Table Of ContentBoys Go Bush: Lived Solo Experiences at Tihoi Venture School
John R Maxted
A thesis submitted for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
at the
University of Otago, Dunedin
New Zealand
January 2011
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Abstract
Boys Go Bush elucidates the lived experiences of adolescent males encountering a two-
day, two-night solitary experience (solo) in the New Zealand bush. A hermeneutic
phenomenological inquiry framework (van Manen, 1997) was utilised to capture the essential
qualities of the solo ‘as lived’, guided by the question: “what is the meaning and significance of
the forty-four hour solo as experienced by students at Tihoi Venture School?”
Pre-understandings to the Tihoi solo were acknowledged via an ethnographic socio-
historical chapter before nine ‘lived’ solo experiences were scrutinised by means of pre- and
post- interviews, underpinned by ‘44-hour solo timeline’ experience sampling records. Of
relevance was what soloists did, felt, and thought about during solo and the meanings their
lived-experiences came to represent. Solo interviews proved methodologically and
pedagogically significant, with the solo timeline providing a low- tech experience sampling
method (ESM). The analysis of written work arising from solo, including poetry, journal entries,
letters to family and friends, and letters to ‘self’, provided further insight to individual
experiences. Thematic statements and linguistic representations emerged from the nine solo
experiences, speaking to the complex and dynamic qualities of each solo as a unique multi-
dimensional experience.
The lived solo experiences represented dimensions of positive and negative solitude
(Long, Seburn, Averill, & More, 2003). Moments of sadness, loneliness, depression, and anxiety
accompanied lived experiences of stress, tension, and fear. Darkness and the sounds of the
bush at night accentuated soloist’ anxieties related to stranger danger and aspects of the
unknown or supernatural. Moments of lived freedom, contentment, pleasure, boredom, and
enjoyment paradoxically emerged during daylight hours when soloists were more active in
body, mind, or spirit.
Solo experiences were further scrutinised using a ‘solo lifeworld inquiry matrix’ oriented
around the four lifeworld existentials of ‘lived time’, ‘lived space’, ‘lived relation’, and ‘lived
other’ (van Manen, 1997). An interpretive synthesis revealed a complexity of essential qualities
integral to the solo experience, with five plausible insights emerging of pedagogical
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significance to adventure education. While soloists had interest and engagement with the solo
environs, the emphasis upon programme reflection and the energy spent coping with
apprehension and uncertainty inhibited the deepening of nature relationship. Nights were
laced with anxiety and fear for most, whilst the days provided insightful reflective space and
complexities associated with boredom that paradoxically led to personal insight. The
adolescent solo was deemed to be an adventure that was inclusive of the classic perceptions of
risk and uncertainty as well as educational opportunity, insight, embodied aesthetic
experience, playful activity, and fun.
Boys Go Bush deepens understandings of the overnight solo for adolescents, highlighting
a different experience from the spiritually-rewarding and deeply insightful moments promoted
in the solitude literature for adults. Solo for adolescents was a challenging personal time that
was endured more-so than enjoyed.
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Publications arising from this thesis
Book chapter
Maxted, J (2005) Coming home: Adolescents and the nature-based solo. In Knapp, C. & T.
Smith (Eds.) Exploring the power of solo, silence and solitude. Boulder, CO: Association for
Experiential Education. (pp. 121-136)
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Acknowledgements
Like the best of solitary journeys, many colleagues and friends have been there alongside
me in doctoral spirit, and I have appreciated amazing support and encouragement from many
quarters. To you all I am most grateful. A few special acknowledgements I would like to share:
This work would unlikely have been completed without the ‘whatever it
takes’ (WIT) ethos engendered by Bob, Shona, Rangi, Toto, and Jock.
Thank you for your willingness to take me in, and to encourage me along.
To my supervisors Dr’s Shona Thompson & Mike Boyes, and also Professor
Anne Smith early on: Thanks for your supportive encouragement and your
criticality throughout; I am richer for the journey and your shared wisdom!
To Barbara: thank you for your belief and your strength in the latter
stages. Yes, everything is possible to those who believe.
To my extended family, my boys, and to Susan: thanks for your patience
and support over what turned out to be a few too many years.
To the staff and management of Tihoi Venture School: thanks for your
openness and enthusiasm for this work. You are an inspiring group of
professionals, and your work is vital and life enriching. Kia kaha.
To the nine generous lads who were participants in this study, many
thanks. I trust your copy of this work becomes more than a doorstop and
might provide some further reflective insight.
I would also like to acknowledge the support of:
the University of Otago (2001-2005)
EIT Hawke’s Bay (2006, 2009-2010)
the Sport, Fitness and Recreation Industry Training Organisation (SFRITO),
for their outdoor recreation research scholarship in 2007.
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Dedication
To my three beautiful sons, Sam, Tom, and Will:
May your lives be full of pleasure and adventure!
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Table of Contents
Abstract ............................................................................................................ iii
Publications arising from this thesis ................................................................... v
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................... vi
Dedication ....................................................................................................... vii
Table of Contents ............................................................................................ viii
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ xii
Chapter 1, Introduction: GOING BUSH ................................................................ 1
Solitude ......................................................................................................................................... 3
My Research question .................................................................................................................. 7
Motives for Researching Solitude ................................................................................................. 8
Outdoor Adventure Education in Aotearoa New Zealand .......................................................... 11
Solo at Tihoi Venture School: Some emerging questions ........................................................... 12
Phenomenology .......................................................................................................................... 14
Inquiry Overview ......................................................................................................................... 15
Chapter 2, Pre-Understandings: TIHOI SOLITUDES ............................................ 17
The Tihoi Venture School Solo Experience ................................................................................. 20
St Paul’s Collegiate School .......................................................................................................... 21
Early Outdoor Education at St Paul’s Collegiate School.............................................................. 25
Tihoi Venture School: Early beginnings ...................................................................................... 27
Early Solos at Tihoi ...................................................................................................................... 33
Tihoi Venture School Today ........................................................................................................ 36
Tihoi: Insights and Outcomes ...................................................................................................... 47
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The Tihoi Solo .............................................................................................................................. 56
Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 72
Chapter 3, Pre-Understandings: SOLO, NATURE, ADVENTURE ........................... 73
Part One: Solitude ....................................................................................................................... 74
Part Two: Solo in Outdoor Adventure Education ....................................................................... 88
Chapter 4, Methodology: WISDOM OF THE PHILOSOPHERS ............................ 102
A Human Science Orientation ................................................................................................... 103
Researching Lived Human Experience ...................................................................................... 107
Phenomenology ........................................................................................................................ 112
Husserlian (Transcendental) Phenomenological Method ........................................................ 116
Hermeneutical Phenomenology ............................................................................................... 121
Towards my own Hermeneutic Phenomenology of Practice ................................................... 123
Summary ................................................................................................................................... 135
Chapter 5, Methods: MAP AND COMPASS ...................................................... 137
Orienting to the Phenomenon: An Inquiry Matrix .................................................................... 138
Merging Method with Personal Philosophy ............................................................................. 141
From Field Experience to Field Text .......................................................................................... 143
Lived Experience Descriptors .................................................................................................... 150
Chapter 6, Results Part A: ALONE IN THE BUSH ............................................... 152
Alistair’s Lived Solo Experience ................................................................................................. 153
Aaron’s Lived Solo Experience .................................................................................................. 161
Brent’s Lived Solo Experience ................................................................................................... 167
Bevan’s Lived Solo Experience .................................................................................................. 173
Kerry’s Lived Solo Experience ................................................................................................... 179
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Martin’s Lived Solo Experience ................................................................................................. 185
Nigel’s Lived Solo Experience .................................................................................................... 192
Paul’s Lived Solo Experience ..................................................................................................... 198
Zach’s Lived Solo Experience .................................................................................................... 205
Chapter 7, Results Part B: INTERPRETIVE SYNTHESIS ....................................... 211
Lived Other: Relationality ......................................................................................................... 211
Lived Space - Lived Place: Spatiality .......................................................................................... 228
Lived time: Temporality ............................................................................................................ 235
Lived Body: Corporeality ........................................................................................................... 244
From Interpretive Synthesis to Plausible Insights ..................................................................... 250
Chapter 8, Discussion: SOLITUDE SPEAKS ....................................................... 251
PLAUSIBLE INSIGHT 1: Solo, Adolescents, and Nature ............................................................. 252
PLAUSIBLE INSIGHT 2: Solo as fear, apprehension and uncertainty ......................................... 261
PLAUSIBLE INSIGHT 3: Solo as boredom, complexity and insight ............................................. 271
PLAUSIBLE INSIGHT 4: Solo as insightful reflective space ......................................................... 282
PLAUSIBLE INSIGHT 5: The Tihoi solo is an adventure .............................................................. 290
Chapter 9, Conclusion: SOLITUDES WITHIN ..................................................... 302
The Tihoi Solo: Specific insights to experience ......................................................................... 305
The Tihoi solo: Towards pedagogical competence ................................................................... 307
Contributions to outdoor adventure education theory............................................................ 317
Contributions to methodology ................................................................................................. 320
Future research opportunities emerging from this work ......................................................... 323
Final thoughts: On solo and adventure..................................................................................... 325
REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 328
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