Guides to sustainable connections? Exploring human–nature relationships among wilderness travel leaders

This paper explores and critically interprets the role wilderness travel may play in fostering environmental sustainability. The paper draws upon two qualitative studies that sought to understand human–nature relationships as experienced by different groups of wilderness travel leaders in Canada. According to leaders involved in the studies, wilderness experience enhances emotional connections to nature and encourages a desire to foster similar nature connections among others (i.e. the campers/clients of wilderness trips). However, our interpretations show that leaders’ perceptions of wilderness are varied and ambiguous, and that the priority given to ‘experience’ may help to re-inscribe dominant discourses in which nature and culture are dichotomized. The paper discusses these complexities and sheds light on the potential of wilderness experience to contribute to the individual and social transformations that environmental sustainability calls for.     

人性迷失的荒野——论苏童《米》中的复仇书写

作为先锋派的标志性人物,苏童对复仇题材表现出一定的偏爱,对人性恶的挖掘也令人望尘莫及。其长篇小说《米》以大鸿米店为中心场所,以\"米\"为主要意象,塑造了以五龙为代表的一系列复仇者。这些复仇者们从被复仇的欲望所裹挟,到依次采取复仇行动,最终善性被消耗而恶性得到显露。苏童在小说中着力剖析人性的异化,披露人性迷失的荒野,其目的不仅在于探究人性的多面,更意在通过恶性呼唤善性,引出人性美好的一面。     

Outdoor Adventure Education: Applying Transformative Learning Theory to Understanding Instrumental Learning and Personal Growth in Environmental Education

We conducted a qualitative study of the experiences of 23 Outdoor Adventure Education (OAE) participants to determine what participants found significant about their course and to what course elements they attributed this significance. Participants experienced personal transformations, which they attributed to spending extended time in pristine nature, separation of the course from normal life, the community that formed among course participants, and the intensity and challenge of the course. Whereas outcomes related to personal growth, as opposed to changes in environmental behaviors (instrumental learning), are consistent with participant motivations for joining OAE courses and with most course activities, transformative learning theory suggests ways in which courses might integrate personal growth with instrumental learning to better foster environmental behaviors post-course.     

论福克纳的自然情结--《熊》的人文生态解读

美国作家威廉.福克纳继承并发展了欧文的自然参照论,库柏的自然界限论和梭罗的自然存在论。通过中篇小说《熊》中对自然和林中狩猎生活的描写,作者表现了自然界与现代社会的关系,表达了他对内战前南方社会的眷恋,对森林的退缩和森林居民的消逝而感到难过,以及他对人类文明的反思和难以割舍的自然情结;同时,从小说的主人公艾萨克的行为和决定中,福克纳似乎发现了人类与自然、与他人和谐相处的正确的生态观。     

Nature is a nice place to save but I wouldn’t want to live there: environmental education and the ecotourist gaze

This article explores the role of ecotourism in the neoliberalisation of environmental education. The practice of ecotourism is informed by a particular ‘ecotourist gaze’ in terms of which the ‘education’ that providers characteristically offer is implicitly framed, embodying a culturally specific perspective in which western society is depicted as alienating and constraining and immersion in ‘wilderness’ is understood as a therapeutic escape from the reputed ills of industrial civilisation. While in the past, these educational aspects of ecotourism delivery have often contradicted the activity’s promotion as a quintessential neoliberal conservation mechanism, increasingly this education has become neoliberalised as well in its growing emphasis on the environment’s role as an instrumental provider of ‘ecosystem services’ for human benefit. In conclusion, this analysis calls for transcendence of these limitations in pursuit of a more inclusive environmental education encompassing diverse ethnic and socioeconomic dimensions of the human community.     

Social contexts of development in natural outdoor environments: children’s motor activities,personal challenges and peer interactions at the river and the creek

This study examined the influence of spending time outdoors on young children’s physical and socioemotional development. We observed preschoolers’ activities in two naturally provisioned outdoor environments over the course of one year. Eleven preschoolers were videotaped continuously for 16 days at a local river and 9 days at a creek adjacent to the school. In addition to the quantitative analyses of children’s behaviors, a case study of three children’s experiences over the course of the year was conducted. Both the river and the creek settings encouraged a multitude of physical and play behaviors with similar types of affordances, including flat surfaces for running, rocks for climbing and jumping off, and water for exploration and play, but the wilder environment (river) afforded more risk and personal challenges. Observations of children’s motor activities, play and responses to challenging environmental features supported the importance of accumulated experience and social context for the development of confidence in the face of risk, individual exploration and positive social support and engagement with peers.     

回归自然的人性呼唤——从《佛洛斯河磨坊》看乔治·艾略特自然观

乔治·艾略特的《佛洛斯河磨坊》是英国批评现实主义的经典之作。历来批评家们多从宗教、道德、心理或者女性主义的角度来解读它。对于作品中所包含的丰富自然、环境以及其与角色之间的关系描写多有忽略。该文试图从生态批评的视角,通过分析《佛洛斯河磨坊》中关于佛洛斯河及红洼地的荒野、铎尔蔻特磨坊、大洪水的描写,来发掘乔治·艾略特的自然观,即:在工业革命的大潮中寻找一条回归自然的出路。     

论户外游戏环境的创设

随着时代的发展,游戏环境日益物质化、现代化,失去朴素性和天然性,并且过分追求游戏的功利性。游戏对儿童发展的重要性已成共识,如何创设适合儿童的户外游戏环境非常重要,其中涉及的重要因素有：儿童参与,游戏空间,游戏材料,假期（自由）游戏,自然、奇幻特性。     

Connecting students to nature – how intensity of nature experience and student age influence the success of outdoor education programs

Nature connectedness counts as a crucial predictor of pro-environmental behavior. For counteracting today’s environmental issues a successful re-connection of individuals to nature is necessary. Besides the promotion of knowledge transfer the aim of the educational program presented in this study is to connect students to their environment. This research explores the impact of an outdoor environmental education program on primary and secondary school students’ nature connectedness with regard to the extent of their nature experience and participant age. The intervention was implemented in two durations: one-day and five-days. Participants were divided into four subsamples from seven up to 18 years of age. Findings suggest that both intervention types evoke immediate shifts towards a stronger nature connectedness among students (p < .001). Notably, the five-day outdoor education interventions were significantly more effective in sustainably promoting nature connectedness compared to one-day field trips (p < .001). Seven to nine year old students performed the strongest shifts towards nature. The value of short-term and residential outdoor environmental education interventions is discussed.     

生态学视野下幼儿园户外游戏环境的意义、特征与优化

从生态学的视角来看,幼儿园创设的户外游戏环境应顺应幼儿亲近自然的天性,满足幼儿充分游戏的需要,激发幼儿自主探究的兴趣。幼儿园户外游戏环境应是一个融层次性与整体性、开放性与多样性、动态性与可持续性以及互动性为一体的完整生态系统。然而,当前我国幼儿园户外游戏环境多重安全轻互动、重分区轻联系、重稳定轻变化,致使其生态学特征不甚显著。今后,我国幼儿园应努力降低其户外游戏环境的人工化,提升自然性;削弱其户外游戏环境的纯观赏化,强化体验性;消除其户外游戏环境的区隔化,建立各功能区之间及园内外之间的联系,由此不仅拓展幼儿的活动空间,为幼儿创造更多亲近自然的机会,而且真正支持幼儿的经验在不同空间的自由转换中实现迁移与生长。     

A cross-cultural exploration of ‘wild’ in wilderness therapy: Canada,Norway and Australia

This paper addresses pluralistic understandings of wilderness in the context of wilderness therapy (WT). The term wilderness perpetuates a modern worldview of place that beyond ‘civilisation’ exists an environment defined by risk, fear and an unpredictable nature. WT utilises outdoor travel and living practices during therapeutic intervention and health promotion although empirical justification for its use of wilderness for therapy is not yet established. This paper provides three cultural perspectives on wild places in relation to WT. These national perspectives are informed by local practices, historical and societal understandings of wilderness and supported by related literature from Canada, Norway and Australia. The authors (1) illustrate a number of contemporary western assumptions about wilderness enshrined in the WT and outdoor adventure literature, (2) cautiously propose core purposes for using wild places for therapy and (3) encourage further development of WT practice and research within national, regional and even across organisational contexts.     

What are the characteristics of nature preschools in Norway,and how do they organize their daily activities?

This study provides basic information about how Norwegian nature preschools differ from other Norwegian preschools and how they organize their daily activities. Fifty-six nature preschools and 52 other preschools were included in the study. A total of 106 headmasters and 98 pedagogical leaders filled out questionnaires about the characteristics of their preschool and the characteristics of their preschool’s outdoor activities. Two women and four men from nature preschools were interviewed about organizing a nature preschool. Most nature preschools are private and have less children and staff than other preschools. Nature preschools have more reference areas in nature and visit these areas more frequently than other preschools. Nature preschools spend a large amount of time in nature and have routines and rules that allow the children a significant amount of trust.     

A retrospective study of social relations in a Danish primary school class taught in ‘udeskole’

The use of the ’outdoors’ in pre-school and school settings is becoming an increasingly important field of education and researchers have emphasised the positive influence of the ‘outdoors’ on various social aspects. However, the facilitative conditions for such positive influences are not studied exhaustively. Therefore, we explored the conditions in ‘udeskole’ influencing pupils’ social relations based on an extreme case called the ‘Nature Class’. In the ‘Nature Class’ the pupils (third to fifth grades) were taught outside the classroom one day a week. Five pupils and two teachers were interviewed seven years after the period of udeskole to explore the conditions influencing social relations during the third to ninth grades. We applied a conventional qualitative content analysis and identified six conditions important for the improvement of the social relations. Four of them—‘play’, ‘interaction’, ‘participation’ and ‘pupil-centered tasks’—were important conditions for the positive social relations during the ‘Nature Class’ project. Two conditions—‘cooperation’ and ‘engagement’—seem to be consequences of the improved social relations during the ‘Nature Class’ project which positively influenced the pupils’ abilities to cooperate and the pupils’ strong engagement in the subsequent school years.     

Outdoor adventure instructors’ perceptions of nature and their work: a phenomenological study

This phenomenological study explored outdoor recreation instructors’ subjective experiences of the natural world. Participants (N = 21) from two outdoor adventure centres participated in semi-structured interviews about their experiences and perceptions of nature. Thematic analysis revealed eight central themes: (1) Childhood Experiences with Nature; (2) Personal Connection with Nature; (3) Solitude and Connection with Others; (4) Nature as Part of Their Lifestyle; (5) Accessibility to Nature; (6) Awareness of Self, Behaviours and Values; (7) Personal Impacts on Others’ Values of Nature, with two sub-themes Rewards of the Job and Goals of the Job; and (8) Had Another Career Idea. Participants recognized the health-related benefits of nature exposure and enjoyed mediating others’ relationships with nature through their work. Outdoor adventure instructors play a crucial role as conduits to facilitating others’ relationships with nature and associated physical and mental health benefits.