Educational potentials of encounters with nature: reflections from a Swedish outdoor perspective

Abstract Direct encounters with the natural environment have a long tradition in environmental education. Given that the role and character of these encounters are shaped by the approach taken to environmental or sustainability education, there is a risk that a shift towards pluralistic and political approaches will lead to a neglect of nature encounters. On the basis of an analysis of Swedish/Scandinavian outdoor and environmental history and current Swedish outdoor education practice, we suggest six potentials of encounters with nature: (1) an experience‐based meaning of nature; (2) a relational ethical perspective; (3) the addition of a fourth perspective to sustainable development; (4) human ecology in practice; (5) sensing the quality of a simple life; and (6) democracy, identity and dwelling. We argue that these potentials widen the scope of environmental and sustainability education, while highlighting the need for a situated, dynamic and process‐oriented concept of nature, rather than a static one in which nature is understood as a particular place or specific organisms. Keywords: environmental educationsustainability educationoutdoor educationfriluftslivenvironmental historynature experience Acknowledgements Research for this article was carried out within the project ‘Encounters with Nature and Environmental Moral Learning’ supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council and the research programme ‘Outdoor Recreation in Change’ supported by grants from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Notes 1. The concept of education for sustainable development can be seen as one way of dealing with the complexity of environmental and sustainability issues. Significant for this concept is that social and economic development is taken into account in the quest for ecological sustainability (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO Citation2005). Here we do not intend to adopt a position that is either for or against the concept of education for sustainable development, but rather point out that there is an ongoing debate in which the concept is exposed to both criticism and re‐interpretation. In this paper we refer to education that deals with questions concerning the environment and societal development at both local and global levels as ‘environmental and sustainability education’. 2. Examples of other Swedish researchers who have included aspects of direct encounters with nature in a context of outdoor education are: Helldén (Citation1992), Dahlgren and Szczepanski (Citation1998), Grahn et al. (Citation1997), Gelter (Citation2000), Sundberg and Öhman (Citation2008), Rantatalo (Citation2002), Rantatalo and Åkerberg (Citation2002), Tordsson (Citation2003), Lundegård, Wickman and Wohlin (Citation2004), Åkerblom (Citation2005), Arnegård (Citation2006), Magntorn (Citation2007) and Backman (Citation2008). 3. Research projects on which the article is based include: Outdoor Life and Environmentalism (financed by the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research); Image of, and Common Access to, Landscapes for Outdoor Recreation (financed by the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research); Landscape as Arena (financed by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation); Sustainable Development and Environmental Moral Learning (financed by the Swedish Research Council); Outdoor Recreation in Change (financed by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency). 4. The project, entitled Sustainable Development and Environmental Moral Learning, is led by Leif Östman from Uppsala University and is financed by the Swedish Research Council. 5. More specifically, a typology is used that describes three different ways in which morals appear in educational practice: moral reactions, moral norms and ethical reflections (Öhman and Östman Citation2008). 6. The often‐quoted definition of sustainable development can be found in the so‐called Brundtland Commission’s report of 1987, in which sustainable development is described as ‘development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs’ (World Commission on Environment and Development Citation1987, 43). 7. In Sweden, as in Norway and Denmark, outdoor recreation is a compulsory element of physical education in nine‐year compulsory education.