Call for papers

Widening Horizons: Diversity in Theoretical and Critical Views of Outdoor Education
The Third International Outdoor Education Research Conference
4th- 7th July 2006

To be hosted at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), Penrith Campus, Newton Rigg, Penrith, Cumbria, UK
This International conference aims to open up blind spots in the existing understanding of outdoor
education by engaging with a greater variety of theoretical and critical approaches than have traditionally
been associated with outdoor education research. Policy studies, curriculum studies, economic based
research and critical/post structuralist research, have all been identified as potentially valuable areas for
outdoor education research to engage with. This is not however a finite list and consideration will be
given to other disciplinary and inter-disciplinary perspectives that contribute to widening critical and
theoretical understanding.

The conference will build on discussion from the two previous International Outdoor Education Research
Conferences held at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, UK, in 2002 and Latrobe University,
Australia, in 2004. As well as welcoming researchers from a greater variety of theoretical and disciplinary
views the conference aims to attract research from people already doing critical work in outdoor
education. This will enable further development of critiques of theoretical and disciplinary traditions in
outdoor education by building on existing research in the field. Overall this approach will open up new
avenues of understanding, as well as engaging with, and developing existing critical research in outdoor
education.

With these aims in mind the UCLan based 2006 conference is interested in researchers submitting papers
which either:
offer new disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives or,
further develop critique of existing theoretical and disciplinary traditions
in the following subject areas:
Marginalised groups and processes of exclusion/inclusion in outdoor education;
Social and cultural construction of identity and experience in outdoor education;
Cross-cultural perspectives on outdoor education;
Politics of outdoor education;
Environmental connectedness/connections in outdoor education.
Abstracts of no more than 150 words for a 15 minute paper are invited by the conference organisers.
They should be forwarded as an email attachment to Gail Simpson, gsimpson@uclan.ac.uk, listing name,
organisation, contact address, telephone and email address and should include the title of the proposed
paper.

The closing date for abstracts is 15th August 2005. Confirmation of acceptance of abstracts will be
sent out October 2005.

Please note that paper presenters need to register for the conference and pay the registration fee.
Please address all general enquiries and abstracts to:
Gail Simpson, Conference Officer, Conference and Events Management,
University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1772 892656
Fax: +44 (0) 1772 892977
Email: gsimpson@uclan.ac.uk