Editors:
- Includes an international line-up of contributors from Australia, Norway, the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Japan, India, New Zealand and Canada
- Analyses critically the discourse around the status of women in Outdoor Learning Environments
- Describes a range of case studies exploring women's relationship with outdoor learning
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education (GED)
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Table of contents (62 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Setting the Scene
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Front Matter
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Contested Spaces: Gender Disparity in Outdoor Learning Environments
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Front Matter
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About this book
This Handbook serves as a starting point for critical analysis and discourse about the status of women in outdoor learning environments (OLEs). Women choose to participate actively in outdoors careers, many believing the profession is a level playing field and that it offers alternatives to traditional sporting activities. They enter outdoor learning primarily on the strength of their enthusiasm for leading and teaching in natural environments and assume the field is inclusive, rewarding excellence regardless of age, gender, socioeconomic status, disability, or ethnicity. However, both research and collective experiences in OLEs suggest that many women feel invisible, relegated, marginalized, and undervalued.
In response to this marginalization, this Handbook celebrates the richness of knowledge and practices of women practitioners in OLEs. Women scholars and practitioners from numerous fields, such as experiential outdoor education, adventure education, adventure therapy, and gender studies, explore the implications of their research and practice using poignant examples within their own disciplines. These insights emerge from similar life experiences as women and outdoor leaders in the 1970s to the present. Social inequalities still abound in OLEs, and the Handbook ensures that the contributions of women are highlighted as well as the work that needs to be done to make these spaces inclusive.
Global in perspective and capacious in content, this one-stop volume is an indispensable reference resource for a diverse range of academics, including students and researchers in the fields of education, psychology, sociology, gender studies, geography, and environment studies, as well as the many outdoors fields.
Reviews
“This book offers insights to all those who work, live, play in and who love the outdoors. It is of particular value to students on their respective paths to professional roles in the outdoors, teachers (scholars, researchers and lecturers in outdoor fields) and the leaders/elders that govern, guide and shape the sector.” (Mandi Baker, Annals of Leisure Research, October 24, 2019)
“It is a book that offers strategies and ideas for practitioners, academics, teacher educators, educators based in schools and early years settings, and researchers and research higher degree students – whether their work is in outdoor education or not. … this wonderful hopeful book is rich with ideas and directions for an inclusive nourishing future for us all.” (Alison L. Black, Journal of Education for Teaching JET, June 24, 2019)
“This text will be a valuable resource that will no doubt be eye-opening for many outdoor and environmental education practitioners and researchers,especially those who have given little thought to women’s experiences in the outdoors or those who may not (yet) see the point of attending to gender in our field. It certainly has the potential to serve as a launch point for a great deal of future research and discussion.” (Jay Kennedy, Environmental Education Research, December, 23, 2018)
“It is undeniable that the International Handbook of Women and Outdoor Learning is a game changer. I can imagine reading peer-reviewed papers in the field of outdoor learning published from this moment forward and asking myself to what degree the literature within this Handbook was included.” (Simon Beames, Gender, Work and Organization, December, 27 , 2018)“This much needed work – based on women’s voices – took my own perceptions of women and outdoor learning to the next level … . This book looks at the ordinary and every day through which have emerged extraordinary stories of resilience, happiness and heartache, sometimes all at once. … I invite all people working in outdoor learning environments to seek out this book, open to the first page, and embrace the adventure that follows.” (Heidi A. Smith, Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, July, 2018)
“As a male in a profession perfused with male hegemony, this book has opened my eyes to the many profound – yet often unnoticed – thoughts, feelings and contributions of female colleagues. It is a waymark along the path towards further maturation that all involved in our profession will continue to journey.” (John Quay, Associate Professor in Education, University of Melbourne, Australia)
“This important book is a first class and comprehensive volume for students and scholars to explore the narratives of power, oppression and equality associated with women outdoors. This book will help university students and the outdoor profession to re-story its future so that a heightened sense of gender awareness and the cultural shift needed can be woven into the fabric of the outdoor profession. At last it has been written! Thank you.” (Mark Leather, Senior Lecturer in Outdoor Adventure Education, Plymouth Marjon University, UK)“Unconscious bias in a male constructed field like the outdoors needs constant attention as both men and women are affected by it. I have been part of teams and committees that worked hard to achieve ‘balance’ only for it to slip away once it was achieved. The bias, present in both men and also, surprisingly to me, women, does not go way. It needs our constant effort. This book is a major contribution to just that.” (Chris Loynes, Reader in Outdoor Studies, University of Cumbria, UK)
“This book has challenged my good intentions around and helped to expose my misconceptions of gender issues in the outdoors. It has moved me closer toward a much-needed understanding of the issues and challenges women face. It’s an absolute must read for those who wish to better understand the gender bias that favours men in outdoor education.” (Tom G. Potter, Associate Professor, Lakehead University, Canada)
“Gray and Mitten’s edited book provides perspectives about women in the outdoors. It emphasizes the ongoing need to hear women’s voicesand normalize their contributions. Although inroads have been made and the playing field often is perceived as level, the ongoing need is to celebrate and challenge gender equality and equity in the outdoors.” (Karla A. Henderson, Professor Emeritus of Leisure Behavior, Gender & Diversity, and Organized Camping, North Carolina State University, USA)“That this book needed to be published is an indictment of the outdoor education sector; that it has been published is a triumph. The International Handbook of Women and Outdoor Learning should be required reading for all outdoor educators.” (Simon Beames, Senior Lecturer in Outdoor Learning, The University of Edinburgh, UK)
“I commend Tonia and Denise for bringing to us this exceptional handbook that connects and inspires generations of women in the outdoors. This is a timely book, twenty years after Karen Warren's 1996 book Women's Voices in Experiential Education, to rekindle a conversation that was almost forgotten.” (Susanna Ho, Assistant Director for Outdoor Education and Safety, Ministry of Education, Singapore)Editors and Affiliations
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Western Sydney University, Penrith, Australia
Tonia Gray
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Prescott College, Prescott, AZ, USA
Denise Mitten
About the editors
Denise Mitten is Graduate Chair of Adventure Education at Prescott College, USA, and is internationally recognized for her scholarship in outdoor and environmental pedagogy, and ethics and leadership.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Palgrave International Handbook of Women and Outdoor Learning
Editors: Tonia Gray, Denise Mitten
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53550-0
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-53549-4Published: 24 May 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-09606-9Published: 22 December 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-53550-0Published: 12 May 2018
Series ISSN: 2524-6445
Series E-ISSN: 2524-6453
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XLI, 924
Number of Illustrations: 91 b/w illustrations
Topics: Learning & Instruction, Gender and Education, Professional & Vocational Education, Environmental Sociology, Gender Studies