Wellbeing of outdoor education teachers: the role of school management and organization
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12795/IE.2023.i106.04Keywords:
Outdoor education, wellbeing, school management, relational climate, teachersAbstract
The following research begins with an increase in the perception of malaise within schools, as evidenced by increased cases of work-related stress and burnout syndrome among teachers. The Covid-19 pandemic and restriction measures reduced people's interactions with their natural environments, making the needs of nature even more urgent than before. The 2030 Agenda objectives point to the need to reduce this gap, especially in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (UNESCO, 2017). The scientific literature attributes great potential to natural environments in terms of well-being and learning. Therefore, it is fundamental that schools pay more attention to well-being (physical, mental, emotional, social) to counteract the frenzy of teaching-learning rhythms, the static nature of educational proposals, and the social immobility to which children and adults have been exposed during lockdown periods. With this in mind, we chose to investigate the association between Outdoor Education experience, perception of school climate and organization, and teachers' levels of stress, anxiety, and psychophysical fatigue. The following instruments were used: Depression Anxiety Stress Scales - DASS 21 (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995); Positivity - P-scale (Caprara et al., 2012); Need for Recovery - NFR (Van Veldhoven & Meijman, 1994) and, for school context assessment, the Revised School Level Environment Questionnaire (Matteucci, Guglielmi & Lauermann, 2017). A convenience sample of 123 Italian teachers aged between 24 and 63, 96% of whom were females answered to the anonymous survey. The sample was composed of two different study groups: 74 outdoor teachers and 49 indoor teachers. The data analysis would seem to exclude the direct effect of Outdoor Education on the perception of stress, anxiety, depression, and work-related fatigue. On the other hand, the importance of school climate and organizational characteristics emerges. The practice of OE is statistically significantly associated with better levels of psychophysical well-being of teachers when their school is characterized by sharing responsibilities, cohesion, openness to innovation, and availability of resources.
Downloads
References
Barrable, A., & Booth, D. (2020). Nature connection in early childhood: A quantitative cross-sectional study. Sustainability, 12(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010375
Bortolotti A., Schenetti M, & Telese V., (2020). L’Outdoor Education come possibile approccio inclusivo. Una ricerca nei servizi educativi zero-sei del Comune di Bologna, Italian Journal Of Special Education For Inclusion, 8, 417-433.
Capel, S. A., (1992). Stress and Burnout in Teachers. European Journal of Teacher Education, 15(3), 197-211. https://doi.org/10.1080/0261976920150305
Capperucci D., Salvadori I, Schenetti M., (2022). Valutazione dell’impatto di percorsi di Ricerca-Formazione con insegnanti della scuola primaria. Analisi di due esperienze, RICERCAZIONE, 13, 95-102.
du Mérac, E. R., Borghese, M. C., & La Delfa, P. (2022). Open Badge educativi - linguaggi e pratiche dell’arte in ambito educativo e di formazione. In P. Lucisano & A. Marzano (Eds.) Convegno Internazionale SIRD: Quale scuola per i cittadini del mondo? A cento anni dalla fondazione della Ligue Internationale de l’Éducation Nouvelle (pp. 973-984). Pensa MultiMedia srl.
Eftec (2011). Assessing the Benefits of Learning Outside the Classroom in Natural Environments.
Fjortoft, I. (2001). The Natural Environment as a Playground for Children: The Impact of Outdoor Play Activities in Pre-Primary School Children. Early Childhood Education Journal, 29(2), 111–117. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012576913074
García-González, E., & Schenetti M. (2019). Las escuelas al aire libre un contexto para el aprendizaje de las ciencias en la etapa infantil. El caso de “la escuola nel bosco Villa Ghigi”. Revista Eureka sobre Enseñanza y Divulgaciòn de las Ciencias, 16, 1 – 15.
García-González, E., & Schenetti M. (2022). Education in nature and learning science in early childhood: a fertile and sustainable symbiosis. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42322-022-00110-4
Gibson, J. (1986). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Hillsdale (NJ), Erlbaum.
Ingman, B. C. (2021). Cultural interchange in adventure education: exploring the interaction of participants and institutional cultures. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 21(1), 17-34.
International Labour Organization (2016). Workplace Stress: A Collective Challenge. Genève: International Labor Office.
International Labour Organization (2020). Managing work-related psychosocial risks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Available at: https://bit.ly/2PIDCvt
Jones R., Tarter R. & Ross M.A. (2021). Greenspace Interventions, Stress and Cortisol: A Scoping Review. Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(6):2802.
Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 15(3), 169-182.
Kaplan, R. & Kaplan S., (1989). The experience of nature: a psychological perspective. Cambridge University Press.
Kida, P., (2019). Competencies and qualification in Outdoor Education. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 1, 79-92.
Kuo, M., Barnes M. & Jordan C. (2019). Do experiences with nature promote learning? Converging evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship. Frontiers in Psychology, 19(10), 305.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman S. (1984). Stress, Appraisal, and Coping. 11. [print.]. Springer.
Lucisano, P. & du Mérac, E. R. (2015). School and Scouting. The Touchstone. Scuola democratica, 3(6), 545-568.
Mannion G., Fenwick A., Nugent C., & I’Anson J. (2011). Teaching in nature. Report Contracted to University of Stirling, Commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage.
Maslach, C., & Jackson S. E., (1991). The Measurement of Experienced Burnout. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2(2), 99–113.
Matteucci, M. C. et al. (2020). Insegnanti e COVID-19. DAD, benessere psicologico e lavorativo degli insegnanti in tempo di COVID-19. Available at: http://amsacta.unibo.it/6537/1/Insegnanti%20e%20COVID-REPORT%20finale%20compresso.pdf
Mygind, E. (2009). A comparison of children’s statements about social relations and teaching in the classroom and in the outdoor environment. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 9(2), 151-169.
Miles J. C. & Priest, (Eds), (1990). Adventure Education. Venture Publishing.
Monticone, I., (1995). Stress e burnout degli insegnanti: orientarsi al futuro. Sovera, Roma.
Nawaz, H., & Blackwell, S. (2014). Perceptions about forest schools: Encouraging and promoting Archimedes Forest Schools. Educational Research and Reviews, 9(15), 498–503. https://doi.org/10.5897/err2014.1711
Puertas-Molero, P., Zurita-Ortega, F., Chacón-Cuberos, R., Martínez-Martínez, A., Castro-Sánchez, M., & González-Valero, G. (2018). An explanatory model of emotional intelligence and its association with stress, burnout syndrome, and non-verbal communication in the university teachers. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 7(12), 524-535.
Shanahan D., Astell-Burth T., Barber E.A., Brymer E., Cox D.T.C., Dean J., Depledge M., Fuller R.A., Hartig T., Irvine K.N., Jones A., Kikillus H., Lovell R., Mitchell R., Niemelä J., Nieuwenhuijsen M., Pretty J., Townsend M., van Heezik Y., Warber S. and Gaston K.J. (2019). Nature–Based interventions for improving health and wellbeing: The purpose, the people and the outcomes. Sports, 7(6), 141.
Schenetti M., & Guerra E. (2018). Emotions map making. Discovering teacher’s relationship with nature. Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education, 12(2), 31-56.
Schenetti, M., (2021). Ricerca-Formazione e Didattica all’aperto. In S. Polenghi, F. Cereda & P. Zini (a cura di.), La responsabilità della pedagogia nelle trasformazioni dei rapporti sociali (pp. 1279-1286). Pensa Multimedia editore.
Smith, G. (2002). Place-based education: Learning to be where we are. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(8), 584-594.
Stigsdotter, U. K., Corazon, S. S., Sidenius, U., Refshauge, A. D., & Grahn, P. (2017). Forest design for mental health promotion—Using perceived sensory dimensions to elicit restorative responses. Landscape and Urban Planning, 160(1–15).
Taylor, A., & Kuo, F. E. (2010). Is contact with nature important for healthy child development? State of the evidence. In C. Spencer & E. Blades (Eds.), Children and Their evironments (pp. 124–140). Cambridge University Press.
Ulrich, R. S., (1979). Visual Landscapes and Psychological Well-Being. Landscape Research, 4, 17-23.
Ulrich, R. S., Simons, R.F, Losito, B.D., Fiorito, E., Miles, M.A., & Zelson, M. (1991). Stress Recovery during Exposure to Natural and Urban Environments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 11(3), 201-230.
Wells, N. M. (2000). Effects of Greenness on Children’s Cognitive Functioning. Environment and Behavior, 32(6), 775-795. https://doi.org/10.1177/00139160021972793
World Health Organization (2019). International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (11th Revision). https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Investigaci´ón en la Escuela
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in this journal accept the following conditions:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication, with the work registered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which allows third parties to use the published work, provided that proper acknowledgement is given; the authorship of the work and first publication in AVANCES are mentioned; the material is not used for commercial purposes; and, if you create other material from the original material (e.g. a translation), you must distribute your contribution under this same licence as the original.
- Authors may enter into separate and additional contractual arrangements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the article published in this journal (e.g., inclusion in an institutional repository or publication in a book) as long as they clearly indicate that the work was first published in this journal.
- Authors are allowed and encouraged to publish their work on the Internet (e.g. on institutional or personal websites) before and during the review and publication process, as it may lead to productive exchanges and to a wider and faster dissemination of the published work (see The Effect of Open Access).
Accepted 2022-12-05
Published 2023-07-17
- Abstract 214
- PDF 271
