Positive youth development and outdoor education: an 11-year retrospective program evaluation of Grand Canyon youth

Geoghegan, Kevin Edgar (2023) Positive youth development and outdoor education: an 11-year retrospective program evaluation of Grand Canyon youth. Masters thesis, Northern Arizona University.

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Abstract

Outdoor education (i.e., organized learning that takes place outdoors; Mansfield et al., 2020) is used for a variety of purposes, including to foster positive youth development. Extant research demonstrates that positive youth development is multi-faceted and dynamic (Masten, 2011). This makes outdoor education particularly well situated to complement traditional or orthodox educational pedagogy in the United States and bolster the development of youth through non-cognitive or non-academic skills. However, the complexity of youth development combined with a lack of unifying frameworks for understanding the impact of outdoor education’s effect on youth development across diverse contexts, leaves the field lacking a thorough understanding of how innovative programs impact youth, thereby limiting the field’s ability to develop and implement outdoor education programs in a world where outdoor spaces are rapidly changing due to urbanization and environmental degradation. Hence, there are two main purposes to this thesis. First, the current study aims to conduct a descriptive 11-year retrospective program evaluation of innovative programming for youth aged 11-19 delivered between 2010-2021 by Grand Canyon Youth (GCY; https://gcyouth.org/), a local 501(c)(3) outdoor education organization that aims to connect diverse youth with the rivers and canyons of the Southwestern United States (GCY, 2022). Second, using the theory-data-cycle, which places findings from this program evaluation in conversation with contemporary frameworks for understanding positive youth development, this study aims to assess the fit between the Positive Youth Development model (PYD; Lerner et al., 2005) and GCY’s programming. While data was incomplete, survey responses from youth exhibit compelling evidence for positive youth development and transformation consistent with three components of the PYD model: connection to others, competence, and confidence in self. Complementing this, free response data suggested that connection to place and gratitude are also key components of the GCY experience. Findings are discussed in the context of the strengths and limitations of GCY’s current approach to measurement and evaluation and the need for further development of the PYD framework. More broadly, recommendations for future research and organizational innovation are provided for procedural and evaluative refinement that includes ongoing empirical data analysis and theory-of-change innovation.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Publisher’s Statement:	© Copyright is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Cline Library, Northern Arizona University. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
Keywords:	Adventure-based Education; Experiential Education; Grand Canyon Youth; Outdoor Education; Positive Youth Development; Program Evaluation
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status:	Student
Department/Unit:	Graduate College > Theses and Dissertations College of Social and Behavioral Science > Psychological Sciences
Date Deposited:	02 May 2025 17:51
Last Modified:	02 May 2025 17:51
URI:	https://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/6115

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