In this paper, I explore how histories of colonialism are integral to the Euro-Western idea of wilderness at the heart of much outdoor environmental education. In the context of canoe tripping, I speculate about why the politics of land rarely enters into teaching on the land. Finally, because learning from difficult knowledge often troubles the…

In exploring ways to respectfully include Indigenous Knowledges and pedagogies within environmental education programs, the challenge is to ensure strategies used will meaningfully support learning while reflecting local cultural traditions, languages, beliefs, and perspectives. In this paper, key components for science-based environmental…

This paper develops and explores "lehae-la-rona" and its potential value in environment and sustainability discourse. It draws on African-centred concepts and critiques of dominant Eurocentric theoretical frameworks. In particular, Ani's concepts of "asili," "utamawazo" and "utamaroho" and Indigenous knowledge theory are applied to appreciate the…

Storytelling is one way of sharing what it means to live in a particular place: its history, inhabitants, opportunities, challenges, rhythms, ways of life, and obligations to that place. This paper offers an exploration of the nature and significance of coming together to orally share place-based stories, within the context of environmental and…

Education has institutionalized a process that reifies cultures, ecological communities, and ultimately evolution itself. This enclosure has lessened our sensitivity to the pedagogical (eteragogical) nature of our lived relations with other people and with other living beings. By acknowledging that learning and teaching go on between species,…

Graduate students were invited by their faculty advisors to attend the 10th Seminar in Health and Environmental Education Research. Afterward, they were encouraged to comment on their experiences, involvement, and positioning. Two main authors developed survey questions and retrieved, analyzed, and synthesized the responses of four other graduate…

Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue offers an epistemic and ontological orientation upon which an ecological identity can be established as part of an integrated, environmental education. I consider here the significance of a relational self in establishing this ecological identity, as well as the benefits from doing so. This relational,…

A "slow pedagogy of place" in (environmental/outdoor) education has been enacted by the two authors over the past three years in a third year undergraduate semester-long unit named Experiencing the Australian Landscape. An integrated practical and theoretical, de- and reconstruction of fast pedagogies is now needed, we believe, if education is to…

This paper explores the pedagogical benefits of combining remote winter wilderness travel and homestead living with reading, writing, and listening to personal narratives from the expedition region. A co-taught interdisciplinary university course will be used as a case study to demonstrate the ways in which this approach aids in developing…

This article reports on a recent study about Outward Bound Canada's Giwaykiwin program for Aboriginal youth. A key finding that emerged from the study was the need to design contemporary Aboriginal education programs based on a recognition of the evolution of Indigenous cultures and languages in close relationship with specific geographical areas.…

This contribution investigates a recent research project involving in-service teacher learning as experienced through an online/offline art studio in which common experiences of relationships to particular local landforms generate imaginative and collaborative processes and practices of teaching and learning. EarthShapes Studio is both a…

This paper argues that the current ecological crisis arises from our dualistic consciousness which separates mind from body and self from world. This dualistic consciousness prevents us from experiencing the value in nature, and therefore leads to instrumentalist treatment of nature. We explore the Buddhist practice of mindfulness to help…

Based on the idea that eating is an environmental act, we designed an environmental education project where elementary school children and community elders work as partners to raise food crops on an urban organic farm. Our goal was to illustrate how eco-philosophies could be translated into educational programs that foster environmental…

Children's gardening programs have enjoyed increasing popularity in recent years. An Australian environmental education non-profit organization implemented a program, entitled Multicultural Schools Gardens, in disadvantaged (low-income) schools that used food gardening as a focus for implementing a culturally-focused environmental education…

This paper explores the process of going outdoors and using "nature" as a way to support teaching about power and privilege within society. It explores how being inside the classroom hinders the process of understanding and disrupting power dynamics between learners and instructors. The classroom decontextualizes the learning process by denying…