Outdoor Education Australia has made available for public viewing a select number of presentations given at NOEC 2018 in Hobart, in April 2018.

Available on the organisations website (under NOEC 2018 Proceedings) the presentations include highly relelvant keynotes by:

Dr May Breunig, Associate Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at Brock University and the Director of the Brock University Social Justice and Equity Studies Program.

Mark Leather, Senior Lecturer and Programme Area Leader – Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, Plymouth Marjon University. U.K.

As well as thirteen diverse workshop presentations.

Mary Breunig, has worked in the field(s) of experiential education for over 25 years and is currently past-president of the Association for Experiential Education.

Her presentation challenged everyone at the conference. Titled: A Sense of Hope:  How and Why Outdoor Educators need to develop their cultural and social justice competencies, her presentation helped attendees truly understand privilege, cultural competency, social justice competence and social justice literacy. She recommended all attendees view this youTube clip to understand ignorance:

Mark Leathers’s presentation, A critique of “Forest School” or something lost  in translation, complemented an article that featured in the first online issue of JOEE,  the Australian Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education.

Mark calls Forest Schools a Brand of outdoor Education that draws on: Outward Bound, Duke of  Edinburgh Award, The Scout Association, Bush Schools and Forest Schools.

Defined as: an inspirational process, that offers ALL learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees, he talked about the exponential rise in the Forest Schools in the UK over the last decade. He also posed the questions:  Does outdoor education in Australia need a Forest School Association like the UK? And an accredited training scheme for practitioners.

Other NOEC 2018 Presentations Available

The 13 workshop presentations cover gender in outdoor education, the impact of outdoor education on body image, the role of indigenous cultural immersion in Outdoor Education, old wisdom, scope and sequencing of outdoor education and other topics.