The Role of Touch as a Tool for Building Community in the Practice of Experiential Education

• In Event: Touch and Distancing in Professional and Applied Contexts

Abstract

It is well documented in nonverbal communication research that touch is essential to humans, and especially human infants, for physical, intellectual, perceptual, emotional, social, and communicative development. However, little research has explored, as this article does, the role of touch in relation to community building. Based on data collected during more than 250 hours of fieldwork, this qualitative study examines the role of touch as a primary tool for building community in adventure-based experiential education (ABEE) in groups of "troubled" youth (teens who have been sexually abused, have drug and or alcohol problems, or who have been placed in foster care). The results highlight the importance of touch for nonverbal communication researchers and experiential education practitioners alike.

Author

• Angie White, University of Colorado, Boulder