Christian Youth Adventure Camps: Evidencing the Potential for Values-Based Education to THRIVE

Outdoor education camps offer adventure programs to schools that deliver camp-based activities that challenge students in various ways. These camps provide students with an opportunity to learn in a natural environment, interact with their peers outside of the classroom, and participate in activities that challenge them both physically and mentally. Youth Adventure Camps also espouse a Christian ethos, Christian values, and spirituality, which are also key focuses. Prior research into outdoor education camps has examined the social, emotional, and physical benefits for students. In this study, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with five (n = 5) Christian Youth Adventure Camp (CYAC) staff to better understand their experiences and perceptions of their induction, ongoing training, strategies, and pedagogical approaches used to deliver the CYAC camp programs. Targeted observations of camp staff (N = 5) in action were also used to identify the intentional pedagogies they used to embed CYAC’s philosophy within their camp programs. This paper is part of a larger study, and its findings are focused on the perspectives of the camp leaders for two key reasons: First, we wanted to examine the intentional pedagogies of camp leaders, particularly those who were not qualified teachers; and second, our aim was to examine how these camp leaders included the values-based THRIVE philosophy in their day-to-day practice. Our findings show that, despite not being university-qualified educators, camp staff consistently employed intentional pedagogies that were effective in engaging students in opportunities to “thrive” in alignment with the philosophy underpinning their operations and to meet the goals of the school using their programs.