Reflection on October 1st!

Today I spent a lot of time reading Ontario Curriculum Documents as well as the Ontario document, Shaping Our Schools, Shaping Our Future: Environmental Education in Ontario schools, which was released in 2007.

Reading this document allowed me to reflect on my own schooling, starting in elementary school, through high school, and expanding all the way up into my university career.

Looking at the current Ontario curriculum documents, many connections to outdoor education can be found. The 2007 document on Shaping Our Schools, Shaping Our Future states that, “within the current Ontario curriculum, some opportunities for environmental education are provided in a number of compulsory and optional subject areas and courses”(p.1). Environmental education is touched upon in science and technology, social studies, history, and geography. This means that in the elementary setting, there are opportunities for outdoor education to be integrated. Reflecting on my own schooling, in the younger grades, I remember spending some time outside, and learning about the environment. Despite this I believe that my teachers could have focused on this a lot more than they did.

In the 1990’s the Ontario curriculum was reorganized which resulted in the elimination of option courses in environmental science. In high school I did not have any courses that tried to integrate environmental education. In grades 11 and 12 at my high school I took an Earth and Space science as well as an environmental science, and I was in the minority. As a result of very few of these optional courses being offered and not much emphasis placed on these studies, very few students took these classes. Many people thought it was strange that I chose this route instead of biology or chemistry, which were deemed to be more important and more relevant sciences.

Coming to university, I chose to study education. Knowing this, I chose a teachable in geography, which is very relevant to outdoor education, but it isn’t actually outdoor education. I had never considered the idea of trying to get a teachable in outdoor education. According to the on Shaping Our Schools, Shaping Our Future document, “very few faculties of education offer environmental education as a teachable subject, or offer specialized programs in environmental studies for teacher candidates” (p.2) This further creates a generation of teachers who do not value environmental education, and who are not specialized in this topic area.

Through my research today I have further refined my ideas for how I can create an authentic outdoor education in my classroom. My research has demonstrated to me how important this topic is and I am excited to continue my research and creation of artifacts over the next few weeks.