Experiencing the outdoors: Embodied encounters in the Outward Bound Trust

Young people interpret outdoor education practices through bodily encounters with the natural environment

Outward Bound is an international network of outdoor education schools designed to empower young people through the development of skills needed for success in education, work and life. Different non-profit organizations operate the schools in the countries in which Outward Bound is offered. In the United Kingdom, Outward Bound is operated by the Outward Bound Trust (OBT), which seeks to help develop young people through “adventurous and challenging outdoor learning programmes.” Immersion in nature — a key component of the program – is considered to be “a facilitator for young peoples’ development.” This research, conducted with the OBT, explores how young people interpret their physical encounters with the environments of outdoor education in a British context.

Students from four different schools in the UK participated in a one‐week OBT course. Strategies used for collecting information about the students’ OBT experience included interviews with OBT staff and students, participant‐directed photography, and a moodboard task completed within the participant interviews. The researcher participated in all activities and kept an ethnographic diary throughout the research period. The fact that two of the participating schools were located in an urban area and two in a rural area allowed the researcher to compare experiences of students with distinctly different demographics. During their OBT experience, participants were asked to take pictures of situations that evoked strong emotions. After the experience, they participated in follow-up interviews during which they created moodboards addressing the question “how did your experiences during your OBT week make you feel?”

Students’ responses indicated that they were able to draw on “multiple immediate bodily encounters of nature to understand and make sense of their outdoor experiences.” They encountered the woods, the beach and the hills through such bodily actions as sliding, climbing, rolling, running and jumping. These movements were central to their interpretations of place and gave them a level of agency in their engagements with nature. While the young people “found enjoyment and agency in the unregulated bodily sensibilities afforded by outdoor places,” they also experienced some negative or undesirable physical encounters – at times relating to getting muddy or feeling cold. Other factors helping to shape young people’s experience of natural places included (1) their engagement with “things” (particular items of equipment, outdoor accessories) and (2) specific social and cultural dimensions (narratives, ideologies, and injustices).

The overall findings of this research indicate that “young people come to understand outdoor education practices through experiences which are personal, engage multiple senses, and centre the body in the learning process.” This research also “draws attention to some of the structural constraints and power relations that restrict young peoples’ bodies in outdoor educational spaces.”