Abstract:

This study explores the potential of Outdoor Education for including children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities in contexts of risk and social marginalization. Inclusion is considered a fundamental pillar for a fair and quality educational system (Ianes, Canevaro, Caldin, 2012). Outdoor Education is a pedagogical approach that promotes educational practices outdoors, both in school and extracurricular settings, recognized for its potential to enhance cognitive and psychomotor empowerment through active and experiential learning (Farné, 2015).

This approach fits within the theoretical frameworks of experiential learning (Kolb, 1984) and place-based education (Sobel, 2004), which emphasize the importance of cognitive, emotional, and sensory experiences as the core of the learning process and recognize the value of place and territory as primary sources of stimuli for personalized and meaningful learning.

As highlighted by some studies (Salvaterra and Rossini, 2015; Schenetti, 2018; D’Ascenzo, 2018; Bortolotti, 2019), the industrial revolution introduced the problem of indoorization, i.e., confining learning environments indoors. However, only recently in Italy, studies and educational proposals on Outdoor Education have started to spread in school and extracurricular contexts.

Outdoor Education (OE) is already known in European countries through various projects (OUT learn IT! funded by Erasmus Plus; Learning in Motion, part of the Socrates program of the European Union; Project Land European Academy; SEE Project-Sustainability and Outdoor Education; Udeskole Project; Teachout Project). In recent years, it has been spreading in Italy through research and training projects (Hi Ability Catania project; INDIRE's Educational Vanguards; FISR01 Project; Alma Mater University of Bologna’s Outdoor Education center).

In the field of Didactics and Special Pedagogy, particularly internationally, projects targeting young people with disabilities have spread over the past ten years. "Outdoor for all" (Alexandros Stavrianos, Simon Pratt-Adams, 2022) refers to the inclusive practice of providing educational experiences in outdoor environments that are accessible and beneficial for everyone, regardless of physical, cognitive, or sensory abilities (e.g., Louv, 2005: pp. 203-211; Stavrianos & Spanoudaki, 2015).

The presented research project focuses on contexts of marginalization and social risk. It hypothesizes that the lack of outdoor experiences due to danger, limited opportunities, and the absence of accessible and safe public outdoor spaces could negatively impact these processes. Disability is thus amplified by adverse environmental conditions, becoming an additional disabling factor, considering individual transformations as the result of experiences made by the individual in their environment from birth (Berti & Bombi, 2001).

Children and adolescents with disabilities living in contexts without significant experiences might find outdoor experiences useful for developing their potential and self-determination (Ianes, 2006). One of the research objectives is to investigate the social representations of disability within families, considering these representations as elements that strongly influence the choices and abilities of individuals to grasp the invitations to act, the affordances (James Jerome Gibson, 1979) of the context.

Keywords:

Outdoor Education, inclusion, disability, marginality.