Outdoor-Oriented Education in the United States and India
The ideas that underlie an international school of thought can be adapted or assimilated to the national philosophical tradition as they cross national borders. Phillips (2004) concluded that this kind of assimilation is possible if the new current of ide
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OUTDOOR-ORIENTED EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES AND INDIA Closing the Gap
PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND OF OUTDOOR-ORIENTED EDUCATION
The ideas that underlie an international school of thought can be adapted or assimilated to the national philosophical tradition as they cross national borders. Phillips (2004) concluded that this kind of assimilation is possible if the new current of ideas is experienced as philosophically or ideologically fascinating and the national context is also receptive for political, economic, or social reasons. The specific national conditions in one country thus create the need to experimentally utilize the experiences offered by other ones (pp. 56, 58). The philosophical background of outdoor-oriented education in the countries studied here can be considered to rely both on national philosophical traditions and on the reformist ideas represented by international schools of thought. The study also shows that a strong opposition to the influence of certain international pedagogical ideas has surfaced in these countries over the course of time. This section will examine the philosophical background of outdoor-oriented education in the context of social change and trends in the United States and India. The primary focus is outdoor-oriented activity education in the United States and outdoor-oriented work education in India. This discussion has three subdivisions. Firstly, the underlying philosophical views of education are compared in the United States during the Period of Early Industrialization (from approx. 1820 to 1940), and in India during the Period of Social Traditionalization (up until the mid-1950s). Secondly, the underlying philosophical views are compared during the Periods of Late Industrialization (from approx. 1940 onward) and Social Modernization (from the mid-1950s onward). Finally, the main philosophical views of education are compared from the perspectives of the social trends in question.
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CHAPTER 5
During the Periods of Early Industrialization and Social Traditionalization The educational philosophy of outdoor-oriented activity education in the United States is based on pragmatism. This is traditionally considered to be the earliest independent American philosophical trend. The epistemological thoughts of pragmatism regarding the relation between meaning and action were initially formulated by the philosopher Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914) in 1878. Peirce held the view that thinking is based on signs or conceptions, the meanings of which can be solved by studying their practical consequences on a general level. Therefore, action is a prerequisite, goal, and guarantor of knowledge. Peirce also presented a three-category classification of experience that can be applied to interpreting human experience (Peirce, 1931/1965, pp. 148, 152–153, 161–162, 170–171). When analyzing Peirce’s classification of experience formation from the perspective of outdoor-oriented activity education, it could be argued that the first category of human experience (firstness) consists of feeling
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