Race, power and inclusion in UK forest schools: ecofeminist and Foucauldian perspectives on decolonising outdoor education

Building on earlier research (Garden, 2024; 2025) that applied ecofeminist and Foucauldian perspectives to examine how forest schools reproduce and challenge inequalities of gender and power, this study extends the analysis by interrogating the racialized and cultural dimensions of inclusion and belonging within UK forest schools through a decolonial lens. Drawing on ecofeminist understandings of care, embodiment and relationality (Gaard, 2017) and Foucauldian concepts of discourse and power/knowledge, alongside decolonial critiques of Eurocentric epistemologies in education (Smith, 2021), the study explores how long-standing colonial narratives shape perceptions of who belongs in nature. Using a qualitative design informed by narrative inquiry and case-study approaches, semi-structured interviews with 20 forest school leaders and early years educators across diverse UK contexts were analysed thematically to investigate how practices often framed as egalitarian remain embedded in dominant constructions of whiteness, nature and childhood. At the same time, the data reveal instances of reflexive, community-rooted practice that illustrate the potential of forest schools to enact culturally sustaining and socially just pedagogies. Situating forest schools as socially produced spaces shaped by broader histories and power relations (Massey, 2005), this paper contributes to current debates on equity in outdoor education and argues for systemic, relational and transformative approaches that centre belonging, sustainability and social justice.