Creating a temporary community? An ethnographic study of a residential fieldtrip

Gee, N. (2013) Creating a temporary community? An ethnographic study of a residential fieldtrip. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 15 (2). pp. 95-109. ISSN 1472-9679

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Abstract

This paper explores the evolving perceptions of community sentiments, for three teachers and 36 AS-level students on a week-long residential fieldtrip. For this in-depth study I adopted an ethnographic methodology in which I participated in, observed and recounted some of the complex and fluid spatial arrangements and processes, analysing their influence on social relationships and attitudes to learning at a UK residential field study centre. Whilst seemingly offering a different and more informal educational setting from school, I argue that the accompanying teachers attempted to influence proceedings through spatial management to meet some of their explicitly declared aims for the trip. Furthermore I argue that the physical isolation of the centre, together with the deliberately managed exclusion of external influences, effectively created a bounded setting, thereby temporarily replicating some of the characteristics associated with traditional notions of community. Within this teacher-shaped environment evolving relationships linked to the new place setting, together with impromptu communitas moments, contributed to community sentiments in line with more contemporary interpretations of the concept.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	School of Teacher Development
Depositing User:	Dr Nick Gee
Date Deposited:	09 Jun 2016 07:06
Last Modified:	23 Jul 2019 14:19
URI:	https://bgro.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/55

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