Issues in Adventure Education: Gender Disparity

In our American culture, we typically associate adventure, risk, and danger with men and masculinity. The foundation of that association is sexism - whether intentional or not. As educators, we must pay close attention to our words, our actions, and how those effect the learning and experiences of all of our participants, regardless of gender.

The fact of the matter is that gender is not the defining factor in many of the issues that we make it out to be. Strength, intelligence, emotional capacity, group interaction, teamwork, and approach to learning are all things which cannot be reasonably separated by gender. It should be understood, then, that making your activities more "girly" or "emotional" is not an effective or appropriate response to having women in your classroom. Paying close attention to the culture within your class is important to ensure that no student feels restricted or limited. Unfortunately, that is often the case, as research has shown us that women-only groups often feel more comfortable talking about issues together. It would be foolish to assume that this is because women are "naturally cliquey" or "better at talking about feelings." Instead, we should be looking at the reason women may feel less comfortable in a typical classroom.

Wilderdom (as usual) has an excellent page on gender issues: http://wilderdom.com/Gender.htm

Issues in Adventure Education: The Economic Power of Outdoor Recreation

The Economic Power of Outdoor Recreation | The White House
Although the above article is not a philosophy/theory specific article, I do wonder what issues occur in the adventure education field when people are creating a emphasis on economic growth in the field. The PR/Press is great, yet we should ask, where are the jobs? While there may be plenty of people who will be willing to take you fishing or backpacking, one must wonder where the long term sustainability for these jobs will come from, besides the fact that many of them pay little over $20,000 a year, if that much. One phrase I’ve kept with me throughout my journey through this field is “There will always be a younger stronger guy willing to carry a heavier pack.” Now what does this say about all these jobs or all these candidates? The creation of adventure education programs in four year institutions is a fairly new development, and in some ways it still seems to be finding its place. Now don’t get me wrong, in comparison to other degrees if feel I have an extensive understanding of my field through these programs. With that being said with many programs you have to wonder if these programs are flooding the field. There are only a handful of positions making more than $60,000 per year in the entire United States. For instance, I believe its fair to say that 90% of those people have at least a master’s degree. To see this in action, attend the AORE conference, which includes most of the best paid college and skills-based adventure program directors - there are only a few hundred of them! So if you are not going to get one of those handful of jobs, is this a career worth going to college for?While there are plenty of other personal reasons to go to college, I guess the final point I want to touch on is that the advertising of this career field is over flooding an already over flooded market limiting the futures of those with desires to pursue such a lifestyle.

What do you think? Is it worth it? Are there enough jobs to go around? Would your time be better spent by getting field work BEFORE getting a degree?

Aims of Adventure Education

At its heart, the aims of a given field are directed by its developers and users. Adventure education may have certain aims of its own - I'll leave that up to you to decide for yourself.

First, what is an aim?
An aim is a direction. Call it a "long-term goal" or a "final product." If I were a space exploration agency like NASA, my aim might be to explore and catalog the known universe. Obviously that is more than a goal or an objective, because it is grand in scope, and aspirational rather than specific. An aim of the liberal school of education might be to produce a well-rounded and broadly educated citizenry so that the world might benefit from all sorts of knowledge bases.

But that sounds an awful lot like an "objective."
Aims and objectives are different concepts. Back to my space agency idea - my objectives might include building a long-distance space craft, performing faster-than-light transportation, visiting Alpha Centauri, or developing a system to keep my astronauts in suspended animation. As you can see, my objectives are specific, but all fall in the direction of my aim (exploring and cataloging the universe). Some objectives of Fort Lewis College's Adventure Education program might include creating students who are competent in the outdoors, forming close relationships with local business and guiding companies, or gaining enough community support to continue operations.

So, I believe that the aim of adventure education is to promote the value of education by retaining risk, so that globally-minded citizens can change the world for the better without being frozen by fear. Other aims of adventure education might include safely bringing people into their stretch zones and back again, developing educators who are capable of generating foundational change in their students, or using semi-controlled risky activities to forward the social development of humanity.

The most important thing to remember here is what do you think?
No philosopher has a monopoly on aims and objectives. Adventure education has its principles in many philosophies and theories, but that doesn't mean the aims are set in stone. Open this topic to debate, and you will surely find many differing opinions, all backed by genuine belief and curiosity.