Friluftsliv in Physical Education Teacher education practice – chal-lenges, conflicting meanings and negotiations

In this presentation we explore the content of friluftsliv in physical ed-ucation teacher education (PETE). Friluftsliv is a quite unique cultural tradition with a long and deeply rooted history in the Scandinavian countries, characterised by in-formal living outdoors with ‘nature as home’. At the same time, a more institutional-ised form of friluftsliv occurs as a subject content in schools and an explicit key learning area in physical education (PE) as in for example Norway or Sweden much in the same way that outdoor education is in several other countries. In sum, the unique characteristics of friluftsliv as a cultural tradition entails specific educational challenges when incorporated into school PE. Here, PETE plays an important part in preparing future teachers to educate in matters pertaining to friluftsliv. Hence, the purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge on educational challenges with the use of friluftsliv in PETE practice. In the study, we focus on events where mean-ings of friluftsliv in PETE are in conflict. The empirical material consists of diverse materials from activities in friluftsliv in PETE programmes: study guides, field trip plans, students’ vlogs from overnight stays outdoors, video recordings from two longer field trips, audio recordings from evening seminars during one field trip, and students’ written reflections afterwards. First, we identified situations where mean-ings of friluftsliv are at stake. In the analyses we identified and described educational challenges using a transactional approach. In the results we have provided addi-tional evidence that friluftsliv in PETE is a practice where different meanings are put into play. These meanings are often conflicting. These conflicts, in turn, creates sig-nificant educational challenges for teacher educators, but also for the students in PETE. Illustrative examples from two general challenges will be presented, where meanings of friluftsliv are put into play; (i) Participant