Protecting the nature within: framing digital-downtime through Western and Indigenous approaches to preserving nature

ABSTRACT

The role of digital technologies in outdoor and environmental education is contested and therefore educators should carefully consider their inclusion or exclusion of networked spaces. In addition, educators are asked to make their pedagogical intentions visible to students. We ask ‘How might we include our students in decisions about digital-downtime?’ This article takes Western and Māori (Indigenous) approaches to preserving nature and applies them to looking after human-nature (the nature within). Learning lessons from the past about preserving nature offers a way for educators and students to discuss and consider the benefits of setting aside times and places to exclude networked spaces. Simultaneously these discussions offer students a language and framework to support their intentionality about digital connectedness or disconnectedness in their wider lives.

KEYWORDS:

• Networked spaces
• pedagogical decision-making
• Indigenous; nature

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to the Outdoor Education and Digital Technologies Special Interest Group (Dave Hills, Pat Maher, Phil Mullins, Imre van Kraalingen, Pat Daigle & Georgios Katsogridakis) for suggestions on our initial ideas. We thank the two anonymous reviewers who considerably strengthened this article with their critical and constructive comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chris North

Chris North is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Health, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. His research focuses on outdoor education practices, environmental education and initial teacher education.

Matiu Tai Ratima

Matiu Tai Ratima is a senior lecturer a the Faculty of Education, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. His research focuses on the learning of te reo Māori, culturally responsive teaching, and the effectiveness of professional development for the cultural competence of teachers.