Keynote speakers

Dr. Patrick T. Maher is a Full Professor of Physical and Health Education at Nipissing University. He is an interdisciplinary scholar, who has previously held full-time appointments at Cape Breton University, the University of Northern British Columbia, and the University of Otago.

Pat was the inaugural Dean of Teaching at NU (2019-2023), and has also held Visiting Scholar positions at Trent University, the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Southern Denmark University, the University Centre of the Westfjords (Iceland), Vancouver Island University, the University of Edinburgh, and Cambridge University. He has also collaborated extensively with colleagues across the University of the Arctic network as former Associate Dean of Circumpolar Studies and the lead for the Thematic Network on Northern Tourism.

Pat has been named a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (2013), a 3M National Teaching Fellow (2014), and a Fellow of International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2020). He held a Commonwealth Scholarship in New Zealand for his doctoral research in Antarctica and was both a University Teaching Chair in Community-Engaged Teaching and Scholarship and a SSHRC Exchange University Research Chair in the Social Sciences and Humanities during his tenure in Cape Breton.

Pat is currently the managing editor of the Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning and former editor of the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education (2017-2023), and the Journal of Experiential Education (2010-2016). He also sits on the Editorial Boards of the Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, the Journal of Tourism Futures, and Pathways: The Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education.

More Info

I have spent all of my professional career in education. First, I taught as a primary school teacher in Ireland for ten years between 1986- 1996. Whilst a teacher, I designed in-service environmental education CPD using the outdoors as the key educational context. My own doctorate at University of Stirling (completed 1999) looked at pupils’ participation in changing outdoor places. Since then I have worked as a researcher and senior lecturer and I now work in the Faculty of Social Sciences - Education. Currently, I teach on the EdD, MRes (Educational Research) and on the Initial Teacher Education programme (primary); I supervise students at masters and doctorate level.

My substantive research interests include: young people's participation in change, the place-related dimensions of learning and human-environment interaction, outdoor and environmental learning, education for sustainable development and global citizenship, rights-based education, citizen science & learning, intergenerational /child-adult relations, learners’ experiences of formal and non-formal education, visual and participatory research. I take a broadly 'new materialist' approach to ontological and epistemological issues in research.

More info

Selima Negro earned her degree in Education Sciences, focusing her thesis on the pedagogical dimensions of risk. She worked as an educator and environmental educator in Brianza until 2015, when she established the association "Fuori dalla scuola" (Out of School). This initiative led to the creation of a Forest Kindergarten in collaboration with other families, and in 2018, it expanded to include a project for children over six years old. Since then, Negro has been actively engaged in providing training for practitioners, teachers, and parents. In 2019, she published "Forest Pedagogy: Educating in Nature to Raise Free and Healthy Children" and has continued to research and promote this educational approach across various contexts. 

http://www.pedagogiadelbosco.it
https://fuoridallascuola.wordpress.com