Weedon Island Nature Preserve in Florida houses an educational center, which displays a visual and rhetorical narrative of local ecology and the lifeways of the region's Indigenous inhabitants. We conduct rhetorical and narrative analysis to examine how the exhibits construct the relationship between Indigenous people and the land. We conclude…

This study seeks to add to our understanding of preschool students' experiences in urban spaces. Very few studies, including educational research, have directly addressed what urban nature spaces, specifically urban parks, mean to young children and even fewer have focused on children's own perception. The study presented here was conducted with…

A new form of recreation-focused collective action has grown over recent decades. Practitioners of shared outdoor recreation interests are coordinating to meet stewardship and advocacy goals. Such "civic recreation organizations" blur the lines between voluntary sport clubs, interest groups, and resource management, promising…

Nature-based early childhood education (NBECE) is a growing field for children aged 3-6 in North America. This growth demands the need for NBECE professionals. Often grounded in personal journey and perceptions, pedagogical practices of NBECE teachers play a vital role in learning experiences and nature-connectedness. This qualitative research…

Visitation to some of the most popular national parks in the United States has surged in recent years, but in many national park units, attendance has declined even as the U.S. population increases. Changing demographics, patterns of visitation, maintenance needs, and inconsistent federal support raise questions about national parks' relevance to…

This study investigates eight college students' perceptions of their experiences during an accredited outdoor education course entitled Technical Canyoneering. The course took place in four separate desert canyons of the Colorado Plateau, two in Arches National Park, and two on nearby Bureau of Land Management public space. Utilizing the data…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the relationship between natural landscapes and inspiration through the lens of topophilia--the affinity people have for certain places or landscape features. Participants were students on a traveling college field course called American Ecosystems. The 2015 course (n=15, 26 days) visited 19…

In 2020, just as COVID-19 reached Australian shores, a group of enthusiastic teachers had been anticipating their imminent Bush Blitz TeachLive expedition to Rungulla National Park to take part in Australia's largest biodiversity survey. It took two years for their trip to eventuate, but it was worth the wait. Three candidates from the deferred…

This paper uses ethnography to explore an outdoor, arts-based intervention run by Urban Wilderness, in partnership with an English primary school. Urban Wilderness are a not-for-profit organisation which aims to connect children and young people from disadvantaged areas to locally accessible nature. Over the course of three afternoon workshops,…

Onrushing ecological precarity and collapse disproportionately affects particular humans and their common worlds. This article proposes that in the face of the myriad crises the Earth is experiencing, and the uneven distribution of their effects, extending conceptions of justice in education beyond the human is crucial. This, however, requires…

Identification, let alone an understanding, of assumptions in the visitor use management (VUM) field are poorly understood and addressed in the literature. While various assumptions -- statements or assessments that are not necessarily rooted in factual evidence -- that comprise certain outdoor recreation and VUM theoretical frameworks or methods…

In this article, the author considers ecosystems in a much more holistic way and encourages children to consider how all the interactions within that ecosystem affect the balance of it. There is hardly an ecosystem on Earth that has not been somehow affected by human interaction. Humans are the ultimate ecosystem engineers, and it is important to…

Environmental education in national parks is equivalent to an open and permanent education process in which individuals and communities become aware of their natural environment and gain a critical and sensitive attitude towards it and the use of its resources. The aim of this study was to examine the attitudes of teachers towards national parks…

Leave No Trace (LNT) principles help reduce outdoor recreation users' impacts on the natural and social environment. Rock climbers and climbing organizations have recently embraced LNT principles yet, there is a distinct dearth of research associated with LNT practices and rock climbers' adherence to LNT principles in their self-reported…

Natural resources Extension educators use outdoor environmental education sites to increase public knowledge of environmental issues, but locating appropriate sites can be time-consuming. Geographic information system (GIS) software and geospatial data can help Extension professionals choose such sites more efficiently. We describe our use of GIS…