Abstract
Issue 44(4) rounds out 2021, a year when everyone thought the world might be further through the COVID pandemic than it is. At my institution, things at least feel somewhat normal, with classrooms largely back in person, field placements and service projects functioning again, and outdoor excursions underway – all with some continued modifications. Still, the mood is one of tentativeness and mild exhaustion, buoyed by hope. The JEE has continued unabated with record, high-quality submissions and, at the same time, some delays in processing; review times in 2021 have been a bit slower than in 2020. Everyone's patience is appreciated.
The current issue includes a number of timely articles. In it you’ll find a very balanced look at smartphone impacts on outdoor orientation trips by Erik Edwards, Chris Zachowski, and Eddie Hill (their conclusions will compel even the most tech-hesitant outdoor leader). Nai-Cheng Kuo, Tomohiro Kawaguchi, and Yu-Fen Yang provide a welcome dose of “absolute happiness” in their exploration of this fascinating construct in an experiential education context. In an innovative follow-up article, Karen L. Anderson, Margaret E. Pierce, and Kathleen M. McNamara revisit their 2019 study (see JEE issue 42[3], pp. 229–248) and demonstrate that service-learning involvement can have a long-term impact on teachers who participate during their preservice training.
Steph Dean provides an integrative review of the literature on national park interpretation and place-based education, finding some mutual compatibility as well as areas of difference between these two approaches. Lan Kolano and Anna Sanczyk report on their study of preservice teachers engaged in a service project involving English language learners. The study is an interesting look at digital pedagogy involving narrative analysis and the kinds of attitude change that can be engendered among participants moved by the stories of immigrant children. Finally, qualitative methodologists and teachers of qualitative methods will delight in reading about the use of mini-ethnographic case study design, in a superlative example of experiential education in advanced research methods written by Catherin E. Dobbins, Leslie D. Edgar, and Kim E. Dooley.
The COVID pandemic unfortunately persists beyond what any of us would like, yet so too does the spirit of experiential education. The articles included in Issue 44(4) provide testament to that, in all its formulations.