Outdoor education camps offer adventure programs to schools that deliver camp-based activities that challenge students in various ways. These camps provide students with an opportunity to learn in a natural environment, to interact with their peers outside of the classroom, and to participate in activities that challenge them both physically and mentally. Where Youth Adventure Camps also espouse a Christian ethos, Christian values and spirituality are also a key focus. Prior research into outdoor education camps has examined the social, emotional, and physical benefits for students. In this study, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with five (n=5) Christian Youth Adventure Camp (CYAC) staff to better understand their experiences and perceptions of their induction, ongoing training, strategies, and pedagogical approaches used to deliver the CYAC camp programs. Targeted observations of camp staff (n=5) in action were also used to identify the intentional pedagogies they used to embed CYAC’s philosophy within their camp programs. Our findings show that, despite not being university-qualified educators, camp staff consistently employed intentional pedagogies that were effective in engaging students in opportunities to “thrive” in alignment with the philosophy underpinning their operations and to meet the goals of the school using their programs. 

The overarching aim for this phase of this study was to identify the intentional pedagogies used by CYAC staff that promoted a values-based outdoor education program and met the developmental needs of young adolescents. The study was situated within the context of a Christian Youth Adventure Camp (CYAC) that provides outdoor education programs for Years 4 – 12 in both government and private schools across South-East Queensland and Far Northern New South Wales, Australia. Participants in this study were drawn from the pool of CYAC staff at one of the CYAC’s outdoor education sites. Camp staff work across different locations with numbers fluctuating depending upon student numbers in school groups attending the camp. Information and Consent forms were emailed to all current staff by the CYAC lead teacher. Staff were assured that participation was voluntary and would not affect their employment at CYAC. A total of five (n=5) camp staff agreed to be interviewed and were available on the afternoon following a camp. The CYAC staff who were interviewed were representative of the broader CYAC staff population and were a purposive and convenience sample. Data for this study were collected through semi-structured interviews (approximately 30 minutes) with CYAC staff member (n=5) and observations (10 x 90 mins) of staff (n=5, i.e., two observations per staff member) during the delivery of a camp program. The semi-structured interviews sought to elicit Camp staffs’ education and employment background, their induction and training at CYAC, their understanding of the purpose of camps, and the strategies and pedagogical approaches they used to achieve that purpose. CYAC staff were sent a list of the semi-structured interview questions prior to the interview to provide them time to consider their responses. Observations were undertaken within one week in October in 2023, where two members of the research team followed five camp leaders independently (n=5, x 2) over several days throughout their rostered activities. Additionally, both researchers took detailed notes, or “thick description” (Carspecken, 1996, p. 45) as standard ethnographic practice to record speech acts of the camp leaders as close to verbatim as possible and recall the events of the day.

All CYAC staff self-reported a strong Christian ethos which aligned closely with CYAC’s Christian values and overarching philosophy. For the most part, camp staff were recruited through the friendship groups of staff members and most often through their involvement in a local church youth group. The key to the success of CYAC’s programs is for each camp staff member to understand and implement clearly defined learning intentions together with a process of reflection as a practice of intentional teaching. Intentional pedagogies were identified in the work of camp leaders and the purposeful construction of activites in outdoor settings. These aligned with the five articulated Christian values of the camp including generosity, spirituality, antifragility, gratitude and relationships. For example, camp staff employed effective, amplified relationship-building pedagogies given that they spent only three days with each school group. Other identified pedagogies included communal goal setting, effective verbal and non-verbal communication for outdoor settings, modelling, and setting challenges that 'sequenced failure'. These intentional pedagogies were designed specifically for learning in the outdoors but also enacted by camp staff who also have a personal identity strongly aligned with the core values of the CYAC THRIVE philosophy (i.e., generosity, spirituality, antifragility, gratitude, and relationships). The personal values and beliefs held by camp staff were evident in the focus that they placed on building relationships with students to enable them to ‘reach’ them and have a positive influence during the time they spent together at camp. This study was conducted in accordance with the Ethical Guidelines of our University, and approved by the ethics committee (Ref No: 2023/599).

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