Adventure education as aesthetic experience

Adventure education as an aesthetic experience includes three defining qualities: sensory encounters, full attention and aesthetic paradox

Two questions guided a qualitative study on adventure education as aesthetic experience: 1) What happens to participants during the adventure education experience? (2) What meanings do participants of adventure education ascribe to those experiences? The term “aesthetic” is often used in reference to beauty or artistic interpretation. In this study, however, Dewey’s notion of “aesthetic” as being “fully alive” is applied. This notion includes the idea of being completely engaged in the present and of the mind being in unison with the body through the direct conditions of the environment.

Three different adventure education (AE) sites served as settings for this study: a backpacking expedition, a challenge course, and a multi-activity adventure program. These sites reflect the diversity of programs offered in the AE field. Study participants included 41 male and female children and youth, age 9-19, representing diverse ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Data for this study was obtained through 183 hours of observation and 74 interviews conducted over a five-month period.

Data analysis focused on what the participants experienced during their AE program and the meanings they ascribed to their experiences. Findings support the concept of AE as aesthetic experience with three defining qualities: sensory encounters, full attention and aesthetic paradox. “Sensory encounters” refer to instances in which attention to the senses or sensation constitute a major part of an AE experience. Indicators of full attention included moments of silence during intense or demanding parts of an activity, such as encountering steeper trails, rougher rapids, or higher elevation. Other indicators of full attention showed up in what participants said and what they were unable to say about their experiences. For example, the difficulty some participants exhibited in trying to explain how they felt during an experience could reﬂect a level of engagement requiring full attention. “Aesthetic paradox” refers to the experience of dissonance between aesthetic sensation and cognitive rationale, as in being aware of exposure to danger while still feeling a degree of separation from that danger. Some participants noted that these aesthetic perceptions were among the most challenging aspects of AE. The data indicate that participants were able to communicate an awareness of both the conditions of the environment and their interaction with those conditions at various AE sites.

This study contributes to the AE literature by showing that qualitative methods can yield an empirically grounded conception of AE as an aesthetic experience. AE instructors may find that attention to the different qualities of aesthetic experience in AE (sensory encounters, full attention and aesthetic paradox) can be helpful in awakening the perceptual capacities of participants.