Between “Back to Basics” and “Back to Nature": Exploring the Relationship Between California’s Content Standards and Non-Formal Outdoor Environmental Education

Purpose of the Study: This study explores tensions that practitioners of non-formal outdoor environmental education (EE) encounter when designing curricula in the current climate of standards-based education reform. It presents the experiences and opinions of practitioners, as well as a discussion on practical and philosophical tensions in the field. Methodology: This qualitative study is based on participant observations, a focus group discussion, interviews with three directors of non-formal outdoor EE programs, archival research, and informal discussions with relevant sources. The findings are also juxtaposed with the literature on EE philosophy and standards-based education reform. Findings: The data gathered from this study suggests how education reform is reaching nonformal outdoor EE programs, presents a spectrum of reactions from programs in terms of curriculum alignment, and describes the difficulty in implementing assessment procedures in the non-formal outdoor context. The study also finds that participating programs are particularly invested in the federal No Child Left Inside legislation. Finally, the study finds that non-formal EE programs maintain a fidelity to some core principles of EE that they view as more important than academic achievement in their programs. Conclusions: The researcher discusses two philosophical ambiguities that result in practical tensions within non-formal outdoor EE. The first is between experience-centered and content-centered paradigms of education. The second is between conflicting conceptions of EE as activism and EE as profession. Taking this into account, some actions are suggested to assist in the growing partnership between EE and standards-based reform while keeping true to the affective and critical aspects of the field.