Anniversary Reflections

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

PREFACE Anniversary Reflections For some reason we accord special significance to anniversaries with round numbers. For the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors (CEO) 2012 provided the opportunity to celebrate its 25th anniversary in the most recent issue of Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education. This year also marked the 20th anniversary of CEO’s first biennial research symposium and publication of what became Research in Outdoor Education. Reflecting on these anniversaries provides an opportunity to celebrate significant progress in our field. In the late 1980s, the state of research in outdoor education was very different from today. Outdoor education researchers, often working in isolation, usually had to publish in journals not focused primarily on outdoor education. Presenting research and communicating with other researchers was also difficult because we were spread out among so many different conferences. Some outdoor-oriented professional associations tried to offer research-oriented sessions or even mini-research symposia at their conferences. In doing so, they struggled to find presenters and attendees. Such a situation was exactly what the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors was formed to address. CEO sought not to duplicate or replace any existing professional association or program, but to provide outdoor educators with services and communications that were not sufficiently delivered by other organizations. The CEO research committee, seeking to advance the empirical and theoretical bases of outdoor education, decided to create a symposium that would attract researchers and scholars from all aspects of the field -- from environmental interpretation to camping and adventure education. We generated lists of persons to receive our call for papers and invitation to the event. This was before most people had internet or email, so the communications were “mail merged” and hand signed. Working with Camille Bunting and others on the CEO research committee to organize the first symposium, I had no idea then whether we would succeed and certainly never imagined I would be helping to organize the Eleventh Biennial CEO Research Symposium 20 years later. I remember asking Gary Robb, then Director of Bradford Woods where the event was held, how many attendees we would need to make it worth his while. When he said “somewhere in the teens” I was relieved. Between committee members and presenters of papers we would surely reach that number The event did better than that. It attracted people from different disciplines, universities, and continents. The formal presentations and discussion sessions went very well, but most of all, people seemed to relish the chance to talk with other researchers. Meal times, breaks, and evening socials were filled with dialog, and lasting friendships and collaborations were born. From this initial success, the CEO Research Symposium has grown to become a highly anticipated and appreciated event. The number of research papers presented has tripled. Likewise, attendance has steadily climbed while the symposium has retained the warm and relaxed atmosphere and the “amazing interaction” that people so value. The symposium also led to a new refereed publication the field needed. Well over one hundred research articles have appeared in the first 11 volumes of Research in Outdoor Education; more than twice that many research abstracts have been compiled and published by vi CEO. Electronic databases such as EBSCOs Academic Search Complete have greatly widened the readership of CEO publications. While the quantity of this research is impressive, the quality is also markedly improved across these two decades. Generally speaking, work is more focused and methodologically sound. More researchers are staying with a line of research, better building the body of knowledge and the promise of improving practice. Our field and its people are better because of such progress. CEO has not been alone in advancing the empirical and theoretical bases of outdoor education. Many of the associations that struggled to organize research sessions at their meetings 20 years ago now have significant research programs as part of their national conferences. Further, our field has been enriched during this period by the emergence of several new journals on this continent and others. Where the CEO research efforts once filled a void in our field, they are now part of a variety of complementary research initiatives that hold promise for the future. The word...