29 Embodying Outdoor and Place-Based ESD

Dr Deirdre Garvey and Kevin O’Callaghan presented on ATU Mayo’s distinctive focus on outdoor and place-based education, where the local environment itself becomes a classroom. Dr Garvey described how the Department of Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences integrates natural, social, and cultural environments into teaching and research, underpinned by the long-standing Mayo Green Campus initiatives. Projects such as the Swift Conservation programme, biodiversity gardens, poetry pillars, and food security events exemplify how campus life is interwoven with sustainability practice and community partnerships.

Kevin O’Callaghan, Programme Coordinator for the MSc in Outdoor Education, Sustainability and Wellbeing, expanded on the pedagogical approach underpinning these activities. ATU’s outdoor education programmes emphasise experiential, transformative, and place-based learning, where students engage directly with forests, waterways, and local communities. Assignments are often rooted in campus or regional projects, from developing outdoor classrooms to supporting play days with local health services.

Central to the approach is enabling students to become change agents. Learning is scaffolded so students begin with small, achievable actions and progress to more ambitious sustainability initiatives, building resilience and agency. Failures are reframed as part of the process, preparing students to tackle complex real-world challenges.

The MSc programme blends immersive outdoor experiences, cross-disciplinary input, and community partnerships.

About the authors

name: Dr Deirdre Garvey

institution: Atlantic Technological University

Dr Deirdre Garvey is the Head of the Department of Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences and Chair of the Atlantic Technological University Mayo Green Campus.

name: Kevin O’Callaghan

institution: Atlantic Technological University

Kevin O’Callaghan is the Programme Co-ordinator for the MSc in Outdoor Education, Sustainability and Wellbeing and a Lecturer in Outdoor Education at Atlantic Technological University.