Kristina Ciari Tursi
One of the unwritten core values at The Mountaineers is safety. When we go out together, we make every effort to return safely. And, safety is about more than just physical safety. Feeling emotionally safe - to ask questions, share concerns, and show up as your full self - is a key component to physically safe outcomes. To support emotionally safe environments for our participants, we are excited to share our new Emotional Safety in the Outdoors eLearning course.
For the last six months, Mountaineers staff, in partnership with the Equity & Inclusion Committee, have been working with outdoor education and recreation curriculum designer Tallie Segel on a new eLearning course to highlight the connections between emotional safety and physically safe outcomes. The course is designed for our current and future volunteer trip leaders and instructors with the goal of fostering environments where all people feel belonging.
This leadership course addresses equity and inclusion through the lens of emotional safety in the outdoors. It’s critical that we examine what emotional safety looks like and how we create learning environments where we value emotional safety as much as we value physical safety. The course begins with broad and systems-level concepts around equity and inclusion to make explicit connections between the influences of structural, historical, political, and social contexts on individual and interpersonal experiences and relationships.
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
- Understand the differences between basic diversity, equity, and inclusion terms and apply them in conversation
- Identify 2-3 personal privileges and describe how those affect their interactions with others
- Define emotional safety, and provide an example of how it impacts physical safety
This course builds on the principles established in our Foundations of Leadership and Foundations of Instruction courses. We suggest starting with one of those two courses - both of which include the Foundations of Equity & Inclusion - before taking this Emotional Safety in the Outdoors course.
Once you’ve registered for the course, you will find instructions on how to access our eLearning website in the Course Materials section. Upon completion, graduates will earn the Emotional Safety in the Outdoors course badge.
About the Course Creator Tallie Segel
Tallie Segel is a long-time environmental educator focused on youth and adult conservation education programming, community based science, and justice-oriented /community-centered environmental education curriculum development. She's committed to anti-racist/ anti-oppressive education practices that celebrate cultural and community relationships to the land, biological diversity, and how those relationships foster possibilities for a more just and sustainable future.
Tallie works in a variety of capacities to support environmental and outdoor learning for learners of all ages. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, she is currently a graduate student at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec working on a PhD in social and cultural analysis focusing on the growing diversity, equity, and inclusion movement in environmental education and relationships between environmental education and environmental/biodiversity conservation governance.
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This course and materials are amazing. Thanks to all those who contributed to this masterpiece.
