- Title
- Building social capital through the delivery of outdoor education at Victorian government schools
- Creator
- Keeble, Tony
- Date
- 2020
- Type
- Text; Thesis; PhD
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/175523
- Identifier
- vital:15015
- Abstract
- This thesis describes an explanatory sequential mixed-methods research project that investigated the changes to student social capital indicators resulting from an outdoor educational program, Future Maker, delivered to Victorian government school students. A systematic review of literature found minimal evidence of research relating to the change to social capital indicators as a result of programs that deliver outdoor education curriculum. The initial chapters of this thesis explore research on outdoor residential schools and the development of the Future Maker program as an alternative form of outdoor education curriculum design. Quantitative data were gathered from 287 students in the form of the Life Effectiveness Questionnaire (LEQ), over a 12-month period. Students completed the LEQ on three separate occasions: Day 1 of the program, Day 12 of the program, and 6 months after the program. Furthermore, qualitative data were gathered using a semistructured interview process. Twenty-eight students and seven teachers were randomly selected from participating schools to partake in the interviews. The final sections of the thesis present and discuss the findings from the quantitative and qualitative data that provided sufficient evidence that showed a significant increase in effect size for the social capital indicators of communication, relationships, group processing, networking and leadership. Furthermore, the research indicated that the domestic chores undertaken by students on an outdoor education program contributed to how social capital is learnt in an outdoor educational context. Moreover, the research positions outdoor education as a subject with content and pedagogy rather than a discipline and argues that outdoor education as a standalone subject has been sitting in plain sight. Finally, it concluded that a purpose-designed outdoor education program, which is built using a framework for curriculum development, can develop positive indicators for social capital.; Doctor of Philosophy
- Publisher
- Federation University Australia
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright Tony Keeble
- Rights
- Open Access
- Subject
- Outdoor education; Social capital; Future maker; Education
- Full Text
- Thesis Supervisor
- Wattchow, Brian
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