Outdoor Educators’ Influence on the Self-Growth Process of Participants: A Case Study of Educators at the Buddy Kids Adventure Challenge Program

Abstract

The nature experience is important for the growth of children. However, the opportunities of children’s nature experience are decreasing today because of a lack of various programs and right outdoor educator. To resolve these issues, providing valuable outdoor educators’ training is important, although there are few studies about outdoor educators in Japan and the influence of outdoor educators’ intervention on participants has not been clarified. In order to consider more effective educators’ learning contents, it is necessary to understand actually how the involvement of the educators influences the growth of the children. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to explore the influence of educators’ intervention in outdoor activity programs on children’s growth. Our study included interviews for 12 educators of the Buddy Kids Adventure Challenge Program (BKACP). The data obtained through semi-struc- tured interviews was analyzed using Modified Grounded Theory Approach (M- GTA). The analysis resulted in the generation of 69 concepts and 31 categories demonstrated. This analysis revealed the influence of outdoor educators’ intervention on participants. The overall process was confirmed that outdoor educators’ intervention made the participants rely on one’s own feeling, which promoted self-growth of participants who had deep experiences. In conclusion, the intervention of skilled outdoor educators who know rules of nature guarantees the children’s independence in a highly flexible program, and furthermore, it is thought that positive emotions (known as flow) on overcoming adversity promote self-growth. It would be attractive for outdoor educators to use flow theory as a learning tool.