Cultural interchange in adventure education: exploring the interaction of participants and institutional cultures

ABSTRACT

This study explores the interaction of participants and institutional cultures in adventure education (AE) through the qualitative method of educational criticism and connoisseurship. Three AE programmes were included in this study: a backpacking expedition (11 participants), a challenge course (29 participants), and a multi-activity adventure programme (21 participants). Through 183 hours of observation and 74 interviews, the thematic categories of cultural rigidity and cultural flexibility were identified. The AE institution exhibits cultural rigidity through guideline enforcement, jargon propagation, and value instillment, which results in participant adaptation. Conversely, the AE institution exhibits cultural flexibility through language accommodation, norm development, and goal setting, which results in participants’ ability to sustain selfhood. The implications of these findings include reaffirming the importance of attending to participant experiences in AE and the contention that striking a cultural balance in AE can promote productive cultural interchange as an aim of AE.

KEYWORDS:

• Culture
• background
• identity
• institutional culture
• educational criticism and connoisseurship
• cultural responsiveness

Acknowledgments

I wish to acknowledge and thank Dr. Bruce Uhrmacher, the participants of this study, and the anonymous reviewers of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Benjamin C. Ingman

Benjamin C. Ingman is Research Assistant Professor and Director of Research & Evaluation in the Center for Rural School Health & Education at the Morgridge College of Education, University of Denver, 1999 E. Evans Ave., Denver, CO 80210, USA; email: [email protected]. His research interests include adventure education, school health, community-engaged research, educational experience, and curriculum studies.