Philosophy
The discipline may be best thought of as 'learning outdoors', and over many years staff in the outdoor education section have developed a programme structure which addresses its key features: outdoor activities/skills, personal and social education and environmental education. Clearly any educational activity that takes place outdoors raises particular safety issues and must operate in a framework of safe and professional practice. This is depicted in the model shown below which was developed in the section and is now in widespread use throughout the world.
Most of those who work in the field do so within education (ie school/local authority), community education or charitable trusts which adopt similar professional standards. As such the expectation of any academic or professional programme in outdoor education is that it will comply with the principles which underpin the main legislative instrument in the sector, the Activity Centres (Young Persons Safety Act) 1995, and meet the standards of the profession and its professional body (the Institute for Outdoor Learning). These demand both conceptual understanding and practical/professional competence in the areas delineated by the model.
Whilst practical competence and professional standards are of obvious significance to the programme, the philosophical approach and intended learning outcomes are equally so. For example, as an experiential approach is the essence of Outdoor Education, shared practical experience must be drawn upon in the more academic aspects of the programme. The breadth and diversity implicit in 'learning outdoors' demands attention to matters of inter-disciplinarity and holism. Both are addressed by relating theory to practice and careful co-ordination and cross-referencing of aspects of the programme.
To be a critically aware professional in this field demands practical involvement and teaching competence. Consequently the programme has both an academic and a practical 'competency' element. Throughout there will be an emphasis on practical experience in the field. This reflects an experiential concept of outdoor education, where there is direct contact with the outdoors and a freedom from the constraints of urban environments. The programme will provide opportunities for gaining instructional training as well as skills in a range of outdoor activities and in living in a variety of residential situations.
It will also provide course members with the opportunity to gain a broad knowledge of the environment and will enable them to use the countryside as a resource and to develop an understanding of its dynamics, balances and fragility. It will generate debate on the questions posed by the dominant role of human beings in the environment.
Practical and professional skill development are considered so central to the programme that they are identified here as an additional Professional Development Programme.
'It made me realize how thankful I am for this journey that put me with you and the other tutors. The trek has been everything I hoped for, and then some. I suppose there are other programs that might have taught me some things about the outdoors, but I'm not sure if I'd have learned to think as critically.'
—MSc student 2005-6
