“If you don’t mind going places without a map, follow me”.
Re-stor(y)ing of self, place and educator.
Genny Blades
Metaphorically, going place without a map was a significant shift for me.  Experiencing a sense of disconnection both professionally and personally became a catalyst to undertake a journey of re-connection.  This coincided with an experience of displacement and what transpired was the making of new meanings around being an educator and around outdoor education.  This paper is the beginning phase in articulating a new story.

Maybe what they say is what they experience: Taking students words seriously.
Robyn Zink
Students are said to learn from experience in outdoor education, yet what they say they learn is not always taken seriously.   Foucault’s work is used in this article to examine two ‘flippant comments made by students.  Starting with these comments leads to an analysis of how experiences, students and meaning make processes in outdoor education are constituted and normalised.  This highlights how it is possible for these students to make these comments and how they can be judged as ‘flippant’.  Analysis of this type lays down a challenge to explore the practices of outdoor education to foreground the complexity and contradictions inherent in student’s experience and learning.  It challenges us to take students words seriously.

Turbulent times: Outdoor education in Great Britain 1993-2003.
Peter Allison and John Telford
Outdoor education has a long and well-documented history in Great Britain, which is regularly linked to Hahn, Gordonstoun School and the Outward Bound movement.  A kayaking tragedy in 1993 resulted in the introduction of new legislation through Parliament.  This has led to major changes in outdoor education in Great Britain and extensive debates, which are only partially documented.  This paper outlines some of these changes and offers readers references that direct them to more detailed information.  In addition, some of the resulting trends and debates that have emerged in the aftermath of the tragedy are provided.  The paper concludes by considering some implications for outdoor eduction as a profession before striving to become one.  Finally, some suggestions are made as to why these reflections on ‘turbulent times’ might be relevant to the field of outdoor education in Australia and other countries.

How are student approaches to learning navigation correlated with their assessment outcomes?
Marc P Bellette
First year higher education students’ approaches to learning navigation were assessed.  The research used a structured questionnaire to assess deep, surface, and strategic approaches to learning.  Principal Components Analysis (PCA) if 13 subscales revealed that students learning navigation employed two main approaches, a deep-strategic approach and a surface approach.  Use of multidimensional Scaling (MDS) of individual responses to questionnaire items in association with the exam results and sub-scales was able to further define student-approaches for successful examination outcomes.  It was shown that student with a fear of failure and using unrelated memorising were more likely to do well in the theoretical examination, while dong well in the practical examination was associated with sub-scales of the deep and strategic approaches.  The findings demonstrate that student learning approaches in a practical pursuit like navigation are similar to more traditional academic disciplines.  Doubt is cast over the value of theoretical examination for navigation as it was both unrelated with the practical need of testing a student’s ability to navigate, and promoted gear and rote-learning behaviours in student approaches.

Cultural adaptation in outdoor programming.
Sheila M Fabrizio and James T Neill
Outdoor programs often intentionally provide a different culture and the challenge of working out how to adapt.  Failure to adapt, however, can cause symptoms of culture shock, including homesickness, negative personal behaviour, and interpersonal conflict.  This article links cross-cultural and outdoor programming literature and provides case examples in order to illustrate the importance of facilitating outdoor participants’ cultural adaptation.  Based on cross-cultural literature, successful adaptation is more likely to occur when there is adequate preparation for the new environment, understanding of the new cultural norms, and an appreciation of typical stages of cultural adaptation (i.e. honeymoon, crisis, adjustment, and resolution).  These individual stages of cultural adaptation are interwoven with the typical stages of group development.  By proactively using models of cross-cultural adaptation and group development, outdoor programs can better facilitate participants’ cultural adjustments.

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