Lifelong outdoor enthusiasts’ engagement with nature-based activities later in life

ABSTRACT

This study examines the perspectives and experiences of older lifelong participants in outdoor education/recreation. 32 participants, women (11) and men (21), aged 60-84 provided narratives of their lifelong engagements in the outdoors in nature-based activities. They were invited to write freely on their early experiences and their current engagements in the outdoors. The purpose was to explore and understand why and how serious lifelong older participants continued with their outdoor activities. This paper considers participants’ current embodied engagements. The evidence suggests that as they age, their bodies become less able to deal with discomfort. Yet, the participants, as a consequence of their lifelong knowledge and experience, manage injuries and ill-health, choosing to adapt in various ways to enable their continued engagement/enjoyment in being active in nature. The study stresses the significance of lifelong engagement in the outdoors and the necessity for opportunities for outdoor nature -based experiences throughout the lifespan.

KEYWORDS:

• Outdoor studies
• outdoor adventurous activities
• lifelong learning
• nature-based physical practices
• ageing
• injury/health
• ‘baby boomer’ researchers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. We identify nature -based activities as activities taking place outside and include walking, camping, kayaking, climbing and so forth. These embodied activities take place in a context in which participants engage in various and perhaps creative ways with the natural environment.

2. We take subjectivity(ies) to refer to ‘bodies of feeling’ (Bricknell, 1999). This takes account of a more complex, entangled, embodied and sentient reading of ‘identity(ies).

3. We take the concept of ageing and life course as understanding the interplay between development of human lives and changing social structures across the active span of life (Gilleard & Higgs, 2016).

4. Third age or early old age may be taken as period of life when paid labour may take a back seat and leisure is more prominent (Boyes, 2010; Gilleard & Higgs, 2008; Humberstone, 2010).

5. see also Humberstone, Collins, and Cooper (2021) in British Educational Research Association Blog ‘Well Being and Being in the Outdoors’.

6. It is generally encouraged that all who venture out in the wild outdoors let someone know where they plan to go and what time they expect to return.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Barbara Humberstone

Barbara Humberstone is professor emerita (sociology of sport and outdoor education), Bucks New University and visiting professor at Plymouth Marjon University. Her research interests include: embodiment, alternative/nature-based physical activities and continuing learning; wellbeing and outdoor pedagogies; and ageing and green/blue spaces. She is interested in the connections between nature-based sport and outdoor learning in the contexts of social and environmental awareness/justice. She has been a board member of a number of international outdoor organisations and (co-)edited a number of book and articles.

Geoff Cooper

Geoff Cooper worked as a teacher, teacher trainer and for the Peak National Park before developing Wigan Council’s two residential outdoor education centres in the English Lake District. He is author of Outdoors with Young People: A Leader’s Guide to Outdoor Activities, the Environment and Sustainability (1998), and co-author of In Touch: Environmental Education for Europe (1992). His current interests are in the links and shared values between outdoor, environmental and global education. He is a board member of the European Outdoor Educators network, and a fellow of the Institute for Outdoor Learning.

Di Collins

Di Collins taught in a primary school, became a youthwork coordinator, then a freelance facilitator and consultant working with organisations ranging from Play England to the National Health Service and Community, Youthwork and Play Services. She has lectured on outdoor education, youthwork and community development degree services. She was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel to Australia to explore making connections with nature and the outdoors. Her research interests are related to aspects of place and the promotion of access to nature and the outdoors. She is a Duke of Edinburgh Award assessor. She now enjoys exploring landscapes creatively.