Last week, enid and I had the pleasure to meet and learn from Dr. Frances Harris who is based at Kingston University in the UK.  Dr. Harris contacted me, via this blog, in May and happened to be traveling on Vancouver Island this summer with her family.  She has both practical and academic experience with the forest school movement in the UK.  After presenting a lecture to masters students at Royal Roads University, Dr. Harris and her family spent a leisurely evening with our families.  It was wonderful to make this international connection, and we look forward to staying in touch with Dr. Harris.

Some more information about Dr. Harris’ research and research interests …

I am committed to public engagement with environmental science, and have just completed a second edition of “Global Environmental Issues” published with Wiley-Blackwell in February 2012. I have always been interested in looking at comparative work between the UK and Canada concerning the children and nature / outdoor learning area. I am intrigued by the interest in Forest Schools, as I had always thought Canada, with its focus on summer camps (which we don’t have much of here) would take a different approach to nature education. I am based at Kingston University, which is in south London, and my webpage is http://sec.kingston.ac.uk/about-SEC/people/academic/view_profile.php?id=36. I work at Kingston 3 days a week, and in my time off I lead outdoor learning activities.