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Research in outdoor education and more specifically on wilderness expeditions has almost exclusively focused on short-term benefits (<5yrs) despite their findings suggesting these are "life-changing" experiences. This study examined long-term outcomes (40 years later) of three (month-long) adventurous school expeditions to mainland Europe, by staff and pupils from a high school (11-to 16-year-olds) in Scotland in the 1970s. The investigation was initiated by a call for life stories from 45 participants, followed by 10 interviews at a school reunion. The interviews revealed a transference of learning qualities attributed to the expedition, indicating a long-term impact on participants' personal and/or professional lives, with individuals still drawing upon their expedition experiences some 40 years later. Significant themes emerging were planning and preparation, confidence, and feelings of gratefulness, which led to participants wanting to undertake service that contributes back into society for young peoples' benefit. This study adds to the knowledge of long-range educational outcomes from school expeditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ in Scotland outlines a policy vision of a more integrated and holistic form of education; a commitment which offers considerable prospects for increased levels of outdoor learning in schools. With reference to Fullan’s theorizing on achieving educational change, this study investigated four main implementation areas, namely: policy aims, partnerships arrangements, and associated professionalism and sustainability issues. Evidence was collected through a series of 16 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders at national, local authority, and school level. Despite increased agreement on aims, it was found that improving the frequency and quality of outdoor learning in schools was adversely influenced by the patchwork nature of partnership support at national and local authority levels. This has curtailed the prioritizing of outdoor learning in schools and of teachers being supported when trying to make use of their increased curriculum decision-making responsibilities. Thus, only limited evidence was found of policy-related innovation and considerable evidence of policy stasis. As such, building national capacity is proving difficult. It is concluded that further research on how some atypical schools have managed to develop their programmes offers the best prospects for understanding the complexities of achieving greater levels of outdoor learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

New devolutionary powers for education have been enthusiastically seized on by politicians and policy-makers alike to promote a more integrated and holistic form of education in Scotland. This period of curriculum renewal offers the prospect of increased levels of outdoor education; however, to date there is a lack of a clearly agreed rationale for learning and clarity about how curriculum will be experienced by students. Consequently, we analyse pertinent conceptual questions about these matters through reviewing articles and policy announcements prior to advancing, in a preliminary fashion, a rationale for outdoor education which conceives of outdoor learning primarily as a moral endeavour. In developing the proposed rationale as the organising framework for learning, the article critically considers the multifarious challenges of connecting policy intentions with the authentic learning experiences of students. In so doing it discusses many of the most apparent curriculum and pedagogical barriers to learning, which have led in recent years to fragmented provision and the under-realisation of increased levels of deeply embedded and connected outdoor learning experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]