Adventure Education as Cultural-Historical Activity: A Study of Experience, Learning and Social Processes in Project Adventure Workshops

The present study aims to illuminate the way participant learning in adventure experiences intersects with broader social, cultural and institutional contexts, and was guided by the following questions: How is participant experience constructed in a facilitated, small group adventure setting? How is the construction of the adventure experience related to the intentions and orchestrations of the trainer? How is the construction of the adventure experience related to the institutional and social context in which it occurs? This study used grounded theory methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) and cultural-historical activity theory (Engeström, 1987; Leontiev, 1977; Vygotsky, 1978). Activity as an analytic device facilitates the mapping of historical, social and cultural influences on local action, while grounded theory helps maintain close attention to local phenomena. Aside from making methodological advances, I develop several major concepts. First, I identify the object of adventure education as the morally improved and socially interdependent subject. It is this object that defines and establishes the conditions toward which the activity is oriented and must be understood. Second, Participation frameworks position the subjects as interested actors who negotiate and align with one another through the course of different exercises. As an analytic device, participation frameworks help identify the way subjects expect the workshop to conform with their goals, and act on the basis of their expectations. Third, collaborative ideation is the process through which the object of adventure education is realized. There are two sub-parts to collaborative ideation: vertically mediated action, or the ways participants encounters with speech, kinesthetic poses, and physical instruments are orchestrated by the trainer for particular effect; and horizontally mediated action, or the ways participants become resources for each other s learning. These factors reflect a complex process of interaction in which participants experience contradictions between the actions required for involvement in the adventure, and the social expectations they have for situations.