More than activities: using a ‘sense of place’ to enrich student experience in adventure sport

Abstract

There has been increasing interest in recent years in the significance of a sense of place in the literature of outdoor adventure education. In the UK relationships between outdoor education and the environment still appear largely focused on the science of the natural environment and the activity in question. In this paper, we present empirical evidence from an action research project to demonstrate how a combination of formal and informal pedagogy in a higher education context can lead to a sociocultural and historical understanding of place and enrich the learning experience of students when teaching the classical outdoor adventurous activity of sailing. The sport of dinghy sailing is a module within a Bachelor's undergraduate degree in outdoor education and was taught from a small fishing town in Devon, England. We adopted an integrated and experiential critical pedagogy of place that allowed theory and practice, thought and action to be a holistic experience, and this approach provided opportunities for informal, as well as formal learning. This action research project explored the impact on the student experience when sailing skills were developed along with a sense of place. It used methods including: photo-elicitation, focus group interviews and evidence from the analysis of written student assignments. Our findings show that students discover a significance of the meaningful relationship between the sociocultural history of where that activity takes place and the activity itself and that as a result their experience of the learning and research process was enriched.

Keywords:

• Outdoor adventure education
• Sailing
• Critical pedagogy place
• Student experience

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge: the students who participated in the research and engaged so fully in the sailing and place experiences of this module; the reviewers for their constructive comments; our international colleagues at the European Institute for Outdoor Adventure Education and Experiential Learning seminar in Sweden 2013, where we first presented our research and whose positive encouragement led us to submit this article.

Notes

1. There are too many to list and enjoy here—try Jolly (2000) or Robinson (2008).

2. Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral of the Royal Navy was an English sea captain, privateer, slaver and politician of the Elizabethan era. Drake carried out the second recorded circumnavigation of the world, and in 1580 the Golden Hind sailed into Plymouth with Drake and 59 remaining crew aboard, along with a rich cargo of spices and captured Spanish treasures. The Queen's half-share of the cargo surpassed the rest of the crown's income for that entire year. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588.

3. Tall ships—A tall ship is not a strictly defined type of sailing vessel. The term is widely used to mean a large traditionally rigged sailing vessel; traditional-rigged vessels are defined as those vessels whose sail-plan has a predominance of gaff sails and a number of masts constructed in sections.

4. No mention was made of orphaned daughters!

5. Consent has been given for all images that are presented within this paper.