Date of Award
Fall 2010
Project Type
Thesis
Program or Major
Kinesiology
Degree Name
Master of Science
First Advisor
Jayson Seaman
Abstract
Adventure education organizations use co-instruction as the dominant mode of staffing programs, largely for issues related to risk mitigation. Despite, or perhaps because of, the everyday nature of this common staffing arrangement, little attention has been paid to it. Moreover, a review of relevant literature on co-leadership from the human services, traditional education, and adventure education fields revealed little clear consensus regarding the nature of the co-instruction experience. This phenomenological study inquired into the experience of co-instructors through in-depth qualitative interviews, which were transcribed and inductively analyzed for emergent themes. Co-instructing, at its essence, emerged as a negotiated relationship between co-instructors that shaped their professional, social, and personal success while in the field. In this thesis, I elaborate the central themes of living work, the dilemma of the super-instructor, and sizing up, and I discuss the meaning of co-instruction in people's lives. I conclude by sharing several practical implications resulting from the study, including new ways of approaching staff training in adventure education. Future research might fruitfully examine the meaning of itinerant work in young people's lives, especially in intense environments such as wilderness co-instruction.
Recommended Citation
Vernon, Franklin, "The experience of co-instructing on extended wilderness trips" (2010). Master's Theses and Capstones. 590.
https://scholars.unh.edu/thesis/590