Dr David A. G. Clarke

Lecturer in Outdoor and Environmental Education

Moray House School of Education and Sport, IETL
University of Edinburgh

Tel: +44 (0)131 651 6093
Email: david.clarke@ed.ac.uk
Web: Google Scholar profile
Web: University of Edinburgh Research Explorer
Twitter

Street: Moray House School of Education and Sport, TL 2.05
City: University of Edinburgh (Holyrood Campus)
Post code: EH8 8AQ

Biography

Background

I have a broad range of interests related to outdoor and environmental education in both formal and informal learning situations. I am particularly interested in the potential of ontological shifts for producing healthier relationships in the anthropocene.

I am the course organiser for Experiential Education and Social Theory and Outdoor Education, within the MSc Outdoor Education and MSc Outdoor Environmental Sustainability Education, where I also contribute to courses in research methods, praxis, and environmental philosophy, and critical perspectives on personal and social development. I have also contirbuted to the Philosophy of Education pathway in the MSc in Education. Futher to this I contribute to primary and secondary initial teacher education programmes across the School.

I completed my PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2018. Before starting at Moray House I lectured in outdoor studies at the University of the Highlands and Islands, and at Plumpton College, University of Brighton.

I have worked for a number of organisations focusing on outdoor, adventure, and environmental education in both the private and charitable sectors and have led educational overseas youth expeditions to the Nepalese and Indian Himalayas, China, Mongolia, and Borneo.

Qualifications

PhD Education - University of Edinburgh
MSc Outdoor Education (with distinction) - University of Edinburgh
Postgraduate Certificate of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education - University of Brighton
BA (Hons) Adventure Education - University of Chichester

Summer Mountain Leader
Single Pitch climbing instruction
Level 2 British Canoe Union Coach and 4* Leader (trained)
Duke of Edinburgh Award Expedition Assessor

Responsibilities & affiliations

Sustainability in Education Research Group

Environmental Sustainability Education Research Development Network

Edinburgh Environmental Humanities Network

Centre for Creative-Relational Inquiry

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Scottish Canoe Association

British Canoeing

Mountain Leader Training England

Teaching & PhD supervision

Undergraduate teaching

PGDE Secondary Outdoor Learning

Postgraduate teaching

The Philosophy of Education
Research Methods 1: The Sources of Knowledge
Research Methods 2: Conceptualising Research
Social Theory and Outdoor Education
Outdoor Environmental Education in Practice
Personal and Social Development in Outdoor Education: Critical Perspectives
Experiential Education

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

I view educational research-practice as situated in and necessarily responding to the Anthropocene era. I am hopeful to work with candidates in the following areas:

Practice, conceptualisation, and methodology related to environmental education and sustainability education
Creative approaches to education research
Practitioner inquiry and participatory action research
Narrative, autobiographical, and autoethnographic inquiry
Philosophical inquiry
Alternative ontologies, including feminist new materialisms and posthumanisms
The work of Gilles Deleuze in relation to education and the act of living
Research into the methods and methodologies of environmental education research

Current PhD students supervised

Louise Hawxwell - Thesis title: Impact of Early Experiences on Perceptions and Practices of Outdoor Learning in Primary Education Trainees

Research

Research summary

My research interests focus broadly on the blurring of environmental education research-practice, philosophical theory, and life experiences. More specifically I am interested in animism and alternative ontologies; the philosophy of affect in relation to environmental degradation and climate change; immanent ethics and immanent ontology in all areas of education; and creative practices of inquiry for affective encounters, including writing, photography, songwriting, and filmmaking. I am particulalry intersted in the potential of post-autoethnographic or sympoethnographic approaches for taking up these problems, as well as as a conduit for practitioner-world inquiry in the anthropocene more generally.

Current research interests

Current Research Projects: Principles Teaching Award Scheme (PTAS) (2021) (£15k) Keeping the Door Open: Curating, developing and evolving Edinburgh University teaching in spaces and places within the city and beyond Co-Investigator with Beth Christie, Catherine Dunn, Pete Higgins, Robbie Nicol, Heidi Smith

Knowledge exchange

Contributor to Working Group 3 of the UNESCO International Science and Evidence based Education (ISEE) Assessment (2022): https://mgiep.unesco.org/iseeareport
Guest Editor for Environmental Education Research: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ceer20/26/9-10?nav=tocList
I have peer-reviewed for the following publications:

Science Education

Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy

International Journal of STEM Education

History of Education Review

Environmental Education Research

Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning

Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education

Book reviewer for Springer

Book reviewer for Palgrave Macmillan

Affiliated research centres

Centre for Creative-Relational Inquiry

Research activities

View all 17 activities on Research Explorer

Publications

Learning spaces: built, natural and digital considerations for learning and learners 22 Mar 2022
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published)
The wisp of an outline ≈ Storying ontology as environmental inquiry↔education :–) 28 Dec 2021 In: Australian Journal of Environmental Education
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2021.31
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Human-nature relationships: Navigating a privileged white landscape (11 pages) 2 Nov 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75980-3_4
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published)
The ecology of language: Concept conservation and control in a world of ‘Climate Catastrophe’ 1 Sep 2021
Research output: Contribution to Conference › Paper (Published)
Intimacy as inquiry: Collaborative reading and writing with Deleuze and Guattari (17 pages) 22 Aug 2021 In: Cultural Studies - Critical Methodologies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/15327086211037761
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print)
A political ecology of ecologies: Walking in Glen Almond with students and immanent ethics 2 Jun 2021 In: Journal of Autoethnography
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Accepted/In press)
New materialisms and environmental education: Editorial (12 pages) 18 Nov 2020 In: Environmental Education Research, vol. 26, pp. 1255-1265
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1828290
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Editorial (E-pub ahead of print)
Tensions, knots, and lines of flight: Themes and directions of travel for new materialisms and environmental education 2020 In: Environmental Education Research, vol. 26, pp. 1231-1254
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1825631
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Particular resonances: A review of Jonathan Wyatt’s Therapy, Stand-Up, and the Gesture of Writing: Towards Creative-Relational Inquiry (5 pages) 11 Sep 2019 In: Qualitative Report, pp. 2794-2798
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book/Film/Article review (Published)
Post-qualitative research in outdoor studies: A radical (non)methodology (9 pages) 7 Aug 2019
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published)
Ecobiography, posthuman-postnature? Immanent life writing in the Anthropocene. 2019
Research output: Contribution to Conference › Paper (Published)
Becoming Intimate-Activist Reader-Writers with Deleuze & Guattari 2019
Research output: Contribution to Conference › Paper (Published)
The diffractive practitioners: Collaborative writing-thinking-doing with students, concepts, and Walney Island 2019
Research output: Contribution to Seminar › Paper (Published)
Nature matters: Diffracting a keystone concept of environmental education research – just for kicks (17 pages) 20 Nov 2018 In: Environmental Education Research, vol. 26, pp. 1509-1526
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2018.1531387
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)
Educating beyond the cultural and the natural: (Re)Framing the limits of the possible in environmental education 15 Jul 2018
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published)
[Review of] Place in research. Theory, methodology, and methods (4 pages) 2018 In: Environmental Education Research, pp. 146-149
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2016.1262331
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book/Film/Article review (Published)
Becoming Intimate (Readers) with Deleuze & Guattari 2018
Research output: Contribution to Conference › Paper (Published)
Practising immanence: (Still) Becoming an environmental education academic (299 pages) 2018
Research output: › Doctoral Thesis (Published)
Outdoor Learning and the Material Turn: Considering pedagogies of experience, place and sustainability through new materialist philosophy 2016
Research output: Contribution to Seminar › Paper (Published)
A walk in the park: Considering practice for outdoor environmental education through an immanent take on the material turn (20 pages) 16 Sep 2015 In: The Journal of Environmental Education, vol. 46, pp. 230-250
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2015.1069250
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published)

View all 27 publications on Research Explorer

Publications (all)

Peer-reviewed Articles

Clarke, D.A.G. (2022). A political ecology of ecologies: Walking in Glen Almond with students and immanent ethics. Journal of Autoethnography. 2(3), 411-414. Available at: https://online.ucpress.edu/joae/article-abstract/3/3/411/189870/A-Political-Ecology-of-EcologiesWalking-in-Glen?redirectedFrom=PDF
Jukes, S., Clarke, D. A. G., Mcphie, J. (2021). The wisp of an outline ≈ Storying ontology as environmental inquiry↔education :–). Australian Journal of Environmental Education. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/australian-journal-of-environmental-education/article/wisp-of-an-outline-storying-ontology-as-environmental-inquiryeducation/32474643006B6603E894D39DC8BBBBF6
Bittinger, R., Clarke, D.A.G., Erb, J., Hauser, H., & Wyatt, J. (2021). Intimacy as Inquiry: Collaborative reading and writing with Deleuze and Guattari. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies. 21(6), 480-490. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15327086211037761
Clarke, D.A.G., & Mcphie, J. (2020). Tensions, knots, and lines of flight: Themes and directions of travel for new materialisms and environmental education. Environmental Education Research. 26(9-10). Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504622.2020.1825631
Clarke, D.A.G., & Mcphie, J. (2020). New materialisms and environmental education: Editorial. Environmental Education Research. 26(9-10). Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504622.2020.1828290
Mcphie, J., & Clarke, D.A.G. (2018). Nature matters: Diffracting a keystone concept of environmental education research - just for kicks. Environmental Education Research. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504622.2018.1531387
Clarke, D. A. G., & Mcphie, J. (2016). From places to paths: Learning for sustainability, teacher education and a philosophy of becoming. Environmental Education Research, 22(7), 1002-1024. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13504622.2015.1057554
Mcphie, J., & Clarke, D. A. G. (2015). A walk in the park: Considering practice for outdoor environmental education through an immanent take on the material turn. The Journal of Environmental Education, 46(4), 230-250. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00958964.2015.1069250
Clarke, D. A. G., & Mcphie, J. (2014). Becoming animate in education: Immanent materiality and outdoor learning for sustainability. Journal of Adventure Education & Outdoor Learning, 14(3), 198-216. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14729679.2014.919866

Edited Books:

Clarke, D. A. G., & Mcphie, J. (forthcoming). New Materialisms and Environmental Education. Routledge.

Peer-reviewed Book Chapters

Mcphie, J. & Clarke, D. A. G. (2021). Human-Nature Relationships: Navigating a Privileged White Landscape. in G. Thomas, J. Dyment, and H. Prince Eds. Outdoor Environmental Education in Higher Education: International Perspectives. Springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-75980-3_4
Mcphie, J. & Clarke, D. A. G. (2019). Post-Qualitative Research in Outdoor Studies. In B. Humberstone and H. Prince Eds. Research Methods in Outdoor Studies. Routledge. Available at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429199004/chapters/10.4324/9780429199004-18
Clarke, D. A. G. (2017). Educating beyond the cultural and the natural: (re)framing the limits of the possible in environmental education. In: K. Malone, S. Truong, and T. Gray ed. (2017). Reimagining Sustainability Education in Precarious Times. Springer, London. Available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-2550-1_21

Peer-reviewed Reports

Kraftl, P., McKenzie, M., Gulson, K., Accioly, I., Blackmore, J., Burke, C., Perrota, C.., Clarke, D.A.G., Daniels, H., Fregoso Bailon, R.O., Goodyear, V., Goodyear, P., Gunasekara, I., Hartong, S., Hickman Dunne, J., Howard. S., Lupinacci, J., Mcphie, J., Mannion, G., Nxumalo, F., Parnell, R., Pykett, J., Ratuio, P., Sefton Green, J., Selwyn, N., Stovall, D., Southgate, E., Talbert, R., Teelucksingh, C., Tucker, R., Uduku, O., Wilson, A. and Wood, A. (2022). ‘Learning spaces: built, natural and digital considerations for learning and learners’ in Bugden, S. and Borst, G. (eds.) Education and the learning experience in Reimagining education: The International Science and Evidence based Education Assessment [Duraiappah, A.K., Atteveldt, N.M. van et al. (eds.)]. New Delhi: UNESCO MGIEP. Available at: https://d1c337161ud3pr.cloudfront.net/files%2F8469b7d1-c42d-446c-97f5-87775cf28f49_ISEE%20Assessment%20-%20Working%20Group%203.pdf

Articles

Book Reviews

Clarke, D. A. G. (2019). Particular Resonances: A Review of Jonathan Wyatt’s Therapy, Stand-Up, and the Gesture of Writing: Towards Creative- Relational Inquiry. The Qualitative Report. 24(11). Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol24/iss11/8/
Clarke, D. A. G. (2018). Review of the book Place in Research. Theory, Methodology, and Methods, by E. Tuck & M. McKenzie. Environmental Education Research. 24(1). pp.146-149. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504622.2016.1262331?src=recsys

Other publications:

Clarke, D. A. G. (2019). Practising immanence:(still) becoming an environmental education academic. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of Edinburgh. Available: https://era.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/35533/Clarke2019.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Conference Presentations

Mcphie, J., Clarke, D. A. G., & Fenton, L. (2021). The Ecology of Language: Concept Conservation and Control in a World of ‘Climate Catastrophe’. RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, Royal Geographical Society, 31^st August – 3^rd September. London. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP1hiw9Kpi0&t=1s
Clarke, D. A.G (2019). Ecobiography, posthuman-postnature? Immanent life writing in the Anthropocene. 3rd European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Edinburgh, 12-14 Feb 2019.
Bittinger, R., Clarke, D.A.G., Erb, J., Hauser, H., & Wyatt, J. (2019). Becoming Intimate-Activist Reader-Writers with Deleuze & Guattari. 3rd European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. University of Edinburgh, 12-14 Feb 2019.
Clarke, D.A.G., & Mcphie, J. (2019). The diffractive practitioners: collaborative writing-thinking-doing with students, concepts, and Walney Island. Environmental Arts Collaboratory hosted by the Biosocial Research Lab. Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK, 22nd January 2019.
Bittinger, R., Clarke, D.A.G., Erb, J., Hauser, H., & Wyatt, J. (2018). Becoming Intimate (Readers) with Deleuze & Guattari. European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry. Leuven, Belgium, 9^th February, 2018.
Guest Speaker, University of Cambridge – 2-5th August, 2016 – ESER Summer School I: Doctoral studies in environmental and sustainability education: contextualizing the process. European Educational Research Association and Homerton College. August 2nd to August 5th at Homerton College, Cambridge.
Clarke, D.A.G. (2016). Outdoor Learning and the Material Turn: Considering pedagogies of experience, place and sustainability through new materialist philosophy. Outdoor Environmental Education Research Seminar 2016, Broomlee Outdoor Education Centre, Scottish Borders, 13-15^th April, 2016.
Mcphie, J, & Clarke, D. A. G. (2014) A walk in the park: Considering practice for environmental education through an immanent take on the ‘material turn’. Under Western Skies conference, Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta, CA, 9-13 September 2014.
Clarke, D. A. G. (2014). Outdoor Learning and Education for Sustainable Development: What are the links? Institute for Outdoor Learning South East Regional Conference, Plumpton College, Lewes, East Sussex, 19th November, 2014.
Clarke, D. A. G (2014) Becoming animate in teacher education: Immanent materialism and Learning for Sustainability. South Downs National Park Student Conference, Midhurst, West Sussex 9th July, 2014

This article was published on 10 Jan, 2023