ORCID Profile
0000-0001-5106-7991
Current Organisations
Western Sydney University
,
University of Dundee
,
TAFE Queensland Gold Coast
,
Griffith University
,
Edith Cowan University
,
University of New England Armidale
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Publications
Fostering the Wellbeing of Students With Challenging Behaviour and/or Emotional Needs Through Acceptance Commitment Therapy and Outdoor Learning
Publisher: Western Sydney University
Date: 2017
Teachers Working in Special Schools in Scotland Acting with Practical Wisdom: Supporting Children with Additional Needs in COVID-19 Lockdown
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 23-09-2021
Abstract: The COVID-19 lockdown has substantially disrupted the established facets of teacher engagement with their students, and, given the significance of this multidimensional interaction, it brings into question what we know as teachers’ identity. The lockdown has offered a dilemmatic context where the processes of teaching and learning and being(s) a teacher are being re-visited and re-negotiated. This paper looks specifically at the perceptions of two teachers of their lockdown experience working within a special education context in Scotland, supporting children with disabilities and/or learning difficulties while at home. The question that this paper addresses is: what is the understanding of these two teachers of their role in a specialised educational context while in COVID-19 lockdown? This paper uses ‘practical wisdom’ (also known as phronêsis) as its theoretical basis, where the focus is on teachers’ judgements at precisely those moments where guidelines and procedures are unclear, and the criteria open to multiple interpretations. The COVID-19 pandemic certainly provided this context. Richard Smith’s interpretation of phronêsis as ‘attentiveness’ are central to this paper. In-depth interviews carried out with teachers are analysed through this theoretical framework and two themes are discussed.
Enhancing environmental awareness through the arts
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 09-2008
DOI: 10.1177/183693910803300304
Abstract: THIS PAPER REPORTS ON a recent action research project, Enhancing environmental awareness through the arts. This project involved working with two early childhood professionals and 28 children in a long day care centre in the Sydney CBD at the end of 2006. Its aim was to assess the outcomes for the early childhood professionals, and for the children they worked with, of using arts-based pedagogies for enhancing environmental awareness. As the children in this centre had considerable indoor space but no outdoor space at all, the participating staff in the two–three-year-olds' room were interested in how this project could help to incorporate the natural environment into their programs. This paper outlines the theory that underpins the research, the processes involved in developing and conducting it, and the findings. The findings show that the arts-based pedagogies applied throughout the project had a definite effect on the children's awareness of the natural environment (also referred to as the ‘natural world’ throughout this paper). This was demonstrated through how much the children talked about the natural environment, the way they incorporated concepts about it into their play and their attitudes toward it. The findings also show that the action research approach used throughout the project resulted in the two early childhood professionals developing new techniques for creating meaningful content for the program. This report also considers the questions that arose as a result of the research and suggests how they could be further explored.
What’s in a dream? Natural elements, risk and loose parts in children’s dream playspace drawings
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 03-2018
Abstract: IN THIS PAPER, CHILDREN'S idealised playspace drawings, arising from their participation in planning a children's playground in a local shopping centre, are examined. This examination is conducted by engaging with theories of human/nature connection, significance of place, and children as agents in co-construction of playspaces. Analysis of the drawings—through a combination of iterative visual methods and children's narratives—highlights the value children place on being outdoors and on natural elements, loose parts and activity in their play. The playspaces imagined/drawn by the children are in stark contrast to the design of play environments in many schools and early childhood settings where safety and supervision are the dominant focus. These conflicting views are examined in the context of international discourse on playspace design, and the concluding discussion adds to the growing number of voices affirming that children should be actively engaged in the planning process and become co-constructors in spaces that are designed for their use.
Sowing and Growing Life Skills Through Garden-Based Learning to Reengage Disengaged Youth
Publisher: Leading English Education and Resource Network - LEARN
Date: 15-01-2016
Book Review: Children's Spatialities: Embodiment, Emotion and Agency edited by Abigail Hackett, Lisa Procter, and Julie Seymour
Publisher: Project MUSE
Date: 2016
Combining acceptance and commitment therapy with adventure therapy to promote psychological wellbeing for children at-risk
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 27-08-2018
Creative arts-based pedagogies in early childhood education for sustainability (Efs)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 12-2013
DOI: 10.1017/AEE.2014.4
Abstract: This article showcases a creative approach to early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS). It reports on the author's doctoral research program, which examined the effectiveness of arts-based pedagogies for exploring and understanding the natural world in an early childhood education program. Motivated by their existing commitment to education for sustainability (EfS), the participating educators used the arts for further exploration and understanding of the natural world in teaching and learning. They explored the role of the arts in knowledge production and embodied experience, and reinterpreted and built on their own funds of knowledge about their environment. The result was meaningful curriculum steeped in content about the natural environments that were local to the children and their educators. The findings further signify the challenges educators needed to overcome in order to intensify their connection with their own local environments, and the effect that this enhanced connection had on their capacity to reflect local natural environments in their programs with the children.
A systematic review protocol to identify the key benefits and efficacy of nature-based learning in outdoor educational settings
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 29-01-2021
Abstract: Outdoor Learning in natural environments is a burgeoning approach in the educational sector. However, the evidence-base of research has not kept pace with teacher perceptions and increased practitioner usage. Anecdotal evidence and formal research suggest the significant health and wellbeing benefits of nature connection. Offering low-cost, non-invasive pedagogical solutions to public health challenges—particularly around mental health, wellbeing, physical literacy, and increasing physical activity–the pedagogical benefits of Outdoor Learning are yet to be fully enunciated. The proposed systematic review will search for studies across eight academic databases which measure the academic and socio-emotional benefits of Outdoor Learning, with a focus on school-aged educational settings. Using the inclusion criteria set out in this paper (and registered with PROSPERO: CRD42020153171), relevant studies will be identified then summarised to provide a synthesis of the current literature on Outdoor Learning. The goal of this review is to document the widespread international investigation into Outdoor Learning and its associated benefits for development, wellbeing, and personal growth. The systematic review will provide insights for teacher-training institutions, educational policy makers, and frontline teachers to improve the learning experiences of future students.
Vertical schooling and learning transformations in curriculum research
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-2018
Singing in the forest
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2018
Connecting to nature through community engaged scholarship
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 28-07-2022
DOI: 10.3389/FPSYT.2022.883817
Abstract: Community gardens are recognized as being associated with a range of benefits for participants that include enhanced outcomes in physical and affective domains and community building. The purpose of this study was to research the impact of the New South Wales Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) Community Greening (CG) program and to inform the ongoing development of this community outreach program. The organic community partnerships inherent in the design and the relationships between the Community Greening program participants and researchers is examined through the lens of Community Engaged Scholarship (CES). Over a seven-month period, the CG team implemented a community garden development program in six sites. Mixed-method research on the impact of the program found that the community gardening participants experienced positive changes in physical activity, psychological wellbeing and motivation for social engagement, and these outcomes were facilitated as a result of their relationships with members of the CG team. This paper examines how such programs, when explicitly framed as CES, could assist in consolidating nature-based community health and wellbeing programs and further legitimize community partnerships in development of community garden and green spaces as academically sound investigation and socio-economically justified activity. Expansion of this nature-based collaboration model may also enhance community engagement in green exercise, psychological wellbeing and community cohesion, and in turn support advocacy for greener environments locally, regionally and nationally.
ACT in the Outdoors
Publisher: Western Sydney University
Date: 2018
Resonances
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 07-2020
DOI: 10.1017/AEE.2020.25
Abstract: Drawing on posthumanist and new materialism theorising, we take the concept of resonance for an a/r/tographic ‘walk’ to know, be and do differently, to challenge human-centric separatist ways that have resulted in our current socioecological crises. Beginning with Ingold’s knotty thinking, we identify the notion of resonance as a node for exploring and thinking about interactions in the world. Guided by Barad’s proposition of entangling ethico-onto-epistemic ways, our a/r/tographic thought experiments find resonances that echo through bodies, through connections as nature, through deep-time and modern spaces to notice and attend to intraactions within the ecological collective. Through art-full, thought-full scholartistic enquiry, we explore diffractive encounters to consider resonance as a conceptual tool for tuning into and harmonising with the entanglements of body–mind–space–time–matter. We pose this exploration of resonance as the start of a knotty theory conversation for shifting into a new ‘common world’ knowing, being and doing.
Getting Out of the Classroom and Into Nature
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 16-05-2022
DOI: 10.3389/FPUBH.2022.877058
Abstract: The value of natural environments for developing children's self-identity and social skills has been known for some time, and more recently the potential of nature-specific (i.e., excluding built environments) outdoor learning for achieving academic outcomes has been explored. Connecting children with natural spaces has been shown to benefit their physical and mental health however, the utility of nature-specific outdoor environments as a setting for curricular and non-curricular learning has yet to be clearly established. Our aim was to undertake a narrative synthesis of international evidence of nature-specific outdoor learning and its benefits for personal and social development, wellbeing and academic progress. This systematic review searched publications between 2000 and 2020 in nine academic databases for evidence of socio-emotional and academic benefits of nature-specific outdoor learning in school-aged educational settings, using concise search criteria registered with PROSPERO. The total search results of 17,886 records were initially screened by title, and then two reviewers made blind reviews of the title and abstract of 1,019 records. 147 original research studies meeting the criteria were identified. Learning settings ranged across outdoor adventure education, school gardens, field trips, and traditional school subjects taught in natural environments. Study characteristics were summarized, and risk-of-bias tools assessed quality of research as generally moderate, although with a wide range. The reported benefits of learning in natural outdoor settings include: increased student engagement and ownership of their learning, some evidence of academic improvement, development of social and collaborative skills, and improved self-concept factors. Nature-specific outdoor learning has measurable socio-emotional, academic and wellbeing benefits, and should be incorporated into every child's school experience with reference to their local context. Teacher pre-service and in-service education needs to include a focus on how natural settings can be used effectively for learning. Further research is needed to clarify the conditions under which specific forms of outdoor learning are most efficacious for various target outcomes. It is recommended that future studies measuring outdoor learning adopt established methodologies to improve the quality of research in this field. www.crd.york.ac.uk rospero/display_record.php?RecordID=153171 .
Econnection in Early Childhood Education
Publisher: Western Sydney University
Date: 2017
Enhancing urban nature and place-making in social housing through community gardening
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2022
Beyond sustainability
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Date: 2017
Community gardens as local learning environments in social housing contexts: participant perceptions of enhanced wellbeing and community connection
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-03-2022
Wilding Nature Play for Children and Families
Publisher: Western Sydney University
Date: 2019
The Impact of Royal Botanic Gardens' Community Greening Program on Perceived Health, Wellbeing, and Social Benefits in Social Housing Communities in NSW
Publisher: Western Sydney University
Date: 2018
Related Organisations
University Of Dundee
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Related Funding Activities
Seeding Success: Identifying Pillars Of The Community Greening Program That Cultivate Personal Growth, Wellbeing And Achievement
Start Date: 2019
End Date: 2018
Funder: Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust
View Funded ActivityElene4life: Learning And Interacting To Foster Employability
Start Date: 2020
End Date: 2021
Funder: Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnerships
View Funded Activity