Outdoor education and bush adventure therapy: A socio-ecological approach to health and wellbeing.
Anita Pryor, Cathryn Carpenter, Mardie Townsend
Together, outdoor education and bush adventure therapy can be seen to consitute a population-wide health intervention strategy.  Whether in educational or therapeutic settings, the intentional use of contact with nature, small groups, and adventure provides a unique approach in the promotion of health and wellbeing for the general population, and for individuals with identified health vulnerabilities.  This paper explicitly emphasises human and social health, however, an integral assumption is that a healthy and sustainable environment is dependent on healthy human relationships with nature.  We invite outdoor educators and bush adventure therapy practitioners to examine the proposition that healthy interactions with nature can create a unique stream of socio-ecological interventions.  A spectrum of outdoor adventure programs is provided, allowing outdoor educators and bush adventure therapy practitioners to locate their work according to program context and aims, and participant aims and needs.

Expeditions and the social construction of the self.
Simon Beames
This paper explores how 14 British youth were influenced by a 10-week expedition to Ghana with Raleigh International.  It employs a theoretical framework based on the symbolic interactionist writing Blumer (1969), Mead (1934), and Cooley (1962, 1964).  The framework helps to understand how the meanings that participants held for different physical objects, people, and abstract concepts were constantly being modified through a process of interaction and interpretation.  The findings of this case study show that participants developed a certain mental resilience, became more willing to undertake challenges, and gained a greater understanding of themselves.  Interpersonally, young people developed an increased facility for working and living with people they not know before.  Finally, participants gained a greater appreciation of the modern conveniences they were accustomed to and learned about the economic and demoncratic differences between the UK and Ghana.  Symbolic interactionism was a viable framework for this study, and would appear to be similarly useful for examining how participants in other kinds of outdoor education programs may construct meaning and identity.

Examining art and technology: determining why craft-making is fundamental to outdoor education.
Zabe MacEachren , Queen’s University, Ontario Canada
This paper discusses issues concerning the understanding of the world that pedagogical practices of visual art and technology raise.  The intent is to challenge interpretations that experiences of visual art and mediated technology can promote a sense of inseparability between concepts of human and more-than-human awareness.  The praxis of environmental education encourages an understanding of oneself as nature instead of separate, apart, in control, and therefore able to exploit materials of the land.  The praxis of outdoor education emphasises that knowing becomes embodied through action.  I argue that neither the practices of visual artists nor the unquestioned use of technology in the field of outdoor education promotes a sense of oneness with land.  This paper begins by discussing one of Ghandi’s strategies for social reform, and then relates Morrris Berman’s ideas on creativity to the product and processes associated with visual art and technology education.  The conclusion draws upon ways craft-making can encourage environmental well-being through the inseparability of the mind/body, aesthetic/function perception of the world.

Traditional adventure activities in outdoor environmental education.
Glynn Thomas, La Trobe University, Bendigo
Recently, the place of adventure activities in outdoor education has become contentious, particularly in Australia and the United Kingdom.  It can be challenging for outdoor leaders to incorporate adventure activities with attempts to foster environmental awareness, understanding and action.  Recently, some authors have suggested practitioners eliminate the findings of an ongoing action research project exploring ways to resolve the tension between using adventure activities and helping participants to learn about particular regions, communities, and their histories.  The research described in this paper utilised thematic analysis of data collected through a professional journal, focus groups, and student writing.  The emerging themes included: the need to capitalise on teachable moments; the importance of managing the technical nature of adventure activities; the importance of deliberate planning and facilitation; and the need for careful consideration of the impact of program length or duration.

Community-based outdoor education using a local conservation approach.
Kazushi Maeda  Hokkaido University of Education, Asahikawa, Japan
Local people of a community interact with nature in a way that is mediated by their local cultures and shape their own environment. We need a local approach to conservation for the local environment adding to the political or technological approaches for global environmental problems such as the destruction of the ozone layer or global warming.  The local approach to conservation is based on the paradigm of ‘life-environmentalism” found in the discussion of Japanese environmental sociology.  Life-environmentalism focuses on the lives of local residents to analyse regional environmental problems and pay attention to their local cultures.  In this paper, I will examine whether Japanese outdoor education can contribute to the local approach of conservation and I will present a test case of community-based outdoor education based on life-environmentalism.

Outward Bound Australia: Refleacting on integrating vocational education into the workplace.
Dr Tracey Dickson, University of Canberra & Zoe Herbert, Inner Compass
Since 1991, Outward Bound Australia has been delivering a nationally recognised training program developed under the umbrella of a restructured Vocational Education and Training Sector in Australia.  As both trainer and employer, Outward Bound Australia provides a well-integrated package of on and of-the-job experience that supports the achievement of graduates from a 12-month internship program.  This paper reflects upon the motivations for change in the industry and the experience of integrating vocational education in the workplace.

Back to list of AJOE Articles