Abstract
Purpose: The article discusses Outward Bound’s participation in the human potential movement through its incorporation of T-group practices and the reform language of experiential education in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Design/methodology/approach: The article reports on original research conducted using materials from Dartmouth College and other Outward Bound collections from 1957-1976. It follows a case study approach to illustrate themes pertaining to Outward Bound’s creation and evolution in the United States, and the establishment of experiential education more broadly.
Findings: Building on prior research (Freeman, 2011; Millikan, 2006), the present article elaborates on the conditions under which Outward Bound abandoned muscular Christianity in favor of humanistic psychology. Experiential education provided both a set of practices and a reform language that helped Outward Bound expand into the educational mainstream, which also helped to extend self-expressive pedagogies into formal and nonformal settings.
Research implications: The Dartmouth Outward Bound Center’s tenure coincided with and reflected broader cultural changes, from the cold war motif of spiritual warfare, frontier masculinity, and national service to the rise of self-expression in education. Future scholars can situate specific curricular initiatives in the context of these paradigms, particularly in outdoor education.
Originality/value: The article draws attention to one of the forms that the human potential movement took in education – experiential education – and the reasons for its adoption. It also reinforces emerging understandings of post-WWII American outdoor education as a product of the cold war and reflective of subsequent changes in the wider culture to a narrower focus on the self.
Department
Recreation Management and Policy
Publication Date
2020
Journal Title
History of Education Review
Publisher
Emerald
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1108/HER-07-2019-0024
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Seaman, J., MacArthur, R., and Harrington, S. (in press). Dartmouth Outward Bound Center and the rise of experiential education, 1957-1976. Forthcoming in History of Education Review. doi:10.1108/HER-07-2019-0024
Included in
Health and Physical Education Commons, Humane Education Commons, Outdoor Education Commons
Comments
This is an accepted manuscript of an article published in History of Education Review in 2020, available online: https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/HER-07-2019-0024