Daniel L. Dustin

Cross-Cultural Claims on Devils Tower National Monument: A Case Study

A dispute between American Indians and rock climbers over the appropriate use of Devils Tower National Monument in northeast Wyoming reflects fundamental differences in culture and world view. The United States Department of the Interior (USDI) National Park Services (NPS) attempt to resolve this dispute with a voluntary ban on climbing during the month of June in deference to American Indian cultural and religious practices, and subsequent court rulings upholding the NPS policy, illustrate a widening circle of respect for, and accommodation of, divergent interpretations of humankinds relationship with the natural world.

The neoliberal assault on the public university: the case of recreation, park, and leisure research.

Public universities face critical challenges in terms of teaching, researching, and providing service. Funding mechanisms for various departments, programs, and professors have become increasingly intertwined with market-driven forces in light of neoliberal political and economic philosophies. In this essay, we illuminate neoliberalism and its multiple influences in university recreation, parks, and leisure studies departments. In noting classical theories of leisure and the deleterious aspects of neoliberalism, we encourage researchers, teachers, administrators, and students to resist these prevalent cultural trends, evoking a normative role for universities in the provision of a liberal education.

The dance of the dispossessed: on patriarchy, feminism and the practice of leisure science.

This article questions the wisdom of the patriarchal worldview underlying the practice of much contemporary social science. First, the assumptions informing such a worldview are challenged; the sep...

Classroom and Experiential Education

Experiential education is a controversial topic on col lege and university campuses today. Proponents of this approach to learning argue that it provides a substan tive focus which is sorely lacking in the conventional class room. Opponents counter that while it may be rich in sub stance, it fails to provide a structure which can give the substance meaning. Such structure, they argue further, is at the heart of classroom learning. The purpose of this article is not to take issue with either of these positions, but to suggest that the strengths of classroom education can be combined with the strengths of experiential education to create an even more effective learning environment. To accomplish this, the steps in volved in classroom learning are contrasted with the steps involved in experiential learning; a realignment of those steps is proposed which capitalizes on their respective strengths; and, finally, a college course is described and evaluated which has been patterned after this new com bination of learning steps.

Engaging Youth in Lifelong Outdoor Adventure Activities through a Nontraditional Public School Physical Education Program.

Engaging youth in traditional physical education exercises or ball sports can be a challenging task, especially when they prefer novelty, entertainment, or excitement in their leisure-time activities. In addition, many youth are unaware of the opportunities that exist to exercise or recreate in nature, often preferring to spend time indoors connected to screens and virtual realities rather than in the real world outside. This article describes how one public school physical educator addressed this problem by creating an outdoor recreation program as his charter schools physical education curriculum. He engages youth in novel experiences they are intrinsically motivated to try, such as kayaking, bicycling, indoor climbing, and overnight camping. By participating in these activities, students learn not only lifelong leisure activities, but also about safety, risk, decision making, problem solving, leadership, and communication skills while participating in physically demanding activities.

The Experiencing Self and the Remembering Self: Implications for Leisure Science

ABSTRACT In this research reflection we question the way leisure experience is commonly understood and how leisure science is commonly conducted. Specifically, we focus on advances in multiple self-theory popularized by Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow, an in-depth examination of human thought processes. After establishing Kahnemans foundational perspective, we apply his thinking to leisure experience and leisure science by reviewing recent scholarship focused on the “experiencing” and “remembering” selves (2000). We conclude the reflection by discussing the implications of Kahnemans thinking for the use of self-reports by leisure scientists, as well as call for greater congruence between the selves we seek to research and our selected research methods.

Opportunity and Obligation: A Role for Outdoor Educators in the Sustainability Revolution

A primary educational challenge of the 21st century is to inspire students to become socially and ecologically conscientious citizens who are empowered, responsible members of the larger world. Outdoor educators and, in many ways, outdoor recreation as a broader field are well-suited to take the lead in this educational enterprise that requires transcending the dichotomy between people and nature to see ourselves in the Leopoldian tradition as plain members and citizens of a larger community of life. Drawing on the strengths of constructivism as a pedagogical approach, outdoor recreation as a pedagogical context, and the inherent compatibility of the big ideas of ecology and recreation, we assert that outdoor educators, specifically those involved with higher education at the curricular level, have both an opportunity and an obligation to be vanguards of the sustainability revolution.

“Baseball saved us”: Recreation as refuge in a world war ii Japanese American prison camp 1

Abstract This study evaluated the role of recreation in the lives of internees at Man‐zanar, a Japanese American World War II prison camp located in Californias Owens Valley. Specifically, the meaning of various art forms, organized sports and games, clubs and associations, and nature appreciation were interpreted in light of Yamato Damashii, Japanese character or spirit. The results of the study indicated that recreational pastimes were an important form of solace for internees, young and old alike. Implications for the way in which the story of Manzanar—recently designated a National Historic Site— might shed light on the significance of recreation in times of civil unrest conclude the article.

Lessons from the Legends: America’s Expanding Liberal Democratic Tradition

“Lessons from the Legends” is a series of 10 inspirational videos created for park and recreation classroom and staff training purposes. Each video depicts an important theme uncovered in a larger content analysis of a cross section of in depth interviews with park and recreation practitioners and educators selected as “Legends in Parks and Recreation” by the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration. We present each video’s script as an article with a link to its accompanying video that brings the story to life. Readers are invited to access the link and download the video for educational purposes as each article appears in “Legends and Legacies.” Subscribe to JPRA

Toward a More Phronetic Leisure Science

In this essay, we examine the assumptions underlying natural science, social science, and the humanities. More specifically, we suggest that social science in general and leisure science in particular be guided by a different set of assumptions than those guiding natural science and the humanities. Drawing on the Aristotelian idea of phronesis, we propose that value rationality more so than instrumental rationality guide social scientific inquiry, and that social science in general, and leisure science in particular, be viewed as a bridge between natural science and the humanities.