Developing Place-responsive Pedagogy in Outdoor Environmental Education

This book is a rhizomatic curriculum autobiography that charts the author’s efforts to develop and promote Australian outdoor environmental education practices that are inclusive of, and responsive to, the places in which they are performed. Joining philosophical concepts created by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari with William Pinar’s autobiographical method for curriculum inquiry, the author (re)considers the interrelated concepts, contexts and complex conversations with colleagues, students and others that have shaped his approach to curriculum, pedagogy and research for fifteen years or more. Emphasising the complexity of developing curricula and pedagogies that engage, in a respectful and generative way, with the natural and cultural history of the Australian continent, the author explicates and enacts his attempts to think differently about the cultural, curricular and pedagogical understandings that inform the practices of Australian outdoor environmental educators.Outdoor environmental education in Australia has historically been influenced by imported universalist ideas, particularly from the USA and the UK. However, during the last two decades a growing number of researchers in this field have challenged the applicability of such taken-for-granted approaches and advocated the development of curricula and pedagogies informed by the unique bio-geographical and cultural histories of the locations in which educational experiences take place. As this book demonstrates, Alistair Stewart is prominent among the vanguard of Australian outdoor environmental educators who have led such advocacy by combining practical experience with theoretical rigour.

“I will be placing this book on the reading list of the Outdoor and Experimental Learning masters course … . This is a great tool for researchers, students and staff alike, to think landscape and waterscape with. I’ll be recommending they read it all the way through, in whichever order the chapters float to the surface. It will certainly challenge them, but I hope they will challenge the book in return, with the affirmative and empathetic critique it deserves.” (Jamie Mcphie, Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, October 9, 2020)“This book is a must-read. It is an inspiring and thoughtful piece of work that all outdoor environmental educators (both practitioners and researchers) should take notice of. It experiments with concepts and reflects upon Australian stories of natural and cultural history, providing an assemblage as unique as the Australian landscape itself.” (Scott Jukes, Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, Vol. 23, 2020)

Alistair Stewart, PhD, has worked in Outdoor and Environmental Education at La Trobe University for over two decades. During that time he has served as Head of Department and Course Coordinator, and has played an active role in the development of the pedagogy and curricula of the OEE programs. In 2014 he was recipient of a National award, ‘Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning’, from the Office of Learning and Teaching, Australian Federal Government, for innovative approaches to development of place-responsive pedagogy and curricula in the field of outdoor environmental education.