Outdoor experiential education is challenged to address issues of social justice

The purpose of this scholarly review is to deepen understanding of the intersection between outdoor experiential education and social justice. The authors present a comprehensive analysis, drawing from "sociocultural, critical and feminist theories," coupled with a survey of peer-reviewed literature, books and other resources, and their own experiences and scholarly work related to these fields. They identify issues of concern as well as gaps in the research. Throughout they offer recommendations for changes in practice and call for additional research.

The authors assert that the concepts of nature and adventure upon which OEE was founded come from White, male, upper-middle class, and able-bodied histories. Because of these origins, they observe that “traditional” outdoor adventure has often excluded or, at best, marginalized women, the poor, people of color, and people with disabilities. For people of color in particular, they say that, for many, a problematic relationship with the outdoors and commonly-accepted OEE practices has deep roots in cultural history and identity. For example, African Americans were traditionally oppressed and subjected to violence on the land; Latinos have reported feeling unwelcome in outdoor areas in the U.S.; and Native Americans have seen their own traditions co-opted by many outdoor programs. The tendency of OEE organizations to try to “help” communities of color by bringing them to the wilderness has highlighted these divisions and ignored the unique connections to nature that these communities already have to the Earth.

The authors then review some of the research on how people of different genders, races, ethnicities, and abilities have experienced OEE and what barriers they have faced. This includes the finding that women and girls often benefit from single-gender outdoor learning experiences, that OEE leaders may need to address White privilege in order to counter racism, and that integrating wilderness experiences to include people with or without disabilities or using principles of universal design to enable equal participation of all people in the outdoors can have positive outcomes.

The authors report that constraints to taking part in outdoor programs experienced by people from low-income and ethnic minority backgrounds constitute an environmental justice issue that needs to be addressed through greater inclusion, diversity, and social justice. They indicate that achieving these goals is complex and difficult. They observe that some OEE programs have made an effort to increase their ethnic diversity on the premise that greater contact between people in mixed-race groups leads to increased understanding and less prejudice for all, few programs have made the major structural changes needed to think beyond participant diversity alone. They report that some educators are trying to raise awareness about social justice on an individual level, but assert that more work is needed to address the experiences of marginalized groups and achieve multicultural competency.

Despite the serious problems they report, which they say can verge on despair, they also indicate that there is hope. Some approaches they cite that show promise are improving race, gender, and class-sensitivity training; encouraging oppressed groups to express their own perspectives; striving towards cultural competency and inclusiveness; facilitating reflection on internalized oppression in adventure therapy participants; taking a multicultural approach that affirms and builds on participants' traditions to bring them together; and establishing more urban adventure centers like the ones that Outward Bound has pioneered.

Further, the authors emphasize the importance of more research in this field. They offer a list of examples in which further research is needed to fill gaps in understanding, such as how biracial, immigrant, or transgender participants experience outdoor education. They express hope that the field of OEE will work diligently to grapple with these difficult issues of power and injustice, to result in positive experiences and benefits for all people.