To view the photo-rich magazine version, click here.

Originally appears in the Summer 2021 issue.

(Cover Photo by Kelly Glen)

By Gillian Judson

Collaboration. 

What do you think about when you hear that word? 

In the context of educators’ professional learning and development, the word “collaboration” will likely bring to your mind a myriad of memories and emotions: perhaps, sitting with colleagues long after students have gone home for the day, or now, in COVID times, joining each other through online platforms. You discuss the how’s, what’s and why’s of new ideas followed by the what-ifs and why-don’t-we’s of trying new things. You might envision popping into colleagues’ (physical or virtual) classrooms, co-planning learning opportunities for students, or considering how to introduce new practices in your school. You might feel mixed emotions: perhaps satisfaction and pleasure from thinking about this co-learning and how it shapes you as a professional and also, perhaps, the lingering feelings from frustrating past attempts to work with others or experiences that failed to move you to action.

In this article, I consider why and how collaboration contributes to educators’ professional learning about an imaginative and ecological teaching practice called the Walking Curriculum. The Walking Curriculum is an example of Imaginative Ecological Education, or IEE, that involves students learning outside, in the schoolyard or local community, through inquiry and imagination-focused walking themes. With IEE and the Walking Curriculum in mind specifically, the collaboration I speak of is likely different from what many educators are used to. It involves engaging with Place — the natural and cultural context in which you teach and learn — as a partner in learning. 

Collaboration isn’t a novel practice in educators’ professional learning. However, extending the notion of collaboration to include Place as a partner, a fellow teacher, in the collaborative relationship is unusual from a Western settler perspective. Place-based learning is a rich, but small part of a Western educational tradition that has largely separated human beings from the more-than-human-world and has divorced learning from land and Place. In contrast, an understanding of the inseparable connection of learning with Place is at the heart of Indigenous ways of knowing and being. As a settler and someone who is most familiar with Western educational thinking practices, I acknowledge the importance of opening space in our hearts and minds to understand Indigenous cultures and their important teachings about Place. This is part of my ongoing learning.

Walking Curriculum Survey: Highlights

I recently got feedback on the Walking Curriculum from educators worldwide. Some of the topics I sought to understand included how educators learn about the Walking Curriculum, what they like about it, what challenges they face using it, and how they want to deepen their understanding of it. 

Who is using the Walking Curriculum? 

The survey had 82 respondents. 68% of the respondents work in the context of K–12 education, with the majority self-identifying as elementary school educators (54%). The majority of respondents were not new to the Walking Curriculum or IEE: 37% said they had been using the resource for about two years, 32% for more than three years (including other IEE resources); 27% had been using the work for about a year or less. 

What do you like about it? What are your challenges? 

When asked what they most like about the Walking Curriculum, respondents said they liked its accessibility, simplicity, and openness. They like how it takes learning outside in easy, yet generative ways that are adaptable. They like how the walks and imaginative activities offer enrichment for educators experienced with outdoor learning and an entry point for outdoor learning for those educators new to the practice. In terms of challenges, the most cited problem was a lack of time. In addition to this, respondents noted concerns over weather, appropriate clothing, and supervision. 

How are educators learning about it? 

Now, as a parent of two smartphone-loving teenagers, my heart races a bit when I talk about social media. But in this context, social media has been a driving force in the dissemination of the Walking Curriculum: 39% of survey respondents indicated that they first heard about the work through social media (Twitter, Facebook). The next largest source of initial information on the Walking Curriculum was through a colleague (20%). When asked about the most helpful way they learned about the resource, just starting to do the walks with students received the highest response rate at 34%; reading the Walking Curriculum book and other IEE resources individually came second at 26%, followed by being part of a book study (11%) or attending a presentation (10%). 

When asked if they had shared their Walking Curriculum knowledge with others, a remarkable 90% of respondents said they had. This sharing occurred through activities that included word-of-mouth, social media “shares,” lending out the resource, and presenting at staff meetings or district PD. (I acknowledge that the people responding to the survey are already committed — that question was a bit like asking members of a choir if they like to sing. Still, I believe the high degree of sharing reflects the collaborative nature of the resource itself. The Walking Curriculum invites collaboration — it invites students to work together, but it also seems to invite educators to do the same.] The survey also asked educators how they wanted to learn more about the Walking Curriculum. In this question, respondents were invited to select as many forms of professional learning as they wished. The top choices (all receiving 35–37 votes) were school-wide collaboration; collaboration with individual colleagues; participation in a collaborative cross-district, regional, or national learning community; and involvement in an online workshop. Collaboration: the most desired way of learning more.

Survey Says: Collaboration, please

(Photo by Melissa Cho)

We know that collaboration can be very beneficial for educators’ professional learning (Killion, 2015; Randall & Marangell, 2021). Collaboration — working with human and more-than-human teachers — is particularly suitable and important for an imagination-focused pedagogy like the Walking Curriculum for two reasons: first, knowledge and diversity fuel imagination and, second, Place is an active part of the imaginative ecological teaching process. 

First, we know that imagination feeds on knowledge (Asma, 2017; Egan, 1997, 2005; Liu & Scott-Brandon, 2009). It is also diversity of learning and knowledge that fuels imagination (Hopkins, 2019). So, working with people in different contexts and different educational positions offers knowledge and insight enriches imagination. Place is also a source of knowledge and biodiversity. It can also offer a glimpse into the wildness that is all around us in rural and urban contexts alike. New knowledge, ideas, and insights from people and Place feed the imagination. 

Second, collaboration in the context of IEE practices like the Walking Curriculum should involve working with Place. Place may be considered a “silent” more-than-human co-teacher for students and educators alike (Blenkinsop & Beeman, 2010). My own imagination expands exponentially when I am outside, working with and in Place. The pedagogy I have developed in IEE, the walking themes, have all emerged from being outdoors in Place with affective alertness and an openness to learning. I actively seek opportunities for engagement — what some in the realm of Place-based education call the “affordances” of Place. Place offers an abundance of wonder and perspective. The knowledge Place offers up for our professional learning is powerful fodder for the imagination.

The recommendations for local, collaborative learning that follow aim to show how working with the community of human and more-than-human partners in learning might not only enrich and advance individual professional understanding of IEE practices like the Walking Curriculum, but also address the greatest challenge those using the resource face: limited time. While I make these recommendations with the Walking Curriculum in mind, I think they can support all kinds of professional learning on Place-based and imaginative learning practices.

Recommendations for collaborating with Place

“In general, we think that the best way for the other-than-human world to be permitted to teach is to allow students direct interaction with it. That is, allow your co-teacher to be present while teaching.” (Blenkinsop & Beeman, 2010, p. 38).

Partner with Place. 

(Photo by Jonathan Rempel)

In the Walking Curriculum resource, I point to the importance of educators being familiar with the Place in which they are applying the various practices. I’d like to push the notion of familiarity here and propose that educators should consider work with Place as a form of collaboration. We can consider Place as our collaborator. It is a powerful teacher, if we are open to the possibilities. 

As mentioned earlier, learning about the Walking Curriculum by starting to use the walks with students was the most popular answer from respondents when they were asked about the most valuable way they learned about the practice. Experiential learning supports our students’ meaning making and it can support our own, as educators (Girvan, Conneely, & Tangney, 2016). For example, by doing the walks with students, educators can observe students’ engagement for themselves. They may see the diverse ways in which different learners follow a single inquiry question in different directions. I’d like to also suggest that in doing the walks, with affective alertness and an openness to Place, educators may also have learned from Place. With intentionality, we can do more of this. In Judson (2015), for example, I describe an activity called: Apprenticing to Place in which students are encouraged to see Place as having a story to tell. We can do the same thing in our collaboration with Place. What is the story here? What is Place showing you? What can you feel here? See? Smell? Hear? What changes here day-to-day? What changes here throughout the day? As adults, we can equally benefit from the goal of this activity: formation of an emotional connection.

It is well known that lasting and meaningful educational change is unlikely when imposed from above or mandated across contexts. Rather, educational change that lasts come from within individual educators and connects to others through shared meaning and purpose (Fullan 2001, 1993). In the context of Walking Curriculum and IEE practices, partnering with Place allows important work to be done by individual teachers in terms of understanding how outdoor learning aligns with or supports their moral purpose. These teachers can experience the possibilities it offers for all students to engage in learning and demonstrate understanding in diverse ways.  Without a sense of personal meaning with the work, who we are won’t change. So, to initiate or deepen understanding of the Walking Curriculum, I encourage time spent outdoors with intention, with presence, to try a walk, as if you are the learner, and also as the teacher — what ideas stem from your experience? How else might you engage students in learning that engages imagination? What had you never noticed before by doing the walk? How might you modify the theme to introduce something you are teaching?

It is important to acknowledge the gift that is learning from Place. As Indigenous ways of knowing and being demonstrate, we must show gratitude for the teachings gained from Place. In partnering with Place, this may be a simple word or moment of stillness to acknowledge the partnership and identify our appreciation. 

Collaboration that involves partnering with Place may, to someone else, look like a single educator in the schoolyard or local park trying the walks, stopping, observing, seeking insights for ways to engage learners in ways that align with curriculum content. It is important to remember, however, that human beings are one of many members in a community.

Grow learning groups. 

To understand the potential of the Walking Curriculum, extend your practice of doing the walks with your human colleagues. You might work in particular grade groups with a curriculum outcome in mind — how can a particular Walking Curriculum walking theme support learning about something you have in mind to teach? Or, you might together consider and document ways in which a particular walking theme could be modified to engage students with a topic of interest in the curriculum. Or, during time spent collaborating with Place, you might list and keep shared track of new possibilities for walking themes that emerge. Using resources on the imaginED website, discuss how a walking theme can be paired with an activity to engage and grow imagination (e.g., a cognitive tool!). [see resources at the end of this article] 

Slow down. 

Whether working with Place or other human partners, much can be gained from increased observation, increased intentionality, and more focus on “living attentively”. (*I highly recommend Emma Kidd’s book First Steps to Seeing: A Path Towards Living Attentively to anyone interested in learning more about how to engage dynamically with the world.) It may sound counter-intuitive: We need more time. How can I possibly slow down? Why would I do this? However, as many users of the Walking Curriculum indicate, what they like about the inquiry is that “simple walks” can result in profound learning. There are layers to learning that the walks reveal that, if we slow down to experience them ourselves or slow down to offer students opportunities to explore, we can increase the potential learning and impact of the outdoor learning experiences.

Share. 

Fullan (1993, 2001) makes a strong case that lasting and significant educational transformation only happens when individual educators’ moral purpose and vision support the creation of shared meaning and action. Educators acting with moral purpose must work for change, as agents (Fullan, 1993, 2001). With a fellow human colleague, this may mean sharing experiences and examples of how you have used a walking theme, how students responded, what you learned and/or what you would do differently. With a group in a school or department, this could usefully involve creating an online space to share examples of Walking Curriculum work, extension activities, new ideas, and insights. As a learning-focused community, you could build a repository of Math or Literacy or other activities that link to Walking Curriculum prompts. Building resources — extension activities, walking themes, etc. — can ultimately give back some time that educators so desperately need as all other responsibilities press upon them. The act of sharing examples of work that are meaningful to us makes us vulnerable, of course. But it can also inspire others. 

Final thoughts

Partnering with Place, growing learning groups, slowing down, and sharing are all guidelines for school-based professional collaboration that are accessible, simple, and open-ended. They are also generative, inquiry-focused, and experiential. They exemplify the nature of the Walking Curriculum itself. I hope these suggestions are valuable to educators doing any kind of outdoor learning professional development. The sooner we can acknowledge the rich natural community of which we as human beings are a part, the sooner we can learn to engage in the richness of that natural community. For now, get outside and strive to connect with Place, your teacher.

Dr. Gillian Judson is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. She teaches in Educational Leadership and Curriculum and Instruction programs. Her research looks at the role of imagination in leadership, imagination’s role in learning (K–post-secondary), imaginative and ecological teaching practices (Pre-K through post-secondary), and imaginative assessment in the post-secondary context. She is co-author of Imagination and the Engaged Learner: Cognitive Tools for the Classroom (Egan & Judson, 2016), and author of A Walking Curriculum (Judson, 2018/2019).

Learn More about Imaginative Ecological Education and the Walking Curriculum: Resources

Podcast

Earthy Chats Podcast. Episode One: Imaginative Education and The Walking Curriculum. https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/earthy-chats-podcast-cbeen-green-teacher-i31WqgVrFJM/ 

YouTube videos about Imaginative Ecological Education:

What is Imaginative Ecological Education? (An interview) https://youtu.be/1bnkjofMUjo

The Principles of Imaginative Ecological Education (A Recording of a Talk) https://youtu.be/bFOBqHd5UqY 

Resources from the imaginED Blog

About the Walking Curriculum: http://www.educationthatinspires.ca/walking-curriculum-imaginative-ecological-learning-activities/

Sample Walks and Resources Developed by Walking Curriculum Educators: http://www.educationthatinspires.ca/walking-curriculum-imaginative-ecological-learning-activities/walking-curriculum/ 

Previously Published in Green Teacher Magazine

Judson, G. (2020). Cultivating Ecological Relationships Through Art and Place-Based, Imaginative, Educational Walks. Green Teacher, 123, pp. 23–28.  

Judson, G. (2015). Imaginative Ecological Education (IEE): Teaching That Interweaves Curricular Topics, Human Emotion, The Body, & Place. Green Teacher, pp. 13–17.

Note: 

You can get the The Walking Curriculum: Evoking Wonder and Developing Sense of Place (K12) (Judson, 2018/19) in English or French and Engaging Imagination in Ecological Education: Practical Strategies for Teaching (Judson, 2015) on Amazon or, if you are based in Canada, from the Outdoor Learning Store, where proceeds go back to support non-profits across Canada. (A Spanish edition of The Walking Curriculum is also available on Amazon markets worldwide.)

References

Asma, S. T. (2017). The Evolution of Imagination. University of Chicago Press.

Blenkinsop, S. & Beeman, C. (2010). The world as co-teacher: Learning to work with a peerless colleague. Trumpeter, 26(3).

Egan, K. (2005). An imaginative approach to teaching. Jossey-Bass.  

Egan, K. (1997). The educated mind: How cognitive tools shape our understanding. University of Chicago Press.

Fullan, M. (1993). Change forces:  Probing the depths of educational reform. The Falmer Press. 

Fullan M. (2001). The new meaning of educational change. Teacher’s College Press. 

Girvan, C., Conneely, C., & Tangney, B. (2016). Extending experiential learning in teacher professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 58, 129–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.04.009 

Hopkins, R. (2019). From what is to what if: Unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want. Chelsea Green Publishing

Judson, G. (2018). A walking curriculum: Evoking wonder and developing a sense of place (K-12). (KDP/Canadian ISBN Service).

Judson, G. (2015). Engaging imagination in ecological education: Practical strategies for teaching. UBC Press.

Judson, G. (2010). A New approach to ecological education: Engaging students’ imaginations in their world. Peter Lang.

Kidd, E. (2015). First steps to seeing: A path towards living attentively. Floris Books.

Killion, J. (2015). High-quality collaboration benefits teachers and students. The Journal of Staff Development, 36(5), 62–64.

Liu, E. & Noppe-Brandon, S. (2009). Imagination first: unlocking the power of possibility. Jossey-Bass.

Randall, R. & Marangell, J. (2021). Changing what we might have done on our own: Improving classroom culture and learning through teacher collaboration, The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 94(1), 38–46, https://doi.org/10.1080/00098655.2020.1828240