Login (DCU Staff Only)
Login (DCU Staff Only)

DORAS | DCU Research Repository

Explore open access research and scholarly works from DCU

Advanced Search

The challenge to care in outdoor education - what Forest School offers. A response to McKenzie and Blenkinsop (2006)

Kelly, Orla orcid logoORCID: 0000-0001-9139-7792 and Whelan, Joan (2025) The challenge to care in outdoor education - what Forest School offers. A response to McKenzie and Blenkinsop (2006). Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning . ISSN 1472-9679

Abstract
This paper responds to a challenge to develop our understanding of an ethic of care in outdoor and adventure education. We are teacher educators who want to promote flourishing for all, through outdoor learning in local nature, as part of everyday life in primary schools. Integral to this complex and challenging task is a relational ethic of care. Previous research has drawn upon Noddings ethic of care to theoretically frame curricula in the Outward Bound adventure education organisation, making explicit the priority to care integral to adventure education. However, ‘several difficulties’ with Noddings theory were acknowledged. Through the lens of contemporary place-responsive and more-than-human epistemology, we extend Noddings ethic of care to provide a theoretical framing for this work. We illustrate this theoretical framing and possibilities for organising curricula as centres of care using findings from a recent ethnography of Forest School in one primary school in Ireland.
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Relational ethic of care; Forest school; primary school; nature-based pedagogy; flourishing
Subjects:Social Sciences > Education
Social Sciences > Teaching
DCU Faculties and Centres:UNSPECIFIED
Publisher:Routledge
Official URL:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14729...
Copyright Information:Authors
ID Code:31509
Deposited On:09 Sep 2025 09:42 by Vidatum Academic . Last Modified 09 Sep 2025 09:42
Documents

Full text available as:

[thumbnail of Thechallengetocareinoutdooreducation-whatForestSchooloffers.AresponsetoMcKenzieandBlenkinsop2006.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader
Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0
3MB
Metrics

Altmetric Badge

Dimensions Badge

Downloads

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Archive Staff Only: edit this record