Tonia Gray
Biographic Data
| ID | 5143154 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tonia Gray |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tonia |
| FAMILY NAME | Gray |
| SIGNATURE | GRAY T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Western Sydney University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5358-1748 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 23 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Exploring the landscape of inclusive outdoor education in Australia and Canada: A rapid review
In Australia and Canada, outdoor education is defined as experiential outdoor learning in, about, and for the natural world. An inclusive learning environment is one where all students, regardless of diverse background, abilities or needs, have equal access to, and can fully participate in educational experiences. Outdoor education should offer equitable access to high-quality education experiences regardless of a participant’s requirements. Desp…
Twenty-five years of outdoor education through the lens of four case studies—are we there yet?
This retrospective article examines the development of outdoor education practice over the past 25 years through four case studies. Drawing on social, economic, cultural and historical influences, each case study illuminates how outdoor education practices evolved and adapted to local educational, geographical and governmental landscapes. Analysis of the four case studies revealed a growing awareness in the field of its cultural and historical le…
A Scoping Review of the Relationship Between Play and Learning Beyond Preschool
Internationally, there are increased pressures for primary schools to meet academic curriculum outcomes primarily driven by performance metrics and targets. Sitting alongside this context are competing concerns for the decline in children’s play opportunities to bolster their overall health and wellbeing. Adopting play-based pedagogies in primary schools can infuse more play into children’s lives whilst meeting curriculum outcomes. Despite the pe…
Nature Play as a Catalyst for Outdoor Learning, Engagement and Wellbeing in Australian Primary Students
In Australia and around the world, young students are increasingly experiencing declines in wellbeing, engagement, and sense of belonging. These trends are accompanied by rising anxiety and social disconnection that affect learning and development. In response to these concerns, this study investigated whether a 10-week nature play intervention could support wellbeing, engagement, and learning in Year One students. A quasiexperimental mixed-metho…
Inside or outside? The role of classroom setting location on child executive function
Spending time in nature can have many benefits, particularly for executive function. This explorative study examined the difference between learning settings on child's executive function in Australian children aged 8 to 10 (N = 24, female = 50%). A repeated measures design was employed using identical drawing tasks, followed by the Attention Networks Task, to measure executive function in participants one week apart. Data analysis found no signi…
Children’s participation in Bush School: Insights into parental understanding and support for nature play
The benefits of nature play for children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development are well established, yet opportunities for outdoor play are declining. Schools can help address this gap, but doing so requires parental support. While most research focuses on how parents shape children’s play, less is known about the inverse: how children’s participation in nature play may influence parental perspectives. This study explores this dynamic by…
Theorising Universal Design for Learning to Create More Inclusive Outdoor Play Spaces: A Preliminary Review
Outdoor play can be linked to numerous health, cognitive, and social benefits for children. All children must have opportunities to engage in regular outdoor play experiences. Despite this, some children, including those with different abilities, are less likely to participate in outdoor play. Educator-led outdoor play programs, including those in schools and early childhood centres, “bush schools”, and other initiatives, may increase time spent …
Nature Play in Primary School: Supporting Holistic Development Through Outdoor Learning
This study demonstrates that nature play meaningfully supports children’s well-being, engagement, sense of belonging, and connection to nature. Over 10 weeks, Year One students (n = 25) from a metropolitan government school in Sydney Australia, participated in a Bush School program, experiencing it as a space of joy, calm, challenge, and growth. Children came to see Bush School not as a break from learning but as a different kind of learning: act…
Risky Play Is Not a Dirty Word: A Tool to Measure Benefit–Risk in Outdoor Playgrounds and Educational Settings
Challenge, adventure, and risky play have repeatedly been found to be learning environments that positively shape childhood well-being and development. Extant evidence-based research conveys the physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional growth associated with risky play provision. However, understanding the interplay of risky play, injury, and safety is more nuanced and complex. The goal of this paper is to introduce a tool which allows educators,…
An exploration of how the disruption of mainstream schooling during the Covid-19 crisis provided opportunities that we can learn from so that we may improve our future relationship with the more-than-…
The COVID-19 crisis forced educators globally to reassess delivery of their curricula and educational priorities. Already the worsening climate crisis amid human beings’ deleterious relationship with the more-than-human world has caused many educators to demand radical reconsiderations as to the purpose and meaning of education. We ask: how did the disruption of mainstream schooling, during the COVID-19 crisis, provide opportunities that we can l…
Identifying Key Benefits and Characteristics of Community Gardening for Vulnerable Populations: A Systematic Review
Vulnerable communities (including people from refugee, Indigenous, culturally and linguistically diverse, and low socioeconomic backgrounds) represent the most at-risk populations facing inequities and negative health, economic, and social outcomes. The recent COVID-19 pandemic both highlighted and fuelled these disparities. Community gardening has emerged as a community-based solution to address these inequities, yet the research literature has …
Getting Out of the Classroom and Into Nature: A Systematic Review of Nature-Specific Outdoor Learning on School Children's Learning and Development
Community gardens as local learning environments in social housing contexts: Participant perceptions of enhanced wellbeing and community connection
Urban community gardens provide learning environments for diverse groups, including those who may be experiencing health and social inequalities such as residents in social housing communities. Learning to grow fresh food in safe social spaces provides individuals with opportunities to increase awareness of their personal wellbeing and community life. This paper reports on the findings of a research study that explored broader impacts of a commun…
Connecting to nature through community engaged scholarship: Community gardens as sites for collaborative relationships, psychological, and physiological wellbeing
Community gardens are recognized as being associated with a range of benefits for participants that include enhanced outcomes in physical and affective domains and community building. The purpose of this study was to research the impact of the New South Wales Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) Community Greening (CG) program and to inform the ongoing development of this community outreach program. The organic community partnerships inherent in the desig…
(Re-)Imagining Social Work in the Anthropocene
The ecological crisis, marked by the Anthropocene epoch, is having a major impact on the global ecosystem, and the consequences are predicted to become increasingly severe in coming decades. The turbulence and uncertainty of the crisis means social work must begin planning, reflecting and reorientating. The first half of the article contextualises the climate crisis within neoliberal capitalism, whereas the second half proposes alternatives for s…
Widening the aperture: Using visual methods to broaden our understanding of gender in the outdoor profession
Embedding a gender-aware and social-responsive culture is one of the many challenges which confronts the outdoor profession. Creative methodologies and feminist research has the potential to unlock new insights and knowledges about outdoor embodiment and embolden change. This paper offers a fresh research approach to interrogate the lived experiences and prevailing injustices encountered by outdoor women. To address issues of hegemony and asymmet…
Lasting Lessons in Outdoor Learning: A Facilitation Model Emerging from 30 Years of Reflective Practice
Engaging with nature is needed for the holistic development of children. However, a lack of longitudinal research exists to outline the impact of Outdoor Learning in the school curriculum. In our current educational climate which places inordinate focus upon evidence-based outcomes, teachers are needing encouragement to embrace unconventional nature-based pedagogies. In the late 1970s, a bespoke Wilderness Studies class was introduced in an Austr…
Re-Thinking Human-Plant Relations by Theorising Using Concepts of Biophilia and Animism in Workplaces
Reimagining Sustainability in Precarious Times
Are Biophilic-Designed Site Office Buildings Linked to Health Benefits and High Performing Occupants
This paper discusses the first phase of a longitudinal study underway in Australia to ascertain the broad health benefits of specific types of biophilic design for workers in a building site office. A bespoke site design was formulated to include open plan workspace, natural lighting, ventilation, significant plants, prospect and views, recycled materials and use of non-synthetic materials. Initial data in the first three months was gathered from…
Reimagining Sustainability in Precarious Times
(Re-)Imagining Social Work in the Anthropocene
The ecological crisis, marked by the Anthropocene epoch, is having a major impact on the global ecosystem, and the consequences are predicted to become increasingly severe in coming decades. The turbulence and uncertainty of the crisis means social work must begin planning, reflecting and reorientating. The first half of the article contextualises the climate crisis within neoliberal capitalism, whereas the second half proposes alternatives for s…
Widening the aperture: Using visual methods to broaden our understanding of gender in the outdoor profession
Embedding a gender-aware and social-responsive culture is one of the many challenges which confronts the outdoor profession. Creative methodologies and feminist research has the potential to unlock new insights and knowledges about outdoor embodiment and embolden change. This paper offers a fresh research approach to interrogate the lived experiences and prevailing injustices encountered by outdoor women. To address issues of hegemony and asymmet…
Are Biophilic-Designed Site Office Buildings Linked to Health Benefits and High Performing Occupants
This paper discusses the first phase of a longitudinal study underway in Australia to ascertain the broad health benefits of specific types of biophilic design for workers in a building site office. A bespoke site design was formulated to include open plan workspace, natural lighting, ventilation, significant plants, prospect and views, recycled materials and use of non-synthetic materials. Initial data in the first three months was gathered from…
Re-Thinking Human-Plant Relations by Theorising Using Concepts of Biophilia and Animism in Workplaces
Reimagining Sustainability in Precarious Times
Lasting Lessons in Outdoor Learning: A Facilitation Model Emerging from 30 Years of Reflective Practice
Engaging with nature is needed for the holistic development of children. However, a lack of longitudinal research exists to outline the impact of Outdoor Learning in the school curriculum. In our current educational climate which places inordinate focus upon evidence-based outcomes, teachers are needing encouragement to embrace unconventional nature-based pedagogies. In the late 1970s, a bespoke Wilderness Studies class was introduced in an Austr…
Widening the aperture: Using visual methods to broaden our understanding of gender in the outdoor profession
Embedding a gender-aware and social-responsive culture is one of the many challenges which confronts the outdoor profession. Creative methodologies and feminist research has the potential to unlock new insights and knowledges about outdoor embodiment and embolden change. This paper offers a fresh research approach to interrogate the lived experiences and prevailing injustices encountered by outdoor women. To address issues of hegemony and asymmet…
Getting Out of the Classroom and Into Nature: A Systematic Review of Nature-Specific Outdoor Learning on School Children's Learning and Development
Community gardens as local learning environments in social housing contexts: Participant perceptions of enhanced wellbeing and community connection
Urban community gardens provide learning environments for diverse groups, including those who may be experiencing health and social inequalities such as residents in social housing communities. Learning to grow fresh food in safe social spaces provides individuals with opportunities to increase awareness of their personal wellbeing and community life. This paper reports on the findings of a research study that explored broader impacts of a commun…
Connecting to nature through community engaged scholarship: Community gardens as sites for collaborative relationships, psychological, and physiological wellbeing
Community gardens are recognized as being associated with a range of benefits for participants that include enhanced outcomes in physical and affective domains and community building. The purpose of this study was to research the impact of the New South Wales Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) Community Greening (CG) program and to inform the ongoing development of this community outreach program. The organic community partnerships inherent in the desig…
(Re-)Imagining Social Work in the Anthropocene
The ecological crisis, marked by the Anthropocene epoch, is having a major impact on the global ecosystem, and the consequences are predicted to become increasingly severe in coming decades. The turbulence and uncertainty of the crisis means social work must begin planning, reflecting and reorientating. The first half of the article contextualises the climate crisis within neoliberal capitalism, whereas the second half proposes alternatives for s…
An exploration of how the disruption of mainstream schooling during the Covid-19 crisis provided opportunities that we can learn from so that we may improve our future relationship with the more-than-…
The COVID-19 crisis forced educators globally to reassess delivery of their curricula and educational priorities. Already the worsening climate crisis amid human beings’ deleterious relationship with the more-than-human world has caused many educators to demand radical reconsiderations as to the purpose and meaning of education. We ask: how did the disruption of mainstream schooling, during the COVID-19 crisis, provide opportunities that we can l…
Identifying Key Benefits and Characteristics of Community Gardening for Vulnerable Populations: A Systematic Review
Vulnerable communities (including people from refugee, Indigenous, culturally and linguistically diverse, and low socioeconomic backgrounds) represent the most at-risk populations facing inequities and negative health, economic, and social outcomes. The recent COVID-19 pandemic both highlighted and fuelled these disparities. Community gardening has emerged as a community-based solution to address these inequities, yet the research literature has …
Theorising Universal Design for Learning to Create More Inclusive Outdoor Play Spaces: A Preliminary Review
Outdoor play can be linked to numerous health, cognitive, and social benefits for children. All children must have opportunities to engage in regular outdoor play experiences. Despite this, some children, including those with different abilities, are less likely to participate in outdoor play. Educator-led outdoor play programs, including those in schools and early childhood centres, “bush schools”, and other initiatives, may increase time spent …
Nature Play in Primary School: Supporting Holistic Development Through Outdoor Learning
This study demonstrates that nature play meaningfully supports children’s well-being, engagement, sense of belonging, and connection to nature. Over 10 weeks, Year One students (n = 25) from a metropolitan government school in Sydney Australia, participated in a Bush School program, experiencing it as a space of joy, calm, challenge, and growth. Children came to see Bush School not as a break from learning but as a different kind of learning: act…
Risky Play Is Not a Dirty Word: A Tool to Measure Benefit–Risk in Outdoor Playgrounds and Educational Settings
Challenge, adventure, and risky play have repeatedly been found to be learning environments that positively shape childhood well-being and development. Extant evidence-based research conveys the physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional growth associated with risky play provision. However, understanding the interplay of risky play, injury, and safety is more nuanced and complex. The goal of this paper is to introduce a tool which allows educators,…
Exploring the landscape of inclusive outdoor education in Australia and Canada: A rapid review
In Australia and Canada, outdoor education is defined as experiential outdoor learning in, about, and for the natural world. An inclusive learning environment is one where all students, regardless of diverse background, abilities or needs, have equal access to, and can fully participate in educational experiences. Outdoor education should offer equitable access to high-quality education experiences regardless of a participant’s requirements. Desp…
Twenty-five years of outdoor education through the lens of four case studies—are we there yet?
This retrospective article examines the development of outdoor education practice over the past 25 years through four case studies. Drawing on social, economic, cultural and historical influences, each case study illuminates how outdoor education practices evolved and adapted to local educational, geographical and governmental landscapes. Analysis of the four case studies revealed a growing awareness in the field of its cultural and historical le…
A Scoping Review of the Relationship Between Play and Learning Beyond Preschool
Internationally, there are increased pressures for primary schools to meet academic curriculum outcomes primarily driven by performance metrics and targets. Sitting alongside this context are competing concerns for the decline in children’s play opportunities to bolster their overall health and wellbeing. Adopting play-based pedagogies in primary schools can infuse more play into children’s lives whilst meeting curriculum outcomes. Despite the pe…
Nature Play as a Catalyst for Outdoor Learning, Engagement and Wellbeing in Australian Primary Students
In Australia and around the world, young students are increasingly experiencing declines in wellbeing, engagement, and sense of belonging. These trends are accompanied by rising anxiety and social disconnection that affect learning and development. In response to these concerns, this study investigated whether a 10-week nature play intervention could support wellbeing, engagement, and learning in Year One students. A quasiexperimental mixed-metho…
Inside or outside? The role of classroom setting location on child executive function
Spending time in nature can have many benefits, particularly for executive function. This explorative study examined the difference between learning settings on child's executive function in Australian children aged 8 to 10 (N = 24, female = 50%). A repeated measures design was employed using identical drawing tasks, followed by the Attention Networks Task, to measure executive function in participants one week apart. Data analysis found no signi…
Children’s participation in Bush School: Insights into parental understanding and support for nature play
The benefits of nature play for children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development are well established, yet opportunities for outdoor play are declining. Schools can help address this gap, but doing so requires parental support. While most research focuses on how parents shape children’s play, less is known about the inverse: how children’s participation in nature play may influence parental perspectives. This study explores this dynamic by…
Urban Green Space and Health (12 works) · Outdoor and Experiential Education (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Outdoor education (5 works) · Curriculum (4 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (4 works) · Public relations (4 works) · Environmental ethics (3 works)