The Outdoor Classroom: School Camping As Education in NSW 1890-1960S (Report‪)‬

Introduction Outdoor education is now a well-established subject area in New South Wales schools and is popular at primary and secondary school levels in both public and corporate schools. Neill (2001) noted that, "a reasonable hypothesis is that most Australian students would at some point during their schooling participate in at least one substantial camping or outdoor education program" (p. 2). At the Higher School Certificate level the subject even forms an elective part of the Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) Stage 6 Syllabus (NSW Board of Studies, 2009). Furthermore, many Australian universities offer specific units of study related to outdoor education as part of physical education teacher education programs. Beyond specialist physical education teacher preparation a wide range of students from fields such as health education and arts enrol in outdoor education programs. There is also a significant market for outdoor education courses of study for fee paying study abroad students. These outdoor education units of study offer international students the opportunity of combining studies with the exploration of the unique Australian landscape. At some universities such as La Trobe University and Wollongong University, outdoor education is a designated area of scholarship, with associated students from undergraduate level to PhD level. Even in primary schools, where there is concern by educational researchers and practitioners with the sparse amount of time offered in physical education within generalist primary pre-service programs, (see for example, Light & Georgakis, 2007), some programs, such as that at the University of Melbourne, feature a strong outdoor education component.