WalkingScapes as ecopedagogy

Abstract

This study of ecologically lived experience focuses on walking as a sensory, embodied practice with/in Nature and extends the emergent conceptual and empirical literature on ecopedagogy as/in scapes. The scope is outdoor environmental education in Australia, where walking is practiced as bushwalking in relatively natural environments. This cultural construct of bushwalking is problematic due to the standardized and instrumentalized logics of practice. The embodied ecopedagogical qualities and characteristics are under researched and get lost in the commodified bush. Two purposes are examined. One, to presence the felt and affective dimensions of environmental learning. Second, to contribute to the existing practice theorization of ecopedagogy as/in scapes, both of which advance the field of outdoor and environmental education and their research. In this first person study, two cases are presented and inductively interpreted as a grounded theorization of walkingScapes as ecopedagogy.

Keywords:

• ecophenomenology
• embodiment
• environmental education research
• outdoor education
• walking

Notes

1 The term Nature is complex, has multiple meanings and interpretations. It can be understood in relation to what is ‘natural’ such as natural processes and elements as well as the relationship between Nature and human agency (Brennan & Lo, 2010). In this article, what is referred to as Nature are derivatives such as ‘environments’, ‘landscapes’ and ‘bush’.

2 The term bushwalking refers to recreational walking in Australia, but tramping, hiking, trekking and backpacking are terms used in other countries. In this article, brackets are sometimes used for (bush)walking as a point of emphasis on the scoping of both ‘bush’ as a scape and walking.

3 For clarification, throughout this article an upper case ‘N’ is used to distinguish Nature from ‘the nature of’ phenomena.

4 For clarification, Payne (2017) uses tildes (∼) as an attempt to represent the mutually constitutive nature of terms often ‘texted’ in a dualistic or binary ∼ polar manner. Tildes are used in a similar way throughout this article.

5 “Sphagnum bogs consist of “dense fibrous mounds that have huge capacity to hold and regulate water flow and retain silt” (Slattery, 2015, p. 70).

6 Paddy Roe (now deceased), JabirrJabirr elder, was instrumental in establishing the Lurujarri Dreaming Trail following an ancestral dreaming track. It is located on the coastline north of Broome, in Western Australia. His vision was for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to walk together.