Road trip field course

ABSTRACT

Field study and field courses are integral to the discipline of geography. While there are many forms that a field course might take, in this paper we draw on two university-level field courses in the U.S. Southwest to propose a road trip pedagogy for field study. We reflect on the particular resonance of the road trip in the American West and how Western road trip mythology, combined with our own road trip experiences, helped shape the design of two road trip field courses. The educational value of both planned and un-planned encounters is a key strength of a road trip field course. We conclude by briefly reflecting on two future considerations for road trip pedagogy: possibilities for aligning anti-racist pedagogy with road trip pedagogy and the potential transferability of our American West road trip to other locations.

KEYWORDS:

• Road trip pedagogy
• American West
• geography field courses
• geography field study
• fieldwork

Acknowledgement

Thanks to NMSU and UA for their support of these road trip field courses. Special thanks to Wendy Burk for collaboration and insights on the UA field course, and to Carol Campbell for supporting the NMSU field course. We also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and productive comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The combined student cohort for the two courses included slightly more female identified students than male identified students, a number of “non-traditional” students including at least one veteran and one student who had returned to school after raising a family, and an international student. While we did not formally collect demographic information from our students, ethnicity in the group generally matched that of UA and NMSU at large, with a majority of Hispanic students (NMSU and UA are both federally recognized as Hispanic Serving Institutions).

2. While many other disciplines incorporate fieldwork as a key pedagogical approach (Munge et al., 2018), here we primarily focus on fieldwork and field courses within geography.

3. At UA, Magrane applied for and received a Green Fund Mini Grant of $1500 to supplement the road trip expenses. At NMSU, the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies covered the primary costs of the van, gas, and campsites. We were clear about potential costs to students from the outset. For instance, the NMSU syllabus included the following description: “There will be some additional travel expenses you are responsible for – primarily food and entry fees – estimated at $200–$400 (the range is partly depending upon how economical you are with your food choices along the way). We’ll do everything we can to keep this as affordable as possible.”.

4. Individual U.S. public lands and national parks each have their own fee waiver programs for educational groups. The process generally involves filling out and submitting a simple form; readers interested in applying for fee waivers at specific parks can find the forms either on a park’s website or by calling the park.

5. Student quotes in the final two sections of this article are from self-reflections or course evaluations that students completed at the conclusion of the course.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the University of Arizona Green Fund .