Linda Allin

Exploring careership in outdoor education and the lives of women outdoor educators

The last decade has seen significant interest in research associated with outdoor education and outdoor learning in the UK. However, there has been little research into the perspectives of those staff, particularly women, who make available outdoor experiences to various groups in different situations and locations. The importance of understanding the lives of educators for understanding their professional development has been much discussed in relation to the physical education profession. This article considers how the notion of careership and the use of life-history research, through illuminating how outdoor educators make their career decisions in relation to their own socio-cultural and structural contexts, can provide an insight into professional development of outdoor educators and the gendered nature of outdoor education careers.

Mid-life nuances and negotiations: narrative maps and the social construction of mid-life in sport and physical activity

This paper adopts a narrative perspective on the study of mid-life experiences in sport. Different types of stories about sporting mid-life are identified and discussed. Drawing upon the concept of narrative mapping, the potential of these stories to serve as narrative maps for those approaching mid-life is considered. Data from an interview study with 26 participants aged between 35 and 55 years of age, from badminton, distance running, outdoor activities and health clubs is provided. Paradigmatic and structural analyses were conducted on the data in order to identify story types and predominant narrative themes. The findings revealed a master narrative for mid-life in sport, which is that ‘age is a state of mind’. In addition two further narratives were apparent. One, ‘life begins at forty’ was a counter-narrative, which depicted mid-life as a time of rejuvenation and an opportunity to revisit the experiences of youth. The other was an antithesis narrative, which focused upon acceptance of the ageing process and the notion of ‘growing old gracefully’. Sportsmen and women linked their own stories to these idealised narrative types, but via a process of narrative slippage, created their own personal narratives of sporting mid-life. Analysis of these personal narratives indicated that there are three different maps for an individual negotiating sporting mid-life.

Outdoor play and learning in early childhood from different cultural perspectives

This themed edition of the Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning focuses on outdoor play and learning in early childhood through a lens of cultural differences and similarities. Five articles are included in this special issue and are preceded by a discussion of the contemporary challenges in this area of research. During the last century, there has been an overwhelming change in the nature of children’s play in western countries (Brussoni, Olsen, Pike & Sleet, 2012). Play is an ambiguous concept concerning children’s “own” activity: a voluntary, intrinsically motivated experience where the activity itself is more important than the outcome (Bateson, 2005; Sutton-Smith, 1997). Play can include activities that are voluntarily engaged in, without adult intervention, characterized by fun, intense activity, spontaneity, freedom and self-initiative (Wiltz & Fein, 2006) but it can also encompass structured play with varying degrees of adult guidance.

An evaluation of the efficacy of the exercise on referral scheme in Northumberland, UK : association with physical activity and predictors of engagement. A naturalistic observation study.

Objectives Exercise on referral schemes (ERS) are widely commissioned in the UK but there is little evidence of their association with physical activity levels. We sought to assess the Northumberland exercise on referral scheme in terms of increased levels of physical activity and identify predictors of engagement. Design A naturalistic observational study. Setting 9 local authority leisure sites in Northumberland. Participants 2233 patients referred from primary and secondary care between July 2009 and September 2010. Intervention A 24-week programme including motivational consultations and supervised exercise sessions for participants. Outcome measures Uptake, 12-week adherence, 24-week completion, changes in Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire scores after 24-weeks and attendance levels at supervised exercise sessions during the scheme. Three binary logistic regressions were used to examine demographic and referral factors associated with initial uptake, 12-week adherence and 24-week completion. Results Uptake was 81% (n=1811), 12-week adherence was 53.5% (n=968) and 24-week completion was 42.9% (n=777). Participants who completed significantly increased their self-reported physical activity levels at 24-weeks t (638)=−11.55, p<0.001. Completers attended a mean of 22.87 (12.47 SD) of a target 48 supervised sessions. Increasing age, being female and leisure site were associated with uptake, increasing age, Index of Multiple Deprivation and leisure site were associated with 12-week adherence and Body Mass Index and leisure site were associated with 24-week completion. Each regression significantly increased the prediction accuracy of stage of exit (non-starters vs starters 81.5%, dropouts before 12 weeks vs 12-week adherers 66.9%, and dropouts between 13 and 24 weeks 82.2%). Conclusions Completers of the Northumberland ERS increased physical activity at 24 weeks, although the levels achieved were below the current UK guidelines of 150 min of moderate exercise per week. Leisure site was associated with uptake, adherence and completion.

Climbing Mount Everest: Women, career and family in outdoor education

For women outdoor educators, combining an outdoor career with family relationships appears contradictory. Long and/or irregular hours, residentials, and increasing work commitments are, for example, congruent with traditional notions of a career in the outdoors yet they clash with social constructions of women’s primary identities as partners, wives and/or mothers. In this paper, I explore how 21 women outdoor educators constructed connections and disconnections between career and family. In doing so, I uncover how they negotiated their career identities and show how contradictions between work and home were exacerbated due to the centrality of the body to their outdoor education careers.

Mother and child constructions of risk in outdoor play

Managing the risks to which children are exposed in contemporary Britain is complex, requiring parents to balance opportunities for a child’s development with an appropriate concern for the potential consequences. Managing risk is particularly an issue for mothers, who, despite societal changes, tend to retain overall responsibility for the care of children. This paper explores the meanings mothers attach to risk and how this influences their children’s outdoor play. It also extends the scope of much existing literature by including children’s own perspectives on risk in outdoor play. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 12 mothers who had children aged between 9 and 11 years old who attended a north-east school. Two focus groups were also held, each with six of the children. Findings are analysed in relation to mother and child constructions of risk; mothers and children as risk managers; and negotiating mothering choices. The paper pays particular attention to the way in which mothers’ decisions were framed within risk cultures and dominant views of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ mothering.

Call for papers for Special Issue on Adventure, to be published by the Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning

It may be argued that adventure has been a central feature of learning through the outdoors since the origins of outdoor education and movements such as Outward Bound. Indeed, Mortlock (1978) strongly emphasised the impact of outdoor adventure in learning when he advocated that it should have a core rather than a peripheral role in the British school curriculum. Adventure education has typically been associated with specific outdoor activities such as rock-climbing or kayaking; activities held to be ‘character-building’ due to the way in which participants are taken beyond their perceived ‘comfort zones’ and encouraged to face up to personal challenges. That is, the personal growth and development claimed as an outcome of adventure education is thought to arise through exposure to such risk, ideally in a planned and purposeful way. Much of the discourse surrounding the concept of ‘adventure’ in the sociological literature has also focused on the notion and centrality of ‘risk’ and ‘edgework’ (Lyng, 1990). This led to the rise of terminology such as ‘risky sports’, ‘extreme sports’ or ‘adventure sports’ (McNamee, 2007; Rinehart & Sydnor, 2003) to emphasise this element of risk, with a body of literature developing to understand why participants engage in such activities and what they may derive from their participation. Some sociologists identify these forms of physical activity as ‘life-style’ sport (Wheaton, 2004) or nature-based sport (Vanreusel, 1995; Humberstone, 1998). Thorpe and Rinehart (2010), engaging with Thrift’s (2008) non-representational theory, further draw attention to the possibility of environmental and social justice through the development of ‘kinaesthetic empathy’ and the affective afforded through active participation in nature. Over the last two decades some of the assumptions surrounding the concept of adventure and the settings in which adventure can take place have begun to be challenged or broadened, with the rise of ‘adventure tourism’, ‘urban adventure’ and ‘artificial adventure’ environments. Loynes (1998) reflected upon how much of the risk in outdoor adventure education has become no longer ‘real risk’ but perceptions of risk bundled into a commercialised ‘buzz’ that has considerable distance from the original values and community associated with adventure education. With the current hegemony of neoliberalism and consumption one might ask – are the traditional values, which were arguably embedded in adventure education, still relevant? The significance of concepts Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 2015 Vol. 15, No. 1, 93–94, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14729679.2014.999497

Call for papers for themed edition of the Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning: outdoor play and learning in early childhood from different cultural perspectives

Call for papers for themed edition of the Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning : Outdoor play and learning in early childhood from different cultural perspectives

Women, Physicality and the Outdoors: A Story of Strength and Fragility in a Kayaking Identity

For many women, engaging in physically active pursuits in the outdoors can help them to gain a sense of empowerment and a positive sense of their own physical identity. But bodily self-confidence for women is often fragile and contradictory and can be disrupted by the events that take place over the life course. Risks or disruptions to the physical body such as injury also threaten the sense of self, particularly if there is high investment in the identity. This chapter examines relationships between body and identity through key turning points in one woman’s kayaking career. The chapter uses key life experiences to explore a sense of developing a physical identity, risk and healthy physicality, and disruption due to injury.

Exploring Social Integration of Sport Students during the Transition to University

This paper outlines findings from a study exploring student experiences of their transition and social integration during the first semester of a sport programme at a post 1992 University in the North of England. The study was implemented due to an issue with retention across the sport degree programmes and the knowledge that whilst a student’s decision to withdraw from university is multifaceted, it is influenced by factors relating to a lack of social integration, including homesickness and difficulties in making new friends (Thomas, 2002). A failure or lack of opportunity to socially integrate can also negatively impact the opening months of a student’s university experience (Mackie, 1998; Wilcox, Winn, & Fyvie-Gauld, 2005). Students were engaged as partners and co-creators with academic staff throughout the study: second year peer mentors undertook qualitative interviews with first year students, which focused on the students’ experiences of the transition to university, the importance of social integration, including barriers and facilitators and the role sport may play towards this process. Nine first year students were interviewed. Findings and best practice which may assist academic and support staff in maximising the overall university student experience are presented. Implications to aid effective university policy and practice to improve student retention, attainment and progression are discussed as well as identifying how sport can play a role as both a facilitator and barrier to developing sense of identity and belonging.