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Skills and thrills in outdoor environmental education: A contradiction or beautiful tension?
Conference paper   Peer reviewed

Skills and thrills in outdoor environmental education: A contradiction or beautiful tension?

Glyn J Thomas
Proceedings of the 2004 International Outdoor Education Research Conference, pp.1-12
International Outdoor Education Research Conference: Connections and disconnections: Examining the reality and rhetoric, 2004 (Bendigo, Australia, 06-Jul-2004–09-Jul-2004)
La Trobe University
2004
url
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/education/downloads/2004_conference_thomas.pdfView
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Abstract

Curriculum and Pedagogy Other Education Social Work environmental education educational research outdoor education recreation higher education secondary education
There has been some interesting discussion and research published in the outdoor education literature about the place of adventurous activities in outdoor education. It can be challenging for outdoor leaders to incorporate adventurous and challenging activities with attempts to foster environmental awareness, understanding and action. This "mission tension," a term coined by Johnson (1999), requires a response from the reflective practitioner: eliminate the tension by dropping either the environmental foci or the adventurous activity, or find a workable solution which resolves the tension in some way. This paper presents the findings of an ongoing action research project which reports on how my colleagues and I, and our student leaders, have attempted to resolve the tension between adventurous activities and environmental learning and turn a source of potential disconnection with the environment into a meaningful connection for learners.

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