Connecting Students with Nature: An Investigation into Outdoor Education

Abstract

Outdoor education can be utilised to develop connections between students and the natural environment as well as promoting resilience and risk taking and benefitting social development and physical and mental wellbeing. Methodologies and strategies developed in countries that have long practiced outdoor education can be adopted but must be adapted for the Irish culture. For outdoor education to work as an educational tool for developing pro-environmental behaviours later in life, it must be integrated not only into the curriculum through policy but also by linking with sociocultural identity. Strategies used in the UK and Scandinavia are discussed and considered in an Irish context.