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Background: Current research in outdoor adventure education advocates for deeper attention to place and the role that place and the more-than-human world play in pedagogical processes. However, historical and socio-cultural analysis of the roots of OAE reveals an educational approach that encourages adversarial human–nature relations toward the pursuit of anthropocentric outcomes. The use of sublime environments towards these ends does not naturally align with the more recent attempts to foster environmental behaviors through OAE. Purpose: This research addresses the ambiguity between "place" and "pedagogy" to suggest a reimagined role of the sublime that fosters more empathetic human–nature relations. Methodology/Approach: This research utilizes philosophical phenomenology and postqualitative analysis to develop an argument for engaging with sublime environments in ways that cultivate empathetic human–nature relations. Findings/Conclusions: I argue for an awareness of the material aspect of sublime experiences that precedes construction and can inspire empathetic and reciprocal human–nature relations. Implications: Reimagining the sublime as a material phenomenon that is relational and promotes virtues of humility, respect, and care for the more-than-human world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Problematic trends have been identified with student travel that perpetuate hierarchies of power in outdoor recreation. Little research has examined the impact of bias, racism, or political national meta-narratives regarding immigration and people crossing the border on students who enter areas where cultural differences exist. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand how a place-based outdoor recreation experience impacted students' understanding of recreational experiences on a trip in the border region of Texas. Methodology/Approach: Using a constructivist qualitative approach, the researchers provided a group of college students with place-based lessons about the Texas and Mexico border prior to and during a canoe trip along the border. The team then conducted semi-structured interviews to understand student experiences. Findings/Conclusions: The findings from this project suggest that place-based lessons may have helped students refute faulty meta-narrative, humanize cultural others, and induce sympathy for fellow travelers in the region. Implications: This project has implications for environmental educators who are teaching in places where power differentials exist between students and local people. Educators may find place-based education to be a useful tool in preparing students to learn in a non-extractive way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Educators report needing relevant and authentic climate change educational resources (CCER). National parks are informal education centers that can provide CCER for educators. However, little is known about the CCER that exist across the national parks in the United States. Purpose: To increase the knowledge in this area, this study uncovered which CCER are offered by national parks in the US, what content is covered in these resources, and their perceived affordances and constraints. Methodology/Approach: Park employees completed an online survey regarding the CCER available within their national park. The survey included closed-ended and open-ended questions. Closed-ended responses were analyzed for descriptive statistics regarding the types of CCER. Open-ended responses were analyzed for content in the CCER, perceived affordances and constraints, and future directions. Findings/Conclusions: Results show that the national parks in this study collectively offer a variety of CCER that cover a range of climate change topics. In addition to the material resources provided, national parks also provide social resources for educators. Collectively, these resources offer many educational affordances. Implications: This study suggests that science educators should consider leveraging the CCER available from national parks. In addition, national parks should consider collaborating in the development of CCER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A Green school (GS) is one way to attempt to reduce the environmental crisis. Teaching in green schools, which is established on a place-based education (PBE) approach that adopts outdoor and experiential learning, should provide students with a holistic view of the environmental crisis that connects local processes to global processes. Purpose: To explore the environmental perspective of fourth-grade students who participate in an experiential outdoor PBE program by examining how they link local, natural phenomena to the global environmental crisis. Methodology/Approach: Phenomenological methods were used in the interpretive approach through student drawing and explanation analysis. Findings/Conclusions: Students could not seem to link the local natural phenomena to a more extensive picture of the global environmental crisis. Implications: We recommend that teachers in green schools who emphasize PBE rethink the incorporation of the concept of "environmental crisis." The analogy of assembling a puzzle may allow switching from looking at the global picture to examining at the local level. In this way, they may provide students with a more holistic view of the environmental crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Birding is ideal for engaging students in authentic scientific inquiry because it relies on specialized equipment, requires keen observation skills, engages prior knowledge, and activates critical thinking. However, there is very little research on the benefits of birding in K-12 education. Purpose: Two elementary teachers created an afterschool bird club to engage students in birding to help them develop a better appreciation for their surroundings and increase awareness of the natural world. This qualitative study was conducted over two academic years and investigated the role an afterschool birding club had on students’ interaction with nature and their peers. Methodology/Approach: Using a primarily ethnographic approach, teacher interviews, parent survey data and interviews, and field notes guided the understanding of the research question. Findings/Conclusions: The study reveals an evident value for elementary students in social interactions, improved relationships with others, a building of scientific knowledge and awareness, and an increased appreciation for nature. Implications: Benefits include allowing students to interact with tools and materials relating to science and bird identification. They make this a fun way to enact their passion and hopefully inspire children to develop a love for birds, birding, and a desire to conserve the local habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Over 35 years ago, the Brundtland Report entitled Our Common Future shed light on the impacts of human behavior on the environment and raised global awareness about sustainability. Since then, sustainability has become a prominent issue influencing most spheres of life including outdoor education (OE). Purpose: This inquiry seeks to identify the necessary conditions for justifying OE travel to far-away places. Methodology: We investigated this question using practitioner inquiry and thematic analysis. Findings: The authors believe some far-away journeys can be justified and recommend that these journeys are guided by featuring learning objectives that are best learned in specific far-away places; maintaining strong connections to the students’ everyday lives; including high levels of student involvement in sustainability-related decisions; and through providing novel and unexpected experiences that are unlikely to occur locally. Finally, we believe there is a case to be made for longer rather than shorter journeys. Implications: We caution against developing a binary which pits local OE against journeys to far-away places. Rather, both local and far-away journeys have an important role to play in OE programs that aim to build a world that is more socially and environmentally just. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Both national park (NP) interpretation and place-based education (PBE) approach learning by applying the unique attributes of a place to facilitate meaning-making experiences within learners. Despite the similarities between these two place-centered pedagogies, there is a limited amount of collaboration between NP interpretative services and school systems engaged with PBE. Purpose: Within this integrative review, my purpose is to fully consider both NP interpretation and PBE to present a comprehensive understanding of the two types of pedagogies. Methodology/Approach: Following an integrative review methodology, I use three different databases to access relevant empirical and theoretical articles. I evaluate and analyze each article separately, then methodically integrate the two place-centered pedagogies. Findings/Conclusions: There are some key similarities between ideologies and epistemologies, goals, approaches to learning, and content matter of NP interpretation and PBE. There are also considerable differences relating to perceptions of learning, the incorporation of the local setting, and the role of the community. Implications: A collaboration between the National Park Service (NPS) and place-based educators has the potential to open up a wealth of possibilities when it comes to learning about and caring for the rich ecology, history, and culture of a given place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The book “Outdoor Learning Across the Curriculum: Theory and Guidelines for Practice” is a guidebook written for those interested in utilizing outdoor settings for educational purposes. The second edition expands on the original text by including new perspectives and addressing outdoor learning in various settings, including day excursions and overnight stays. The text suggests that integrating outdoor education into the curriculum better prepares students for the challenges of the modern era. Purpose: This book review examines the author’s proposed theoretical frameworks that aims to assist educators in implementing outdoor teaching practices. Methodology/Approach: The authors use a combination of research synthesis, case studies, and practical guidance to demonstrate innovative approaches to outdoor learning. They provide examples that connect new ideas to familiar teaching practices. Findings/Conclusions: The book proposes outdoor education as an alternative teaching practice to address pressing issues such as climate change, pandemics, social inequality, and mental and physical health. Implications: Beames et al's work contributes to the broader conversation on education and sustainability, advocating for a more holistic approach to teaching that prepares students to be responsible beings of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Higher education policy increasingly conceptualizes industry-linked, service, and place-based forms of education in terms of experiential education. Although potentially promising, this turn toward experience risks instrumentalizing and marketizing experience, which is exacerbated by individualized theories of experiential learning. Purpose: Some scholars have therefore called for more sociological accounts of experiential learning, inviting deeper consideration of how individual experience is connected to social, cultural, or environmental factors. Methodology/Approach: This article responds to that call by explicating the praxis of Gestalt therapy, often associated with the individualistic human potential movement, but which nevertheless offers a framework for reconceptualizing theory and pedagogy of experiential education in more sociological terms. A brief history of Gestalt therapy foregrounding its sociological and experiential basis is followed by explanation of the three pillars of Gestalt therapy (commitment to dialogue, phenomenology, and field theory). Findings/Conclusions: This framework is shown to support a more sociologically oriented theory and praxis of experiential education that also integrates divergent understandings of experience. Implications: Given the turn toward experience in higher education and contemporary flourishing of cooperative social processes in general, defining experiential education more explicitly in terms of Gestalt praxis promises a timely enhancement of both, in the service of socially responsible objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Global learning outcomes (GLOs) are increasingly emphasized within higher education because of the advantages they provide in navigating globalized contexts. The process of global learning may be understood through Mezirow's theory of transformational learning, in which presentation of dissonant information results in more open, inclusive frames of reference. Purpose: We propose that local community-based experiential learning may facilitate development of GLOs through a process of transformational learning. Methodology/Approach: We used consensual qualitative research-modified (CQR-M) method to describe outcomes of a service-based experiential learning opportunity called Community Kitchen. Findings/Conclusions: Our analyses yielded seven domains within participant responses, many of which align with GLOs: impacting knowledge and skills, changing attitudes through transformational learning, contributing to personal benefit, facilitating relational connections, influencing vocational identity, engaging with the community, and providing a unique experience. Implications: Experiential learning may be a viable avenue through which global learning occurs locally through service-learning experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Outdoor Experiential Education (OEE) in the United Kingdom is steeped in tradition. Established practices limit the ability of outdoor professionals to respond to the global challenges of the modern world through locally relevant ways. Internationally, Higher Education (HE) is also currently subject to considerable challenges and its continued relevance can be gauged through its ability to become meaningful in a rapidly changing and pluralistic world. Purpose: We examine the impact of our pedagogical approach to working with international students, developing professional practice informed by one place, set within the context of the needs of the world and framed by the question “what kind of outdoor educator do you want to become?” Methodology/Approach: The authors used Dewey’s concept of occupations as an organizing principle for the curriculum. Four excursions involving 86 students were facilitated and reviewed. Findings/Conclusions: The norms of traditional OEE practices were predominantly overcome and innovative ways of co-creating knowledge emerged. Implications: If outdoor educators develop their own occupation in the context of wider needs, they can become place-responsive as well as continuously open to change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: College students generally participate in study abroad experiences (SAE) at times of identity and value development as emerging adults. SAE has been criticized as perpetuating colonial acts through the project of globalization. Purpose: This research examined how participants construct meaning about place(s) and how this meaning relates to their sense of self during a 3-week expedition-style SAE in the Bolivian Andes. Methodology/Approach: SAE included place-based learning activities, cultural immersion, service projects, adventure travel, and two concurrent academic courses. Data were gathered from eight participants through written journal assignments, researcher observations, and field notes. Findings/Conclusions: Five themes emerged: personal growth, a multiplicity of meaning, privilege and global perspective, an urban-rural effect, and a taste for more. The social context and comfort–discomfort continuum are discussed as influencing factors. Implications: Findings suggest a place-based SAE can influence value formation and reflective practice of emerging adults. While findings echo SAE as a privileged experience, the question of latent effects of SAE on emerging adult social justice perspectives is raised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In recent years interest has increased in the role of out-of-school learning (OSL) in improving science education and students’ motivation toward learning. In Hungary, however, little is known about the practice and outlook of OSL. Purpose: This study explored (a) how Hungarian primary schools use OSL places (including the location, frequency, and motivation of the visits), (b) the overall attitudes toward OSL, and (c) whether any obstacles to OSL exist that schools need to overcome. Methodology/Approach: We used a large-scale online survey collecting data from a total of 4,861 respondents, which identified the parameters of OSL programs organized by primary schools. Findings/Conclusions: Results reveal that schools follow the recommendations of the National Core Curriculum on OSL, but such programs only occasionally take place, even though the majority of respondents expressed the desire for increased frequency. The main reasons for the low prevalence of OSL activities are difficulties with financial arrangements and fitting them into the syllabus. Implications: Further research should focus on how to overcome barriers to OSL to take the intention of the respondents into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The current study, Project EARPOD (Engaging At-Risk Populations Outdoors, Digitally), addressed two questions: First, does the use of technology in environmental education detract from students’ experiences outdoors? Second, can these technological interventions be expanded to provide access to students and schools across the socioeconomic spectrum? Purpose: EARPOD used an integrated technology program, Digital Observation Technology Skills (DOTS), to engage underserved students in experiential education meant to increase environmental literacy and provide evaluative data for pedagogical development in environmental education. Methodology/Approach: Researchers collected data on the impact of technology-integrated environmental programming on students’ knowledge and attitudes toward using technology in outdoor education. Lessons were conducted in small groups, encouraging peer mentoring with regard to tool use and observation that promoted teamwork within groups at an informal science learning (ISL) center. Findings/Conclusions: Preliminary results showed that students reported an increase in three main characteristics with regard to technology: confidence in using technologies outdoors, knowledge of available technologies, and knowledge of using different technologies. Implications: The results of the Project EARPOD study will help future educators and administrators make decisions regarding best practices and resource allocation for the use of technology within the field of environmental education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Place-based education and mindfulness are not new concepts, but the idea of combining the two bodies of work to explore what mindful place-based education might look like may provide a useful new perspective. The purpose of the literature review is to take place-based pedagogical methods and examine how mindfulness might influence the experience of educators engaged in place-based teaching. In this literature review, I examine the constructs of place-based education and sociocognitive mindfulness with special attention to literature that offers insight about possible overlap between the two constructs. I examine methodological choices and findings of foundational research describing both constructs. This literature review found that place-based education and mindfulness are closely linked, and that a mindful place-based pedagogy may help teachers and students experience place in a deeper way and think more critically about the societal norms and power structures that surround them. Outdoor educators should use mindful place-based education to help deepen student and teacher experiences of place with the intent of encouraging students to critically examine power structures and strive for deeper learning experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field philosophy is interdisciplinary experiential environmental humanities learning. It grows from a community-focused conception of environmental ethics and place-based environmental education, and it aims to help students develop an awareness of the role of environmental ethics in environmental issues, as well as cultivate an empathetic environmental ethic that might enable them to participate in environmental problem solving. The emotional, cognitive, and physical relationships with people, place, and ideas at the core of field philosophy necessitate a pedagogy that attends to affective learning objectives and relationship building. A shared focus connects literature in experiential education, educational psychology research on emotional engagement, and the ethic of care. A synthesis of this literature grounds an environmental pedagogy of care with meaningful potential for field philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a new educational field labeled "place-based education" and relates it to experiential learning. This term has appeared in the educational literature over the last 10 years and illustrates a concern for providing participants with quality experiences in local settings. After defining and describing the term, one aspect of Aldo Leopold's life is examined through selected quotations. His pedagogy of place and how he related to the outdoors is explained. Leopold was a philosopher, writer, ecologist, and educator who died in 1948. This article explores some ways that he established an I- Thou relationship with nature at his Wisconsin shack. The story of his meanderings on the land is graphically told in the collection of essays titled, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (Leopold, 1949). To find out how Leopold related to the land, 10 of his discovery techniques were identified from the text. If experiential educators want to deepen their interaction with the natural and cultural environment, Aldo Leopold's field techniques and the writings of other naturalists may offer some clues for establishing a richer I - Thou relationship with places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly a half-century ago. Aldo Leopold acknowledged the threat of "landlessness" in our society as measured by the loss of our collective awareness of, and admiration for, the land (Leopold. 1966). At present, this disconnect has evolved to the point where participants in adventure-based programs may find themselves traveling through "Any Woods, USA." perceiving the landscape as an interchangeable backdrop rather than developing a personal connection to It. Experiential educators can take a tangible step toward solving this dilemma by promoting "landfull" experiences that actively engage students with place. The Landfull Framework consists of four areas of "landfullness:" (a) Being Deeply Aware, (b) Interpreting Land History, (c) Sensing Place in the Present, and (d) Connecting to Home. The essence of landfullness is for participants to discover a personal approach of relating to the land that is integral to everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issue 44(4) rounds out 2021, a year when everyone thought the world might be further through the COVID pandemic than it is. In an innovative follow-up article, Karen L. Anderson, Margaret E. Pierce, and Kathleen M. McNamara revisit their 2019 study (see JEE issue 42[3], pp. 229-248) and demonstrate that service-learning involvement can have a long-term impact on teachers who participate during their preservice training. Lan Kolano and Anna Sanczyk report on their study of preservice teachers engaged in a service project involving English language learners. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Cliff Knapp on the emerging field of place-based education and another by Molly Baker on a rationale for reconnecting to the land and offers practical suggestions for implementing a landfull approach to adventure leadership.