strukturera upp verksamheten olika mycket beroende på om fritidshemmet var beläget i staden respektive på landsbygden.

The overall ambition of this thesis is to investigate the approaches taken to environmental and sustainability education in outdoor education and ecocriticism in a Swedish and in an international context, to investigate environmental meaning making and to conduce to the development of analytical methods for empirical investigations of environmental meaning making. Four objectives are formulated.   The first objective of the thesis is to analyse constitutive discursive rules and traits regarding environmental and sustainability education and environmental meaning making in outdoor education in a Swedish context and in ecocriticism. This is achieved through discourse analyses of central textbooks in outdoor education and of research and textbooks in ecocriticism. The second objective is to investigate how different situated circumstances such as, text, place, mobility, social situations and previous experiences interplay in environmental meaning making. This is achieved through analyses of classroom communication, through analysis of nature writing and through an analysis of painted landscapes. The third objective is to compare and critically discuss the constitutive discursive rules and traits within the two investigated educational practices ­– out door education and ecocriticism ­– in the light of the results from the investigations of environmental meaning making carried out. The fourth objective is to develop analytical methods based on John Dewey and Louise Rosenblatt’s theories of transaction and meaning making for conducting empirical investigations of environmental meaning making in which different interplaying situational circumstances are taken into account. The results of the thesis show that taking a transactional starting point to investigate environmental meaning making adds further understanding of the situational circumstances influencing environmental meaning making in specific situations which sheds new light to the identified approaches to environmental and sustainability education in outdoor education and ecocriticism. These results suggest that a transactional approach to environmental and sustainability education can help to clarify taken for granted assumptions regarding the nature of situational circumstances such as text, place and mobility in environmental meaning making.

Sustainability has become a buzz word of our time, although our developed world community is still coming to terms with what the word really means. Universities and polytechnics in Aotearoa New Zealand will have to change in many ways before sustainability can be considered to occupy a meaningful place in the tertiary education sector. However the change process that sees an organisation moving towards sustainability is complex, and agency for change can be considered on many different levels including the individual identities of staff and students, the identity of managers, and the programme and wider organisational identities constructed by the communities that comprise them. This qualitative research explores education for sustainability within the context of outdoor education using the Bachelor of Adventure Recreation and Outdoor Education (BRecEd) at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) (the programme into which the author teaches) as a case study. Participatory action research forms the overarching methodology for a multiple method approach to data collection. The research leans heavily on the lived experiences of staff and students within the programme, is woven with my own reflections, and incorporates many examples of students’ work. The weaving together of these experiences grounds the research and helps bring theory to life. The research reveals the complexity of change towards more sustainable ways of practising outdoor education in an organisational setting. It explores the tensions that are encountered and mechanisms that have allowed for staff and students to engage in education for sustainability in a more meaningful way. The key themes of the research explore the intersection of identity construction processes and change agency, and it is argued these processes are inseparable for those concerned with organisational change towards sustainability.

Outdoor education is a promising educational field that can support indoor education and provide benefits beyond the evidentknowledge. Outdoor and indoor education together can formulate the ground for an integrated learning. In Greece, like manycountries, outdoor education and its potential contribution to the learning process have not been clearly and intentionally testedyet, even though the country tends to follow a progressive educational philosophy. This research focuses on the subject ofmathematics and explores the connections between the existing philosophy and practices of mathematics education in Greece andoutdoor education theory and practice. Following the method of content analysis, the connections were identified through theexistence of basic outdoor education concepts in the mathematics textbooks of the last three grades of primary school. Althoughthe expectations, because of the lack of personal experiences, could not be high, the application of outdoor education seems to befar from impossible in Greece. It could rather flourish even without any changes in the books, when its potentialities are realizedby the teachers.

This study explores the experiences of teachers undertaking place-based education in or near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, including their perceptions of the best ways of implementing place-based education. In all, seven teachers undertaking place-based education in their teaching practices were interviewed to share their experiences. Qualitative interviews with the aid of an interview guide were used to collect data. In collecting the data, five individual interviews and one group interview involving two teachers were conducted. Content analysis was used in analyzing the data. Three overarching research questions guided this research. These had to do with the experiences of teachers undertaking place-based education, challenges of teachers undertaking place-based education in their teaching practice, and knowledge and skills needed to implement place-based education. The interviews with the participants were transcribed and coded resulting in ten themes emerging. The themes that emerged helped to answer the three overarching research questions. The findings suggests that although challenges exist in implementing place-based education, educators can overcome these challenges if they are motivated, adaptable and willing to work with all stakeholders in a place-based program. Finally, new teachers who want to implement place-based education in their teaching practices must understand the local community, understand different teaching and learning methods, and gain knowledge and understanding in safety issues.

Background: Promoting mental health for Indigenous youth in Canada is a well-documented priority. Indigenous approaches to health promotion share similarities with the holistic process in outdoor adventure and experiential education contexts. The purpose of this study was to develop, implement, and evaluate an Outdoor Adventure Leadership Experience (OALE) for Indigenous adolescents from one First Nations community in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. Methods: Principles of community-based participatory research were used to guide this mixed method study that included three phases. Phase 1 involved the development of a culturally relevant OALE intervention. The intervention was available to adolescents, aged 12-18 years, living in Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve. Phase 2 consisted of a quantitative evaluation of the effectiveness of the OALE, based on participant self-report. It focused primarily on assessing resilience using the 14-Item Resilience Scale (RS-14). Using an ethnographic approach, Phase 3 comprised a qualitative evaluation of the ways in which the OALE promoted resilience and well-being. Results: Phase 1 occurred over a period of 10 months (September 2008 to June 2009), and it resulted in the development of an intentionally designed 10-day OALE program. The program was implemented in the summer of 2009 and 2010 with 73 adolescent participants, aged 12-18 years. Results from Phase 2 revealed that there was a 3.40 point increase in mean resilience for the adolescent participants at one month post-OALE compared to one day pre-OALE (n=46, p=.011), but the improvement was not sustained one year later. Phase 3 results revealed that the OALE facilitated the development of resilience and well-being by helping the adolescents connect to Anishinaabe Bimaadziwin, an Ojibway concept that can be translated as the Good iv Life. Connecting involved an external experiential process of connecting with various aspects of creation and an internal reflective process of connecting within to different aspects of self. Conclusion: The OALE appears to be a program that helped the adolescents: (1) become more resilient in the short-term, and (2) become more aware of Anishinaabe Bimaadziwin (the Good Life) by providing opportunities for connecting with creation and self through a variety of experiences and reflections that were unique for each youth.