Adventure Education

One day during my junior year of college, I was sitting in a 400-level education class when the professor commented on how someday the “adventure educators” in her class would get their meadows and start teaching. It was one of those moments where everyone in the class, including the traditional education majors, started making eye contact and trying to hold in their laughter. It was clear to us that she was under the impression that we were just like school teachers, except our classroom is just outside. It was no fault of hers; she just didn’t understand what adventure education is. In my experience, the majority of people struggle to comprehend what exactly my degree means. Everywhere I go people ask me what I studied and then they respond in one of two ways: “That sounds fun. What do you do with that?” or “What’s that?” According to Martin, Breunig, Wagstaff, and Goldenberg in their book Outdoor Leadership: Theory and Practice, adventure education is “A branch of outdoor education concerned with facilitating both intrapersonal and interpersonal development among program participants” (Martin et al., 2017). This means that we help people grow as individuals and as groups. This definition was one that I committed to memory to aid in my inevitable explanation of my major. To really understand it, however, you have to dive a little deeper into this unique field.

When I first packed up to move to Pennsylvania, I didn’t really understand what I was going to study. I was a bright-eyed freshman excited to go canoeing or camping or something else like that, but I hadn’t given much thought to what I would actually be learning. Soon after starting school, I was introduced to adventure education theory and the history of the field in my Foundations of Adventure Education class. This was probably the best class that I took for understanding adventure education. We studied people like John Dewey of Dewey decimal system fame. He is known as “The father of experiential education” (Prouty et al., 2007). Adventure education is inherently experiential, so our history is laced with experiential education theory. We also studied Kurt Hahn who founded Outward Bound, and Paul Petzoldt who founded the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and the Wilderness Education Association (WEA), along with many other people who contributed to my field. I was also introduced to education theories that are foundational to adventure education. In addition, I learned about related fields such as experiential and outdoor education. While these approaches to education are all different, principles from each are often used to supplement adventure education. According to the Association for Experiential Education website: “Experiential education is a teaching philosophy that informs many methodologies in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people's capacity to contribute to their communities” (Miano). In short, in Experiential Education you experience something, then you reflect on it. This approach is one that I often use with the groups that I lead. Outdoor education, on the other hand, uses the same guidelines that are used in adventure education, but its focus is environmental instead of helping individuals and groups of people grow (Prouty et al., 2007). When engaging with an adventure experience, it is natural to work in environmental education on a small scale. I frequently teach people to care for the spaces that we use so that our impact on it will be lessened.

To supplement my knowledge of adventure education theory, I took classes on traditional education theory and instruction. I had to learn how people learn and how to assess their progress as they engage with any given material. Across disciplines, the pedagogy changes and the material varies, but the underlying objective remains constant -- to help people learn and grow. It’s important to have an understanding of stages of cognitive development as well as a difference in learning styles so that I can better meet the needs of my participants as they learn and grow.

I also took science classes. It’s important that an adventure educator knows a bit about the world around them. I studied field biology to gain an understanding of the wildlife and the plant life around me. When participating in adventure activities, people often wonder about the things that they see, so I need to be able to explain it. I also took classes such as human biology and principles of exercise science. Because I work with people who are engaging with adventure sports, I have to have an understanding of how the human body works so that I can best care for my participants. These classes supplement the wilderness first responder (WFR) course that I took. Being a WFR means that I have received medical training to care for people when we are in the back country. The WFR course covers everything from reestablishing circulation to a broken limb to emergency child birth. When I took that class, I was struck with the responsibility that comes with being a medical care provider. The difference between being a front-country first responder and a WFR is that when I am providing care it means that I am having to improvise because I don’t have advanced care equipment. It’s amazing what you can do with some duct tape, a sleeping pad, and a stick.

Leadership and group dynamics theory is another key piece to adventure education. Understanding what makes someone influential and how to teach someone the tools they need to influence others is a lot of what adventure education is used for. It’s also extremely helpful to understand why a group is behaving the way it is. I am able to design experiences to meet the needs of a group because I have an understanding of how groups typically act. In addition to studying leadership and group theory, I learned to run the administrative side of programs both through my major specific classes and through classes in other departments. I took one class in which I had an opportunity to design a sports program. I created a paddle sports park. It was a great look into the world of program development. I also got to develop plans for two nature areas. Both of these projects helped me to develop administrative skills and taught me to think through the details that go into launching new things.

On top of all of the theory and teaching/leadership skills that I studied, I spent hundreds of hours working toward mastering technical adventure skills. For me, this meant pursuing certifications as a rock-climbing instructor and a solo and tandem canoeing instructor. In addition to these formal certifications, I learned to facilitate caving, as well as both high and low ropes experiences, and I learned to guide a raft and to kayak. I also went through extensive backpacking instructor training. Because adventure education inherently deals with adventure experiences, I must be proficient in my knowledge of and my ability to engage in adventure activities. It seems like this would be the easy part of adventure education but it takes a lot of work to keep these skills sharp. Adventure activities must be second nature for me because I need to be able to teach and care for participants who are often doing these things for the very first time, while I am also participating in the activity. While the adventure part of my field is fun, it’s also a lot of work. I am often cold and tired when I am on a trip. I need to be able to care for myself while also ensuring that my participants’ needs are met.

To be an effective adventure educator you must be able to balance both technical and the interpersonal skills as well as have an understanding of a variety of theories and fields so that you can provide the best possible experience for your participants. There is a lack of understanding about what adventure education is. People assume that we go rock climbing or kayaking and have fun all of the time. We do have a lot of fun but we also have to work hard. Adventure education is still a young field, but I hope that it continues to grow and become more established. Good things happen through adventure education, and my life is a testament to this. Much of my college growth happened as a direct result of adventure experiences. That growth is the inspiration for most of my blog posts. I am so thankful that I get to be a part of such an influential field.

Works Cited:

Martin, B., Breunig, M., Wagstaff, M., & Goldenberg, M. (2017). Outdoor leadership: theory and practice. Human Kinetics.

Miano, A. (n.d.). What is Experiential education . Association for Experiential Education. https://www.aee.org/what-is-ee.

Prouty, D., Panicucci, J., & Collinson, R. (Eds.). (2007). Adventure education: theory and applications. Human Kinetics.