From Onlookers to Ecosystem-Assistants:
Exploring the Potentials of Ecological
Restoration Education
Mattias Sandberg and Andreas Skriver Hansen
Abstract This chapter introduces the concept and practice of “ecological restoration education” (ERE) as a novel pedagogical approach for schoolchildren. ERE
combines insights from the field of “outdoor education” and “ecological restoration”
and has the overarching objective of fostering learning about biodiversity through
practical experience of ecosystem restoration. This chapter draws on experiences
from an ERE-project in Sweden called Skolbäcken run by the Swedish Anglers
Association. The aim of the chapter is to describe and discuss ERE as a potential
strategy to spread interest about the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem
management among future generations.
Keywords Outdoor education · Biodiversity · Learning environments · Baltic Sea ·
NGO · Pike population
1 Introduction
“What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering
brook.”—Henry David Thoreau.
“Is it alive?” The children from the local school flock around the shore to get a
glimpse of the 63 cm long pike which is about to be released into the dark water.
Victor holds the pike with one hand around the tail and the other around the belly,
which is filled with eggs. It is mid-April and spawning season for pikes along the
Baltic Sea coast in the Stockholm Archipelago. Victor works as an educator for the
Swedish Anglers Association and has just explained to the class of 9-year-olds that
the pikes are attracted by the fresh water stream coming from the flooded grasslands
around which they have gathered. “It’s like they are swimming against a gentle,
warm breeze”, he explains. When the water temperature reaches 6–8
C, there is a
M. Sandberg (*) · A. S. Hansen
Department of Economy and Society, Unit for Human Geography, University of Gothenburg,
Gothenburg, Sweden
e-mail: mattias.sandberg@geography.gu.se
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. Hobohm (ed.), Perspectives for Biodiversity and Ecosystems, Environmental
Challenges and Solutions, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57710-0_10
219
Exploring the Potentials of Ecological
Restoration Education
Mattias Sandberg and Andreas Skriver Hansen
Abstract This chapter introduces the concept and practice of “ecological restoration education” (ERE) as a novel pedagogical approach for schoolchildren. ERE
combines insights from the field of “outdoor education” and “ecological restoration”
and has the overarching objective of fostering learning about biodiversity through
practical experience of ecosystem restoration. This chapter draws on experiences
from an ERE-project in Sweden called Skolbäcken run by the Swedish Anglers
Association. The aim of the chapter is to describe and discuss ERE as a potential
strategy to spread interest about the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem
management among future generations.
Keywords Outdoor education · Biodiversity · Learning environments · Baltic Sea ·
NGO · Pike population
1 Introduction
“What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering
brook.”—Henry David Thoreau.
“Is it alive?” The children from the local school flock around the shore to get a
glimpse of the 63 cm long pike which is about to be released into the dark water.
Victor holds the pike with one hand around the tail and the other around the belly,
which is filled with eggs. It is mid-April and spawning season for pikes along the
Baltic Sea coast in the Stockholm Archipelago. Victor works as an educator for the
Swedish Anglers Association and has just explained to the class of 9-year-olds that
the pikes are attracted by the fresh water stream coming from the flooded grasslands
around which they have gathered. “It’s like they are swimming against a gentle,
warm breeze”, he explains. When the water temperature reaches 6–8
C, there is a
M. Sandberg (*) · A. S. Hansen
Department of Economy and Society, Unit for Human Geography, University of Gothenburg,
Gothenburg, Sweden
e-mail: mattias.sandberg@geography.gu.se
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
C. Hobohm (ed.), Perspectives for Biodiversity and Ecosystems, Environmental
Challenges and Solutions, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57710-0_10
219