i THE STONELEIGH PROJECT: A CASE STUDY OF OUTDOOR YOUTH WORK AND ITS IMPACT ON PERSONAL AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION A Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Christopher Loynes School of Sport, Leisure and Travel Faculty of Enterprise and Innovation Buckinghamshire New University Brunel University August 2008 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author under the terms of the United Kingdom Copyright Acts. No quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. i Abstract This research is a case study of the Stoneleigh Group; a partnership of voluntary youth work organisations that piloted a spiritual development programme for young people aged 18 to 25. The purpose of the research was to examine the claims made by the Stoneleigh Group to have developed a radical approach and outcomes of personal and social transformation within a programme of informal education out of doors. The research was undertaken in the contexts of reviews of research concerning outdoor education, informal education for young people, and youth transition. An ethnographic study of the retreat programme and its impact on the lives of the young people was combined with a critical study of the advocacy work of the Stoneleigh Group within the development of the National Youth Work Curriculum. The analysis was undertaken with the aid of Bernstein?s theoretical framework for curriculum and pedagogic critique. The study of the programme claims that the pedagogic approach was radical in its ideology and practice. However, it is argued that the impact on the young people depended on the ideology of the youth organisation for which they volunteered. A range of claims for a radical outcome are identified and discussed. The research argues that, despite the claim that the outcomes of social transformation were only partially achieved, the practices of the Stoneleigh Group were contested because of their perceived radicalism. The study of the advocacy work suggests that, despite these challenges, the Stoneleigh Group's contributions to the national discussions concerning the spiritual development of young people within the youth work curriculum resulted in proposals that supported a more radical pedagogic approach than currently practised. The research indicates that the Stoneleigh Group influenced statements made in the consultation. It is argued that the Group provided support for the concept of young people as agents of social change. In particular, it is suggested that the pilot was used to support a view of young people as capable of, and valued for, their challenges to the established norms of society. ii Acknowledgements I wish to thank Dick Allcock, Dr Peter Allison, Prof. Peter Becker, Steve Bowles, Janice Dolley, Stephen Doughty, Chris Dunning, Prof. Peter Higgins, Prof. Barbara Humberstone, Dr Robbie Nicol, Roger Orgill, Dr Heather Prince, Dr Kate Rawles, Kaye Richards, Soo Redshaw, Ina Stans, Letty Sudds, and Dr Takako Takano for your emotional and intellectual support during this research. You have all been valued and sensitive critical friends. My colleagues at Adventure Education, Edinburgh University, St. Martin's College (now the University of Cumbria) and Threshold have been extraordinarily tolerant of the effect on my work of undertaking this study. My thanks go to you also. I would especially like to thank the participants in the Stoneleigh Project for their full co- operation in this study. I wish you all well. Sue Bennett was inspirational as a youth worker with Eden Community Outdoors. She epitomised all that motivated me to take an interest in the radical potential of this field. This thesis is dedicated to her. iii Author's Declaration This research builds on an evaluative study, The Stoneleigh Group Pilot Programme: An Evaluation, (Loynes, 2004) undertaken on behalf of the Stoneleigh Group. The research asks different questions for a different purpose and involved the collection of additional evidence and an extended period of field research. Some of the material in Chapter 5 was included as part of a book chapter, Social Reform, Militarism and Other Historical Influences on the Practice of Outdoor Education in Youth Work (Loynes, 2007). Two conference presentations were made that explored the early findings from this research. The first was entitled 'Power With or Power Over: A Case Study of Emerging Voices Within an Outdoor Experience' and was presented at 'Widening Horizons', the Third International Conference of Outdoor Education at the University of Central Lancashire in July 2006. The second was called 'Agents of Change or Coming in from the Cold: A Case Study of Developing Narratives in an Outdoor Experience' at the10th International Conference for Experiential Learning at Lancaster University in July 2006. Neither of these presentations was published. The thesis is based on my own research and is all my own work. Quotes from other sources are referenced and quoted evidence is identified with a code that corresponds with the source in the evidence database. iv Table of Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements ii Author's Declaration iii Table of Contents iv List of Tables ix Chapter 1 Introduction 1 The Aims of the Research 2 Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5: Contexts for the Research 4 Chapters 6 and 7: The Research Approach 6 Chapter 8: A Theoretical Framework 7 Chapters 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13: Discussion 8 Chapter 14: Conclusions 11 The Multiple Roles of the Researcher 11 The Use of Pseudonyms for the Participants 12 Coding the Evidence 12 Conclusion 12 Chapter 2 Introducing the Stoneleigh Group and the Stoneleigh Project 14 The Stoneleigh Group 14 The Young People 24 The Stoneleigh Project 25 The Evaluation Study 31 Conclusion 37 v Chapter 3 A Review of Outdoor Education Research 39 Outdoor Education: Early Claims 40 Emerging Research Findings Criticised 41 The Meta-Studies Reviewed 41 Recent research reviewed 44 Locating this Study within the Wider Research on Outdoor Education 56 Chapter 4 Youth, Transition and Agency 58 Youth in Context 59 The Vulnerability of Youth 63 Youth Transitions 68 Youth Transition as Problem 74 Youth Development 76 Transition and Risk, Structure and Agency 79 Conclusion 86 Chapter 5 Youth Development and Informal Education 89 Colonisation and Tradition 89 Historical Influences 91 The New Individualism and Outdoor and Informal Education 110 Conclusion 119 Chapter 6 Arriving at a Methodology 123 Finding a Philosophical Position 123 The Contribution of Narrative 130 Reflexivity 133 An Ethnographic Approach 133 Entering the Field Co-operatively and Critically 135 Criticality 137 A Grounded Approach 139 vi Adopting Critical, Interpretative, Hermeneutic and Ethnographic Approaches to the Case Study 139 Chapter 7 A Review of the Methods of Inquiry 142 A Structure for the Inquiry 142 Focus 1: An Ethnography of the Stoneleigh Project Programme 146 Focus 2: The Impact of the Stoneleigh Project on the Young People 160 Focus 3: A Critical Analysis of the Struggle for the Meaning and Dissemination of the Findings of the Stoneleigh Project 162 Ethical Considerations 163 Reflexivity 165 Benefits and Dilemmas 166 Conclusion 170 Chapter 8 Knowledge, Power and Control in Education: Theoretical Perspectives 172 The Underlying Principles of Bernstein?s Theories 176 The Current Relevance of Bernstein?s Ideas 180 Bernstein?s Theories and the Stoneleigh Project 184 The Genesis of Values 195 Conclusion 199 Chapter 9 The Ideologies of the Stoneleigh Group and its Partners 201 Youth and Transition 204 Marginalisation 209 The Stoneleigh Group and the Meaning of Work 222 Conclusion 228 vii Chapter 10 The Participants? Experience of the Stoneleigh Project Retreats 231 The Retreat Programme 232 The Young Participants 238 The Retreat Experience 244 Conclusion 267 Chapter 11 The Role of Narrative in the Stoneleigh Project 270 Recruitment 271 Creating Discourse 273 Constructing and Reconstructing Identity 274 Experiencing Agency 279 Learning Narrative Skills 280 Transformation 281 Conclusion 283 Chapter 12 The Stoneleigh Project and its Influence on the Lives of the Young Participants after the Retreats 285 The Stoneleigh Project Programme after the Retreats 285 Agents of Personal Change 301 Personal or Social Change Agents 308 The Young People of the Stoneleigh Project as Agents of Social Change. 316 Conclusion 320 Chapter 13 Ideological Struggles: The Spirituality Concept and Informal Education 322 Spirituality and the Stoneleigh Group Partners 323 An Integrated Code and the Threat to Power. 326 The Struggle between the Programme Staff and the Stoneleigh Group Partners. 330 Leadership as a Colonising Influence: the struggle amongst the Stoneleigh Group partners. 335 The Struggle for Ideas after the Stoneleigh Project. 340 viii Unravelling the Conflation of Values, Spirituality and Religion. 342 Chapter 14 Conclusions 346 Questions One and Two: The Integrated Curriculum and Pedagogy of the Retreats. 346 Question Three: Agency and the Reproduction and Transformation of Social Order. 353 Question Four: The Struggle to Break Out of a Liberal 'Papering Over of the Cracks'. 359 Questions for Further Study. 362 References 364 Appendix 1 The Backgrounds to Participants in the Text. 374 Appendix 2 Sources of Evidence Used in this Thesis. 378 Appendix 3 A Personal Narrative in the Context of the Study of The Stoneleigh Project. 383 Appendix 4 A Summary of the Work of the Stoneleigh Group Partners. 393 Appendix 5 The Four Umbrellas of the Stoneleigh Group and its Network. 398 ix List of Diagrams and Tables Chapter 2 Table 1 The Stoneleigh Project: Calendar of Events 22 Table 2 The Formal Roles of the Participants within the Stoneleigh Group 24 Chapter 7 Table 3 Research Calendar 143 Chapter 10 Table 4 Summary of 12 ?Case Study? Young Participants? Perceived Situations Before the Stoneleigh Project 239 Chapter 12 Table 5 Summary of the Effect of the Stoneleigh Project on the Identity and Trajectory of the 12 Case Study Young People 287 Diagram 1 Trajectories of the Young Participants in the Stoneleigh Project Showing the Representative Pathways of the 12 Participants Analysed as Case Studies. 291 i