Wilding educational policy: The case of Botswana

Abstract

Teaching and learning must be transformed in order to prepare learners to respond to escalating social, economic and environmental challenges. The primary purpose of this paper is to contribute to the process of wilding pedagogy. The lessons learned in this paper emerge mainly from a desktop study and educational excursions to a natural resources management centre in a rural village and an educational reserve. The excursions provide practical illustrations of learning in the wild by students. Responding to social, economic and environmental challenges can be facilitated through pedagogical policy interventions. In Botswana, educational policy seeks to promote learner-centred approaches to education. However, in practice, there are limited opportunities for a wilding of pedagogies. Most schools are constrained by a number of factors when trying to facilitate wildness in teaching and learning, yet the natural environment provides seemingly unlimited opportunities for active teaching and authentic learning. Though not explicitly stated, it is taken for granted that learning institutions are limited in their abilities to practise wild pedagogies due to budgetary constraints and a congested curriculum. This paper suggests that educational policy interventions can be implemented to enable transformative change that also promotes students’ engagement, discovery and autonomy while also learning in outdoor settings that support the aims of wild pedagogies.