Students Caring For Each Other: Outdoor Education and Learning Through Peer Relationships

Abstract

Caring is an action oriented value that can provide a way forward beyond the dualism prevalent between the concepts of individual and community. This investigation focused on school students’ understandings of and experiences of caring. It comprised a comparison of Year Nine students’ perceptions of outdoor education and their other classes at an Australian secondary school with respect to their experiences of caring. In order to achieve this it was first necessary to determine a student derived understanding of the meaning of caring, a very broad term. A survey instrument was constructed following analysis of the interview data which enabled this comparison to be made. The results indicated..