Young surfers finding their wave: telling the tale of enskilment in surf places
- Authors: Prins, Alex , Wattchow, Brian
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Leisure Studies Vol. 42, no. 2 (2023), p. 268-281
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- Description: This paper seeks to contribute to the growing body of literature focused on the recreational activity of surfing. Investigations into how young people learn to surf are rare, particularly those that focus on the pedagogical aspects involved in learning the practical ‘know-how’ required to surf in particular places and under specific environmental conditions (tide, wind, swell, currents, terrain). How do young people learn where and when a break will be worth a surf? When to duck dive under a broken wave or when to paddle further out? Recent research suggests that a process of enskilment, a form of knowledgeable practice, may provide pedagogical insights into how young people are developing the practical know-how to be able to surf skilfully and safely in particular places. This research used narrative methodology as an alternative way to investigate and represent these complex (and often tacit) aspects of a human learning experience, and findings are presented in the form of a set of short stories. This paper draws from that research to provide important insights into the phenomenon of how young people learn to surf with the intention of improving formal coastal experiences such as those in the leisure and education fields. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
“Immersed within the rock itself” : student experiences rock climbing in outdoor education
- Authors: Jane, Jack , Wattchow, Brian , Thomas, Glyn
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education Vol. 25, no. 3 (2022), p. 341-361
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- Description: Outdoor education has a long tradition of using adventurous activities like rock climbing to achieve learning outcomes. Concepts like adventure, perceived risk, and flow have been used to justify the inclusion of these activities. However, the arguments for their inclusion have been eroded in recent decades, leading the authors of this paper to ask: How do students actually experience an activity like rockclimbing? In addition, outdoor activities/sports have often been grouped together, as if they were one activity, rather than distinct activities, that may require specific pedagogic considerations. This paper presents the findings of research into one group of secondary school students and their experiences rock climbing while on an OE camp at Mt Arapiles/ Dyurrite in Victoria, Australia. It re-tells their stories about two climbing contexts - top rope and multi pitch climbing. Data collected through interviews were used to retell the student’s stories about their climbing experiences and inform our analysis of how rockclimbing practices may be modified to better suit evolving ideas within outdoor education. The study highlights the impact that guides have on student’s experiences and the need for program design to be guided by intended learning outcomes. Finally, we recommend more research into students’ lived experiences across the OE curriculum to develop more nuanced outdoor education programs. © 2022, The Author(s).
Place-responsiveness in outdoor environmental education
- Authors: Wattchow, Brian
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: International Explorations in Outdoor and Environmental Education p. 101-110
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- Description: This chapter discusses why place-responsiveness is an important consideration for outdoor environmental educators. Understanding the philosophical and pedagogical foundations of place provides insights into what has driven the rise of place-based education. Building upon this, the chapter looks at how outdoor educators have developed place-responsive approaches that allow them and their students to connect to outdoor landscapes. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
The pedagogic moment : enskilment as another way of being in outdoor education
- Authors: Prins, Alex , Wattchow, Brian
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning Vol. 20, no. 1 (2020), p. 81-91
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- Description: This theoretical paper aims to contribute to the debate about a perceived activity-environment tension in outdoor education. Tim Ingold’s extensive writings on enskilment are used to explore what it means to be skilful in outdoor activities and how this can contribute to dwelling in outdoor places. Four ‘threads’ of enskilment—taskscape, guided attention, storytelling and wayfinding—are each discussed in terms of how they contribute to the way that leaners learn to become enskiled. Discussions of Ingold’s ideas are coupled with van Manen’s insights into the pedagogic moment to describe what is required of the educator to teach for enskilment. The authors’ draw examples from their teaching experiences on coastal outdoor education programmes and conclude by suggesting some practices that favour an enskilment approach. © 2019, © 2019 Institute for Outdoor Learning.
Learning a landscape enskilment pedagogy and a sense of place
- Authors: Wattchow, Brian , Prins, Alex
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The Routledge companion to landscape studies Chapter 8 p. 102-111
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- Description: Our goal in this chapter is to pose, and respond to, a deceptively simple question: How do learners learn a landscape? But of course it is, naturally, a deep and profound question that speaks to how humans relate to the landscapes in which they live. Crucially, the question also anticipates how teachers and learners relate to one another. In our role as outdoor educators of pre-service teachers we often find ourselves working in a range of localities using particu-lar activities such as bushwalking, sea kayaking, snorkelling and surfing. It is all too easy to treat the landscapes within which these activities occur as value-neutral venues, as simply a means to achieve personal, social and environmental educational outcomes (Wattchow and Brown 2011). These activities and the landscapes in which they are practised become ahis-torical, rather than activities and locations with long and fascinating cultural histories (Miles and Wattchow 2015). There can be a tendency to abstract learning outcomes and inoculate learners against the influence of the particularities and peculiarities of local places and the activities being undertaken. While this may be done with good intentions, like teaching for generalisable knowledge that can be applied anywhere, our concern is that the essence of doing, knowing and learning gets lost when it becomes disconnected from the land upon which it occurs
Enskillment and place-responsiveness, A way of life
- Authors: Brown, Mike , Wattchow, Brian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: International Handbook of Outdoor Studies. Chapter 42 p.435-443
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Standing then floating: Searching for a sense of sea-place on the South Coast of Australia
- Authors: Wattchow, Brian
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Seascapes: Shaped by the Sea: Embodied narratives and fluid geographies p. 125-140
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The mirror of the sea : Narrative identity, sea kayak adventuring and implications for outdoor adventure education
- Authors: Miles, Beau , Wattchow, Brian
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Outdoor Education Vol. 18, no. 1 (2015), p. 16-26
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- Description: This paper explores the complex and changing nature of adventure as a form of cultural practice. Borrowing from Joseph Conrad's memoirs The Mirror of The Sea (1907), sea kayaking is contextualized here as a journey that takes place just as much between 'landfall and departure' as it does between the paddler's ears (i.e., in the paddler's mind). That is to say, to gain useful insights into the experience of sea kayaking it is necessary to consider both the external and internal journey of the paddler, and the relationship that exists between these two phenomena. Using tenets of personality psychology which presents new ways of understanding narrative identity, we will 'waymark' textual vignettes from four modern day sea kayaking adventure narratives to explore ideas of self, narrative identity and meaning making. These key passages aim to reveal how the adventurer's story is influenced by "external factors that shape the public expression of stories about the self" (McAdams & McLean, 2013, p. 233). Summary discussion will address potential implications for contemporary outdoor adventure education, offering a way of stimulating reflective practice about the culturally and textually constructed nature of adventure.
Becoming a socio-ecological educator
- Authors: O'Connor, Justen , Jeanes, Raymond , Alfrey, Lauren , Wattchow, Brian
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The Socioecological Educator: A 21st Century Renewal of Physical, Health, Environment and Outdoor Education Chapter 3 p. 47-68
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- Description: Acknowledging the multi-layered nature of a socio-ecological frame, this chapter highlights explicitly how to develop socio-ecological understandings and practices in educational contexts. We begin by providing a series of vignettes based on practice. These vignettes serve to disturb assumptions that researchers and practitioners bring to physical, health, environmental or outdoor education and, in doing so, open a reflective door for research on practice. The foundational concepts introduced in Chap. 2: (a) lived experience, (b) place, (c) experiential pedagogies and (d) agency and participation, are discussed in relation to these vignettes to continue to develop them more fully, particularly how they might work in concert rather than as separate entities. We have argued that a socio-ecological approach provides a mechanism through which educators and researchers can acknowledge the relationships between the personal, social and environmental layers of social ecologies and these are explored further in the following vignettes. © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014. All rights are reserved.
Conclusions and future directions: A socio-ecological renewal
- Authors: Wattchow, Brian , Jeanes, Ruth , Alfrey, Laura , Brown Trent , O’Connor, Justen , Cutter-Mackenzie, Amy
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The Socioecological Educator: A 21st Century Renewal of Physical, Health, Environment and Outdoor Education p. 205-227
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- Description: At the heart of this book has been the acknowledgment that there exist different ways of seeing and, consequently, different ways of knowing the world. The rich and diverse case studies that make up Part II of the book have seen respected authors from the varied disciplines of physical, sport and health education, outdoor and environmental education and early childhood education come together, utilising the multi-disciplinary framework of socio-ecological education. They have done so because of their belief that a socio-ecological theory and requisite methodological approaches offer the opportunity for renewal for researchers and practitioners in their fields. A significant part of this renewal involves reaching beyond disciplinary boundaries, or silos as we called them in the introduction chapter, to forge new connections. Overcoming these ‘invisible’ structures that can govern how we see, think and act is central to the work of the socio-ecological educator and is evident in many of the case studies. To that end we want to spend a little time here, in the conclusion, discussing this issue.
Starting with stories : The power of socio-ecological narrative
- Authors: Wattchow, Brian , Jeanes, Ruth , Alfrey, Laura , Brown, Trent , Cutter-Mackenzie, Amy , O'Connor, Justen
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The socioecological educator : A 21st century renewal of physical, health, environment and outdoor education 1 p. 3-21
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- Description: In this first chapter we felt it important to introduce the editors of the book via a series of short autobiographical stories. In each case the author has chosen a few influential experiences that they believe have been crucial in shaping the development of their socio-ecological outlook as educators and researchers. In other words, in this first section of the book we are putting practical, lived experience prior to the theoretical explanation of what it means to be a socio-ecological educator. In this first chapter of Part I we want to lead with example and narrative. We then explore and reinforce the message with sound theoretical discussion of the crucial concepts that make up this unique perspective on educational philosophy and practice. In Part II of the book, different authors from a variety of backgrounds and work contexts explore socio-ecological ideas and practices via a range of case studies. Finally, in the conclusion chapter we summarise the book and reflect on the incorporation of a socio-ecological approach into educational and research settings.
The socioecological educator : A 21st century renewal of physical, health, environment and outdoor education
- Authors: Wattchow, Brian , Jeanes, Ruth , Alfrey, Laura , Brown, Trent , Cutter-Mackenzie, Amy , O'Connor, Justen
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Edited book
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- Description: This volume offers an alternative vision for education and has been written for those who are passionate about teaching and learning, in schools, universities and in the community, and providing people with the values, knowledge and skills needed to face complex social and environmental challenges. Working across boundaries the socio-ecological educator is a visionary who strives to build community connections and strengthen relationships with the natural world. The ideas and real-world case studies presented in this book will bring that vision a step closer to reality.
Through curriculum renewal : An Aotearoa-New Zealand case study
- Authors: Wattchow, Brian , Boyes, Mike
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The socioecological educator : A 21st century renewal of physical, health, environment and outdoor education 4 p. 71-87
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- Description: The first of the case study chapters provides a compelling example of how a socio-ecologically inspired vision for education and policy initiatives can develop and ultimately change the very foundations of approaches to teaching and learning. All school teachers and teachers in training will be familiar with curriculum documents that present the aims, objectives and structure of school curricula. These documents are usually organised around key learning areas such as English, Science, Mathematics, Health and Physical Education and so on. Curriculum documents establish the boundaries of content and levels of attainment required by students as they progress through the various levels of schooling from a preparatory year, through primary and secondary schools. They reflect the philosophies of the government of the day and are in a more or less constant state of review and renewal. Committees are established and representation called for from key stakeholders such as politicians, academics with expertise in varying disciplines, members of the community and from teachers themselves. Interestingly, we have never heard of students being represented as the ultimate key stakeholder in the curriculum development process at its most fundamental level. The stakeholders argue, discuss and debate what should or shouldn’t be taught in a state or nation’s schools. Inevitably, curriculum documents shape, and are shaped by, a nation of people. But not all people are equally in a position to shape curriculum in this way. Curriculum documents are artifacts of history, political conventions, historical and contemporary views of knowledge and pedagogy. They are also aspirational statements about the purpose and function of schooling in the ongoing work of societal change. This chapter outlines a remarkable process whereby socio-ecological principles were used, and came to have a major presence, in the development of the New Zealand Health and Physical Education curriculum.
Through outdoor education : A sense of place on Scotland's River Spey
- Authors: Wattchow, Brian , Higgins, Peter
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The socioecological educator : A 21st century renewal of physical, health, environment and outdoor education p. 173-187
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- Description: Outdoor education is often thought of as a series of adventurous activities or journeys through wild countryside, where the purpose is to build character, work on group development or to develop leadership capacity in young people. However, in recent years these dominant approaches have been challenged and it has been suggested that they tend to treat the outdoor environment as little more than a venue for human action – as an arena or a testing ground. There has been a notable shift towards considering the development of sustainable environmental relationships as a program focus and learning outcome in outdoor education. But there are few descriptions of what this actually means in practice. In this chapter we build on the theoretical discussions established in Chaps. 2 and 3 and describe an outdoor education program that is much more attuned to socio-ecological principles and where developing a sense of place is considered a pedagogical imperative. The story that follows details an educational encounter between staff, students, tourists, locals and the River Spey in Scotland.
Landscape and a sense of place: A creative tension
- Authors: Wattchow, Brian
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies Chapter 7 p. 87-96
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Ecopoetic practice : Writing the wounded land
- Authors: Wattchow, Brian
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Cultural Studies - Critical Methodologies Vol. 12, no. 1 (2012), p. 15-21
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- Description: In this article the author discusses the experience of poetic writing as a form of autoethnographic practice. Poetic writing, more than other textual forms, offers considerable potential to represent the journey toward "empathetic insidedness" between author, culture, and a sense of place. The author draws examples from his recently published collection of poems titled The Song of the Wounded River. The poems were first drafted on a long canoe journey down the river to the old farm pioneered by the author's ancestors over a century ago. In an ecopoetics of place the writer strives to reconcile differences between past, present, and future and between their experiences of inner and outer landscapes. In an echo of Romanticism the ecopoet writes to heal the world's wounds through singing the land. Seen in this light poetry and empathy provide the counterbalance to science and rationality. Both are needed to sustain the human relationship with the Earth. Humans damage places not because they fail to understand them, but because they are yet to feel for them, like kin. This article draws together and discusses the physical search for place, the act of poetic writing, and the cultural significance of this kind of work. © 2012 SAGE Publications.
A pedagogy of place : outdoor education for a changing world
- Authors: Wattchow, Brian , Brown, Michael
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: A ‘pedagogy of place’ refers to an alternative vision for outdoor education practice. This timely book, A Pedagogy of Place, calls into question some of the underlying assumptions and ‘truths’ about outdoor education, and in turn offers alternatives to current practice that are responsive to local conditions and cultural traditions. In this renewal of outdoor education philosophy and practice, the emphasis is upon responding to, and empathising with, the outdoors as particular places, rich in local meaning and significance. Current outdoor education theory and practice is influenced by cultural ideas about risk and adventure, and by psychological theories of personal and social development. However, in recent decades the professional discourse of outdoor education has made a noticeable shift to include education for the ‘environment’ and ‘nature’. This has resulted in a mismatch between theory and practice: traditional notions of proving oneself ‘against’ the challenges of the outdoors are antithetical to the development of an empathetic relationship with outdoor places, which growing concern with today’s environment demands.