Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Diversity in the Outdoors : Student Attitudes About Wilderness in the National Outdoor Leadership School

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/2f75rc462

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  • America for the past few decades, yet participation has continued to be dominated by White, upper-class individuals. These similar disparities exist in general outdoor recreation participation, with individuals from race and/or ethnic minority groups participating in outdoor recreation activities less than Whites. Research in the leisure field has revealed that different meanings and values assigned to wilderness by different ethno-racial groups may explain some of the difference in participation rates, and that wilderness has historically been a concept associated with White, upper‐class males. With major demographic shifts occurring in the United States, along with the greater emphasis on social justice in the leisure field, OEE organizations must confront the imbalance in participant demographics. The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is a worldwide leader in OEE and has made this issue a priority with its Gateway Scholarship Program. This program partners NOLS with community‐based organizations and schools to provide low-income individuals, who also self‐identify as people of color, full‐tuition scholarships for NOLS courses. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine if Gateway scholarship students and non-Gateway scholarship students held different wilderness attitudes and values before and after their NOLS course, if their wilderness attitudes changed during their NOLS experience, and if the predictor variables of previous wilderness experience, ethno-racial identity and urban/rural residence were related to wilderness attitudes. Wilderness attitudes were measured with four constructs (sense of place, environmental ethics, value of wilderness, and environmental awareness) derived from NOLS literature and previous research. All Gateway students and a proportionally representative sample of non‐Gateway students from the same NOLS courses during the summer of 2014 were invited via email to participate in the study. A retrospective pre- and post‐test was administered online, and 19 follow-up interviews were conducted via telephone. Results Show that while Gateway students (n=41) Entered their NOLS course with significantly less positive wilderness attitudes than non-Gateway students (n=33), post-course scores between the two groups were not significantly different. Both groups experienced significant positive change in wilderness attitudes from pre- to post‐course scores, with Gateway students experiencing a larger change. Previous wilderness experience was a significant pre-course predictor for all constructs, Gateway status was a significant pre-course predictor for all but sense of place, and community type was entirely non-significant for either pre‐ or post-course scores. Post-course, Gateway status was the only variable that remained significant, and only for the value of wilderness construct. Interview data revealed potential reasons for attitude change, including course content (e.g., Leave No Trace, wilderness medicine), a deeper personal connection to wilderness, and heightened awareness of environmental issues. Limitations of the Gateway Scholarship program are discussed and implications of the study’s results are placed in context of social justice goals in OEE.
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