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Week 2: September 16/18

Criteria for assignment #1:

Outdoor Education and School Curriculum

When I first heard about outside school and part-time outside schools, i'll be honest with you I was very hesitant to be on board. While examining this process through the article by Quay, j. (2016), it really gave me a new perspective and here I stand now defending that outside education absolutely needs to be a subject and is very important to all subject matters and is a key component in subjects and also of self. Some may argue that outdoor education is an alternative but throughout the assignment I will be doing I plan to argue that outdoor education is a subject and key part of other subject. Quay put forward that outdoor education "introduces the idea that education involves more than just curriculum and pedagogy, for it is ontological, about being, about who we are in the world, about who we have been and can be. We need to see this deeper layer of ways of being, for it is in a living, experiential way of being that particular ways of doing (process) and knowing (content) make sense and come to life" Quay, j. (2016). This pushes the envelope of education and curriculum and the idea of a subject as body of knowledge (content) nor skills and practices (process) but in a deeper level of educational understanding which emphasizes ways of being.

I think we quickly think especially in Saskatchewan to what about the weather? The climate will take away from the education received and will interfere but what if we look at the climate as an added experience to the education. Even if we were to use the product as a process, which, I dont believe is the best process of curriculum but, if we did, think of how many of the students go on to work in careers which take place outside. Is our school system setting them up to flourish in this environment? Ex. Constuction, roads, electrical, oil and gas, surveying... the list is endless. Outdoor education would give people a new understanding of the environment, the earth and weather. This will create deeper thinkers in understanding the world and who they are and where they are and think. 

Works Cited
Quay, John. "Outdoor Education and School Curriculum Distinctiveness: More than Content, More than Process." Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, vol. 19, no. 2, 2016, pp. 42-50. ProQuest, https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.uregina.ca/docview/1862733275?accountid=13480.


Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 23, 2019 at 4:35 PM

    I think this is a very interesting topic to research about especially because the weather is Saskatchewan is not the greatest.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 23, 2019 at 4:35 PM

    I think this is a very interesting topic to research about especially because the weather is Saskatchewan is not the greatest.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jeff MillarSeptember 23, 2019 at 4:37 PM

    Good point about outdoor work. Plenty of students will spend much of their careers outside. You're right that an outdoor education could help them better understand and appreciate the natural environment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownSeptember 23, 2019 at 4:38 PM

    I agree with your point about whether. Things don't always cooperate and we have to work with that. I know in our outdoor ed in highschool they did a canoe trip that was completely roughing it in the middle of nowhere. Do you think these kind of experiences would push students to think through basic problems in different ways and outside of the outdoor context?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kyla HamblyDecember 11, 2019 at 10:37 AM

      I do actually. I think that the way of thinking changed when understanding changes. The more students understand outdoors and the elements the more it will change their thought process.

      Delete

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