Outdoor learning in primary schools : predominately female ground

Guiding young children outside was something I did and enjoyed from a young age, and this became the catalyst for my career in education. After teaching primary school for over a decade, I was faced with growing apprehension towards my career and felt a need to deepen my pedagogy. I began completing outdoor learning with my primary school classes to enrich their education. However, my quest did not end there, and I embarked on a study to mentor another female teacher to take her curriculum outside. Most primary teachers are women who do not regularly access the outdoors; therefore, I chose a woman who did not have a background in outdoor activities to be involved in the research. The outdoor mentoring was positive, the teacher involved enthusiastically taught in all manner of local outdoor places, and there were significant academic gains evident to the children in the study. My driving force was to connect children to their local environments, just as I had had the opportunity to do in my own childhood.