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1 – 10 of over 4000The purpose of this study is to explore the role of formal religion in the early years of Outward Bound, a significant outdoor education organisation in Britain, from the 1940s to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the role of formal religion in the early years of Outward Bound, a significant outdoor education organisation in Britain, from the 1940s to the 1960s.
Design/methodology/approach
This article is based on archival and other documentary research in various archives and libraries, mostly in the United Kingdom.
Findings
The article shows that religious “instruction” was a central feature of the outdoor education that Outward Bound provided. The nature and extent of this aspect of the training was a matter of considerable debate within the Outward Bound Trust and was influenced by older traditions of muscular Christianity as well as the specific context of the early post–Second World War period. However, the religious influences at the schools were marginalised by the 1960s; although formal Christian observances did not disappear, the emphasis shifted to the promotion of a vaguer spirituality associated with the idea that “the mountains speak for themselves”.
Originality/value
The article establishes the importance of organised Christianity and formal religious observances in the early years of Outward Bound, a feature which has generally been overlooked in the historical literature. It contributes to wider analyses of outdoor education, religious education and secularisation in the mid-twentieth century.
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Mark Freeman and Jayson Seaman
The introduction sets out the scope of the special issue and suggests areas for further research.
Abstract
Purpose
The introduction sets out the scope of the special issue and suggests areas for further research.
Design/methodology/approach
This introductory article sets out the rationale and contents of the special issue of History of Education Review on “Outdoor Education in Historical Perspective”. It briefly summarizes the existing state of research and introduces the six articles that comprise the issue.
Findings
The introduction identifies four particular themes that arise from the existing literature and from the diverse contributions to this special issue: transculturality; space and place; religion and spirituality; and personality/personalities.
Originality/value
This special issue contains six original contributions to the study of the history of outdoor education, focussing on different locations in Europe and North America.
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The following is an introductory profile of the fastest growing firms over the three-year period of the study listed by corporate reputation ranking order. The business activities…
Abstract
The following is an introductory profile of the fastest growing firms over the three-year period of the study listed by corporate reputation ranking order. The business activities in which the firms are engaged are outlined to provide background information for the reader.
The purpose of this paper is to argue for an archaeological expedition of sorts, to search for and to uncover a host of stories which might assist us in piecing together a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue for an archaeological expedition of sorts, to search for and to uncover a host of stories which might assist us in piecing together a framework worth dedicating our future lives to understanding ageing.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a theoretical paper on ageing.
Findings
An individual's experience of ageing is integrally bound to questions of culture – particularly the systems of meaning within culture – and context. Just as there is not “one true story of aging”, so the paper suggests that we must have multiple narratives to assist us in building our own models of successful ageing.
Originality/value
Narratives of successful ageing, like all narratives, are never told in a vacuum. Rather, there must be those who are able to hear them, often stretching themselves beyond their own experiences, even beyond their own cultural frameworks. This has strong implications for researchers of successful ageing: together, we must try to meet the challenge of listening to diversity.
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Mark Freeman and Alison Freeman
Modelling users' interactions online is envisaged to allow developers to increase the usability of online systems and will aid system developers in building better systems to meet…
Abstract
Purpose
Modelling users' interactions online is envisaged to allow developers to increase the usability of online systems and will aid system developers in building better systems to meet users' needs, hereby creating better system design processes. This paper aims to investigate this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
The normative task model that was developed in this paper was created through an expert review of 14 online grocery stores, using a reverse engineering technique to model the features of the stores' ordering process.
Findings
The research identified three main areas of user experience when undertaking the process of adding a product to an online trolley: attempting to retrieve the product, receiving the results of the retrieval attempt, and adding the product to the trolley. These three classifications were used as the basis for an analysis of errors.
Practical implications
The findings present a model that can be used to further understand the processes of customers as they engage in an online grocery shopping visit. The normative task model presented is expected to help in the future design of online grocery stores by identifying the possible errors that users can encounter, and methods to reduce the occurrence of these errors. Errors are one area that traditional task‐modelling processes ignore, due to their focus on successful processes.
Originality/value
This paper presents the innovative process of the development of a normative task model for modelling user interactions when using online grocery stores.
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The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the application of standard environmental accounting practices for estimating long‐term discount rates is likely to lead to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the application of standard environmental accounting practices for estimating long‐term discount rates is likely to lead to the rejection of biodiversity‐sensitive projects that are in the greater societal good.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors combine estimates of marginal ecosystem damages from two forestry case studies, one local, one global, with ten different term structures of discount rates taken from both the academic literature and policy choices to calculate present values.
Findings
Standard environmental accounting approaches for estimating the long‐term discount rate result in the under‐valuation of projects that are sensitive to biodiversity conservation.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is set within a full cost accounting (FCA) framework, and therefore has the limitations that generally follow from taking this approach to biodiversity problems. Recommended extensions include looking at broader ranges of biodiversity costs and benefits.
Social implications
Unless environmental accountants engage with environmental economists over the issue of intergenerational discount rates, then it is likely that socially responsible managers will reject projects that are in the greater societal good.
Originality/value
The paper introduces both normative discount rates and declining discount rates to estimates of shadow environmental provisions within FCA and contrasts these with current environmental accounting practices. It also provides two detailed case studies that demonstrate the extent to which biodiversity‐sensitive investment choices are likely to be undervalued by managers who follow current accounting recommendations concerning the appropriate choice of discount rate.
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Jayson Seaman, Robert MacArthur and Sean Harrington
The article discusses Outward Bound's participation in the human potential movement through its incorporation of T-group practices and the reform language of experiential…
Abstract
Purpose
The article discusses Outward Bound's participation in the human potential movement through its incorporation of T-group practices and the reform language of experiential education in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Design/methodology/approach
The article reports on original research conducted using materials from Dartmouth College and other Outward Bound collections from 1957 to 1976. It follows a case study approach to illustrate themes pertaining to Outward Bound's creation and evolution in the United States, and the establishment of experiential education more broadly.
Findings
Building on prior research (Freeman, 2011; Millikan, 2006), the present article elaborates on the conditions under which Outward Bound abandoned muscular Christianity in favor of humanistic psychology. Experiential education provided both a set of practices and a reform language that helped Outward Bound expand into the educational mainstream, which also helped to extend self-expressive pedagogies into formal and nonformal settings.
Research limitations/implications
The Dartmouth Outward Bound Center's tenure coincided with and reflected broader cultural changes, from the cold war motif of spiritual warfare, frontier masculinity and national service to the rise of self-expression in education. Future scholars can situate specific curricular initiatives in the context of these paradigms, particularly in outdoor education.
Originality/value
The article draws attention to one of the forms that the human potential movement took in education – experiential education – and the reasons for its adoption. It also reinforces emerging understandings of post-WWII American outdoor education as a product of the cold war and reflective of subsequent changes in the wider culture to a narrower focus on the self.
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Kay Morris Matthews and Kay Whitehead
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the contributions of women teachers to the war effort at home in Australia and New Zealand and in Egypt and Europe between 1914 and 1918.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the contributions of women teachers to the war effort at home in Australia and New Zealand and in Egypt and Europe between 1914 and 1918.
Design/methodology/approach
Framed as a feminist transnational history, this research paper drew upon extensive primary and secondary source material in order to identify the women teachers. It provides comparative analyses using a thematic approach providing examples of women teachers war work at home and abroad.
Findings
Insights are offered into the opportunities provided by the First World War for channelling the abilities and leadership skills of women teachers at home and abroad. Canvassed also are the tensions for German heritage teachers; ideological differences concerning patriotism and pacifism and issues arising from government attitudes on both sides of the Tasman towards women’s war service.
Originality/value
This is likely the only research offering combined Australian–New Zealand analyses of women teacher’s war service, either in support at home in Australia and New Zealand or working as volunteers abroad. To date, the efforts of Australian and New Zealand women teachers have largely gone unrecognised.
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Mark C. Freeman, Paul R. Cox and Brian Wright
This paper aims to explore the possible use of credit derivatives by corporate treasurers. Corporations have, in recent years, grown comfortable with the idea of using traditional…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the possible use of credit derivatives by corporate treasurers. Corporations have, in recent years, grown comfortable with the idea of using traditional derivative products to hedge their exposure to, for example, interest rate and foreign exchange risk. Credit risk, on the other hand, has proven a more difficult animal to tame. Whilst avenues for the management of credit risk do exist, for example, by the use of traditional insurance products and letters of credit, such means are not always convenient.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, both the academic and practitioner literature on credit derivatives and their application are reviewed. Then, by means of some simple numerical examples, the possible uses to which corporate treasurers might put credit default swaps and total return swaps are illustrated.
Findings
The credit derivatives market is, at present, dominated by large banks and insurance companies who trade credit exposure among themselves. As the credit derivatives market becomes more liquid and transparent, it is asked: “Should corporate treasurers consider using credit derivatives to manage their credit risk exposure?” A number of simple and practical ways in which corporations can use credit derivatives to manage risk are explored and the practical strengths and weaknesses of following such approaches are emphasised.
Originality/value
This paper is of particular value to corporate treasurers. This is one of the first academic papers to consider credit derivatives from a financial management perspective.
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To explore the advice given by the British Girl Guides Association, a popular girls' youth organisation, to urban members in the period from 1930 to 1960.
Abstract
Purpose
To explore the advice given by the British Girl Guides Association, a popular girls' youth organisation, to urban members in the period from 1930 to 1960.
Design/methodology/approach
This article is based on an analysis of the Girlguiding publications The Guide and The Guider in 30 years spanning 1930–1960.
Findings
The article shows that, although rural spaces maintained symbolic position in the education and training of the British Girl Guides Association throughout the mid-twentieth century, the use of urban spaces were central in ensuring that girls embodied Guiding principles on a day-to-day basis. While rural spaces, and especially the camp, have been conceptualised by scholars as ‘extraordinary’ spaces, this article argues that by encouraging girls to undertake nature study in their urban locality the organisation stressed the ordinariness of Guiding activity. In doing so, they encouraged girls to be an active presence in urban public space throughout the period, despite the fact that, as scholars have identified, the post-war period saw the increased regulation of children's presence in public spaces. Such findings suggest that the organisation allowed girls a modicum of freedom in town Guiding activities, although ultimately these were limited by expectations regarding the behaviour and conduct of members.
Originality/value
The article builds upon existing understandings of the Girl Guide organisation and mid-twentieth century youth movements. A number of scholars have recently argued for a more complex understanding of the relationship between urban and rural, outdoor and indoor spaces, within youth organisations in the 20th century. Yet the place of urban spaces in Girlguiding remains under-explored.
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