Bushcraft education as radical pedagogy
- Submitting institution
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The University of Cumbria
- Unit of assessment
- 23 - Education
- Output identifier
- Fenton1
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
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10.1080/14681366.2020.1864659
- Title of journal
- Pedagogy, Culture & Society
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 1-15
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 1747-5104
- Open access status
- Compliant
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2020
- URL
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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14681366.2020.1864659?src=
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
2
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Recognising that Bushcraft education has gained in popularity in recent years yet remains generally uncritiqued, we pooled our distinctively different academic standpoints to problematise it as radical pedagogy transformative of society’s relationship with ecosystems. Multiple perspectives were required to deal rigorously with bushcraft education’s transdisciplinary identity, which originates from traditional indigenous knowledges, military survival training, and wilderness recreation. Our general research strategy reflected Parlett and Hamilton’s (1977) ‘illuminative evaluation’ and had the character of ‘collaborative action research’ (McNiff, 1995), operating a process of progressive focusing to reach a consensus statement which would provide a foundation for further critique.
Conscious that we were writing a ‘first in field’ piece for a transdisciplinary audience (academic colleagues, bushcraft professionals, health researchers, youth leaders) we provided thumbnail sketches of the history of bushcraft, of radical education, and of bushcraft education to situate readers in this newly emergent pedagogy. Drawing on research from ethnography, education, and critical theory, our critique foregrounded contemporary practitioners such as Tim Ingold, Ray Mears, and A S Neill’s Summerhill School as well-known touchstones for readers.
Concurrently we introduced four streams of thinking to provide focuses for our future inquiries: a proto-decolonisation of bushcraft education by distinguishing it from ‘survivalism’ and ‘survival TV’; bushcraft education’s distinctive differences from and overlaps with mainstream practices such as outdoor education and peripheral practices such as forest schools; its potential for critique as new materialism, through the skilled ecological relationality which typifies its practice; and the tentative relationship between an ecological sensibility and mental health support, currently being discussed in healthcare, to which bushcraft may make a significant contribution through the embodied practice which constitutes its transformational, deeply intersubjective relationship with the natural world.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -