Abstract
The notion of wild pedagogies entreats teachers to act – to wild pedagogies – by acknowledging that more than a singular will characterizes pedagogical situations. Wilding pedagogies requires going beyond ideas of teacher-centred and student-centred pedagogies to encompass nature-centred pedagogies: recognizing the self-will of wider nature. In attempting this wilding, we suggest teachers can learn from the the previous movement from teacher-centred pedagogy to what Larry Cuban describes as teacher-centred progressivism; a hybrid pedagogy that emerged as a result of compromises between teacher-centred and student-centred pedagogies. Attempting to incorporate nature-centred pedagogies presents difficulties and opportunities for educational responses and we highlight a way forward that might be achievable via Dewey’s notion of education through occupations. Occupations are important to Dewey’s theory of experience, drawing together purpose and meaning into occupational wholes. This, we argue, presents challenges for teaching.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Blenkinsop, S., & Morse, M. (2017). Saying yes to life: The search for the rebel teacher. In B. Jickling & S. Sterling (Eds.), Post-sustainability and environmental education: Remaking education for the future (pp. 49–61). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Cuban, L. (1983). How did teachers teach, 1890-1980. Theory Into Practice, 22(3), 159–165.
Cuban, L. (1984). How teachers taught: Constancy and change in American classrooms 1880–1990 (1st ed.). New York: Longman.
Cuban, L. (1993). How teachers taught: Constancy and change in American classrooms 1880–1990 (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.
Cuban, L. (2007). Hugging the middle: Teaching in an era of testing and accountability. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 15(1) Retrieved from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v15n1/. Accessed 25 Sept 2018.
Dewey, J. (1902a). The educational situation. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Dewey, J. (1902b). The child and the curriculum. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York: The Free Press.
Dewey, J. (1930). How much freedom in schools? New Republic, 63(9), 204–206.
Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Collier Books.
Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Jickling, B., Blenkinsop, S., Morse, M., & Jensen, A. (2018). Wild pedagogies: Six initial touchstones for early childhood environmental educators. Australian Journal of Environmental Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2018.19.
Kliebard, H. M. (2004). The struggle for the American curriculum: 1893–1958 (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Martin, P. (1999). Critical outdoor education and nature as a friend. In J. C. Miles & S. Priest (Eds.), Adventure Programming. State College: Venture.
Næss, A. (1989). Ecology, community and lifestyle: Outline of an ecosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Næss, A., & Jickling, B. (2000). Deep ecology and education: A conversation with Arne Næss. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 5, 48–62.
Orr, D. (1992). Ecological literacy: Education and the transition to a postmodern world. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Payne, P. (2002). On the construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of experience in 'critical' outdoor education. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 6(2), 4–21.
Pedersen Gurholt, K. (2008). Norwegian friluftsliv and ideals of becoming an ‘educated man’. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 8(1), 55–70.
Quay, J. (2013). Education, experience and existence: Engaging Dewey, Peirce and Heidegger. Abingdon: Routledge.
Quay, J. (2015). Understanding life in school: From academic classroom to outdoor education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Quay, J. (2016). Outdoor education and school curriculum distinctiveness: More than content, more than process. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, 19(2), 42–50.
Quay, J., & Seaman, J. (2013). John Dewey and education outdoors: Making sense of the 'educational situation' through more than a century of progressive reforms. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Skeat, W. W. (1888). An etymological dictionary of the English language. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
Vest, J. H. C. (1985). Will-of-the-land: Wilderness among primal indo-Europeans. Environmental Review: ER, 9(4), 323–329.
Waite, S., Bølling, M., & Bentsen, P. (2016). Comparing apples and pears?: A conceptual framework for understanding forms of outdoor learning through comparison of English Forest schools and Danish udeskole. Environmental Education Research, 22(6), 868–892.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Quay, J., Jensen, A. Wild pedagogies and wilding pedagogies: teacher-student-nature centredness and the challenges for teaching. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education 21, 293–305 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42322-018-0022-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42322-018-0022-9