Tenuous Affair: Environmental and Outdoor
Education in Aotearoa New Zealand
The relationship between outdoor education and environmental education
in Aotearoa New Zealand has undergone many changes since formal education
began in early colonial times. Discussion draws from qualitative doctoral
research undertaken by the authors that investigated education for
sustainability in outdoor education and howmeaning is ascribed to outdoor
experiences. The article describes how environmental education and outdoor
education had common historical roots in nature studies that eventually
were teased apart by the development of separate agendas for learning
and assessment, coupled with the political context of the 1970s and
1980s. The article finds that contemporary forces relating to the economy,
society and the environment are now driving a re-engagement of the two
discourses in Aotearoa New Zealand at a variety of levels, from schools to
national bodies, and that this re-engagement signals a positive outcome
for addressing key environmental issues and engaging students in the
outdoors.