Jayson Seaman
Department Chair, Recreation Management & Policy
Jayson's research focuses on two areas: (1) youth learning and development in nonformal educational settings, and (2) historical foundations of outdoor experiential education. Recent prior work has examined links between social capital, outdoor activities, and youth outcomes in rural communities, how youth involved in an experiential ‘diversity education’ program developed more sophisticated understandings of race and schooling, and how a collaborative, real-world project in an urban middle school shaped children’s appropriation of school-related goals and identities. His historical research concerns how ideas and practices form the human potential movement, a late-20th century program of social reforms, were incorporated into outdoor experiential education. (You can read about some of his recent work here, here, here, and here.)
Jayson is currently the Editor in chief of the Journal of Experiential Education. He teaches undergraduate courses in theories of adventure education and field-based leadership (water-based settings), and masters and PhD courses in the historical foundations of education, qualitative research, and theories of learning and development.
Courses Taught
- 546: Whitewater Canoeing
- 552: Water Based Experiences
- 681: Foundations of Adventure Ed.
- 693: Teaching Assistantship
- EDUC/KIN 985/898: Contemp Issues Human Developmt
- KIN 546: White Water Canoeing
- KIN 552: Adventur Prog/Water Based Exp
- KIN 681: Theory of Adventure Education
- KIN 681/887: Theory of Adventure Education
- KIN 693: Teaching Assistantship
- KIN 884: History of Outdoor Education
- KIN 993: Teaching Practicum
- OUT 552: Water Based Experiences
- OUT 681: Theory of Adventure Education
- RMP 980: Independent Study
Selected Publications
Freeman, M., & Seaman, J. (2020). Outdoor education in historical perspective. HISTORY OF EDUCATION REVIEW, 49(1), 1-7. doi:10.1108/HER-04-2020-0022
Seaman, J., Sharp, E. H., Tucker, C. J., Van Gundy, K., & Rebellon, C. (2019). Outdoor activity involvement and postsecondary status among rural adolescents: Results from a longitudinal analysis. JOURNAL OF LEISURE RESEARCH, 50(1), 18-27. doi:10.1080/00222216.2018.1544472
Middleton, M., Rheingold, A., & Seaman, J. O. (2018). Activity settings as contexts for motivation: Reframing classroom motivation as dilemmas within and between activities. In D. Kritt (Ed.), Constructivist Education in an Age of Accountability (pp. 231-266). Palgrave MacMillan.
Outdoor experiential education as whiteness education (2018).
Seaman, J., Brown, M., & Quay, J. (2017). The Evolution of Experiential Learning Theory: Tracing Lines of Research in the JEE. JOURNAL OF EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION, 40(4), NP1-NP21. doi:10.1177/1053825916689268
Seaman, J., Sharp, E. H., & Coppens, A. D. (2017). A Dialectical Approach to Theoretical Integration in Developmental-Contextual Identity Research. DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, 53(11), 2023-2035. doi:10.1037/dev0000383
Seaman, J., & Rheingold, A. (2013). Circle Talks As Situated Experiential Learning. Journal of Experiential Education, 36(2), 155-174. doi:10.1177/1053825913487887
Middleton, M., Abrams, E., & Seaman, J. (2011). Resistance and disidentification in reflective practice with preservice teaching interns. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2011(126), 67-75. doi:10.1002/tl.445
Seaman, J., Beightol, J., Shirilla, P., & Crawford, B. (2010). Contact Theory as a Framework for Experiential Activities as Diversity Education: An Exploratory Study. Journal of Experiential Education, 32(3), 207-225. doi:10.1177/105382590903200303
Seaman, J. (2008). Experience, Reflect, Critique: The End of the “Learning Cycles” Era. Journal of Experiential Education, 31(1), 3-18. doi:10.1177/105382590803100103
Most Cited Publications