Change, courage, and community: how a BIPOC college student group discovered meaning in the outdoors

Abstract

This three-manuscript dissertation sought to understand how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students could create empowering spaces in outdoor recreation research and in outdoor recreation to build community, increase sense of belonging, and reclaim their place in outdoor spaces during this current climate. This dissertation combined three research studies to operationalize a model of conceptual change to: (1) understand the current socio-political climate in higher education and its effects on diversity, equity, and inclusion, (2) investigate how empowering spaces in research and outdoor recreation for BIPOC college students were formed, and (3) to examine key findings from the research project informed by the student co-researchers' data analysis and data interpretation. A community based participatory research (CBPR) framework was utilized for the second and third manuscripts to center and prioritize the student co-researchers' voices and lived experiences. The first manuscript set the stage for the current socio-political climate in higher education. Using The Chronicle of Higher Education's DEI trackers as the primary data source, we investigated how DEI retrenchment is affecting institutionally marginalized student populations across R1 institutions. The second manuscript examined how BIPOC college students co-created empowering spaces in outdoor recreation as student co-researchers during the current DEI retrenchment era in higher education. Thematic analysis and a theoretical framework lens combining third space theory, safe space theory, and brave space theory for outdoor recreation were used to analyze how empowering spaces surfaced in both the research process and during the students' lived experiences. The third manuscript was a co-written journal article with student co-researchers to address gaps in the current outdoor recreation literature of the lived experiences of BIPOC students engaging in outdoor recreation. Through inductive thematic analysis, the student co- researchers situated themselves as experts of their own lived experiences without relying on a theoretical framework. Three significant conclusions were: (1) DEI infrastructure has always been vulnerable and directly impacts institutional support for BIPOC students, (2) we need empowering spaces for BIPOC students in this current socio-political climate, and (3) it takes a whole community to provide access and support for BIPOC students to engage in outdoor recreation.