Outdoor recreation profession study


Category:  Outdoor Recreation
Linked Publication
Language: English
Author(s): James F. Burke
Description: If outdoor recreation is to be regarded as a specialized profession with the same status and influence of other resource management fields (wildlife, range, etc.) practicioners must be capable of applying the specific skills and knowledge that are essential for effective planning and management of outdoor recreation opportunities. This study sought to address the problem of determining what skills and knowledge were needed by practicing professionals by conducting a questionnaire survey of recre ation educators in natural resource based programs and field practicioners with recreation responsibilities at various organizational levels in the National Park Service, U. S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and eight state park programs in the West (CA, CO, ID, MT, OR, !IT "^ WY). The objectives were to compare different respondent cate;> terms of: 1) the importance attached to certain skills and knowledge areas; 2) the level of competence required for such skills; 3) the time and place of skill acquisition (college, on-the-job, etc.) The analysis of the data revealed significant differences in the importance that recreation agencies and recreation educators attribute to different skill categories (analytical, communication, etc). Additional results indicated that there was considerable agreement among the surveyed groups on which skills were most important for successfully performing outdoor recreation jobs but a definite lack of agreement on where competency for those skills should be acquired. A final significant finding was that organizational affiliation rather than job title or educational major seemed to have more influence on the attitudes about skill importance expressed by individuals surveyed by the Outdoor Recreation Profession Study.