This book adds to the theoretical development of the emerging fields of experiential learning and outdoor education by examining the central concept, 'experience', and interrogating a central claim of experiential learning: whether, and if so how, a short-term singular experience can transform a participant’s life as a whole and in a permanent way.

While such a possibility has been corroborated by the personal testimonies of participants, and the activities of instructors over many years, the book argues that we must go beyond this kind of ‘evidence’. In comparing Anglophone and continental approaches and drawing on the work of Dewey, Dilthey and Merleau-Ponty in the philosophy of experience, Experiential Learning and Outdoor Education presents the first detailed review of the concept of ‘experience’ in European philosophy, as applied to outdoor experiential learning.

A vital insight into the field, this is important reading for students and researchers working in the philosophy of sport, and pedagogical theory, especially in areas relating to the outdoors, but also to experiential education more generally.

Jim Parry is Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University in Prague and former Head of the Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds, UK. His main interests are in sports ethics and social and political philosophy. He is Series Co-editor of the Routledge series Ethics and Sport.

Pete Allison is Professor at the Pennsylvania State University, USA. His scientific interests are in experiential education, values, ethics and qualitative research. The main areas of his work are in Snowsports and the Outward Bound™ movement. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, the Explorers Club of New York, the Young Explorers Trust and the British Exploring Society.