I often say these words to someone when comparing two things, although, I rarely ever explain myself. It might be a mixture of laziness and an assumption I make that the other person may not understand where I am coming from. I will today, however, explain myself. I believe fellow educators and other interested individuals could in some way gain something from my recent experiences in Singapore.

If we travel back to 2008 when I was in year 10, ‘outdoor education’ as a concept or in my case, a subject, was introduced to me. I knew it involved adventure activities, but nothing else. I had nothing to lose and emerged myself into ‘outdoor education’. Over the following eight years, I have been involved in many outdoor experiences as both a participant and a facilitator mainly within Australia. During this time, three main terms’ began to stand out; self, others and nature. These three terms are considered the heart of outdoor education in Australia and in particular, in Victoria. They are concerned with increased self-awareness, group development and cohesion and the environment as a place for physical challenge and growth of environmental awareness (Wattchow & Brown, 2011).

Through my experiences in Australia, I have gained an understanding of how the three terms, self, others and nature are interrelated and can all be undertaken through one experience. An example of how this is commonly achieved in Australia is through an overnight bushwalk. Participants are provided the opportunity to learn about what they require as an individual to stay safe, how to work with others to share responsibilities such as setting up a tent and cooking arrangements as well as what is unique and how they can preserve the environment they find themselves in.

The interrelationship between self, others and nature is very familiar to me and it is fair to say I was naïve in thinking this would be the same wherever I go. I had made another assumption.

Singapore, a place geographically small compared to Australia and what initially appeared to be full of buildings on every inch of land. Assumption three: this place did not have outdoor education let alone the three elements of outdoor education; self, others and nature. Essentially, I had judged a book by its cover.

Over the following fortnight I learnt much about outdoor education in Singapore including the concept’s existence through specifically allocated natural and human constructed places such as the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, MacRitchie Reservoir, Labrador Nature Reserve, the Supertrees, Cloud Forest and Flower Dome, Pulau Ubin (specifically, Outward Bound Singapore), the Botanical Gardens, Night Safari and the Green Corridor. Additionally, I learnt about Singapore’s approach to outdoor education. Martin and Ho (2009) explain the aim of outdoor education in Singapore to ‘develop resilient, ecologically literate citizens in a sustainable community’.

I admit, I struggled to understand the ecological literate side of outdoor education in Singapore within my first few days. As a group, we had visited Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) and had emerged ourselves into their motto of ‘To serve, to strive, and not to yield’ (Outward Bound International, 2015). Although I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with the OBS staff, I left confused. I could see how OBS incorporated the self and others elements into their various adventure programs they run (mainly with school aged students) but could not find the nature element in their programs.

It wasn’t until a few days later when the group visited the Botanical Gardens that outdoor education in Singapore finally made sense to me. The Botanical Gardens as well as Waterways Watch Society work mainly with school children to provide them with important information regarding nature including different ecosystems, how plants grow as well as where Singapore gets its water from and how to treat it. These two organisations (as well as probably others across Singapore) provide information to the community about the nature component of the outdoor education concept I am familiar with.

Looking back on my experiences both here in Australia and my recent time spent in Singapore, I can now understand that outdoor education in both countries evolve around self, others and nature. In Australia, these three elements are commonly interrelated whereas in Singapore, self and others are taught in a different setting to nature. Regardless, all three elements are evident in both countries and only time and research will determine if one method is more influential on one’s education than the other.

Maybe it is time to stop making assumptions…

References

Martin, P. & Ho, S. (2009). Seeking resilience and sustainability: Outdoor education in Singapore. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 9(1), 79-92.

Outward Bound International. (2015). Home. Retrieved July 25, 2015 from https://obs.nyc.gov.sg/

Wattchow, B. & Brown, M.  (2011). A Pedagogy of Place. Outdoor Education for a Changing World. Melbourne: Monash University publishing.