Education Outside the Classroom : Pedagogical Practices, Prevalence, and Potential

Abstract

This article-based thesis comprises two sub-studies in the field of Education Outside the Classroom (EOtC) and investigates this teaching approach from different angles, using various methodologies and underlying theories to learn more about its pedagogical practices, prevalence and potential. For the first study, I analysed data from an ethnographic case study I had generated at an elementary school in Germany in the schoolyear 2016/17. For the second study, I conducted a nation-wide survey in Norway in 2021/22, applying a combined email and phone approach. The research questions for study 1, the ethnographic case study, are: • RQ1: How can the established effects of EOtC on students’ satisfaction of basic psychological needs be understood? Article 1: Lauterbach, G. (2023). “Building Roots” - Developing Agency, Competence, and a Sense of Belonging through Education Outside the Classroom. Education Sciences, 13(1107). • RQ2: What is the potential of EOtC for inclusion, specifically for students with immigrant backgrounds? Article 2: Lauterbach, G., Fandrem, H., & Dettweiler, U. (2023). Does “Out” Get You “In”? - Education Outside the Classroom as a Means of Inclusion for Students with Immigrant Backgrounds. Education Sciences, 13(878). The research question for study 2, the national survey, is: • RQ3: What is the prevalence, provision and nature of uteskole in Norway? Article 3: Lauterbach, G., Bølling, M., & Dettweiler, U. (2023, November 20). Education Outside the Classroom in Norway: The Prevalence, Provision, and Nature of Uteskole (accepted with minor revisions) In the narrative (kappe) of this thesis, I elaborate on the rationale, the context, the theoretical perspectives, and the methodology and methods of the research project(s), including ethical considerations. Furthermore, I present the results and findings of the three articles and discuss their contribution to the research project as a whole. In article 1, I investigate how EOtC was used to support the students’ basic psychological needs, i.e., their need for competence, autonomy and relatedness as described in Self-Determination Theory (SDT). In addition, I apply the framework of Ecological Psychology (EP) to explain how the EOtC teaching settings helped the students to become effective, agentic and connected. The findings show that this process was driven by their active engagement with environmental ‘affordances’ which facilitated embodied experiences. Moreover, the interplay between place and people specifically reinforced their satisfaction of relatedness and created a deepened sense of belonging to their community. It is concluded that to foster children’s healthy psychological and physiological development in EOtC, teachers should make use of the affordances and ‘invitations’ of specific places as a starting point for their teaching to support the students to develop agency, competence and a sense of belonging. In article 2, I look at the potential of EOtC to foster inclusion, specifically of students with immigrant backgrounds, using an ethnographic multiple-methods design, and present two cases that revealed factors that either prevented or facilitated experiences of inclusion during EOtC. The findings demonstrate that a lack of language proficiency and academic and social overburdening were among the main barriers to inclusion ofimmigrant students in school. An EOtC approach with a strong focus on place and culture responsiveness on the other hand, provides possibilities for the participation of all students and offers a promising way to develop more inclusive schools. In the third article, I present data from a national survey on the prevalence, provision and nature of ‘uteskole’ (‘outdoor schooling’) in Norway and draw some comparisons with other Nordic countries. The results reveal a prevalence of 87.7% of uteskole practice in Norway in grades 1-10, with 68.7% of uteskole provision at least half a day every second week. Uteskole is taught across almost all subjects and is reported to be connected to the indoor teaching and is strongly influenced by the tradition of ‘friluftsliv’ (‘outdoor-life’). This is also represented in the respective teacher qualifications, as specific uteskole competences are mainly acquired in physical education teacher training. It can be concluded that EOtC should become a mandatory element in teacher education across all subjects, in order to align the teachers’ qualifications with the widespread uteskole practices. Based on the findings of the three articles, I argue for the need to practice culturally and place-responsive teaching in EOtC to provide an uteskole for all students.