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Exploring Schools’ Use of Natural Spaces

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Risk, Protection, Provision and Policy

Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 12))

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the changing ways in which schools are using natural spaces as part of their pupils’ learning experience. We suggest that learning in natural spaces has undergone something of a renaissance in recent times and explore the reasons that this might be so. We then examine ways in which schools and other practitioners are using outdoor spaces for play, for non-curricular, and for curricular learning. The chapter draws on a range of countries for examples that show how a nation’s cultural ideas about the outdoors can be incorporated into a country’s outdoor learning and how other ideas travel across boundaries to be interpreted in different practical ways. Within these sections, we consider different theoretical underpinnings that inform learning outside. Finally, the benefits of and challenges to outdoor learning are considered.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Natural England, York, UK

    Martin Gilchrist & Rachel Cook

  2. Plymouth Institute of Education, Plymouth University, Plymouth, UK

    Rowena Passy & Sue Waite

  3. Department of Education and Professional Studies, King’s College, London, UK

    Rachel Cook

Authors
  1. Martin Gilchrist
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  2. Rowena Passy
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  3. Sue Waite
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  4. Rachel Cook
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin Gilchrist .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Claire Freeman

  2. School of Physical, Environmental and Ma, University of New South Wales Canberra, Canberra BC, Australia

    Paul Tranter

  3. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Tracey Skelton

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Gilchrist, M., Passy, R., Waite, S., Cook, R. (2017). Exploring Schools’ Use of Natural Spaces. In: Freeman, C., Tranter, P., Skelton, T. (eds) Risk, Protection, Provision and Policy. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 12. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-035-3_18

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