A practice focussed study of outdoor learning in five Scottish secondary schools 2011-2019

This thesis employs a social constructionist approach to explore the practices of outdoor learning [OL] enacted in five Scottish secondary schools and to consider local and temporal conditions that enabled and constrained practices across two time periods, 2011 and 2019. Continuities and discontinuities in practices are revealed. The decision to consider OL in Scottish secondary schools is in response to an identified gap in the research literature. Scotland’s OL curriculum policy is recognised as world-leading and teacher dispositions to OL positive. However, despite calls for a more embedded curricular role, the sparse literature available suggests minimal practice changes. The literature positions OL as an evolving and contested term, which encapsulates a range of purposes and approaches linked to physical, affective, and environmental learning outcomes. OL’s relationship to the Scottish curriculum has been marked by peaks and troughs of interest and support, reflecting temporal policy, social and cultural forces. A widening poverty-related attainment gap and rising mental health and wellbeing concerns in schools are manifestations of rising precarity and austerity during the years of 2011-2019. The timescale of this study presents an opportunity to consider current factors shaping OL practices. A qualitative inductive, deductive and abductive analysis framework is applied to teachers’ semi-structured interview data. Practice Architecture [PA] Theory was applied to reveal sayings, doings and relatings across a typology of OL that featured five distinctive types. Distinctive sayings, doings and relatings for three different types of OL; OL-as-Physical-Activity, OL-as-Pupil-Support and OL-asCurriculum, update our understanding of practices within secondary schools. A number of residual, dominant and emergent features are identified. Four overarching themes conclude that OL is: malleable, shaped by contexts and individuals, peripheral, potentially powerful as a pedagogy of affect and integral for some young people. An OL lens illuminates curriculum-making challenges within Scottish secondary schools. Implications for practice at Scottish education and school level are outlined.This thesis employs a social constructionist approach to explore the practices of outdoor learning [OL] enacted in five Scottish secondary schools and to consider local and temporal conditions that enabled and constrained practices across two time periods, 2011 and 2019. Continuities and discontinuities in practices are revealed. The decision to consider OL in Scottish secondary schools is in response to an identified gap in the research literature. Scotland’s OL curriculum policy is recognised as world-leading and teacher dispositions to OL positive. However, despite calls for a more embedded curricular role, the sparse literature available suggests minimal practice changes. The literature positions OL as an evolving and contested term, which encapsulates a range of purposes and approaches linked to physical, affective, and environmental learning outcomes. OL’s relationship to the Scottish curriculum has been marked by peaks and troughs of interest and support, reflecting temporal policy, social and cultural forces. A widening poverty-related attainment gap and rising mental health and wellbeing concerns in schools are manifestations of rising precarity and austerity during the years of 2011-2019. The timescale of this study presents an opportunity to consider current factors shaping OL practices. A qualitative inductive, deductive and abductive analysis framework is applied to teachers’ semi-structured interview data. Practice Architecture [PA] Theory was applied to reveal sayings, doings and relatings across a typology of OL that featured five distinctive types. Distinctive sayings, doings and relatings for three different types of OL; OL-as-Physical-Activity, OL-as-Pupil-Support and OL-asCurriculum, update our understanding of practices within secondary schools. A number of residual, dominant and emergent features are identified. Four overarching themes conclude that OL is: malleable, shaped by contexts and individuals, peripheral, potentially powerful as a pedagogy of affect and integral for some young people. An OL lens illuminates curriculum-making challenges within Scottish secondary schools. Implications for practice at Scottish education and school level are outlined