Resources

RESOURCES


RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Tazim Jamal, Justin Taillon & Dianne Dredge
School/Work Place : Texas A&M University, USA (Tazim Jamal, Justin Taillon), Southern Cross University, Australia (Dianne Dredge)
Contact : tjamal@tamu.edu
Year : 2010

There have been increasing calls to move away from the traditional disciplinary structures and research, teaching and learning approaches that have tended to ‘tunnel’ student learning and reinforce particular worldviews towards new forms of post-disciplinary social science (e.g. Tribe 1997; Gretzel, Jamal, Stronza & Nepal 2008). These calls have been underpinned by a need to adopt more creative and flexible approaches to investigating problems, and a more tolerant approach to the forms of knowledge that different groups can contribute to problem solving. Tourism, as a multi-sectoral and transdisciplinary phenomenon, has struggled to carve out its scholarly territory and produce a coherent body of work that might achieve disciplinary status (Etchner & Jamal, 1997; Tribe, 1997; 2004). Indeed, Coles, Hall and Duval (2006) argue that the search for disciplinary status should not be the focus of discussions but that tourism, as part of a much larger social, economic, environmental and political system, requires deeper transdisciplinary understandings; i.e. disciplinary status is not as important. An important contribution of these debates is to highlight the challenges to teachers and students of tourism who seek to unpack sustainability issues that transcend disciplinary and sectoral boundaries, and to fashion a curriculum that delivers such rich learning opportunities.

In the field of tourism, curricula and teaching and learning approaches are continuing to evolve (see, for instance, McIntosh, 1983; Van Weenen and Shafer, 1983; Jovicic, 1988; Tribe, 1997; Leiper, 2000). Indeed, the political, economic, social, cultural and environmental dimensions of tourism, and the different ways that tourism can be conceptualized (i.e. as an activity, an experience, an industry, a political problem, a cultural dilemma, a resource challenge, a social justice issue and so on) make sustainable tourism a multi-faceted, dialectical concept and a challenging topic of instruction and study (Gunn 1998). In the growing body of tourism pedagogy, the value of learning experiences built around investigations of complex empirical problems embedded in rich contexts is increasingly recognized (Francis & Cowan, 2008). Here, the importance of encouraging students to understand, appreciate and apply the concept of sustainability within a tourism context presents educators with a range of institutional, pedagogical, resource and other challenges that are only just beginning to be unpacked (Jamal, 2005; Jurowski, 2002).

Consideration about what to teach has often overshadowed how to teach (Stergiou, Airey & Riley, 2008; Tribe, 2002). Whilst we see the two concerns as inextricably related, our aim in this paper is to give consideration to the practice of teaching and learning, and how the two concerns might be balanced within a holistic teaching approach wherein students are encouraged to develop and apply knowledge and the human qualities and dispositions required to work collaboratively within complex tourism settings. In this paper, a collaborative community-based approach to teaching sustainable tourism is outlined and discussed in terms of the contributions it made to transdisciplinary student learning. A discussion of student experiences demonstrates that the approach provided a useful vehicle for student learning. Importantly, the paper also contributes to the scholarship of sustainable tourism education by reflecting instructor experiences gained in class and through academic-student-community collaboration.


List of Articles
No. Subject Viewssort Date
14 Think Tank XII Barriers and Benefits to Professional Development: Per... file 34099 Nov 06, 2013

This paper builds upon the body of literature on tourism mobilities by considering supply-side perspectives as it relates to workforce planning and preparation. Research into tourism destination competitiveness has suggested that for a touri...

Author: Kevin Lyons, Joanne Hanley & Tamara Young 

Year: 2012 

13 Think Tank XII Integrated Planning of Sustainable Tourism and Mobilit... file 35413 Nov 06, 2013

Emerging tourist market trends are pushing destinations to consider mobility an essential strategic component of sustainable tourism planning. Destination Management needs to use tourism mobility analysis systematically if it wants to seize ...

Author: Anna Scuttari, Maria Della Lucia & Umberto Martini 

Year: 2012 

OPA: 2012 Runner Up 

12 Think Tank VI Ethical Issues in Collaboration in the Aviation Industry file 39915 Oct 13, 2013

The aviation industry is a critical element of any tourism system, and has several secondary effects – a source of employment and foreign exchange earnings. A ‘national carrier’ is also a symbol of the country, a source of pride amongst the ...

Author: Ravi Ravinder 

Year: 2006 

11 Think Tank XII The Impact of Volcanic Ash Clouds in 2010 and 2011 on ... file 40801 Nov 06, 2013

Few recent events which disrupted global tourism and especially tourism mobility, match the impact of the volcanic ash clouds generated from the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull in 2010 and the Chilean volcano Puyehue in 20...

Author: David Beirman 

Year: 2012 

10 OPA award Envisioning Sustainable Tourism Futures: An Evaluation... file 41126 Oct 13, 2013

Methods for researching the future have grown both in variety and rigour, offering new opportunities for understanding sustainable tourism. This paper discusses the value of futures research as a tool for envisioning and planning sustainable...

Author: Pierre Benckendorff 

Year: 2007 

OPA: 2007 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

9 Think Tank XVII New Forms of ‘Responsible Tourism’ in Refugee Camps an... file 42631 Aug 17, 2017

Responsible Tourism is about “making better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit”. Traveling responsibly is thus about managing travel and destinations in an environmentally and culturally responsible way and de...

Author: Jaume Guia, Sil van de Velde & Lauren Chan 

Year: 2017 

8 Think Tank XIV Tropical Communities as Resources for Tourism or Touri... file 48598 Jun 26, 2014

The purpose of this paper is to review the barriers to sustainable tourism development faced by rural and developing regions and to explore the notion of tourism and its potential contribution to community well-being, with a focus on Flora’s...

Author: Laurie Murphy, Gianna Moscardo & Anna Blackman 

Year: 2014 

7 Think Tank VII Branding Sustainability: Taking 'The Natural Step' in ... file 63446 Oct 13, 2013

Translation of the concept of sustainability into practice is fraught with problems. While policy advances in all sectors of the economy have made steps in the right direction the lack of clarity in defining what is meant by 'sustainability...

Author: Alison Gill & Peter Williams 

Year: 2007 

6 Think Tank XVII Product innovation in route-based tourism: Interactive... file 68166 Aug 17, 2017

Route-based tourism on walking, hiking and cycling routes is experiencing resurgence throughout the world (Collins-Kreiner, 2010) and can be a driver of sustainable development, particularly for remote areas (Briedenhann & Wickens, 2004;...

Author: Anna Scuttari & Isidoro De Bortoli & Harald Pechlaner & Hannes Riegler 

Year: 2017 

5 Think Tank VIII Moving from Destination Marketing to Destination Manag... file 70601 Oct 13, 2013

This paper provides a case study of how a tourism organisation has interpreted the change from a ‘marketing’ to a ‘management’ approach in destination development. It begins by looking at what the literature has said about destination manag...

Author: David Foster 

Year: 2008 

4 Think Tank VI Corporate Social Responsibility in the Catalan hospita... file 75518 Oct 13, 2013

The practices of CSR have attracted the attention of the investigators, who have prepared a great diversity of theories and the international organisms, which have done recommendations, so that the companies have added them in their strategi...

Author: Ramon Palau 

Year: 2006 

3 Think Tank VIII Enhancing the Quality of Life through Cultural Events:... file 103864 Oct 13, 2013

The Wadden Sea Festival in Denmark is based on the idea of integrating the coastal environment in the presentation of contemporary art. Specifically, unique tidal differences are utilized to stage a range of performances. The Wadden Sea Fest...

Author: Janne J. Liburd & Anja Hergesell 

Year: 2008 

2 Think Tank VI Ecotourism and Environmental Education: Opportunities ... file 152157 Oct 13, 2013

Ecotourism, which typically involves nature-based tourism, plays an increasing role in today's environmental management. As environmental conservation has, in many cases, suffered from a limited budget, funding ecotourism is perceived as a w...

Author: Aphirom Promchanya 

Year: 2006 

1 Think Tank V Discussion on Extended Validity of an Alternative Fram... file 209367 Oct 13, 2013

The risk management of tourism as an industry involves quantification of unprecedented, unlikely but possible negative exogenous event to the region. The objective of this paper is to discuss further on an alternative quantitative method to ...

Author: Tadayuki Hara 

Year: 2005 

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