OUTDOOR EDUCATION: WALKING & EDUCATING

OUTDOOR EDUCATION: WALKING & EDUCATING

This chapter was curated by the Independent Theater Hungary

In Ancient Athens it was a standard practice that young people were

educated while walking in the hall or the park of the Gymnasium.
It was also accepted that the educational process took place in the
frame of a dialogue. The Lykeion12 - which was founded by Aristoteles
- functioned this way for 600 years but such practices disappeared
afterwards. In the traditional European education system though, the
students are supposed to sit in one place and listen to their teachers’
or professors’ speeches. They mostly instruct the youth face-to-face,
including little dialogue with them.
As we’ve mentioned in the introduction, formal education places
strong focus on verbal and logical skills and favors those who are good
at these competences. However, others who are good at art, physical
activities or anything related to nature, have a disadvantage in a sys-
tem where they should sit indoors, listening to long verbal presenta-
tions and logical theories. When we move, we have the opportunity
to interact with our professors, studying can be more interesting and
motivating. What is more, it is easier for our brain to process and store
information if we receive more oxygen and impulse outdoors; espe-
cially, if we speak about less abstract subjects related to our society,
history, personal stories and artistic topics.
For this reason, it’s good to organize walking education initiatives, when
the young people can gain information and experience outdoors. And
of course, it’s even better if the place we are walking around has a

12 The Lyceum, located outside of Athens’s city wall. It is famous for being a center of
education, but it was used for numerous other activities including Athenian assembly gath-
erings, cult practices, and military exercises.

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connection to the topic we want to focus on. It’s better to see a paint-
ing or a building live than in a book; it’s better to learn the dialect or
customs of a community than just listening to stories about them. And
of course, it’s almost impossible to change people’s attitudes towards
the communities they don’t know if they can’t meet each-other face to
face. If we help people gain personal experiences related to the topics
we want to concentrate on, it makes a bigger impact on them than
when professors just hold endless speeches, share diverse theories
and facts about different issues.
In the last decades, experiential learning has gotten an increased
emphasis in formal education, too. Thematic walks have appeared in
non-formal education and in free time activities. You can walk in the
city with a group while obtaining information and experiences related
to a given part of the city from one thematic aspect. The walks can
focus on art history, gastronomy, history or any other specific aspect
of life and culture.
Related to the topic of minority representation, such walks have been
realized by diverse non-profit organizations. For example, in Hungary
Zachor Foundation has been organizing thematic walks focusing on
the history of the Jewish communities in different Hungarian towns.
They have also developed an application for mobile phones - which
enriches the walking experience with audio-visual materials related
to the local Jewish history and personal stories. IWALK is the interac-
tive educational program of the Shoah Foundation of the University
of Southern-California. These walks are led by young volunteers who
have been trained before. The application is linked to Google Maps,
too, and you can download it by searching for ‘IWalk – USC Shoah
Foundation’.

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Regarding Roma topics, there are also thematic walks organized by
the UCCU Foundation. They have Roma-related walks in Budapest
and Pécs and some other towns in Hungary, too. The walks are also
led by young people who have received training in order to facili-
tate different games. They are usually of Roma origin, for the sake
of self-representation. During their tours digital tools are not used.
Instead, the facilitators usually share stories and ask participants
questions to involve them in the interaction.
Beside the above mentioned two examples, we think the following
aspects important if you want to do a thematic city walk in the realm
of a non-formal educational activity:

• Research on important events of history, stories, facts and re-

lated places in your city.
• Make a map of the places and fix a route of the walk. Visit impor-
tant and relevant places without too long walk. (Most of the city
walks are not longer than two hours, and there are many stops
during the walk.) Try to avoid visiting very remote locations. It’s
usually advisable to focus on one district of a city, or some streets
of it. It’s not good though, if a walk is too short and for instance,
you move only 50 meters in 1 hour, since you can’t call it a walk.
• Find diverse tools to use. If you go to the street but your tools
are similar to the ones students use at school - e.g., a person
shares information with the participants directly - it won’t be a
great experience for them. So, it’s important to include some
questions and topics the participants can discuss. But even if
you ask questions, these shouldn’t just focus on lexical facts but
also on other aspects, too. E.g., Why do you think this street is
so wide? What can you see above this gate? Have you seen this
symbol somewhere else earlier during our walk? Etc.

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 • Use audiovisual materials. If you share some photos, videos or
sound files (including also personal stories) related to the topic,
it will be more touching for most people. As the walks usually
take place during the day in noisy streets, it can be problematic
how the audience can see and hear your content. They should
be available on the participants’ mobile phones so that they
can see videos or listen to interviews through their headsets.
Obviously, if the participants see/listen to such materials one-
by-one, the community experience will not be so strong.
• After sunset, if you have a portable projector and sound sys-
tem, and you find a wall big enough, you can also project your
files, this way sharing your content with the whole group at
the same time. (On this occasion, however, you should be pre-
pared to expect complaints from the neighbors.) If you place
objects on the street, use lights or sound etc., you might need
a permission from the municipality.
• Use different types of tasks, building on different competences.
As we’ve mentioned above, it’s good to provide opportunities for
the participants to interact. Do not only assign tasks which build
on verbal and logical competences or lexical facts. For example,
you can hide a small object relevant to the topic somewhere
high, with the purpose that the participants can only get hold of
it if they help each other. This way they need to cooperate with
each other, and use their physical competences. Even if you want
to focus on social or historical facts, gamification, self-experience
and some fictional elements can help support your aims.
• Pay attention to personal interactions. If the participants only
meet each other and the one or two tour guides, it might not
be a diverse and touching experience for them. Maybe you can
organize the tour in a way that they can interact with someone

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 from the community, too. Of course, it may increase the cost
of the walk, as you can’t expect someone to stand at the corner
without compensation waiting for your groups to arrive. It is a
practical solution, for example, when you involve a shopkeep-
er from the community, someone who is on your direct route
anyway. He/she can ask the participants some questions, and
also share his/her stories with them. The participants might
buy something in the shop, so it is also his interest to welcome
your group. When involving community members, some moral
questions always arise, for instance: Do you pay them, or ask
for a favor from them? Do they share their stories authentically
or even color them a bit in exchange for the money? How deep
can you and the participants go into his/her sensitive stories
and experiences? Beside real community members, you can
also work with fictional characters but in this case it’s a ques-
tion if they are genuine, and their stories are fiction or real, and
how it will be communicated to the group members.
• Create a frame of the walk. Of course, you can just name the
walk as a thematic tour where the participants will get an in-
sight into the history and present life of a given community.
Such frames might not be attractive for those whose attitude
towards the Roma communities still should be shaped, so
most probably they just won’t participate. But if you create
a narrative and make your social focus indirect, it might also
attract young people who would otherwise skip a Roma-relat-
ed program. They might happily solve a mystery, search for
something, find a person, and during their mission, they can
get some inputs related to your focus indirectly.
• Fix the group composition and the frames in advance. It’s im-
portant to fix a meeting point and date when the participants

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 meet. Here the facilitator can present the introduction and
establish the framework together with the participants (e.g.,
Don’t walk away from the group; don’t take photos of the local
people; if you have any question or comment, you can ask it
any time etc.) - to create a safe atmosphere and avoid further
problems and misunderstandings. If there is a fictional frame
or game-situation of the walk, you should fix it in the begin-
ning, too. In these cases, the guide might take on a role but
then it should also be clear when he/she steps out of it. (E.g.,
It’s not the guide as a real person who gets angry at some point
but the characters s/he plays.)
• At the end of the walk, ensure a place for discussion and giving
feedback. When the tour is over, give the opportunity for the
participants to share their feelings, comments, or ask ques-
tions - even if during the tour, for some reasons, it wasn’t pos-
sible. If you had a fictional frame, let the participants step out
from their role, and if the guide also had a role, s/he should
also step out from it. If you receive any feedback on how you
can develop the walk in the future, don’t forget it but discuss it
with the team members afterwards. After the group members
have left, the guides and organizers should also evaluate the
walk. This way your work will always be improved and never
remain the same.

In this publication we have collected the theoretical and methodo-

logical information, tools and examples that will help you to imple-
ment outdoor theater and workshop plans and actions. We hope
that we managed to provide you with details that you can use in
the future.

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