Outdoor teacher educator honoured with academic award
Associate Professor Chris North has been recognised for his contribution to how outdoor teacher education is taught nationally.
Outdoor education lecturer, Associate Professor Chris North, has been recognised for his contribution to teacher training in outdoor education, the fatality case study model.
Now used nationally in New Zealand’s outdoor education teacher training, students analyse real cases of fatal incidents during their programme. Through encountering a complex and challenging scenario, the model aims to deepen outdoor educators’ understanding, awareness and care.
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“By bringing in cases where people have died and asking students to study them; it’s grim, it’s compelling and it makes them think. It helps them plan better, be more aware and those are really important things. Otherwise, an assessment on risk management just turns out to be another test, another assignment. I want them to go out being safer. We want to try and reduce the number of fatalities, eliminate them if possible,” says North.
North allows students to choose the cases they study, which both improves learner agency and their personal connection to their teaching practice, he says.
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“One of the principles that I follow is being learner-centred, catering to individual students. By allowing them to choose a fatality or an incident that was closer to their practice, increased the engagement. That allowed them to contextualize that learning more, and therefore the learning was more powerful for them.”
Alongside two other academics, North developed a fatality prevention workshop that is now being offered to support outdoor educators nationwide. The research has also been used internationally when preparing teachers for outdoor education trips.
North has been awarded the highest academic honour at the University of Canterbury, the 2025 UC Teaching Medal, for his method of improving critical thinking and safety in outdoor education.
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