Wood Working Shop
Welcome to the Risk in Education Conference!
Formerly known as the Risk Management Conference for Outdoor Education in
Canada, we've adopted a new name to better represent what this conference is
all about.
The shift towards a new (actually more ‘modified') focus for
the conference is a response to the need to broaden our scope by shifting to a
more holistic treatment of risk in education.
As you'll see when looking through this website, the plan is
to still maintain the risk management component but broaden opportunities
for participants to explore other aspects of dealing with risk in education
that is not exclusively tied to Outdoor Education.
Conference History
The mission of the Risk Management Conference for Outdoor Education in Canada was to create a venue to discuss best practices and to establish common ground for Canadian standards of care for school-based educational experiences in wilderness settings.
Field Studies
Additional goals include:
- To provide a forum for outdoor practitioners and administrators to learn about issues regarding
risk management and general safety
- To influence and create institutional commonalities regarding risk management practices among
school-based outdoor programs in Canada
- To share practitioner and administrator strategies used to manage risk in wilderness settings
- To gather leaders in the field in Canada with a common goal and provide a venue for networking
A Catalyst for Change
On February 1, 2003, Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School (STS) experienced a disaster of catastrophic proportions when an avalanche took the lives of students on an outdoor education ski touring trip. The repercussions of this tragedy were felt throughout the educational community across Canada.
The STS accident, and a number of similar incidents, have become catalysts for change within the outdoor education community. Schools, outdoor education centres and educational programs across the country, have been re-evaluating their activities and safety practices. This re-evaluation sparked the need for a forum where educators and administrators from across the country could share their experiences and help create solutions to problems facing every outdoor education program in Canada.
First Annual Risk Management Conference
In 2004, a group of educators from Sedbergh School (Montebello, Qc) created the First Annual Risk Management Conference for Outdoor Education in Canada. They were able to successfully facilitate meaningful and beneficial exchange among 140 attendees from across the country.
2005 Risk Management Conference
In 2005, Algonquin College presented the conference at Wilderness Tours, in the Ottawa Valley. Over 140 people participated from across Canada. The delegates represented thousands of educators directly involved in running outdoor education programs from across the country.
The 2006 and 2007 Risk Management Conferences for Outdoor Education in Canada
These years were very exciting as the conference continued attracting participants from across Canada and from around the world. Representatives from all Canadian provinces and territories along with delegates from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia came together to share best practices and to continue the dialogue to strengthen outdoor education in our schools.
It became apparent, however, that the information, discussion and practices being exchanged had the potential to aid many more of our colleagues undertaking outside the classroom activities. And so the Risk in Education Conference was born!
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