A School Visit to the Ecological and Cultural Park William Henry Hudson: Outdoor Learning in Secondary School to Cultivate an Ethical Relationship with Nature and Take Action

Abstract

This chapter reports an outdoor learning experience in secondary school that stimulated student community engagement in a disadvantaged context. The teacher planned and implemented a school visit to a local Park called the Ecological and Cultural Park William Henry Hudson, located in their city, Florencio Varela. The students did not know the Park or Henry Hudson, a local writer and scientist. The visit was a starting point to foster a sense of identification and bonding with the community and develop student initiatives to affirm their heritage and improve the local conditions. This happened for example as the students learned about the local tree tarumá, planted one, took it to their school and took care of it. This initiative is evidence of their collective sense of responsibility toward the environment in general, and toward their local heritage in particular. Furthermore, these teenagers realized that English, a distant and irrelevant school subject for them, could in fact become a useful means of communication to learn about their local community and make it known to others. Discovering that their hometown, Florencio Varela, had become known in other continents thanks to Hudson’s writings in English proved to be highly inspirational.