European Outdoor Education Conference at Trinity College
Trinity College in South Wales is to host the 2008 conference of the EOE (European Institute of Outdoor Adventure Education and Experiential Learning) between 17-20 September 2008.
The focus of the four day conference is to consider the relationship, practice and potential of the links between the outdoor education, young people and the landscape.
Conference coordinator Dr. Andy Williams commented on the timeliness of the conference. “More and more we are being made aware of how people (and especially young people) are becoming separated from the landscape that surrounds them either through increasingly sedentary lifestyles, an over-reliance upon technology, seeing the countryside as a theme park or the general encroachment of urbanised and consumer orientated forms of living. These are not all bad but those involved in education and working with young people should be fully aware of the implications their choices for engaging young people have upon the learning of those young people. There are alternative ways of to introduce learning experiences that connect with the issues and concerns they have individually, collectively and internationally and one of the best is to locate their experiences within the real and natural world that surrounds them.”
This conference draws together practitioners, academics and policy makers from 17 different countries within Europe who share a common interest in formal and informal outdoor education, young people and landscape. Lectures and workshops focusing on our use and understanding of landscape (woods, rivers, mountains and coast) and the role of outdoor education in a range of issues (nationalism v environmentalism, global v local, urban v rural, embodied experiences: health, adventure and therapy, and anti-oppressive practices) will form the context for critical debate on the relationship of landscape to outdoor education and its relevance to youth.
More information on the conference is available for www.trinity-cm.ac.uk (The IOL bookshop will have a pressence at the Conference)
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