Lasting Impressions of a Mandatory University Outdoor Experience Program: A Retrospective Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18666/JOREL-2023-11234Keywords:
outdoor education, outdoor leadership, mandatory outdoor experience program, qualitative methods, storytellingAbstract
A mandatory outdoor experience program (MOEP), involving a three-to-four day outdoor canoe excursion, has been a compulsory university course for students for nearly five decades. However, little research has addressed the experiences and perspectives of students who participated in these excursions. Therefore, the central aim of our study was to harness the value and meaning of alumni storytelling to understand better the retrospective impact of outdoor orientation programs (OOPs). Using an innovative methodology combining a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis (Leximancer) and framing theory, three main interconnected frames emerged: people, activity, environment, which represented shared links between the alumni stories. Although there are unique components of the MOEP program in our study, the results contribute to the retrospective research into the critical and memorable features that students recall years after completing OOPs.References
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