An event for PhD Students, Early Career Researchers and Outdoor Education Practitioners aiming to promote research-based discussion of outdoor education, and to consider the relationship between educational youth work in alternative spaces and social justice.

This seminar brings attention to the definition of learning, learning in the outdoor space, and the educative value of learning beyond the walls for youth development and for pedagogical development. There is no one fit all solution in the realm of education, exploring alternative approaches of learning and education is always significant, not only regarding the quality of education, but also the contribution to education equality and even the learners’ physical and mental health. ‘Diversity’ in learning is a prescient concern at a time when social and political change has subjected young people to growing inequalities. This event will explore to what extent the possibilities for experience and collective association afforded by outdoor learning can address the exclusionary effects of traditional educational spaces.

The programme for the day is as follows:

12.30pm – Registration

1:00 - 1:45 pm – Plenary Talk, with Q&A

The event will open with a plenary talk from Dr Simon Beames Senior Lecturer in Outdoor Learning at the University of Edinburgh, and a series of workshops exploring new research on the relations of outdoor spaces, pedagogy and learning.

1:45 - 2:15 pm - Christian Hanser - Experiential seminar breaks in a tiny house: a resting space beyond walls

2:15 – 2.30pm – COFFEE BREAK

2.30pm to 3:30 pm - Presentations

Presentation 1: Susanne Paulus - Refugees welcome: Exploring outdoor learning in the context of ‘integration’

Presentation 2: Athina Georgiou Shippi - Adolescents’ Environmental Behaviour, Attitudes, and Knowledge: A comparative Study between Scotland and Cyprus

Workshop: 3.30 – 4.30pm

Cathe NADAL & Yujun XU - Sail-training simulation: a space for learning and transformation

4.30pm to 4.45pm – discussion and close