PhD students and research

We have more outdoor education PhD students than anywhere else in the world, and a large staff with wide-reaching interests to support them in their research.

Study for a PhD

Our rich and diverse PhD community covers a range of topics. Supervision can involve staff from other Schools within the University of Edinburgh and external organisations.

If you are interested in PhD study please contact individual staff members and visit our School's 'Postgraduate Research degrees' page.

Staff members

Postgraduate Research degrees

Current PhD students and working thesis titles

Kate Clay: Exploring Outdoor Learning: Comparative Pedagogical Approaches of Montessori, Forest School, Experiential, and Teacher-Led Methods

Elena Dominguez Contreras: Travelling scholarship: Environmental Stewardship 5-8yr olds (working title) Cornell Scholarship inc. 

Clare Cullen: Conservation Education in the Luangwa Valley, Zambia: An exploration of the history, systems, structures and pedagogies of Chipembele Conservation Education Trust

Jianing Fu: Outdoor play and culture in children

Jonathan Hancock: Learning Ecologies 

Louise Hawxwell: An exploration into the impact of outdoor experiences on the perceptions and practices of trainee teachers over the course of their undergraduate study and into their NQT year – a longitudinal study

Morgan Luddington: Women's experiences of menstruation

Chloe Paul: An ethnographic exploration in how women renegotiate value in their body and self through embodied experiences with the more-than-human world.

Lewis Stockwell: What might be educational about canoe journeying? The case for natural aesthetics

Brian Wright: Outdoor Education for a Sustainable Future: The United World Colleges as a participatory case study of outdoor education structures, theories of change, and pedagogical practices for impacting student outlooks regarding sustainability

2023

Sharon Boyd

Place-responsive higher education at a distance

Christian Hanser

Wandering with a shepherd's hut: fragments of a vagabond methodology

Chris Mackie

Diffractive ethnography of early childhood-nature relations in Scottish school-based outdoor learning

Suzy Paulus

Exploring place-based outdoor education in the context of transmigration realities

Jakob Porsteinsson

Affordances of Outdoor Education in Iceland: How nature contributes to place-based experience, reflection and friendship

Jack Reed

From virtual worlds to the Outward Bound Trust: a study of contemporary residential outdoor adventurous education in postdigital space

2021

Douglas Briton

“Is this an emergency?” Examining “emergency” in the context of school expeditions. Examining “emergency” as a social act.

Ethan Lewis

Identity, space, place and power: an ethnographic study of a community garden

John Pierce

Nature of public provision outdoor education in the Republic of Ireland: an ethno-case study of four outdoor education and training centres

Dorothea Vincent

The United Nations' relationship with civil society: development of the 2nd Charter 'The united peoples' and the United Nations' principled decision-making policy through the Naber model

2020

Shang Zhan

Impact of outdoor learning continuing professional development and policy change on teachers in Scotland. 

2019

Rebekah Tauritz

Uncertainty in Outdoor Education for Sustainability.

2018

David Clarke

Practicing immanence: (still) becoming an outdoor environmental education academic

Abdul Kahlid

The nature and scope of outdoor education in the city-state of Singapore. 

Stephen Porter

Production-phase greenhouse gases embedded within food loss and waste: magnitude, drivers, and mitigation potential

Hannah Ritchie

Global Food Systems: Addressing Malnutrition Through Sustainable System Pathways.

2017

Sharifah Syed Abdullah

An Investigation into the Influence of Outdoor Environmental Education Courses on the Environmental Attitude and Behaviours of Malaysian Participants: A life history approach. 

Jamie Hamilton

A systems-based evaluation of the feasibility of a national outdoor education programme and the long-term socio-economic and developmental dynamics of implementation.

Clare Nugent

Multicase study of nature-kindergarten practices: exploring three examples in Denmark, Finland and Scotland.

Jenn Treacy

Curricular Sports Programmes and Positive Youth Development in a Scottish context.

2016

Jane Spiteri

Young Children’s Perceptions of Environmental Sustainability: A Maltese Perspective. (Maltese Government Scholarship)

Sho Shimoyamada

Production of Scottish Open Gardens. Differences in Perception of Power.

2015

Stephen Banks

Distal and proximal attentional focus effects on the performance of closed and open continuous motor skills

Mark Baker

Policy Development of Outdoor Education in Scotland

2014

Iain Stewart-Patterson

Role of intuition in the decision process of expert ski guides

John Crosbie

The value of outdoor education for people with disabilities : an in-depth case study of the Calvert Trust. (Calvert Trust/ Zurich Research Studentship)

2013

Justine Geyer

Developing an understanding of greenspace as a resource for physical activity of adolescents in Scotland

Rachel Howell

Promoting lower-carbon lifestyles: the role of personal values, climate change communications and carbon allowances in processes of change

2012

Sam Harrison

Place-based praxis: exploring place-based education and the philosophy of place

2011

Paul Stonehouse

Rough ground of character: a philosophical investigation into character development, examining a wilderness expedition case study through a virtue ethical lens

Roger Scrutton

Statistical Analysis of the Benefits of Outdoor Adventure Activities Programmes (MPhil)

Ralf Westphal

'We have the fjells, but you have character...': a comparative study of personal and social development (PSD) within the discourses of outdoor education in Great Britain and Friluftsliv in Norway

2010

John Telford

Meanings, values, and life course: a study of participants’ experiences at a Scottish outdoor education centre. (ESRC 1+3 Award)

2006

Myra Beatrice Maposah-Kanermiri

Environmental Education in Schools: Contrasting Programmes, Context and Impact in Scotland and Zimbabwe

2005

Takako Takano

Bonding with the land: outdoor environmental education programmes and their cultural contexts

2004

Beth Christie

Raising Achievement in Scottish Secondary Schools? A study of outdoor experiential learning. (North Lanarkshire Council, Outward Bound and University of Edinburgh funded)

2001

Robbie Nicol

Outdoor Education for Sustainable Living? An investigation into the potential of Scottish local authority residential outdoor education centres to deliver programmes relating to sustainable living. (MHSE bursary)