Background What is it like to be a child aged 5 or 6 moving between two phases of education from Foundation Stage to Year 1? Do reduced opportunities to play and learn outside (Waite, Davis and Brown, 2007) indicate wider differences in the learning and teaching they experience ? Previous research has suggested that the outdoors may offer opportunities for more self-directed forms of learning, whether by virtue of the natural context, novelty or alternative ways of teaching (Waite and Davis, 2007; Davis, Rea and Waite, 2006) or because teachers have less tendency to direct learning outcomes as closely in outdoor contexts (Rogers and Evans, 2007). Focus of enquiry Our Economic and Social Research Council funded project considers the ways in which outdoor contexts may elicit the use of different pedagogies to those that more traditionally occur in indoor contexts. The main focus of our paper is how place, in particular outdoor contexts, is observed to coincide with interactions between staff and children in the co-construction of ways of teaching and learning over this key period in primary schooling. Our findings are contextualised in the light of the theoretical perspectives on learning in outdoor contexts (Waite and Pratt, in preparation; Davis, Rea and Waite, 2006). Research questions The specific objectives of our research are to explore: • how pedagogies are characterised and constructed in outdoor and indoor contexts; • to examine the interactions between teaching, learning and place that are present in outdoor contexts in FS and Year 1 class groups; • to develop understandings of the way in which these practices are negotiated between and enacted by staff and children; • to compare and contrast within and between year groups to explore different ways pedagogies are employed; • to theorise how pedagogies and outdoor contexts interact in Foundation Stage and KS1. Analytical Framework Our mixed method psychosocial approach is based on the premise that ‘what is central is not the individual[s] or the physical and social environment, but the ongoing interaction between both’ (Scherl, 1986, p.2). Therefore, developing from grounded theory rooted in emergent data, our analysis incorporated a systems framework and multimodal assessment of benefits. This framework was developed from Neill’s (2008) proposed systems approach to the interactivity of seven theoretical domains: individual, environment, activity, programme, group, facilitator and culture. A knowledge exchange group also contributed to our multi-level analysis, including practitioner and children’s views.

Our fieldwork at this first stage of our research yields cross-sectional data from two primary schools. A number of qualitative methods were employed to explore children’s and adult’s thinking and practices, including the use of mobile technology to capture the child’s perspective. Of particular relevance to our focus on pedagogies were detailed observations of outdoor and some indoor learning opportunities using a developed framework, interviews with staff about intended and actual learning outcomes and in-depth case studies of sixteen children from two Foundation Stage and two Year 1 classes.

Our findings discuss the apparent opportunities afforded by outdoor learning contexts for the employment of a range of pedagogies. The methods and exploration of the processes at work have particular relevance for English practitioners with current demarcation and transition between Foundation Stage and Year 1 set in the context of emerging proposals for greater integration across the curriculum (Rose, 2008). However they will also have potentially broad application in other educational cultures and societies as they unravel the detail of outdoor teaching and learning across this age range. Our knowledge exchange group, comprising teachers and local authority advisers with academic colleagues, is a vital source of collaboration in the interpretation of practical relevance for our work. Engagement with an international audience at ECER will further provide excellent alternative perspectives to inform the ongoing dissemination of our findings.