A Place-Binding Knot Map. Phronêsis as Outdoor Learning

This personal philosophical reflection on outdoor learning invites consideration of wider horizons of possibility around the constructs of when and where we learn in relation to phronêsis, practical wisdom, and notions of kairós and tópos. The work aspires to re-infuse the three back into broader educational aims through practices of local learning outdoors. The treatise applies a pragmatic methodology, formed by tracing bearings based on field data gathered from life experiences, and uses triangulation techniques to bind the tracings, via the method of story-mapping, into a woven place-binding knot map. The work imagines phronêsis as leadership that may be developed at school through time spent adventuring and learning in local outdoor contexts. Local outdoors is positioned as a pragmatic means of engaging in useful learning, defined as learning for health and wellbeing, relationships with more-than-humans, and experiences. The resultant place-binding knot map, while messy, may offer insights for learners, educators, and scholars around phronêsis, kairós, and tópos in learning, leadership, and local outdoors.