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On The Construction, Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Experience in ‘Critical’ Outdoor Education

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Abstract

Experience is at the historical heart of outdoor education, caring for the environment/nature is a new moral imperative for ‘critical’ outdoor education, yet the activity basis of the outdoor/nature experience/imperative and the discourse(s) in which they function are rarely examined. To rectify this oversight, different constructions of critical outdoor education are contrasted to highlight the potency of the ecopolitic and (socio-)environmental ethic embodied in each construction. The essay concludes reconstructively with an elaboration of some critical dimensions of outdoor education. The paper invites ‘reflective’ and ‘critical’ outdoor/experiential educators to scrutinize the meanings they give to ‘experience’, how they construct it pedagogically in and through selected activities in certain environments and how, in turn, there are individual, social and ecological consequences for the ‘experiencer’, (outdoor) education’s role in constituting such subjectivities and, subsequently, how ‘inner’, ‘social’ and ‘outer’ natures are constructed, often in contradiction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Education, La Trobe University, PO Box 199, Bendigo, Vic, 3552, Australia

    Phillip Payne (Senior Lecturer)

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  1. Phillip Payne
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Correspondence to Phillip Payne.

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former Head of Outdoor Education. He is a member of the International Editorial Board of Environmental Education Research. Phillip was employed in Bendigo in 1983 to conceptualise, develop and lead the Bachelor of Arts (Outdoor Education), the first undergraduate degree in Australia (and the southern hemisphere) specializing in Outdoor Education. In 1988 he was Principal Writer of the Victorian Certificate of Education, Year 11 & 12 Human Development-Outdoor Education Study Design. He can be contacted at the Institute for Education La Trobe University PO Box 199 Bendigo, Vic 3552 or email p.payne@bendigo.latrobe.edu.au

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Payne, P. On The Construction, Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Experience in ‘Critical’ Outdoor Education. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education 6, 4–21 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03400751

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