Outdoor adventure programming is a diverse field of study with multiple scopes of practice. Outdoor adventure literature often focuses on the risk management of participants’ physical safety. There is a lack of focus on participants’ emotional safety which is important in many areas of practice, and predominantly when working with youth. Outdoor adventure programs hire staff with technical skills training, and post-secondary education programs provide such training. Child and youth care is a post-secondary degree that provides graduates with skills to work alongside youth in a variety of settings and contexts. Content analysis was used to examine the intersection and alignment of outdoor adventure and child and youth care post-secondary education programs by analyzing five upper year required courses. The results show that child and youth care students are receiving explicit interpersonal skills training, which the outdoor adventure literature states is important. This study provides insight into what components of outdoor adventure youth work are important for students to learn, and insight on how to enhance education and knowledge for front-line workers. / Graduate

This thesis highlights the complex nature of students’ experiences in the sexuality education classroom. It seeks to provide insight from the perspectives of Year 10 students in two classes on their experiences of a particular sexuality education programme. The purpose of this study was to ‘give voice to’ and explore the experiences of asmall group of nine Year 10 students in their compulsory co-educational sexuality education programme. To this end, the main source of data was focus group interviews with student participants. Students were asked to participate in focus group interviews part way through the unit of work and invited to share their thoughts, feelings and perceptions of the programme. The data analysis generated themes that describe student’s experiences in relation to course content, pedagogy and classroom organisation. The analysis of students’ talk in focus group interviews also showed that gender relations and emotional safety were important features of the students’ experiences of their sexuality education programme. More particularly, it was found that students valued their exposure to this subject and felt that school was a good place to learn about sexuality education. They enjoyed social constructivist teaching approaches that were student-centred and interactive. The students expressed some dissatisfaction with the way in which their sexuality education programme was organised and being delivered. In addition, there was evidence of both male and female students being influenced by traditional, hegemonic constructs of masculinity and femininity, and also a heteronormative culture within the classroom. The findings present implications for sexuality education teaching in relation to programme development and classroom practice. They suggest that sexuality educators may need to consider the way in which their classrooms are organised, as well as the pedagogical approaches they use, as it appears these aspects have significant influence on the emotional safety of students, on relationships within the classroom and on the student experience of sexuality education as a whole.

Private deck of cards created during six-month survey and documentation of daily experiences. The package contains 49 cards and it is inspired by a set of 78 tarot cards. Text content - reverse side of the card was created using diary notes. Face side of the card was chosen as a representation of processes taking place usually in days when the card was read.