Issues of trustworthiness in qualitative leisure research, often demonstrated through particular techniques of reliability and/or validity, is often either nonexistent, unsubstantial, or unexplained. Rather than prescribing what reliability and/or validity should look like, researchers should attend to the overall trustworthiness of qualitative research by more directly addressing issues associated with reliability and/or validity, as aligned with larger issues of ontological, epistemological, and paradigmatic affiliation. In reviewing contemporary qualitative research methodologies, we present a variety of reliability and validity techniques that might lead to increased trustworthiness in analysis and representation of findings. Qualitative leisure scholars are encouraged to align paradigmatic assumptions, theoretical orientations, methodological practices, analytical techniques, and representational practices to engage trustworthiness techniques that can be assessed for quality and credibility. This conceptualization offers a useful pedagogical model and supports common language of qualitative preferred practices, while providing space and openness for growth, development, improvisation, and critique.

Through narrative and critique, this critical analysis addresses the role and reification of privilege in the pedagogical processes of experiential education. Using whiteness as a critical and theoretical lens, we argue experiential education is a privileged pedagogy, aimed at maintaining the status quo and reproducing dominant power relations between racialized social groups. Participants, instructors, spaces, and activities often reflect the embedded whiteness of experiential education. We critically examine the use of challenge in experiential education and offer a language of possibility for future trajectories for experiential education which facilitates more just and equitable teaching and learning processes.

Thousands of tourists venture to the internationally renowned Galapagos Islands each year to admire the same pristine nature Darwin came upon over 150 years ago. While appreciating the landscape, many visitors fail to understand the interconnectedness of the tourism industry, Galapagos conservation efforts, and development on the inhabited islands of the archipelago. This research stems from 6 weeks of in-depth field research on San Cristóbal Island, Galapagos Islands, and demonstrates the ways in which island residents are forced to navigate the complex intersection of tourism, conservation, and development on the most local scale. Conservation political ecology examines the asymmetrical power relations in protected areas. Therefore, to understand the impacts of conservation and tourism on local communities, political ecology frames research findings to illustrate how relationships between conservation, tourism, and development have altered not only the San Cristóbal community, but also locals’ perceptions of various actors, their own agency, and Galapagos nature. The San Cristóbal municipal government aims to implement a version of ‘true’ ecotourism, which would allow residents to reclaim political agency, yet the lack of aid and transparency throughout larger scales of Ecuadorian governance challenges these local ideals.

This paper examines the ways in which guides contribute to creating value to clients. The context is nature-based adventure tourism in the specific mediums of mountain bike and backcountry ski tours in Utah and Idaho, USA. Qualitative interviews of clients and guides combined with participant observations are used to explore how guides interact with clients to increase their perceived value. Important findings are related to how guides use their knowledge about the activity, the area, safety management, as well as their organizational skills, to effectively and conveniently facilitate fun experiences with minimum risk exposure. The paper also documents guides’ contributions related to learning, relational aspects, entertainment techniques, and providing information about environmentally friendly behavior. An important theoretical contribution is the identification of how guides carefully balance thrilling and safe experiences and avoid experiences that cause anxiety. The study documents how guides can contribute to prevent negative incidents like conflicts within the client group, or possible accidents. The study indicates that there is a potential for increased contributions from guides especially related to choreographing experiences, interpreting nature, and learning of behaving environmentally.

Background: Although outdoor education provides many positive learning outcomes for students, it is a field in which women continue to be underrepresented in leadership roles. Centering the voices of women and other underrepresented populations is critical to creating a more inclusive outdoor education field. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore women’s experiences as outdoor leaders, and how women’s perspectives may broaden how outdoor leadership is defined and conceptualized. Methodology/Approach: The study was grounded in narrative inquiry and a critical feminist framework and included interviews and photo reflections of six participants identifying as women outdoor leaders in higher education. Findings/Conclusions: Participants experienced sexism, gender bias, and lack of confidence in technical skills as outdoor leaders. Participants discussed how they conceptualize outdoor leadership through a lens of facilitation and discovery, challenging masculine norms and ideologies. In addition, participants’ intersections of identities influence how they experience outdoor leadership. Implications: Implications from this study indicate the continued need to center the voices of women and diverse populations, using critical frameworks nascent in outdoor education studies. In addition, critical examinations of policies and practices that may reify the White male privileged narrative of outdoor education are needed.