Under an open sky: Reflections and challenges of university students

Abstract

Within the educational systems, attention has been directed to the importance of creating an environment and conditions to cultivate students’ ability to deal with the uncertainty and challenges of our time – whether in the field of environmental issues, pandemics or other factors.

International research suggests that friluftsliv and guided outdoor education can be a useful and powerful way to work with such skills. The Scandinavian term ‘friluftsliv’ is culturally and legally defined and has for a long time been the subject of research in various academic fields, including education. Within this tradition, strong emphasis is laid on traveling through nature and in nature by one’s own power and in harmony with nature. The paper also draws on the English traditions of outdoor education and adventure education.

The strong experiences gained from taking learning out into nature can be attributed to the challenging interactions of students when dealing with unpredictable environment and weather conditions. In order for such experiences to be learning experiences, contributing to the increased competences of the students, it is necessary that students reflect on their experiences in an organized way. Reflection is integrated into most subjects of outdoor education and has developed greatly over the past decades and is in fact a core component of professional practice.

The purpose of this article is to draw out the possibilities of nature as both a learning environment and a co-teacher, and develop creative ways to meet contemporary demands in the education of university students. The goal is to shed light on the role of reflection in bringing out the possibilities for learning and development that are inherent in spending time in nature. We therefore raise two research questions to guide our work: (1) How do students describe their challenges before, during and after a four-day journey through the wilderness of Iceland? (2) What evidence can be found in students’ writings that indicate that reflecting on the journey has brought them opportunities for meaningful learning? The paper is based on data from assignments obtained from 58 students who participated in the course Outdoor Journeys and Friluftsliv at the University of Iceland in 2014, 2015 and 2017. The data was thematically analysed and common themes were found.

Data was based on students’ final assignments where they reflected back on the journey based on earlier reflections written in a log-book from both before the journey and during the journey.

The findings indicate that nature is a strong co-teacher when working with students to strengthen personal and professional growth. In their writings, students describe experiences of physical challenges associated with walking in the untouched nature as well as challenges where they deal with their own thoughts and feelings. The participants’ challenges were diverse, but the most prominent were struggles with slowness, social interactions, and mental and physical emotions when dealing with hardship.

We identified five themes in the data: 1) Physical and mental challenges: Wow, that’s steep, 2) Impatience: I got irritated, 3) Meaningless: What am I doing? 4) Exhaustion: This is my shelter, and 5) Emotions: After all this emotional roller coaster. The last two themes are about reviewing and are related to students’ pride or elation and solidarity when they got home, and we call them: 1) Elation: I fucking made it and 2) Solidarity: Incredibly proud of the whole group.

What creates these challenges are primarily uncertainty, nature and deliberate slowness, but the pausing – to stop and wonder – sharpens the attention and lays the foundation for thoughtful conversation and dialogue. What makes this experience visible, both to the students themselves and to us as educators who are also in the role of researchers, is the reflective practice that was woven into the learning process in formal and informal ways. The conceptual frame of wild pedagogies could be beneficial for the authors to further develop the journey and use nature as a coteacher and give the wild and extended role.

Evidence can be found in the students’ writings that indicate that the journey brought them opportunities for meaningful learning that affects them personally and professionally. Structured reflective practice was an important part of the process, where students had the opportunity to practice pausing and noticing and dealing with uncertainty and natural challenges.