Wilderness Education

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Wilderness education teaches techniques and skills that make it possible to feel at home outside in nature. It comprises an independent area of environmental education . Wilderness education differs from other nature and environmental education currents both in its content and in the forms of teaching and learning.

term

The main concern of wilderness education is to reopen access to nature . An overarching goal is to promote mindfulness towards life, an understanding of the complex relationships in ecological systems and the development of a bond between humans and nature, but also between humans and humans.

A detailed and uniform elaboration of the wilderness pedagogical methods, their content and goals is not yet available. The source of knowledge handed down to wilderness education and the methods of upbringing from extinct or the few still existing indigenous peoples . Therefore, it determines the examination of their subsistent way of life, worldview, culture and craft as well as their relationship to nature as their subject. The essential content of wilderness education is derived from this focus: the (excess) life training in nature.

Gerhard Trommer notes that wilderness education “(seems) to turn upside down what education has always been about: liberating people from their original state, leading them out of the state of immaturity. As a rule, pedagogy does not endeavor to provide an education that makes life fit for life in the distant wilderness. "

Experience particularly emphasizes the goal of connectedness and speaks of "meaningful involvement". An intensive experience of nature should promote a sustainable lifestyle: “If someone is really deeply familiar with nature, he also lives in harmony with it. And harmony means worrying about sustainability. "

Using wilderness pedagogical methods, experiences in the “wilderness” and encounters with nature can contribute to a rediscovery of “full sensuality”, the affective and the imaginative, and thus promote a refinement of the ability to perceive. Psychological and neurological studies confirm the importance that a sensory and emotional relationship with nature plays in human development.

Methods

Wilderness education has different orientations. Gerhard Trommer first used the term in 2002 in a specialist publication. In 2003, Anja Schendzielorz divided the wilderness education approaches into two categories: wilderness education in the national parks and that of the free wilderness schools.

Wilderness education in national parks

Billboard with mushrooms . With the help of the mushroom models, blind people can also experience the shape of the mushrooms

In accordance with their educational mandate, the German and Austrian national parks also carry out environmental education programs for children, young people and adults. Since the organizers of the national parks took up the idea of ​​the wilderness with the new catchphrase “nature, let nature be!”, The national park movement in Germany has been increasingly thinking about how people should be introduced to this “wilderness”.

The educational work in the national parks is based mostly on different educational concepts and is a mixture of nature education (Göpfert 1987), Ecological instruction (Beer & De Haan 1987), experiential (Janssen 1988), Backpack school (Trommer 1991), Flow Learning (Cornell, 1991, 1999 ), Earth Education (VAN MATRE 1990) and many others.

Wilderness education in wilderness schools

Listening funnels on the "Wilder Weg" in the barrier-free nature experience area "Wilder Kermeter " in the Eifel National Park .

Independently of the development in the national park, wilderness education developed in the wilderness schools . Wilderness schools consider wilderness education to be independent of large protected areas and apply them independently. The transitions between civilization , cultivated land and wilderness are seen as fluid. Anja Erxleben writes that near-natural landscapes can offer a lot of the immediate; For someone from the big city, the nearest forest, with noises like the chirping of birds instead of the noise of cars, already has something wild and stimulating. It is about discovering the "little wilderness" that awaits you on every doorstep.

The educational work of the wilderness schools was largely carried out by Tom Brown, Jr. and Jon Young, from the USA influenced and derived from the "culture of the wild" rather than the "wilderness" as a landscape. The wilderness schools see their tradition and a. based on the teachings of indigenous peoples and hunter-gatherer cultures.

With the diploma thesis: Becoming indigenous in nature , a wilderness education course was scientifically accompanied for the first time. The first one-year wilderness education course was held in 2003 by Gero Wever. In its LexiTV series, the MDR broadcast a report on the wilderness education course at a wilderness school.

As a result of this educational work, training courses were launched which essentially aim to make the teaching content uniformly the same and to impart knowledge in the best possible way. After at least one year of training and a final test, participants receive a wilderness pedagogue certificate.

application areas

The offers of wilderness education are used by educational institutions such as kindergartens, youth groups, schools and universities, by companies, private groups and families.

In 2000, a network of wilderness educators, the "WIND - Wilderness Schools Network Germany" was founded. Forest kindergartens for educational purposes have existed since 2007 . In the same year the first three-year wilderness education course took place. The 8 Shields Institute, founded in the United States in 2009, tries to establish an international infrastructure for the worldwide network of wilderness education .

The thesis that it makes sense to work independently of large protected areas is currently gaining more and more recognition. The representatives of the two basic lines of wilderness education are working more and more together in projects in and outside the wildlife parks.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Malte Hoevel: A concept for "wilderness education" in the Eifel National Park . Thesis. Friedrich Wilhelms University, Institute of Geography, 2005.
  2. ↑ Jon Young, Ellen Haas, Evan McGown: Coyote's Guide to Connecting With Nature . Owlink Media, 2008. Jörn Lies: Wildness as a way - About the unsettled nature of wilderness . Thesis. HGB Leipzig, 2004, p.
     43 .
  3. ^ Paul Stöcker: Wilderness Education in the Educational Theory Context . Master thesis. HNE-Eberswalde, 2010, p. 22nd f .
  4. ↑ David Kremer: Learning to survive. Wilderness training between experiential education and environmental education . Thesis. Westphalian Wilhelms University, Educational Science, Münster 2004, p. 16 ( PDF ; 842 kB [accessed on April 6, 2016]).
  5. ↑ a b Gerhard Trommer: Wilderness Education - An important future task for large protected areas . In: National Park . No. 4 , 2002, p. 8-11 .
  6. ↑ a b c Anja Erxleben: Become a native of nature . Thesis. FH Eberswalde, 2008 ( PDF ; 3.99 MB [accessed on April 6, 2016]).
  7. ↑ The Nature of Children; Let them out! In: GEO . No. 8 , 2010, p. 90-108 .
  8. ↑ Norbert Jung: Psychotopes as an object of the human-nature relationship.
  9. ↑ Gerald Hüther: Operating Instructions for a Human Brain. (= Vandenhoeck Collection). 6th edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-525-01464-6 .
  10. ↑ Anja Schendzielorz: What is meant by wilderness education ? A comparison of wilderness education concepts. Admission work for the first state examination. Faculty of Education at the Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nürnberg, p. 97.
  11. ↑ Hans Bibelriether : Let nature be nature. In: P. Prokosch (Ed.): Undisturbed Nature - What do we get out of it? Conference 6 environmental pen. WWF Germany, Husum 1992, pp. 85-104.
  12. ^ Federation for Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (Ed.): Wildnisbildung, a contribution to educational work in national parks . 2002 ( PDF ; 194 kB [accessed on April 6, 2016]).
  13. ↑ Wilderness Schools Portal Europe
  14. ↑ Jon Young
  15. ↑ LexiTV Video: Survival Made Easy
  16. ↑ WIND website
  17. ↑ 8shields.org
  18. ↑ Symposium “New Paths in Forest Education”, November 9th and 10th, 2009, Erfurt ( Memento of the original from September 30th, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 1.03 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sdw.de

literature

  • P. Kahn, S. Kellert: Children and nature: psychological, sociocultural, and evolutionary investigations. MIT Press, 2002, ISBN 0-262-11267-1 .
  • Elke Loepthien: Connectedness as an aspect of an ecology of learning. Diploma thesis at the University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde (FH). 2011, ISBN 978-3-656-16834-8 .
  • Elke Loepthien: From environmental education to environmental commitment . Term paper at the HNE Eberswalde, 2008, ISBN 978-3-640-64412-4 .
  • Richard Louv: Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Algonquin Books, 2005, ISBN 1-56512-391-3 .
  • Richard Louv: Web of Life: Weaving the Values ​​That Sustain Us. 1998.
  • Susanne Nülle: Coyote Teaching / Wild Knowledge and the Effects in Forest Kindergarten Work. Practice report at the University of Bremen, 2008.
  • Wolfgang Peham: The forest in us - communicating sustainability. Oekom Verlag, Munich 2008, pp. 30–37.
  • Henning Thiessen: Wilderness in Schleswig-Holstein? In: P. Prokosch (Ed.): Undisturbed Nature - What do we get out of it? Conference report 6 Umweltstift. WWF Germany, Husum 1992.
  • Gerhard Trommer (Ed.): Perceiving nature with the backpack school. Westermann, Braunschweig 1991.
  • Gerhard Trommer: Wilderness - the educational challenge. Deutscher Studienverlag, Weinheim 1992.
  • Gerhard Trommer, R. Noack: Nature in environmental education - perspectives for large protected areas. Deutscher Studien Verlag, Weinheim 1997.
  • Gerhard Trommer: Psychotop wilderness - wilderness and wilderness - definition of terms and backgrounds. In: Polit. Ecology. 59, 1999, pp. 10-12.
  • Gerhard Trommer: The Gila Wilderness - first wilderness reserve in the USA. In: National Park. 2/99, 1999, pp. 36-39.
  • Sabine Simeoni: Wild natural handicrafts - handicrafts, plant knowledge and wild herb cooking with children in the annual cycle. AT Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-03800-959-7 .