Socio-cultural constructions of outdoor and adventure education in India: Indian women practitioners’ perspectives on disrupting hegemony

Vinathe Sharma-Brymer; Soumya Mitra; Denise Mitten

doi:10.1080/14729679.2025.2549857

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Socio-cultural constructions of outdoor and adventure education in India: Indian women practitioners’ perspectives on disrupting hegemony

Journal article

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Socio-cultural constructions of outdoor and adventure education in India: Indian women practitioners’ perspectives on disrupting hegemony

Vinathe Sharma-Brymer, Soumya Mitra and Denise Mitten

Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning , Vol.26(2), pp.240-258

2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14729679.2025.2549857

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Abstract

Gender studies

Environmental sociology

Social work

Social class and inequalities

Social ethics

Indian women practitioners

Outdoor and adventure education

Male-centric hegemony

India

women practitioners

transformative leadership

This paper reports a study of Indian women practitioners’ contributions to the growth of outdoor and adventure education (OAE) in India. The OAE fields in India have grown rapidly along with the 21st century globalisation phenomenon. Indian men OAE practitioners are mostly credited with contributions and leadership in the fields, overlooking women’s roles, participation, and contributions. This marks the need for examining diverse socio-cultural constructions of OAE fields in India. In the specific context of gender and OAE, the authors examine if hegemonic masculinity is maintained in the Indian outdoor industry and if so, how do women practitioners challenge it. The analysis of semi-structured interviews with six women practitioners reveals their effective participation, contributions, and leadership in progressing OAE fields in India despite barriers and challenges from male-centric approaches. The findings highlight women practitioners’ transformative agency and leadership role in disrupting hegemony in OAE fields in India.

Details

Title: Socio-cultural constructions of outdoor and adventure education in India: Indian women practitioners’ perspectives on disrupting hegemony
Authors: Vinathe Sharma-Brymer (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Law and Society
Soumya Mitra - University of Utah
Denise Mitten - Prescott College
Publication details: Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning , Vol.26(2), pp.240-258
Publisher: Routledge
Date published: 2026
DOI: 10.1080/14729679.2025.2549857
ISSN: 1754-0402
Copyright note: © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Organisation Unit: Healthy Ageing Research Cluster; Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; School of Law and Society
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991154640102621
Output Type: Journal article

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