Preparing Outdoor Educators to Be Transformational Teachers and Leaders

Abstract

Outdoor environmental education has the potential to provide meaningful responses to the ecological crises facing our planet and its peoples. However, this will require teachers and leaders with a comprehensive set of knowledges, experiences and skills that are required to provide outdoor experiential programs that can make a difference. In Australia, there has been a strong push to identify and expound a set of threshold concepts that articulates what university outdoor education graduates need to know and be able to do – in order to lead this important work. These threshold concepts have provided an organizing framework for this new book, Outdoor Environmental Education in Higher Education: International Perspectives. This chapter outlines and introduces the following sections of the book: Theoretical foundations and philosophies; Pedagogical approaches and issues; Outdoor environmental education as a social, cultural and environmental endeavour; Advocacy; Safety management; and Professional practice.