Teacher Qualification Guidelines, Ecological Literacy and Outdoor Education

Overview & Synopsis

A key signpost to a profession is clarity of disciplinary knowledge. In this paper I describe the content and outcome of a process to refine the qualification guidelines for outdoor education teachers in Victorian, Australia. The guidelines, developed for the Victorian Institute of Teaching, include both practical skills and disciplinary knowledge. These can help differentiate outdoor education from other areas such as physical education. The practical skill areas that form the basis of the outdoor education teacher guidelines are summarised in the paper. The disciplinary knowledge required of outdoor education teachers includes content such as human interaction with natural environments, activity knowledge, safety and ecological literacy. Ecological literacy has been less often described in past editions of AJOE. In the latter half of the paper I therefore describe, with reference to David Orr (1992, 2004), the value and relevance of ecological literacy for outdoor education. I conclude that ecological literacy could be developed as a key rationale and practice for outdoor education in schooling.