Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T11:47:35.823Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Experiencing Beach in Australia: Study Abroad Students' Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2012

Yoshifumi Nakagawa  and
Phillip G. Payne
Yoshifumi Nakagawa*
Affiliation:
Monash University
Phillip G. Payne
Affiliation:
Monash University
*
†Address for correspondence: Yoshifumi Nakagawa. Email: yoshifumi.nakagawa@monash.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The current “Australian-ness” of outdoor environmental education is an evolving “set” of socio-cultural constructions. These constructions can be interpreted within the circumstances of an empirical study of tertiary study abroad students' participation in an undergraduate semester long unit “Experiencing the Australian Landscape” (EAL) as an ambivalent mixture of belonging and beach, or solidity and fuidity. This ambivalence imparts various meanings within and about the Australian context of beach as a “place”. The study is based on an interpretive mixed method ethnographic and phenomenological small-scale case study. It fnds that the beach experience is infuenced by various social discourses, such as neocolonialism, individualism and mobility. Participants experienced the beach in a fuid sense of non-belonging, despite the EAL intention of fostering a place-responsive pedagogy. In order to understand their experience and its alleged link to an enhanced environmental awareness, an embodied dialectic descriptive interpretation of place experience is suggested.

Keywords

place-responsive outdoor environmental educationexperiential learningstudy abroad studentsbeachbelongingmobility
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 27 , Issue 1: Special Issue: The “ness” of Environmental Education , 2011 , pp. 94 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbas, A. (2004). The embodiment of class, gender and age through leisure: A realist analysis of long distance running. Leisure Studies, 23(2), 159–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abram, D. (1997). The spell of the sensuous. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Anderson, B. (2006). Imagined communities: Refections on the origin and spread of nationalism (Revised ed.). London: Verso.Google Scholar
Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Augé, M. (1995). Non-places: An introduction to supermodernity. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Australian Education International. (2009). International Student Data for 2009. Retrieved from https://aei.gov.au/AEI/Statistics/StudentEnrolmentAndVisaStatistics/2009/2009_Annual.htmGoogle Scholar
Bærenholdt, J. O., Haldrup, M., Larsen, J., & Urry, J. (2004). Performing tourist places. Hants: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Bennett, B. (2007). A beach somewhere: The Australian littoral imagination at play. In Cranston, C. & Zeller, R. (Eds.), The littoral zone: Australian contexts and their writers (pp. 31–44). Amsterdam: Rodopi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1967). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Birrell, C. (2001). A deepening relationship with place. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 6(1), 25–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broeze, F. (1998). Island nation: A history of Australians and the sea. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Brookes, A. (1993). Deep and shallow outdoor education: Can we tell the differences? The Outdoor Educator, June, 8–17.Google Scholar
Brookes, A. (2002). Lost in the Australian bush: Outdoor education as curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 34(4), 405–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, J. (2001). Beyond dualism: Wilderness, outdoor education and everyday places. Paper presented at the 12th National Outdoor Education Conference: Education outdoors - Our Sense of Place.Google Scholar
Cresswell, T. (2004). Place: A short introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (2 ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE.Google Scholar
Cronon, W. (1996). The trouble with wilderness; Or, getting back to the wrong nature. In Cronon, W. (Ed.), Uncommon ground: Rethinking the human place in nature (pp. 69–90). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Dewey, J. (1938/1991). Experience and education. In Boydston, J. (Ed.) The later works, 1925–1953, John Dewey, Volume 13 (pp. 1–62). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press).Google Scholar
Dignan, A. (2002). Outdoor education and the reinforcement of heterosexuality. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 6(2), 77–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drew, P. (1994). The coast dwellers: Australians living on the edge. Ringwood: Penguin Books Australia.Google Scholar
Dutton, G. (1985). Sun, sea, surf and sand: The myth of the beach. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (1995). Writing ethnographic feldnotes. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Entrikin, J. N. (1991). The betweenness of place: Towards a geography of modernity. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Fiske, J., Hodge, B., & Turner, G. (1987). Myths of Oz: Reading Australian popular culture. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1990). The history of sexuality volume 1: An introduction (Hurley, R., Trans.). New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Fox, K. (2008). Rethinking experience: What do we mean by this word “Experience”? Journal of Experiental Education, 31(1), 36–54.Google Scholar
Garrard, G. (2004). Ecocriticism. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrard, G. (2010). Problems and prospects in ecocritical pedagogy. Environmental Education Research, 16(2), 233–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geertz, C. (1973). Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture. In Geertz, C. (Ed.), The interpretation of culture (pp. 3–30). New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gmelch, G. (1997). Crossing cultures: Student travel and personal development. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 21(4), 475–490.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffths, T. (1996). Hunters and collectors: The antiquarian imagination in Australia. Cambridge; Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). The best of both world: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunesch, K. (2007). International education's internationalism: Inspirations from cosmopolitanism. In Hayden, M., Levy, J. & Thompson, J. (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Research in International Education (pp. 90–100). London: SAGE.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hales, R. (2006). The rise of individualism: The implications for promoting relations between self, others and the environment in outdoor education. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 10(2), 53–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, D. (1990). The condition of postmodernity. Malden, MA.: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. (1993). Building dwelling thinking (D. F. Krell, Trans.). In Krell, D. F. (Ed.), Basic writings: From Being and Time (1927) to The Task of Thinking (1964) (pp. 343–363). San Francisco, CA: Harper San Francisco.Google Scholar
Huntsman, L. (2001). Sand in our souls: The beach in Australian history. Carlton South: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Kiewa, J. (2001). Stepping around things: Gender relationships in climbing. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 5(2), 4–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Law, J. (2004) After method: Mess in social science research. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lugg, A. (1999). Directions in outdoor curriculum. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 4(1), 25–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malpas, J. E. (1999). Place and experience: A philosophical topography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, P. (1993). Outdoor education: Practical implications of a deep ecology Philosophy. Outdoor Educator, September, 19–23.Google Scholar
Massey, D. (1994). Space, place, and gender. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
McLean, I. (1998). White Aborigines: Identity politics in Australian art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2002). Phenomenology of perception. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyrowitz, J. (1985). No sense of place: The impact of electronic media on social behavior. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Monash University. (2010a). Discover authentic Australia: Study Abroad at Monash University Gippsland campus. Retrieved from http://www.monash.edu.au/international/gippsland/sa/Google Scholar
Monash University. (2010b). Monash University Handbook 2010: EDF3615 - Experiencing the Australian Landscape. Retrieved from http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/2010handbooks/units/EDF3615.htmlGoogle Scholar
Nash, R. (1982). Wilderness and the American mind, 3rd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Newberry, L. (2003). Will any/body carry the canoe?: A geography of the body, ability, and gender. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 8, 204–216.Google Scholar
Ong, A. (2009). On being human and ethical living. In Kenway, J. & Fahey, J. (Eds.), Globalizing the research imagination (pp. 87–100). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Papatsiba, V. (2006). Study abroad and experience of cultural distance and proximity: French Erasmus students. In Byram, M. & Feng, A. (Eds.), Living and studying abroad (pp. 108–133). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE.Google Scholar
Payne, P. (1983). Submission for accreditation of Bachelor of Applied Science. Bendigo: Bendigo College of Advanced Education.Google Scholar
Payne, P. (2002). On the construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of experience in ‘critical’ outdoor education. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 6(2), 4–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, P. (2003a). Postphenomenological Enquiry and Living the Environmental Condition. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 8, 169–190.Google Scholar
Payne, P. (2003b). The technics of environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 9(4), 525–542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, P., & Wattchow, B. (2008). Slow pedagogy and placing education in posttraditional outdoor education. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 12(1), 25–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, P., & Wattchow, B. (2009). Phenomenological deconstruction, slow pedagogy, and the corporeal turn in wild environmental/outdoor education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 14, 15–32.Google Scholar
Phillips, T., & Smith, P. (2000). What is ‘Australian’?: Knowledge and attitudes among a gallery of contemporary Australians. Australian Journal of Political Science, 35(2), 203–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pink, S. (2009). Doing sensory ethnography. London: SAGE.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plumwood, V. (2000). Belonging, naming, and decolonisation. Ecopolitics: Thought and Action, 1(1), 90–106.Google Scholar
Read, P. (2000). Belonging: Australians, place and Aboriginal ownership. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Reid, A. (2009). Environmental education research: Will the ends outstrip the means? Environmental Education Research, 15(2), 129–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Relph, E. C. (1976). Place and placelessness. London: Pion.Google Scholar
Rizvi, F. (2005). Identity, culture and cosmopolitan futures. Higher Education Policy, 18, 331–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, R. (1992). Globalization: Social theory and global culture. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Rose, D. B. (1996). Nourishing terrains: Australian Aboriginal views of landscape and wilderness. Canberra: Australian Heritage Commission.Google Scholar
Stewart, A. (2004). Decolonising encounters with the Murray River: Building place responsive outdoor education. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 8(2), 46–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sauve, L. (2005) Currents in environmental education: Mapping a complex and evolving pedagogical feld. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 10, 11–37.Google Scholar
Stewart, A., & Muller, G. (2009). Toward a pedagogy for Australian natural history: Learning to read and learning content. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 25, 105–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, G., & Thomas, J. (2000). Moving water as critical outdoor education. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 5(1), 47–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thrift, N. (1993). For a new regional geography 3. Progress in Human Geography, 17(1), 92–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tönnies, F. (1974). Community and association (Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Tuan, Y-F. (1974). Topophilia: A study of environmental perception, attitudes, and values. Englewoos Cliffs: Prentice-Hall Inc.Google Scholar
Turner, V. (1974). Dramas, felds, and metaphors: Symbolic action in human society. London: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Urry, J. (1990). The tourist gaze: Leisure and travel in contemporary societies. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Urry, J. (2007). Mobility. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Warren, K., Mitten, D., & Loeffer, T. (Eds.). (2008). Theory and practice of experiential education. USA: Association for Experiential EducationGoogle Scholar
Wattchow, B. (2005). Belonging to proper country. In Dickson, T., Gray, T. & Hayllar, B. (Eds.), Views from the top: Outdoor and experiential learning (pp. 13–27). Dunedin: Otago University Press.Google Scholar
Wattchow, B. (2007). Playing with an unstoppable force: Paddling, river-places and outdoor education. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 11(1), 10–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wattchow, B. (2008a). Moving on an effortless journey: Paddling, river-places and outdoor education. Australian Journal of Outdoor Education, 12(2), 12–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wattchow, B. (2008b). River songs: A poetic response to Australia's wounded rivers. In Vanclay, F., Higgins, M. & Blackshaw, A. (Eds.), Making sense of place: Exploring concepts and expressions of place through different senses and lenses (pp. 47–55). Canberra: National Museum of Australia.Google Scholar
Weber, M. (2002). The Protestant ethic and the “spirit” of capitalism and other writings. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar