Introduction
The human-nature relationship is a core of environmental and outdoor education, and culture informs how people relate to the natural world. Having acknowledged that peoples with different cultures think differently and have a variety of ways of expressing relationship with the environment, it becomes obvious that understandings of teaching and learning outdoors need to consider cultural dimensions especially when dealing with multicultural participants and groups. Showing examples from Alaska and Japan, this entry demonstrates that culture is inseparable from outdoor learning and broadens the significance of what the land teaches the learner.
What Is Culture
What does culture have to do with outdoor learning? And what, to begin with, is meant by “culture”?
Culture is certainly a very complex concept, yet dictionary definitions speak of culture as a way of life; as general customs, manners, beliefs, and values; and as the understandings of a particular group of people at a...
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References
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Barnhardt, R., & Kawagley, A. O. (2003). Center for learning and indigenous knowledge systems. Retrieved from Fairbanks, AK: http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/proposals/
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Takano, T., Higgins, P., & McLaughlin, P. (2009). Connecting with place: Implications of integrating cultural values into the school curriculum in Alaska. Environmental Education Research, 15(3), 343–370.
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Takano, T. (2019). Culture, Role in Outdoor Learning. In: Peters, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Teacher Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1179-6_364-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1179-6_364-1
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