What does adventure education mean?

The feeling of pushing beyond one’s limit

Unlike free adventure, adventure education is always guided, goal-oriented and safe. Professionally executed adventure education is designed to be appropriately challenging for the participants. Participants step outside their comfort zone, but not too far.

The goal can be, for example, for the participants to recognise their own strengths or to develop skills for coping with challenging life situations. Through activities such as hiking or climbing, participants can learn to better identify their personal resources, recognise needs for support, or cope with uncertainty.

Will I make it to the end? How much further can I go? How high do I dare to climb? Through reflection, all situations and emotions arising are discussed and linked to participants’ everyday life (transfer of learning).

Research shows that these feelings and experiences can be drawn upon later in uncertain situations, for example, in family life or at school or work. I will manage. I will get through this too. I can climb even higher!

A method by professionals

Adventure education has been shown to particularly develop physical, psychological and social self-awareness, as well as to strengthen cooperation skills, initiative, taking responsibility, identity formation and courage.

The Finnish tradition

In the Middle Ages, earning a living in the Arctic was difficult, so people relied on hunting alongside farming to secure survival, food and income. Communities were free to hunt and roam widely under unwritten everyman’s rights in remote wilderness areas. These areas became known as erä, a Finnish word referring to the wild outdoors. Survival skills for coping with the Nordic cold, darkness and natural dangers were passed down from elders to younger generations through storytelling, everyday routines and hands-on practice.

Today, Finns still have a close relationship with nature, though it is more immaterial than in the traditional erä culture. Under everyman’s rights, everyone is permitted to walk, roam, picnic, canoe and relax in forests, lakes, and rivers regardless of land ownership and without permissions or fees. However, the environment must not be damaged by hunting or logging or by disturbing others. These rights are defined and limited by law. View the official website of Finland’s environmental administration for more information.

Another tradition influencing adventure and outdoor education in Finland stems from national romantic pedagogy. In the 19^th and 20^th centuries, the educated classes promoted Finnish nature, wilderness living, and woodcraft to strengthen national identity. Paintings, writings, and stories about Finland’s unique nature and inhabitants aimed to create a sense of connection to the fatherland among the youth. Similarly, the emerging field of youth work used outdoor activities to develop character and loyalty in the youth. Movements such as the temperance movement, religious youth groups, and the Finnish Youth Association included excursions to help young people learn about their home region, their ancestors’ deeds, and God.

Moreover, the Anglo-American Scout movement brought adventurous and nature-oriented youth work to Finland in the early 20^th century. Robert Baden-Powell developed an educational method of youth work where pioneer settlers, explorers and farmers were established as role models, and the programme activities were chosen accordingly: playing, games and outdoor activities. In Finland, the original idea of scouting was blended with local traditions of hunting and fishing as well as national romantic pedagogy.

During the interwar period (1918–1939), many youth work organisations, including the labour movement youth associations, included outdoor activities for young people in their programmes. Playing, games, excursions and camping were added to their ideologically focused programmes.

At the end of the Second World War and shortly thereafter, adventurous hiking excursions became a popular method of youth work, emphasising character-building. Camps were depicted as mini societies – roaming the wilderness and managing daily tasks with rudimentary equipment forced young people to cooperate. These personal qualities were needed during post-war reconstruction. Besides non-governmental youth organisations, municipal youth work was launched to reach out to less organised young people, also adding outdoor activities to their programmes, as a relevant way to educate citizens.

By the 1980s, there was an obvious need to reform adventurous youth work. Interestingly, the reappraisal of outdoor activities was not based on the old erä tradition or the century-old pioneering activities of civic movements and youth organisations. Modern adventure education was brought from abroad in the form of theoretical and methodological trends of continental Erlebnispädagogik and Anglo-American outdoor education and adventure education.

However, the real adventure pedagogy boom took place when Finland faced a serious economic recession in the 1990s. Youth work faced serious resource constraints, and its functions were reassessed. The focus was shifted from preventive youth work to finding solutions to young people’s social problems, and adventure education was seen as a new and valuable method for working with young people at risk of being marginalised. In addition, adventure education became a field for cooperation between youth work, social work and schools. The new form of adventure education offered a more target-oriented and professional operational model than previous voluntary outdoor activities did.

Today, there is an increasing interest amongst the adventure and education community to focus more on building a more sustainable relationship with nature, eco-friendly lifestyles and participatory adventure education that inspires the youth to work together for the benefit of the environment.

Background of outdoor and adventure education in Finland

You can read more about the background of outdoor and adventure education in Finland in articles by Seppo Karppinen (2020, 28–33) and Juha Nieminen (2020, 36–40) in Seppo J. A. Karppinen, Maarit Marttila & Anita Saaranen-Kauppinen (eds.): Seikkailukasvatusta Suomessa – pedagogisia ja didaktisia näkökulmia; Outdoor Adventure Education in Finland – pedagogical and didactic perspectives. Read more on the official website of HUMAK University of Applied Sciences.