Reflective Insights Toward Gender-Inclusive Outdoor Leadership

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18666/JOREL-2020-V12-I1-9958

Keywords:

gender equity, outdoor leadership, reflexive practice, transformational change, inclusive practices

Abstract

While gender equity appears to be moving at glacial speed in contemporary societal debate, many argue advancement toward equitable outdoor leadership has been stymied. Hearing and responding to lived experiences and stories can be an impetus for transformational change. The experiences of all genders, as well as nonbinary and agender people, attest to the need for a major shift within the outdoor professions. Together, as a unified voice, we explore our diverse perspectives and professional journeys as reflexive practitioners. By sharing our biographical sketches with a particular focus on gender influences, through our philosophical approach we intend to highlight efforts underway to redress gender inequities and promote institutional and cultural adjustments. We detail attempts to raise awareness, gather resources, and promote effective entry points into the conversation. We describe our perceptions of the gendered landscape and pinpoint areas of future focus to elevate understandings of inclusive outdoor leadership. Radical and unilateral progress is needed, and we offer tangible and inclusive pathways to move this critical agenda forward within various spheres of influence.

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Author Biographies

Tonia Gray, Western Sydney University

Professor Tonia Gray has a Masters in Community Health and a PhD in Outdoor Education and her transdisciplinary research explores human-nature relationships and their impact on health and well-being. Tonia is Chair of the Australian Outdoor Education Network and co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education. Over the past decade, her scholarship has centred on Gender and Outdoor Learning and more recently, post-structural approaches using arts-based research methods. In January 2019, Tonia was one of 80 women leaders in STEMM selected globally to expedition to Antarctica in the Homeward Bound Project to tackle Climate Change and Gender Inequity and also received the AEE's 2019 Distinguished Researcher of the Year Award.

Denise Mitten, Prescott University

Professor Denise Mitten, internationally recognized for her innovative scholarship in outdoor and environmental pedagogy, ethics, and gender, has advocated and written about caring and compassionate leadership combined with expert outdoor skills since 1985. She developed an award winning leadership training and apprenticing program for women, opening the door to outdoor leadership to many women, programs to strengthen bonding between parents and children, and a leadership program for women felons. She authored Natural environments and human health, and co-edited Experiential education theory and practice and The Palgrave MacMillan international handbook of women and outdoor learning.

Tom Potter, Lakehead University

Tom G Potter, PhD is a Professor in the School of Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. His teaching and research interests blend to include the pedagogy of outdoor education, outdoor leadership, risk management, social justice, transportation safety and nature-based therapy.

Jay Kennedy, Lakehead University

Jay Kennedy is a former summer camp director and department head of K-12 outdoor education. He is currently a PhD candidate at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, whose dissertation research will explore definitions of masculinity in outdoor education.

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Published

2019-12-30

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2020)

Section

Special Issue: Examination of Girls/Women in Rec

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