From virtual worlds to the Outward Bound Trust: a study of contemporary residential outdoor adventurous education in postdigital space

Abstract

This multiple-case study draws on ethnographic methods and presents findings from three Outward Bound Trust residential outdoor adventurous education centres in England, Scotland, and Wales. Through recognising that the place and use of mobile technologies and social media by instructors and young people in the residential setting is a contested topic, this study explored how networked spaces influence the facilitation and experience of Outward Bound programmes in the United Kingdom.

The first phase of the research investigated instructor perceptions of mobile technologies and social media in their practice with a total of 20 instructors through online semi-structured interviews in early 2022. Following the development of a reflexive thematic analysis framework, findings are presented which centre on a culture of phone-free practice, the recognition that young people’s mobile technologies are portable comfort zones, and that Outward Bound provide young people with an antidote to their engagements with screens and social media.

Following the analysis of these interviews, in the second phase of the study I spent five days at each Outward Bound centre. During these visits, I fully participated in an Outward Bound programme alongside young people aged 12 - 17 who were staying at their respective centre from schools in England and Scotland. This aspect of the study explored whether an Outward Bound programme may be affected by the presence or non-presence of young people’s mobile technologies, and whether platforms such as Netflix or Minecraft shape how young people engage with the outdoors as part of their residential trip. Adopting a participant-as-observer approach, a total of 50 young people took part in this aspect of the study, including 23 who participated in one of six separate focus groups. Findings presented from the data analysis demonstrate how a lack of connectivity generated stress, anxiety, and anger for young people, especially in relation to not being able to speak with their parents. Alongside this, mobile technologies were considered critical for young people to develop and preserve memories of landscapes that were unlike home. Online media such as Netflix, TikTok, and Minecraft also informed young people’s experiential baselines from which they made sense of both Outward Bound and nature. The study is situated within a postdigital characterisation of society which recognises that technology and broader networked architectures are so entangled in daily life that the physical and the digital are increasingly entangled.

Ultimately, the data generated with instructors and young people demonstrates a collision in perspectives. Firstly, instructors positioned Outward Bound as an essential form of postdigital counter-narrative which aims to return young people to “real life”. And, secondly, young people’s Outward Bound experiences were often characterised by desperate attempts to connect with home and to remember their Outward Bound experience by curating memories through photographs. Alongside this, online media framed how young people engaged with nature and the landscape. The study provides a set of key recommendations for Outward Bound in the United Kingdom and reflects on the ways in which networked spaces and contemporary youth cultures inform young people’s residential experiences.