In this extra post, Heidi Smith, Alison Parker and Jessica Chamberlin from Moray House School of Education and Sport showcase the events surrounding the 50th anniversary of the Outdoor and Environmental Education postgraduate programmes at The University of Edinburgh.
2022 marked the 50th anniversary of the Outdoor and Environmental Education postgraduate programmes at The University of Edinburgh: Postgraduate Certificate, Diploma and Masters in Outdoor Education, and Outdoor Environmental and Sustainability Education. Students from around the world have come and gone for half a century, to learn in, through, about, and for the environment. We have over 800 alumni from across the world, and our aim is to build a connected global community.
These alumni had completed the programme I was working on, they’d already submitted their dissertations and speaking to them was thrilling. Hearing where people have landed after completing their postgraduate studies in outdoor and environmental education was inspiring. I felt like I was looking into the future, seeing all the possibilities for me. I could see that I had a future after this programme.
– Jessica Chamberlin (2021-22)
In June 2022, over 100 staff, current students, alumni, friends and family came together to celebrate our 50th anniversary in person and online. Celebrations – including a walk up Holyrood, an evening of reflections, Dinner and a Ceilidh, concluding with a swim and coffee at Portobello Beach – spanned the weekend and facilitated conversations between alumni, present students and staff to share memories and learning, and to celebrate both the longevity and uniqueness of the postgraduate programmes.
This is how Alumni events should be! What a fantastic way to bring together current students with Alumni and staff.
– Samantha Fawkner, Deputy Head of School
Opportunities and affordances of the Outdoor and Environmental Education Postgraduate
Outdoor Education is usually at the peripheries of curricular education. Moray House is working to make it a focus for the University and School. Outdoor Environmental and Sustainability Education will be central in the future.
– Richard Andrews, Head of School (2019-2022)
The postgraduate Outdoor and Environmental Education Programmes are both significant and unique in the way in which an intentional learning community is developed through research-informed, outdoor, and environmental place-based education both on campus in Edinburgh and residentially across Scotland. This embedded learning community has many layers, and offers rich and authentic ways for current students on programmes to gain experience(s) of life after University as they work with alumni in a range of ways. Specifically, alumni share their research with current students, teach on the programmes and host students on an ever widening range of placements. Our programmes bring together people from across the world to Edinburgh and wider Scotland, resulting in a transcultural group of students and staff, who learn and lead together for positive change by unbundling traditional structures of Higher Education.
The Postgraduate programme was enlightening and I made lifelong friends.
– Alumni (1992)
Looking forward into 2023 and beyond
The Outdoor and Environmental Education Programmes will continue to evolve as the students who come to learn with us diversify along with the changing needs of people and planet. This year brings our attention and focus more than ever to our students, our alumni and the opportunites of our programmes in ever widening places and spaces on campus in and around Edinburgh, and more widely across Scotland.
We are developing an online space for alumni to share experiences, resources and remain connected through alumni events local to individuals around the globe. We also host numerous events in Edinburgh throughout the year providing our alumni the opportunity to connect with current students and staff, and each other. Looking to the past and hearing the impacts these programmes have had on our alumni inspires us to envision the programmes for the future.
Film of Alumni experiences of the programmes:
Please visit our website for more details and outputs from the event.
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EdinburghUniOEE
Heidi Smith
Heidi Smith is a Lecturer of Outdoor Environmental Education with learning, teaching and research interests in outdoor environmental education in all its forms, place-based learning, leadership, praxis, transculturality, and innovative pedagogies.
Alison Parker
Alison Parker works with the Outdoor & Environmental Education team developing and supporting their alumni engagement activities. Alison is also a soon to be alumni of the Masters of Outdoor Environmental and Sustainability Education Programme.
Jessica Chamberlin
Jessica Chamberlin is a current student, soon to be alumni of the Masters of Outdoor Environmental and Sustainability Education Programme, with research focused on the role of crafting in outdoor education.
