Playing with an unstoppable force: Paddling, river-places and outdoor education

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents the findings of a recent research study into participants' experiences of rivers through outdoor education programs that utilised paddling activities as a means of participation and travel. The study collected written and oral data from 64 participants from three undergraduate Australian university outdoor education degree courses. The major findings of the research are presented and discussed here, revealing how the participants' recollections of their experiences were dominated by the technical requirements of the activity and the cultural expectations for encountering a wild river. The paper concludes that such responses continue to be problematic for outdoor educators who hope to extend, or replace, the traditional personal and social development aims of outdoor education with a more place-responsive pedagogy. An introduction to the research In this paper I explore how perceptions of nature and adventure are implicated in participants' experiences of river places in outdoor education. The discussion is based on my research into the experiences of outdoor education participants from three undergraduate university degree programs on river paddling trips that were conducted in south-eastern Australia between 1995 and 2004 (through kayaking, rafting and canoeing, and in training, touring and expedition style experiences). My interpretation of data from 64 participants invites outdoor educators to consider the pedagogic significance of river places as they are encountered through paddling activities. This is particularly relevant for two reasons. First, the research considered shifts in the discourse of outdoor education that argues an extension, or for the replacement of, the traditional aims of personal and social development with a focus on sustainable nature-relations. What might such developments in professional outdoor education discourse require in practice? What new pedagogies might be need to emerge? Second, given the perilous ecological condition of many of our rivers and current political and community debates over water resource management and river health, how might outdoor education practices on rivers contribute to a more optimistic future for both river ecologies and the communities that they sustain? In an attempt to respond to these difficult questions I have presented this paper in three parts: (a) an introduction to the research, including its methodological orientations; (b) a presentation and discussion of the major findings of the study; and, (c) a consideration of the consequences for experiencing river places through paddling encounters. The focus of this paper reflects the dominance of responses by participants in the study who narrated their experiences with white water rivers in terms of adventure, risk, and the desire for an encounter with the wild river. A second paper is planned, Moving on an effortless journey: Paddling, river-places and outdoor education, which intends to focus on participants' responses to their experiences on slow flowing sections of rivers where there were minimal or no perceived white water risks. Payne (2002) has challenged outdoor educators to undertake a more earnest reflexive turn to critically assess the contribution and environmental appropriateness of the activities which form part of the staple diet of outdoor education programming (such as paddling, rock climbing, bush walking etc.). In recent years a number of authors have begun to research and write about the ways that students experience Australian rivers through outdoor education where paddling activities have been central to the program (see Payne, 2002; Stewart, 2004a, 2004b; Thomas and Thomas, 2000; Wattchow, 1999, 2001a, 2001b, 2003). This work has raised very interesting questions about the role of language and naming for both the activity of paddling and the river, the influence of socially constructing the river as wilderness, and the significant challenge of trying to represent or recapture the experiences of participants through written research texts. …