In this paper I share my understandings of an elective outdoor environmental education course, a significant component of which was a field school. I helped develop this course at the Canadian university where I work as an academic, with the field school conducted on the island of Kaua'i in Hawaii. The paper describes the university field school and aspects of the underpinning ideas which cohere the course, particularly the model of an ecology of home. The model highlights how technical, socio-cultural and ecological influences all shape interpretations relevant to environmental education. The course involved educational experiences across three botanical gardens in Kaua'i: each of these places contributed uniquely to the development of prospective teachers through the pedagogical idea of "islands of discourse."