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Citation: 

Stewart, Alistair. “Whose Place, Whose History? Outdoor Environmental Education Pedagogy as ‘Reading’ the Landscape.” Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning 8(2) (2008): 79-98.

Abstract/Summary: 

Stewart is interested in ‘unsettling’ the nature/culture divide that is present in present-day Australian culture by using cultural and environmental histories to reveal how people in the past related to the land. He is particularly interested in the process of history education that takes place through physical engagement with place. He suggests that “it is essential that outdoor environmental educators consider carefully the ways in which outdoor experiences introduce participants to particular ‘stories’ of the land, whose land it is or had been, and how it has changed over time” (82). He provides a short history of Australia in order to demonstrate changes in the land, and then explores how historical accounts can be used as pedagogical tools in ‘reading’ the landscape. Although Stewart is focused on outdoor environmental educators, his arguments can readily be taken up by history teachers: instead of worrying that without teaching the history of the place they will be dispossessing those who came before, teachers can employ places to help explore the past and place human-environment relationships in their historical context.

 

Source/Credit: 
Katherine Joyce