Factors that influence women's technical skill development in outdoor adventure

This article provides a theoretical foundation for understanding women's technical skill development (TSD) in outdoor adventure. An examination of societal and biological factors influencing women's TSD focuses on gender role socialization, sense of competence, technical conditioning, sexism, spatial ability, and risk-taking. The article suggests leadership and instructional strategies for facilitating technical skill competency for women in outdoor education.     

Comparing conceptual text and documenting photos. Researching Outdoor Education in the Context of Reichwein’s Progressive Teaching and Rousseau’s Émile

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the historic ideas and practice of outdoor education, as developed in Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Émile, and realized by Adolf Reichwein's rural teaching practice. We aimed at developing a comprehensive research design, triangulating different qualitative data (text and photos). In the paper, we explore how the idea of place-based outdoor education unfolded in Rousseaús Émile, and how Adolf Reichwein, in rural Tiefensee, enacted the practice of place-based outdoor education. We also investigate how to correlate different types of qualitative data (conceptual text and documentary photos). We show that it is possible to develop a research language, revealing how a philosophy of education can be enacted as educational practice, and our analysis demonstrates that Rousseaús and Reichwein’s works functioned as precursors for outdoor education and educational concepts, that activate the cognitive, affective, and motoric domains.     

The contribution of outdoor recreation and outdoor education to the economy of Scotland: Case studies and preliminary findings

Abstract

From a tourism perspective Scotland's greatest natural resource is it's scenery. Recent studies have indicated that the contribution of outdoor recreation (which depend on this asset) to the Scottish economy have traditionally been underestimated. Published work from a range of sources are reviewed together with case studies of the additional contribution of Outdoor Education Centres, and other forms of provision. The main findings are as follows:

Outdoor recreation generates perhaps at least £600 – £800m of Scotland's tourist income, much of which is in rural areas and also extends the traditional tourist season; Outdoor Education Centres are significant employers in certain rural areas; Evidence from one area of Scotland (Lothian Region) suggests that the pattern of outdoor education provision has changed significantly in recent years; ‘Therapeutic’ outdoor activity programmes seem effective in reducing youth crime and the cost-saving to the tax-payer is substantial.     

Children's adjustment problems in families characterized by men's severe violence toward women: Does other family violence matter?

ObjectiveThis research examined whether additional forms of family violence (partner-child aggression, mother-child aggression, and women's intimate partner violence [IPV]) contribute to children's adjustment problems in families characterized by men's severe violence toward women.MethodsParticipants were 258 children and their mothers recruited from domestic violence shelters. Mothers and children completed measures of men's IPV, women's IPV, partner-child aggression, and mother-child aggression. Mothers provided reports of children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems; children provided reports of their appraisals of threat in relation to interparent conflict.ResultsAfter controlling for sociodemographics and men's IPV: (1) each of the additional forms of family violence (partner-child aggression, mother-child aggression, and women's IPV) was associated with children's externalizing problems; (2) partner-child aggression was associated with internalizing problems; and (3) partner-child aggression was associated with children's threat appraisals. The relation of mother-child aggression to externalizing problems was stronger for boys than for girls; gender differences were not observed for internalizing problems or threat appraisals.ConclusionsMen's severe IPV seldom occurs in the absence of other forms of family violence, and these other forms appear to contribute to children's adjustment problems. Parent-child aggression, and partner-child aggression in particular, are especially important. Systematic efforts to identify shelter children who are victims of parental violence seem warranted.Practice implicationsMen's severe IPV seldom occurs in the absence of other forms of family violence (partner-child aggression, mother-child aggression, and women's IPV), and these different forms of family violence all contribute to children's adjustment problems. Treatment programs for children who come to domestic violence shelters should address these different forms of family violence, especially parent-child aggression.     

Gender segregation and labour supply: on ‘choosing’ gender‐atypical jobs

Abstract

Recently it has been argued that women's choices play a significant role in the structure of job segregation. Drawing on a case study of women scientists and engineers, this paper focuses on the preferences and plans of women who entered gender‐atypical jobs in the technical professions. The evidence suggests that the women had to face considerable hostility in their choice of jobs from non‐specialist teachers and careers advisors. However, they withstood opposition with the support of specialist teachers in single‐sex schools and their parents. The findings imply that while women's attitudes to education, training and careers should not be neglected in the study of gender segregation, the social context in which they evolve should be emphasised in a sociological analysis of the labour market.     

Portraits of Mujeres Desjuiciadas: Womanist pedagogies of the everyday,the mundane and the ordinary

In this article, Ruth Trinidad Galvan describes her ethnographic study with rural women and their communities in Central Mexico, as well as her affiliation with a grassroots popular education organization. The organizing mechanism of the small savings groups and the women's work and participation in them inspired a reconceptualization of ''pedagogy'' situated in the multiple subject positions and conditions of campesinas. The reconceptualization of ''pedagogy,'' thus stems from a womanist perspective as it is based on the socio-cultural and economic conditions affecting campesinas, and situated in a complex web of interpersonal relationships of the everyday. Trinidad Galvan, then, describes the organic pedagogical forms of spirituality, well-being and convivencia as interrelated modes of teaching and learning, knowledge creation and identity production. Her work with campesinas and exploration of womanist pedagogies further expand US knowledge of immigrant peoples' values and experiences, as well as the ways they live, learn and teach each other in the everyday.     

Calming the spirit and ensuring super-vivencia: rural Mexican women-centred teaching and learning spaces

The changing social, cultural and economic conditions of transmigrant communities in rural Mexico require that women who stay behind, while their loved ones travel back and forth to the USA, create social relations that ensure their survival. From over five years of ethnographic research, this article explores the healing potential of women-centred teaching and learning spaces. By juxtaposing Ortega y Gasset's notion of vivencia – to live – with hooks' idea of collective healing and drawing on empirical data from Mexican rural women's convivencias (gatherings; coexistence), the author analyses the relationship between the mutual coexistence transpiring in women's gatherings and their survival (super-vivencia).     

Software‐Realized Scaffolding to Facilitate Programming for Science Learning

Abstract

Programming is an activity through which students can learn about other domains, but the difficulty of programming diminishes its usefulness as a learning activity. One approach to facilitate the use of programming for learning is to view programming as a skill like those taught through apprenticeships, and to use the apprenticeship concept of scaffolding to facilitate doing and learning through programming. Scaffolding means providing modifiable support (through fading) that communicates process, coaches, and elicits articulation. Software‐realized scaffolding embeds scaffolding in a computer‐based environment. Emile implements software‐realized scaffolding to facilitate student learning of physics by facilitating students building computer‐based models and simulations. In this article, I present Emile's features as examples of software‐realized scaffolding, and I present the results of an evaluation of Emile's effectiveness. Students were able to use Emile to create fairly sophisticated programs and gained a qualitative understanding of kinematics in the process.     

The ‘outdoor industry’ as social and educational phenomena: Gender and outdoor adventure/education

Abstract

This paper discusses social and cultural theory and tracts the ways in which gender has been conceptualised. It argues that the ‘outdoor industry’ in its various manifestations constitutes an aspect of society that can not be ignored. It suggests that outdoor adventure/education, like other dimensions of society, can usefully be subjected to critical examination. Having discussed perspectives surrounding the social construction of gender, the paper draws attention to classic work that has explored ideologies of femininity and the implication for women and men. The paper then goes on to argue that the more recent interactionist theories and cultural studies offer less deterministic and more insightful approaches to exploring people's experiences of outdoor adventure/education. The concept of hegemonic masculinity is drawn upon to examine ‘the outdoor industry’ in light of the current ‘crisis of masculinity’. Finally, the paper raises further questions regarding outdoor adventure/education as a site of alternative femininities and masculinities and as counter-culture.     

Outdoor education in Scotland

Abstract

Although Scotland is part of the United Kingdom it has a distinct cultural identity and a separate education and legal system. These factors, which have influenced the development of outdoor education, are likely to have an even greater impact in the future following the re-establishment (after a break of almost 300 years since 1707) of a Scottish Parliament in 1999.

Scotland was one of the first countries in the world to formalise outdoor education. This was the result of a combination of factors:

• ? Geophysical and climatic factors together with landholding and land-use practices established in the 18th Century have ensured that much of Highland Scotland is depopulated and devoid of forests; leading to the perception that the area is a “wilderness” and therefore attractive for outdoor recreation.

• ? Exploration for political, economic and scientific reasons in the second half of the millennium, which both led to and developed from Britain's empire, stimulated a national taste for adventure as expressed in seafaring, mountaineering and polar exploration.

• ? Growth in wealth, mobility and leisure-time in the late 19th and 20th Centuries provided the means by which many more people could engage in their own, more modest adventures, leading to the development of stylised forms of outdoor activities in the UK.

Consequently the landscape and surrounding seas of Scotland have long presented challenges for outdoor recreation, and post-war development of outdoor education fitted quite naturally into this physical and social landscape.

In the 1960s and 1970s outdoor education (often formalised as physical outdoor activities and based on a residential experience) was extensively developed in Scotland and was of international significance. In recent years, primarily as a result of political effects, provision has been in some decline; a trend markedly at odds with the concurrent rapid growth in outdoor recreation. A shift away from public provision through the education service seems to be countered by growth in “charitable” and “private sector” provision, especially in the case of residential outdoor education centres.

Some concerns are raised about possible future trends, and the argument made that educational theory should be taken into account in the design of programmes which focus on personal and social education; or which capitalise on the learning potential of the landscape to encourage cultural awareness and principles of sustainability, which are seen as having both local and global significance.     

The feminist civics lesson of 19: The Musical

ABSTRACT

This essay examines 19: The Musical—a memorial project that marks the suffrage centennial. The author employs an intersectional lens to examine the arguments this memorialization makes about a suffrage past as well as a feminist present and future. This intersectional emphasis is especially important given the prevalent present-day assumption of the suffrage movement as an entirely white women's endeavor—one that especially forgets the racism and exclusivity that riddled the suffrage movement.     

The Physiology of Aging: Structural Changes and Functional Consequences. Implications for Research and Clinical Practice in the Exercise and Activity Sciences

The purpose of this article is to explore the relevance of Plato's Sophist in the context of coaching. The Sophist dialogue focuses upon the role of the philosopher as a therapist of the soul rather than simply a conveyer or wholesaler of knowledge. This article provides a rationale for the coach to be more than a technical conveyer of skill in which the athlete is perceived to be machine-like (i.e., homo mechanicus) in order to take on a more holistic role in the life of the athlete. Through the application of the noble sophist to the Ecological Task Analysis theory (ETA), we demonstrate how the fundamental perception of the role of the coach may be expanded and redefined to become more of a “midwife” for the birth of personal and moral development.     

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: the use of personal experience in theoretical and analytical approaches

Abstract

This article is drawn from my research work, where I have interviewed students on a combined women's studies course through the 3 years of their degrees. I worked with 14 students in total, mainly non‐traditional entrants. The women combined their women's studies programmes with a range of other subjects (including literature, law, sociology, health studies, psychology and more), so giving me good comparisons between a range of academic subjects. My research has indicated that although it is not always recognised as academic study, the women have found the use of personal experience both challenging and exciting in developing the tools needed for theoretical and critical analytical approaches. I will conclude by suggesting that to take account of gender issues, as well as considering other marginalised groups, subject areas need to develop approaches to learning and teaching which encourage the use of personal experience in enabling students to engage in theoretical and analytical approaches in their study.     

POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION AND CAPABILITIES: INSIGHTS FROM YOUNG WOMEN IN RURAL UGANDA

ABSTRACT

This paper presents findings from the third stage of a longitudinal, qualitative study involving nine female participants from a class cohort in a secondary school in rural Uganda. Since 2004–05, this study has tracked the progress of these young women's lives, and the present aspect of the study explores the ways in which they have found that post-primary education has impacted their adult lives, particularly with respect to employment-related factors. I draw upon the conceptual construct of Amartya Sen's capabilities approach (1999) to interpret and present data. Findings considered in this paper indicate that post-primary education has been crucial to the capabilities development and socioeconomic well-being of the participants’ lives.     

Finding feminism,finding voice? Mobilising community education to build women's participation in Myanmar's political transition

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the role played by women activists and educators in mobilising community education to support new opportunities for women's activism in the context of Myanmar's political transition. Recent political reorientations in Myanmar which have resulted in a civilian-led democracy emerging from a repressive military regime, have facilitated increased international contact. Myanmar women activist-educators are rejecting hierarchical relationships and the sterile reproductions of idealised female citizenship evident in some training practices and are promoting a conceptualisation of feminist education. I reflect on the dynamics of this feminist activism, including the adaptation of feminist concepts and terminology, as articulated by activists, and I explore responses to the new avenues for women's engagement which are opening up in the first inter-election cycle.     

Research and Learning Information Resources

Identification of the factors that contribute to the fear of success in women's career development is important for community college educators and counselors wanting to assist women in their professional goals. In this article the factors associated with fear of success in women are categorized as follows: familial socialization, psychological influences, and cultural norms. It is generally conceded that any one or combination of these factors can precipitate a fear of success which becomes manifest in the woman's defeatist behaviors, and in turn, undermines her career development. It is imperative that professionals recognize the factors causing the fear of success orientation in women so that they may develop coping strategies with the client.     

Outdoor education: Research topic or universal value? Part Two

Abstract

This paper follows the theme of part one in that it sets out to discover if the history of outdoor education provides its modern exponents with a legacy of prescribed conservatism or alternatively a form of education which embraces, or is capable of embracing, diversity of theory and practice. Focusing on local authority residential outdoor education centres it begins with the 1970s through the 1980s and ends with the 1990s.

Secondary sources are used and include government and civil service education circulars as well as the body of literature that relates to outdoor education. The paper analyses how discussions of philosophical underpinnings and aims, together with the public perception of safety and risk came to influence the practice of outdoor education. This leads to a discussion of terminology and the role of outdoor education as a curricular subject. The influence of market forces on the provision of outdoor education and the increasing call for cost effectiveness is analysed in relation to the increasingly diverse range of activities coming under the umbrella term of outdoor education.

The evidence shows that throughout this period significant changes regarding the nature of outdoor education are observable. However, within this flux one point is clear. The body of outdoor education literature attaches more importance to outcomes relating to personal and social education than environmental education and this point will be the bridge between part two and part three.     

Sex and the City: Educational Initiatives for 'Dangerous" and "Endangered" Girls in Late Victorian and Early Edwardian Manchester

The article explores the narratives surrounding Manchester School Board's removal in 1883 of children living in Manchester's brothels. It examines how gendered technologies of urban representation focusing on the prostitute impinged on the lives of children living in brothels and inflected the work of women reformers in the urban context more generally. The article traces a range of representations that underpinned the action of the Manchester School Board: the sexually active girl; Manchester mill girls' independence, lack of chastity and subversion of sexual difference; Manchester as a place of sexual danger; "imaginings" of the city in terms of the body; and epistemological links between the body and nineteenth century statistical method. It looks at the involvement of the Manchester Ladies' Association for the Care of Friendless Girls in the removal of the children from the brothels. The article concludes that while the work of women social reformers and activists in voluntary societies, and increasingly as members of poor law boards and school boards, was legitimated through maternalist rhetoric, it was also legitimated through reimaginings of the city in which middle-class women's increasing urban presence played an important role.     

Terry Storry (1950–2004) An obituary

Abstract

From the discussion in parts one and two there are two main points that emerge. The first is that it is difficult to identify from outdoor education literature a philosophical framework on which practice is based. Secondly, the body of outdoor education literature attaches more importance to learning outcomes relating to personal and social education than environmental education. The purpose of part three is to offer a philosophical framework and use it to consider the relationship between outdoor education, environmental education and the related concept of sustainability education. The paper starts out by looking at the development of western thought and how it has promoted the concept of epistemological dualism's. The paper then presents an alternative framework of epistemological diversity including experiential, presentational, propositional and practical ways of knowing that has particular relevance for environmental education and sustainability education. Although the prime focus of this paper is environmental education it also deals explicitly with a philosophical framework which includes experiential learning. Consequently, it has relevance to other claims made of outdoor education in particular personal and social education.     

“Your Vagina Is Not Supposed to Be This Scary Monster”: Young Heterosexual Women's Recommendations for Improving Sexual Satisfaction and Implications for Sexuality Education

Sexual satisfaction is an important component of sexuality, yet rarely discussed in sexuality education. In an effort to better understand young adult women's experiences and thoughts about sexual pleasure and satisfaction, we conducted interviews with heterosexual young women (N = 30, ages 18–25) attending college, asking their recommendations on how to improve women's sexual satisfaction. Two coders utilized grounded theory-based thematic analysis, which revealed three dominant themes: communication with sexual partners, sexual self-awareness and acceptance, and sources of information and education. All three themes fit broadly under women's sexual agency and societal acceptance of women's sexuality. Themes are discussed in relation to their applicability to sexuality education.