‘Dreadful things can happen’: Cautionary tales for the safe practitioner

This paper investigates the repertoires teachers employ when talking about taking children outside of the classroom and keeping them safe. Research data were a series of individual and focus group interviews with primary school teachers. Three repertoires were identified: “safe practitioner,” “adventurous risk-taker” and “fun, pleasure and excitement seeker”. The main body of the paper discusses these repertoires. An interview sequence highlights repertoires ‘in action’. The paper illustrates how, according to the teachers, cautionary tales structure their safe practice in outdoor education.