Guidelines

Growing Beyond Gender: Practices for Outdoor Educators

This practical guide is designed to help educators construct, deconstruct, reflect, create, innovate, and unlearn. Readers are encouraged to use the material that resonates with their context, adapt what does not, and share their experiences with others.

Gender inclusion is not about erasing differences. It is about ensuring that all children, regardless of their gender identity or expression, have equal opportunities to explore, learn, and fully develop.

In nature-based pedagogy, the openness of outdoor play offers a valuable setting to observe and question gender stereotypes. However, without conscious observation and intentional pedagogical intervention, unconscious biases may continue to shape interactions, expectations, and opportunities.

This guide provides extensive material and references to support work on gender inclusion at multiple levels — personal, team, and institutional — helping educators reflect on and adjust their practices.

In collaboration with:

KWEEBUS
Edunat Cooperativa
CanaleScuola
Educare nel Bosco · Pecorile ·
QUEST

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

More publications

IDEC@EUDEC Report

In August 2025, from 1 to 7 August, the European and International Conferences of the Democratic Education Communities(IDEC) converged in Belgium under the banner IDEC@EUDEC 2025. The venue was De Kluis, a youth residence in the forested area of Meerdaalwoud, in Sint-Joris-Weert, near Leuven. This marked the first time either of the two conferences has been hosted in Belgium.

Towards Participatory Education

Without meaningful participation, schools risk becoming environments of passive compliance rather than spaces of active engagement and growth.

Inquiry Based Learning – A Student-Centered Pathway to Knowledge

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