Embedding Outdoor Relational Education in Academia : Perceived Barriers and Opportunities at a Dutch University
2025
Arts, Koen | Roncken, Paul | Buijs, Arjen | Wals, Arjen
Calls for innovating environmental and sustainability education-including higher education-have been voiced for many years. New approaches are gaining traction, including the Wild Pedagogies framework and notions of rewilding education. A common denominator of these approaches is an emphasis on learning outdoors, and through a relational epistemological lens. Contributing to these developing approaches, this paper investigates the budding concept and practice of outdoor relational education at a university level, specifically Wageningen University (WU) in the Netherlands. Based on 31 semi-structured interviews with protagonists and other stakeholders involved in or affiliated with outdoor relational education at WU, we identify associations, key elements and perceived benefits. Our research provides insight into what outdoor relational education and associated concepts are perceived to be in this context, how they are engaged and what the key experienced opportunities and barriers are to implement outdoor relational education further at WU. Complementary to theorisations of wild pedagogies and related approaches, our results offer empirical illustrations of wild pedagogies "in action"in an institutional academic setting that is not necessarily conducive to such developments.
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