The Coming Separation of Leisure Studies from Parks and Recreation Education

The basic premise of this paper is that leisure studies or the scientific study of “leisure” should not be housed with college level programs in parks and recreation education. The present connection between parks and recreation education and leisure studies inhibits the training of practitioners for leisure delivery systems as well as the accumulation of knowledge about leisure behavior.Arguments to support the proposition are developed around the following topics: 1) conflicts within a curriculum designed both to train practitioners and to prepare graduate students for research; 2) the difference in professional orientation of faculty who teach practitioners and those who do leisure research; 3) the lack of compatibility between methodology for “park and recreation” education and that taught by social science leisure scholars; and 4) the difficulties in establishing a linkage between the findings of leisure research and the program needs of park and recreation education