Canadian outdoor adventure education: Hear the challenge — Learn the lessons

Canada is the second largest country in the world by area. With its diverse geophysical features and relatively small population density it is a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts of all types. In the Canadian outdoor adventure education field there is an awakened acknowledgement of the centrality of Native peoples that pervades its practice today. There is also a strong sense of a real and mythical north that pervades a Canadian approach. This paper provides a brief geophysical, historical, and socio-political overview of Canada infused with outdoor adventure educators' interests. An interpretative essay describing the ways and times of outdoor adventure education in Canada follows, which includes the authors' attempt to capture a collective sense of the field that is distinctively a ‘Canadian way’. This, of course, is an opinionated view. The authors believe that Canada's varied geography and climate, Canada's history, Canada's influences and differences from the United States, and Canadian outdoor educators' tendency to integrate the curricular aspects of environment and adventure education are highly influential for most Canadian outdoor educators. This paper also offer a discussion of the philosophical underpinnings of Canadian adventure education and provides a description of outdoor adventure education in Canada including risk management and liability.