Experiential learning and values education at a school youth camp: Maintaining Jewish culture and heritage

In our post-modern, globalised world, there is a risk of unique cultural
heritages being lost. This loss contributes to the detriment of civilization, because
individuals need to be rooted in their own specific identity in order to actively
participate in community life. This article discusses a longitudinal case study of the
efforts being made by Australian Jewish schools to maintain Jewish heritage
through annual experiential religious education camps, coordinated in a programme
called Counterpoint. The researchers’ aim was to analyse how a school youth camp
can serve as a site for socialisation and education into a cultural and religious
heritage through experiential learning and informal education. During research trips
which took place over several years, interviews enabling insights into the process of
experiential education were conducted with a total of three different Directors of
Informal Jewish Education, two Jewish Studies heads, five participating teachers,
seven youth leaders, as well as seven student focus groups. In their analysis of the
semi-structured interviews, the authors of this article employed a grounded theory
approach using a constant comparative method, which enabled a more nuanced
understanding of the main phenomenon investigated. Over the years, they were able
to observe two philosophical approaches, one of which focused more on socialisation,
with immersion into experience, while the other focused on education, with
immersion into Jewish knowledge. Their findings reveal that some educators aim to
‘‘transmit’’ knowledge through ‘‘evocation’’, with the students involved in active
learning; while others focus more on students’ ‘‘acquisition’’ of knowledge through transmission. Experiential learning activities were found to be more meaningful and powerful if they combined both approaches, leading to growth.