The Budding and Blooming of Outdoor Education in Diverse Global Contexts

　　It is important to understand that “outdoor education” is not a homogeneous term. It represents a diversity of meanings and educational values, as it is often a response and/or a product of different local cultures, histories, political and social values and beliefs, and geographic landscapes and environments. Therefore, this volume aims to present this diversity by placing outdoor education in the global context to hear voices and expressions of different regions. There are seven countries presented in this volume: Canada, USA, Scotland, Denmark, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. However, border should not be the limit of our exploration and imagination. We also recognize that this volume by no means represents a ‘complete’ global voice, even the authors in each chapter represent particular orientations to outdoor education. We invited authors from these seven countries because first of all we want to include voices from different continents. Second, these are also countries that have been developing outdoor education at various stages and levels. We hope their works can shed light on the differences and similarities in the formations and understandings of outdoor education in order to connect voices, fill in gaps, and understand this abundant field of education and its potential to challenge dominant assumptions about pedagogical practices, learning environments and our relationship with the natural world. Deeper inquiry into outdoor education may compile educators to ask difficult questions concerning their own educational values and beliefs and the fundamental purposes of education and the kind of learning students experience.