Girls and outdoor education

This study set out to investigate the experiences of girls' in school outdoor education programmes. One hundred and sixty-eight fourth form girls from four Dunedin schools (two co-ed and two single-sex) responded to a pre-post questionnaire surveying their self-esteem, attitudes to outdoor education and demographic backgrounds. Participant observations and twenty interviews were also undertaken . Results from the quantitative data gathered constitute a general vote of confidence in outdoor education for girls. Qualitative analysis revealed that in general girls enjoyed their outdoor education camps, but there were some aspects of outdoor education that could be improved. Lack of self-confidence, scarcity of appropriate role models, poor body image and lack of planning for the menstrual needs of girls are some of the barriers that have been identified t~ girls' participation in outdoor activities. Recommendations are given for improving school outdoor education programmes for girls

Sustainability Comes to Life. Nature-Based Adventure Tourism in Norway

This paper investigates how tourists and guides perform sustainability during adventure tourism trips in natural environments. The paper draws on empirical data from an ethnographic study of five different multi-day trips in Norway, each of which used skiing, hiking, or biking as the mode of travel. In our analysis, we focus on how the different actors understood, operationalized and practiced elements of sustainability in their everyday lives while on the trips. The paper applies a micro-sociological perspective to the nature-based adventure tourism scene where the interplay between tourists, guides, adventure activities and nature is understood as multiple dialectic performances co-produced by the different actors. Goffman's dramaturgical metaphors, and concepts of frames, appearance, and manner saturate recent research on tourism and nature guiding. This paper builds on the “performance turn” as a theoretical point of departure for understanding sustainability in nature-based adventure tourism experiences. In participant observations and post-trip interviews with Norwegian and international tourists and their guides, we found that sustainability performances were not a major aspect of the trips. We did find some performances of mainly “light” sustainability and, among them, elements of ambivalence and ambiguity. Our data indicate that some guides tread a fine line between enhancing and deepening tourists' experiences of nature and sustainability or negatively impacting the perceived enjoyment imperative of the trip. International tourists expressed deeper sustainability overall. We reflect on the relative explanatory strengths of Goffman's “frames” and interaction order, and Persson's “framing,” for understanding the interplay between guide and tourist sustainability performances and conclude with pointers for teasing out the complexities we identify

Outdoor Education in Aotearoa/New Zealand : an annotated bibliography

Interest in outdoor education has grown significantly over recent decades, and with this interest has come a growth in literature about outdoor education in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Much of this literature was collated in 1989 (Bailey, 1989). The present bibliography updates the 1989 effort with the added dimension of annotations in the form of an abstract for each publication listed. The publications listed include empirical research reports as well as literature that has a descriptive, conceptual or policy focus. This bibliography is targeted principally toward those undertaking academic studies related to outdoor education. For this reason, material dealing solely with venues, equipment and activity ideas for outdoor education (e.g. guide books, activity manuals and technical books) has been excluded. Additionally, the latter publications are numerous and relatively easily accessible. This bibliography is a collation of material less readily available, but nonetheless valuable. The authors have noted the quality and quantity of information on outdoor education emanating from conferences. To increase awareness of this comprehensive source of information and to make it more readily available, individual conference papers as well as complete conference proceedings have been referenced

Learning leadership: becoming an outdoor leader

Recent leadership research has demonstrated a need for better understanding the process of becoming a leader because it might be qualitatively different to being a leader. If so, there is likely to be a need for pedagogies designed deliberately to support first-time outdoor leadership experiences and any such pedagogies must be informed by the needs of first-time leaders. Becoming a leader in outdoor educational settings involves moving from the relative equality of being one participant among several in a group to a position of some influence in the group. This paper draws on empirical data from in-depth semi-structured interviews with adult outdoor education (friluftsliv) students in Norway to explore factors influencing initial leadership experiences in a formal educational setting. We found that becoming an outdoor leader involves transformations that can be complicated by the educational setting. We discuss implications for pedagogical approaches to outdoor leadership development in formal education settings

Dataset for 'Understanding the Mechanochemical Synthesis of Manganite Perovskites and their Catalytic Behaviour'

This dataset supports University of Southampton PhD thesis &#39;Understanding the Mechanochemical Synthesis of Manganite Perovskites and their Catalytic Behaviour&#39;</span

Adventure cultures: An international comparison

In previous work, Lynch and Moore theorised that the current popularity of adventure in recreation and education contexts is deeply paradoxical at social, economic and technological levels. Extending this thesis, we investigated the extent to which ‘adventure culture’ can be considered quantitatively and qualitatively specific to particular national cultures. Content analysis of popular print media in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom found significant differences between countries in the amount of adventure-related material, distinctive outdoor recreation ‘signatures’ for each country as well as broad similarities in three themes. Further research is needed to explore relationships between adventure in outdoor recreation and in the societies generally. We discuss the potential implications of different ‘adventure cultures’ for understandings of outdoor recreation and outdoor education