Experiences With Wild Pedagogies in Teacher Education in Botswana

Abstract

Wild pedagogies is gaining resonance in outdoor education. This paper examines wild pedagogies from the worldview of its practitioners, by reflecting on their experiences, as well as from the encounters of student-teachers with nature, by drawing on their written testimonies. The paper is also influenced by the authors' experience of attending a 2019 colloquium in Finse, Norway. With the objective of adding value to teaching and learning, wild pedagogies is evolving within the framework of experiential learning theory and as an extension of outdoor education. The authors used a literature review, their experiences, and student-teachers' experiences to generate data. The study concludes that wild pedagogies enhances environmental education and adds value to practical experiences through varied learning opportunities. By applying wild pedagogical approaches to education, students have more freedom to observe, feel, experiment, reflect, and connect with nature. Keywords: wild pedagogies, outdoor education, teacher education, Botswana