Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhlste What kind of outdoor educator do you want to become? Trying something different in outdoor studies in higher education Danny Towers ⁎ , Jonathan Lynch Science, Natural Resources and Outdoor Studies, University of Cumbria, The Barn, Rydal Rd, Ambleside LA22 9BB, United Kingdom ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Outdoor education Experiential learning Higher education Employability Occupations ABSTRACT This paper seeks to explore a way of responding to tensions present in formal education and outdoor education in UK higher education. Separation of the doing from the knowing could perhaps be limiting students’ ability to become reflective practitioners and respond creatively to an ever-changing modern world. A different way of organising the curriculum through the concept of ‘occupations’ was the innovation and basis for an action research approach, with data gathered through the authors’ observations, logs and diaries. Findings suggested that not only is the connection between education and experience important, the relationship with the landscape that it takes place in is central, in conjunction with the social context. Implications are that agency and autonomy within the learning experience leads to increased motivation and under- standing that the process can be open and emergent and about change. 1. Introduction Reading academic books on outdoor education is all very well and good but how do they fit into my practice? Which bits do I use, and why? Will it make a difference? These were thoughts swimming around our heads after we had read Quay and Seaman (2013) book on ‘John Dewey and Education Outdoors’. In the book these authors helped us to understand some of Dewey's educational ideas and how we might use these to good effect in organising the planning and enactment of learning through outdoor studies in higher education. The book primarily explores a solution to a central tension that has been present in the organising of formal education and outdoor education. The tension is between the fundamental aspects of organising learning; do we privilege the ‘process’ (how we teach) or the ‘content’ (what we teach)? In his book The School and Society, Dewey (1915) discussed the educational issue of separating the method from the subject matter, the doing from the knowing, and emphasised the importance of maintaining balance between the practical and intellectual phases of experience. Garrison, Neubert, and Reich (2016) note the continued relevance of Dewey's educational philosophies and suggest that the tension caused by dualist thinking in higher education has encouraged a split within the intellectual experience, not only leading to an imbalance between the perceived importance of subject areas and methods but also advancing the hegemony of capitalist values. In education, we can observe a corresponding economisation that depends on measuring small items, turning them into smooth components like credits, and employing them as resources in a game of cost and outcome (Garrison et al., 2016, p. 23). Suleman (2016) examined the employability skills of higher education graduates and suggests that although modern employers do value mastery of ‘subjects’ and content such as written and IT skills these are only pieces of a puzzle that are connected with team http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2017.09.002 Received 1 February 2017; Received in revised form 21 April 2017; Accepted 13 September 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: daniel.towers@cumbria.ac.uk (D. Towers), jonnielynch@gmail.com (J. Lynch). Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 1473-8376/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Towers, D., Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2017.09.002