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Character education and environmental/ecological education (EEE) are not often discussed in the same circles of discourse. However, in recent studies of EEE, several teachers have identified the exploration and enactment values pertinent to EEE, with some even naming character education as a potentially helpful framework. In this work, the authors provide an overview of environmental/ecological education, and introduce the framework of ecological mindedness. The authors then consider the conceptual crossover of ecological mindedness with character education, highlighting the ground the two approaches share. This is corroborated and complicated by discourse with educators, their perceptions of ecological mindedness as character education, and the ways in which their ecological beliefs inform their practice. Finally, the authors offer a few next steps for these lines of inquiry, noting the potential of exercising a degree of transdisciplinarity on this front to improve both character education and environmental/ecological education.

This study explores the interaction of participants and institutional cultures in adventure education (AE) through the qualitative method of educational criticism and connoisseurship. Three AE programmes were included in this study: a backpacking expedition (11 participants), a challenge course (29 participants), and a multi-activity adventure programme (21 participants). Through 183 hours of observation and 74 interviews, the thematic categories of cultural rigidity and cultural flexibility were identified. The AE institution exhibits cultural rigidity through guideline enforcement, jargon propagation, and value instillment, which results in participant adaptation. Conversely, the AE institution exhibits cultural flexibility through language accommodation, norm development, and goal setting, which results in participants' ability to sustain selfhood. The implications of these findings include reaffirming the importance of attending to participant experiences in AE and the contention that striking a cultural balance in AE can promote productive cultural interchange as an aim of AE.

Background: Involving communities in school health has been purported as a practice integral to supporting a Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) approach. Although community collaboration is often included in school-based health initiatives, there is little research considering methods for increasing community engagement. The purpose of this study was to identify effective school-based health interventions documenting changes in community engagement. Methods: Academic experts and school stakeholders guided procedures for a systematic review of studies published from 1987-2017 and gray literature (ie, best practice documents; policy documents, etc.) on comprehensive school health interventions including community engagement as a targeted outcome. Results: The search identified 9 studies addressing community as an outcome of school-based health interventions; types of partnership mechanisms and partners' roles were classified. Conclusions: Although involving communities is a WSCC component and commonly recommended as a strategy fundamental to school health, there is little empirical research examining effective strategies for engaging communities and engagement is often not measured as part of intervention studies. Further measurement and research in engaging communities in school health is warranted.

This work presents experiential criticism as a methodology for researching experience in education. The approach draws on elements of pragmatism, phenomenology, ethnography, and educational criticism and connoisseurship and was developed through a study of the adventure education experience. It is comprised of three modes of inquiry: (1) observation of others in experience, (2) conversation about experience, and (3) participation in experience. The use of all three modes positions the researcher to arrive at an empirically corroborated understanding of the experience. This methodology contributes to the body of methods necessary to centre experience in educational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This autoethnography provides a description and thematic illustration of the student experience of a community-based research (CBR) course and partnership. Through evaluating personal experiences with CBR, the author identified three qualities of meaningful CBR experiences: trust, indeterminacy, and emotion. These qualities are explored, and comparisons are made between the outcomes experienced and those established in the literature of student learning in CBR. These findings enrich discourse of student experiences in CBR and corroborate literature on student learning in CBR through illuminating the experience by which that learning occurs.

Educational objectives focus practice and dictate what happens in US classrooms. Currently, instructional objectives are privileged in K-12 schools over other forms of objectives, thereby marginalizing the implementation of some educational perspectives. We argue that objectives should be expanded to attend to the student experience, promoting a variety of practices to utilize in classroom operations. In so doing, we suggest an addition to the network of objectives: experience-based objectives. We review the history of objectives before presenting experience-based objectives as embodying 5 major shifts in thinking, and as actualized through four criteria.

Using the method of educational criticism and connoisseurship, I interviewed and observed 41 participants of adventure education (AE) programmes. Through these efforts, novelty was revealed as a central quality of the experience. In this work, this quality is characterised as it manifest in AE with an eye towards the educational value of novelty. The relationship of novelty to conceptions of educational experience is explored, and implications for schooling are offered.

Objective: In this paper we describe the status of wellbeing for school personnel in the 2021-22 school year through the PERMA framework and the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic adversely impacted dimensions of wellbeing. Methods: We administered the workplace wellbeing survey (a quantitative instrument based on PERMA) to school staff members in a rural/frontier region of a western state of the United States. Overall, 777 persons completed it, including 463 teachers from 23 school districts. Results: PERMA constructs of meaning and accomplishment were higher than other constructs and may serve as an anchor for wellbeing in education. Teachers showed lower levels of positive emotion, engagement, and accomplishment, when compared to nonteachers in schools. When compared with non-Hispanic personnel, Hispanic personnel had lower levels of wellbeing in the domain of relationships and reported a more severe adverse impact from the COVID-19 pandemic on both social and physical wellbeing. Conclusions: Adopting a more nuanced view of educator wellbeing, as defined by more than the mere absence of burnout and attrition is critical to fostering educational practices that promote the flourishing of school personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is an investigation of what happens to participants during their adventure education (AE) experiences and the meanings they ascribe to those experiences. These topics were explored through the qualitative framework of educational connoisseurship and criticism at three sites: a backpacking expedition, a challenge course and a multi-activity adventure programme. Through 183 hours of observation and 74 interviews with 41 participants, the qualities of AE as aesthetic experience were revealed. This conception of AE experience is characterised through sensory encounters, full attention and aesthetic paradox. Findings are supported with the voices of participants, and the significance of this conception of AE experience is discussed.

This study builds upon ongoing research of ecological mindedness by exploring how teachers appraise and incorporate ecological care, interconnectedness, and ecological integrity into lesson planning, as well as how teachers reconcile these qualities with their current professional responsibilities. These topics are explored through educational connoisseurship and criticism, using think alouds to learn from teachers as they plan lessons with the qualities of ecological mindedness as a framework. Findings indicate that teachers view ecological mindedness as relevant for schools in terms of content, engagement, and students' lives; as compatible with standards and other external mandates; and as a form of character education.

This work chronicles strategies used to engage a low-income rural community in the development of a middle school service-learning curriculum. Through interviews, focus groups, meetings, and retreats, we engaged in a cycle of implementing the curriculum, soliciting feedback, and revising materials. The community's feedback led us to simplify the curriculum, make lessons user-friendly for teachers, and incorporate more engaging activities for students. The significance and implications of this approach are discussed.

This study is a phenomenological portraiture of an adventurer that explores the meanings of the adventure experience. Through interview and observation, I reveal four thematic meanings of the adventure experience for the research participant: solitude and camaraderie; escape; challenge; and living life. The implications of these findings for adventure education are discussed.

This article suggests a framework for evaluating and implementing environmental education (EE) curricula in hopes of furthering EE as a mode of living to be embodied, rather than as a subject to be learned. We argue that the current iterations of EE in K-12 schools stand to benefit by attending to Dewey's criteria for educative experience: continuity and interaction. Through an analysis of current literature on EE with a comparative analysis of a study of ecologically minded teachers, we discerned three hallmark qualities of ecological mindedness: ecological care, interconnectedness, and ecological integrity. These qualities are both characteristics of the experience as well as sensibilities developed by those engaged in the experience. We argue that ecological mindedness provides the possibility for educative experiences in K-12 curriculum, and we include vignettes and interviews that illustrate such possibilities.

Some had critiques of particular character education programs (i.e., Character Counts and "token economy" forms of character education), and this may have colored the extent to which they were willing or able to identify connections between the two. The field of EEE may stand to benefit from the methods of character education because virtue development, as it is presented in the context of character education, may be a viable pathway for achieving the aims of EEE. Another participant, who directs a state environmental education nonprofit organization, saw character education as an indirect consequence of environmental education: "I don't think most environmental educators are going in with the intention of being character [educators]. Character education and environmental/ecological education (EEE) are not often discussed in the same circles of discourse. [Extracted from the article]

This study explores the interaction of participants and institutional cultures in adventure education (AE) through the qualitative method of educational criticism and connoisseurship. Three AE programmes were included in this study: a backpacking expedition (11 participants), a challenge course (29 participants), and a multi-activity adventure programme (21 participants). Through 183 hours of observation and 74 interviews, the thematic categories of cultural rigidity and cultural flexibility were identified. The AE institution exhibits cultural rigidity through guideline enforcement, jargon propagation, and value instillment, which results in participant adaptation. Conversely, the AE institution exhibits cultural flexibility through language accommodation, norm development, and goal setting, which results in participants' ability to sustain selfhood. The implications of these findings include reaffirming the importance of attending to participant experiences in AE and the contention that striking a cultural balance in AE can promote productive cultural interchange as an aim of AE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The Working Together Project (WTP) is a classroom-based curriculum in which rural, low-income middle school students completed "Assess. Identify. Make it Happen," a strategic planning process to improve student health by implementing evidence-based initiatives. The curriculum consisted of 30, 55-minute lessons and 28 "workdays" for students to conduct research, create communication materials, and develop presentations. Study goals were to: (1) assess the extent to which the WTP led to the implementation of evidence-based practices; and (2) describe student-level outcomes that resulted from participating in the WTP. Methods: We conducted a quasi-experimental, convergent mixed-methods study with 4 intervention and 2 control middle schools located in a low-income, rural region. We carried out pre/post student surveys and interviews with teachers, principals, and students. Results: Two of the 4 intervention schools completed the entire curriculum and implemented evidence-based practices. Students in control schools showed a decline in school connection, academic engagement, and knowledge of health problems, whereas students in the intervention arm showed increases in personal responsibility to solve problems, 21st century skills, school connectedness, and program planning skills. Conclusions: When implemented fully, the WTP is a promising youth-led, adultsupported strategy for implementing evidence-based practices to promote health in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study builds upon ongoing research of ecological mindedness by exploring how teachers appraise and incorporate ecological care, interconnectedness, and ecological integrity into lesson planning, as well as how teachers reconcile these qualities with their current professional responsibilities. These topics are explored through educational connoisseurship and criticism, using think alouds to learn from teachers as they plan lessons with the qualities of ecological mindedness as a framework. Findings indicate that teachers view ecological mindedness as relevant for schools in terms of content, engagement, and students’ lives; as compatible with standards and other external mandates; and as a form of character education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work chronicles strategies used to engage a low-income rural community in the development of a middle school service-learning curriculum. Through interviews, focus groups, meetings, and retreats, we engaged in a cycle of implementing the curriculum, soliciting feedback, and revising materials. The community's feedback led us to simplify the curriculum, make lessons user-friendly for teachers, and incorporate more engaging activities for students. The significance and implications of this approach are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This autoethnography provides a description and thematic illustration of the student experience of a community-based research (CBR) course and partnership. Through evaluating personal experiences with CBR, the author identified three qualities of meaningful CBR experiences: trust, indeterminacy, and emotion. These qualities are explored, and comparisons are made between the outcomes experienced and those established in the literature of student learning in CBR. These findings enrich discourse of student experiences in CBR and corroborate literature on student learning in CBR through illuminating the experience by which that learning occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses challenges associated with conducting educational research outdoors. Topics explored include the tension and satisfaction which may be attributed to the wilderness connected to adventure education, the outdoor research procedures that need to be performed such as asking questions and analyzing collected data, and the security of young research participants particularly during travels.

This chapter uses Thoreau's philosophy of spirituality, experience, and education as an exemplar for contemporary experiential educators. With the help of Thoreau, I expose a conceptual oversight in experiential education; ultimately calling for a reconsideration of spirituality in human experience, and a reevaluation of experiential education in light of the Thoreauvian conception of spiritual-experiential learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]