The residential fieldtrip experience: Evolving teacher–student relationships

In this article I argue that a residential field study experience, by providing a different ‘anti-structural’ space away from school, alters the social interactions between teachers and students. I explore how social and cultural aspects of this experience transformed the relationships between three teachers and thirty-six AS level students participating in a week long residential trip to a UK Field Study Centre in March 2009. For this in-depth study I adopted an ethnographic methodology in which I participated in, observed and recounted some of the complex and multi-faceted experiences felt by the respective participants. I argue that several overlapping elements of the residential experience contributed to perceived changes in the relationship throughout the week, as school norms were challenged. Some of the resulting relationship changes were felt to have lasting impacts, with potential social, affective and cognitive benefits beyond the fieldtrip, once the students had returned to their school setting.