Nature is in many ways considered a source to both physical and mental health among people. Trends in today’s society reveal that children become more distanced to nature. Seen from the perspective of sustainable development this trend is considered crucial: it is of importance that children in their early ages experience nature positively in order to develop a dedication towards environmental issues as adults. The purpose of this study is to investigate how teachers use outdoor learning as an educational tool. Research data were collected through a series of interviews. Teachers from two different primary schools were interviewed, and one of the schools is oriented towards outdoor education. The data were analyzed based on the teachers’ ideas of children’s attitudes towards, and possibilities to, spending time in their natural surroundings. The results show that all participating teachers are of the opinion that children today generally spend less time outdoors. This could partly be connected to the increased range of technical products that makes spending time indoors more appealing. The parents’ influence in terms of passing on their attitudes towards nature to their children is considered an important factor. The teachers use their understanding of the pupils’ needs of outdoor experiences as a starting point in their outdoor educational activities. All participating teachers emphasize health, outdoor activities, environmental education and both personal and social development as significant parts of outdoor education. Our conclusion based on this study emphasizes the ability to mediate sustainable approaches towards nature as an important part of teachers’ work in outdoor education. The teachers are committed to their work with passion and consequently they provide positive nature experiences to the pupils. Perhaps emotion and empathy for nature is the most significant part of what teachers pass on to their pupils through outdoor education with an aim for sustainable development.

This study characterizes the content and internal structure of a set of conceptions of outdoor education. Fifty-four English speaking Canadian university programs or courses which were labelled, or contained as essential parts of their descriptions. The term outdoor education or any of a series of related terms provide the basis for analysis. A conception is defined as a coordinated set of central concepts, values and procedures which are explicit or implicit in course documents. The study employed a methodological triangulation. Content analysis of course documents provided the description of the values, central concepts and procedures associated with each course. Q methodology was performed by course conductors to review the 'values' and 'central concepts' components found in the content analysis and to express their views of the significance of those values and central concepts. A focused interview was conducted with fourteen course developers to confirm, refute or extend previously obtained data. Q methodology produced a typology of outdoor education comprising five primary conceptions¹ and one secondary conception: The Outdoor Recreationist, The Adventurer, The Education, The Life Skills Entrepreneur, The Environmentalist, Distinguishing features of each conception and features common among the primary conceptions are discussed. Focused interviews produced information about course conductor attitudes and training , the program's relationship with other fields of study, the concept's need for clarification, the need for a common knowledge base in outdoor education, and its relationship with the natural environment, teaching, recreation and education. Suggestions for further investigation are briefly discussed. "Environmentalist", "The Educator", "The Life Skills Entrepreneur", and "The Administrator" are heuristic devices which refer to an ideal type of individual who embodies a co-ordinated set of central concepts, values, and procedures which are explicit or implicit a conception of outdoor education.

There is a long-held assumption that Outdoor Adventure Education (OAE) can develop character. However, little research has explored this belief. While many practitioners, and some scholars, remain committed to character development through OAE, the literature also reveals a growing body of discomfort and suspicion surrounding this assumption. This dissent centres on the vague nature of the term “character,” and the moral philosophical complexities surrounding the concept of character itself. Until “character” is more clearly explicated, any resolution to the current confusion is unlikely. This thesis employs Aristotle’s virtue theory, as espoused in his Nicomachean Ethics, to articulate an understanding of character. Although several scholars have used virtue ethics, commonly referred to as character ethics, to support their claims of character development through OAE, these treatments have been preliminary, warranting this more detailed account. When viewed from this virtue ethical perspective, the question, “Can character be developed through OAE?,” becomes problematic. For Aristotle cautions that different subjects of inquiry yield differing levels of accuracy, and with regard to ethical investigations, such as those into character, one must be content to “indicate the truth roughly and in outline” (I 3§4). Further complicating the matter, Aristotle asserts that virtue, a disposition, and the building block of character is gradually and arduously inculcated over long periods of time (I 7§16). While virtue theory implies that radical character transformation is, in any context, unlikely over brief stints of time, this does not mean that OAE programmes are of little moral worth. To the contrary, a detailed examination into a virtue ethical understanding of character suggests that certain elements of OAE programmes may xii have strong moral relevance. This relevance is found in Aristotle’s three conditions that cultivate the development of virtue, conditions readily found within many OAE courses: moral reflection; moral practice; and sharing in the moral lives of others. Drawing on my own interest and experience within OAE, an expedition seemed an ideal setting to explore the presence and content of Aristotle’s three conditions. In hope of discovering this moral narrative, a qualitative case study was conducted on a two-week wilderness expedition in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. The expedition was a first-year transition experience for students attending a Christian liberal college in the United States. Utilising interviews as a primary method, and observations and texts as secondary methods, the research explored the participants’ expedition experience from a virtue ethical perspective. A thematic analysis revealed that participants reported reflecting on their moral lives in both formal (e.g. group reviews, solo, journals) and informal (e.g. while hiking and performing camp chores) settings. Similarly, whether through the mental and physical endurance required in off-trail navigation, or the care expressed through the acts of service and gracious tolerance necessitated by the social demands of expeditionary life, the participants viewed their wilderness travel as a constant opportunity for moral practice. Lastly, the participants identified the community formed on their expedition to be integral to their increased moral self-perception. Although a virtue ethical perspective precludes claiming anything definitive regarding the participants’ character development, at the least, the expedition can be said to have contributed to their moral journey in ways that are directly relevant to their character.

This thesis traces the development of outdoor education in New Zealand schools. Part one deals with precursors to outdoor education, from the late nineteenth century to 1938, and in part two school camping experiments and the expansion of outdoor education are examined. Outdoor education was stimulated by subject specialists working for education boards and the Department of Education, and the end of the period studied coincides with the disestablishment of these administrative bodies in 1989. Where possible, comparison with overseas developments is made. Outdoor education was adopted and expanded in New Zealand because political, economic and ideological circumstances favoured it. Progressive-liberal influences on education fostered acceptance of physical, recreational and practical activities and emphasis on the interests and needs of individual pupils. Social and economic policies of the later 1930s to the 1960s established a climate in which innovations that broadened the school curriculum were acceptable. From the late 1960s the struggle to resource outdoor education was exacerbated by its rapid rate of growth. The government funding attained was never sufficient and community support remained vital. Safety concerns from the 1960s to the end of the period precipitated efforts to establish teacher training and by the 1980s there was a growing professionalism among outdoor educators. Links between outdoor education and the school curriculum at both primary and secondary levels were maintained by changes in terminology but its central concerns with social and moral education, environmental studies, physical activity and communal living in natural environments remained. Unlike most other curriculum innovations of its time, outdoor education was initially viewed as a teaching method and it did not attain formal subject status until the 1980s.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2007. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Oct. 30, 2007). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Appl. Sc.) -- Lincoln University, 2008. / Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin -- La Crosse, 1999. / Digitized and made available by the University of Wisconsin--La Crosse, Murphy Library. Includes bibliographical references. Online version of print edition.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2005. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-200). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2008. / A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Centre for Educational Research, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographies.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1995. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 267-268).