Experiences of adolescents on an expedition to New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic: results from the use of photo-elicitation

Abstract

Taking young people to polar regions for outdoor and environmental education purposes is becoming increasingly popular. Programmes such as Students on Ice and others seek to provide opportunities for young people to learn about the Arctic and Antarctica through direct experience and via their engagement with scientists and educators. These programmes are expensive and require significant organisation and support and, thus, they represent a major investment in the young people involved. The expected return on this investment is that youth will become strong advocates for the polar regions and that their experiences will be, potentially, life shaping or life changing. Given the investment, it is surprising that there is no published empirical research about the experiences of adolescents on these programmes. This paper reports on the experiences of 12 New Zealand teenagers who were selected to participate in the 2014 Young Blake Expedition to the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands. The research uses auto-driven photo-elicitation as a tool to provide insights into the most important experiences of these young people. Findings reveal that five interrelated themes emerged from the data: experiential learning; uniqueness of the setting; uniqueness of the experience; sharing with others; adventure; and sense of accomplishment. These findings are consistent with previous research on the experiences of adolescent participants in other wilderness-based outdoor education programmes.