Affect or emotion for nature can prime environmentally friendly attitudes and behaviors, but for one's love of nature to grow she must physically experience and communicate about nature with others. This study aimed to identify urban park designs that could increase affect for nature in park visitors by stimulating their desire to communicate…

As more adults frequent wilderness areas, they bring Internet-enabled devices (e.g., smart phones, tablets) with them. This study focuses on adults' perceptions of these devices in relation to desired outdoor learning experiences. Specifically, researchers examined the perspectives of naturalists who taught outdoor education programs and park…

Purpose: This study described the use of dog parks in several diverse locations and explored the contribution dog parks made to physical activity of the dog owners. Method: The Systematic Observation of Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC) tool was used to count the number and characteristics of people using parks. Observations were…

This ethnographic study explores the educational practice of interpretive naturalists in a Midwestern US state park. The construction of affective memories and direct experiences is examined from the perspectives of a group of naturalists to understand how they teach about a specific place. Enlisting phenomenological insights of lived experience…

The complex and uncertain academic job search is often a terrifying prospect for aspiring recreation and leisure scholars. New doctoral candidates are eager for meaningful lived experiences and useful advice regarding the steps for a successful job search, including finding the right opportunities, submitting applications, interviewing well, and…

Baluran National Park in the regency of Situbondo, East Java-Indonesia, highly prospective for development of sustainable tourism that can improve the welfare of local people. The suitable tourism type is eco-tourism with local people involvement. The purposes of this study are: 1) To know the local people involvement in eco-tourism development;…

What role does caring play in environmental education? The development of caring relationships in formal school settings remains a foundational yet underexamined concept in environmental education research. This study examines the role of caring relationships between people and place in an urban high school in the United States. We draw upon…

When people recreate outdoors, they value the quality of the experience. This study examines rhetorical practices that sustain or undermine perceived authentic outdoor recreation experiences. I conducted a rhetorical analysis of my fieldnotes gathered through participant observation and interview transcripts of online and in-person interviews. I…

This article considers the possible contribution of the "kids in parks" programme offered at Golden Gate Highlands National Park to the professional development of teachers. Focus group interviews were held with teachers who participated in the programme, and an interview with open-ended questions was held with a learning facilitator…

The aim of this project is to define the importance of 12-day ecology-based education training upon integration with nature and understanding the human-ecosystem relationship. In accordance with this purpose, there has been collected some survey data interviewing with the participants of "Lake Beysehir National Park and Ecology-based Nature…

In this study, a new physics education programme is specifically developed for a famous theme park in Hong Kong to provide community-based science learning to her visitors, involving her three newly constructed rides. We make innovative use of digital technologies in this programme and incorporate a rigorous evaluation of the learning…

The article draws on work in Critical Geography Studies and Photovoice methodology, to illustrate the ways in which youth in an inner city conceptualize neighborhoods and public spaces. We utilize youth's photographs, narratives, and maps to tell a story of youth's lived experiences and argue that these experiences are vital sources of knowledge…

In this paper, we present excerpts from ethnographic data collected when a diverse classroom of children, some of whom were multilingual and others monolingual in English, used iPads to make videos. We discuss the practices, social relations, objects and material conditions that emerged as the children engaged in this production, with special…

In this study on long-term educational programs (LTP) in nature, facilitated by an environmental agency we followed two distinct programs enacted in schools and in nature parks as case studies. Data were collected through observations of activities in schools and in the outdoors and through interviews with students, teachers and facilitators. In…

To investigate if the units of the São Carlos Ecological Pole (São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil) are educating spaces that may contribute to the understanding of the complexity of environmental issues and stimulate a sense of belonging and social responsibility, we interviewed primary school teachers who had accompanied visits to these places and…