WWOOFING Fieldwork
Central Otago, New Zealand
© 2014 Kelsey Johansen
Research Interests
Kelsey is a pragmatic researcher, drawing on diverse qualitative and mixed methods approaches to explore topics related to:
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sustainable tourism;
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the meaning and experience of tourism and related events;
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the narratives of, and about, tourism; and,
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scholarship of teaching and learning in outdoor recreation, therapeutic recreation, and tourism.
Specifically, her research explores these themes through:
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Agricultural and Volunteer Tourism;
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Trail-Based Recreation and Tourism;
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Nature Journaling and Place-Based Learning;
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Battlefield Tourism;
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Rural Community Tourism Development; and,
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SCUBA Diving Tourism.
Her future research plans include explorations of:
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culture, identity, food, and tourism, through an exploration of how rural and remote communities re-create their cultural identity through leisure experiences (commercial recreation and tourism, festivals, and events);
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ecotourism in national parks, place attachment, and community tourism development through dark sky tourism; and,
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gendered tourism and gendered experiences of tourism research.
Empirical and Community-Based Research
Trails and
Social Enterprise
This collaborative research project is lead by Kelsey Johansen and involves a dedicated team of trail and hiking researchers including external trail development partners with over 20 years experience building land and water trails across Canada to explore trail tourism, rural community tourism development, and social enterprise. Please click here for related publications and research summaries.
Agricultural Tourism
Kelsey is currently undertaking a PhD at University of Otago; her doctoral research examines the culture of World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) participation in New Zealand, exploring the culture of WWOOFing in New Zealand, the convergence and divergence of host and guest values, and the role of food in the WWOOFing experience. Additional research on agricultural and volunteer tourism is being conducted with Dr. Mary Mostafanezhad from the University of Hawai'i (Manoa). Please click here for related publications and research summaries.
Battlefield
Tourism
Kelsey's research on battlefield tourism spans both terrrestial and marine battlefields, and focuses on associated management and interpretation challenges and the importance of multivocality in communicating contested narratives of the battles associated with contemporary tourism sites. Kelsey has partnered with Dr. Raynald Harvey Lemelin, and Dr. Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, among others, on several research projects in this area. Please click here for related publications and research summaries.
Multi-Use Trail Tourism
Development
Grand Watershed Trails Research Project
This collaborative research project is being undertaken by Kelsey Johansen and Dr. Karla Boluk and involves a dedicated team of trail and hiking researchers including external trail development partners from the Grand Watershed Trail Network, Regional Tourism Organization 1 (Southwest Ontario Tourism Corporation), and Regional Tourism Organization 3 (The Heart of Ontario). This study explores current levels of awareness of the Grand Watershed Trails Network by, and the importance of trail tourism to, businesses in the Grand River Watershed. This data will help develop the marketing, promotion and planning of the Grand Watershed Trails Network. Please click here for related publications and research summaries.
Manitoba Bilateral Funding Evaluation
As part of a multi-researcher team, lead by Dr. Joannie Halas, Kelsey and her colleagues evaluated the effectiveness of the Bilateral Funding program’s implementation in Manitoba, and sought to improve access to sport programs for urban, rural and remote indigenous communities.
Through her work on this project, Kelsey and Co-I Dr. Heather McRae secured ethical approval from the University of Manitoba's Research Ethics Board process. Kelsey also completed interviews with stakeholders from Manitoba Provincial Sport Organizations (PSOs) and trained and supervised eight Transcription Assistants, including delivery of an Orientation and Transcription Training session, through the transcription process for all interviews conducted by the research team. She directly supervising one Research Assistant, who facilitated qualitative coding and analysis of PSO interviews, and engaged the research team in the multi-researcher data coding and analysis phase to ensure inter-coder reliability.
Kelsey assisted with the preparation of interim reports to Sport Manitoba, including: two interim reports, a systematic literature review, and an informational literature review for presentation to community. Kelsey prepared a presentation for the team to deliver to Sport Manitoba and organized town hall meeting for all Stakeholders. Kelsey was instrumental in completing the final report and in delivering it to Sport Manitoba, and the projects associated stakeholders on May 15th, 2019.
This research was supported by a $20,000 grant from Sport Manitoba.
Please click here for related publications and research summaries.
Rural Community Tourism Development
An avid hiker, and multiday tripper, Kelsey's passion for multi-use trails and her active involvement with trail development and planning in Northern Ontario has enabled her to work with communities focusing on the intersection of rural and indigenous culture, history and knowledge and trail tourism development in the Great Lakes region of Canada. This has lead to an evolving research agenda that explores trail tourism development, (converted rail trails, cycle trails, multi-use/ multi-season trails, as drivers for economic growth in rural Canada.
Additional work in the area of rural community tourism development has generated feasability studies on SCUBA diving tourism, and marina
development / revitalization in small towns and communities in Northern Ontario. Please click here for related publications and research summaries.
Assistance Dogs and Transportation Policies
Kelsey worked as a Research Assistant, to Dr. Neil Carr (Principal Investigator), University of Otago. Their research explored the welfare provisions for assistance dogs through an analysis of public transportation policy. This research was funded by the Centre for Service and Working Dog Health and Research, Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences, at Massey University.
Scuba Diver Environmental
Education
Insect Conservation and Management
As a Research Assistant to Dr. Raynald Harvey Lemelin on his Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) funded project, Kelsey conducted a comprehensive literature review and content analysis of peer reviewed and published social sciences literature which dealt with arthopod (insect, and spider) conservation and management. Please click here for related publications and research summaries.
Environmental Impacts of
Dive Tourism
Spanning both her Honours and Masters theses, researching SCUBA diving tourism and its associated environmental impacts and environmental education was born out of Kelsey's deep love of both the Ocean and SCUBA, as well as an understanding of SCUBA's dependance on the conservation of ocean, lake and river environments and their associated flora and fauna. While undertaking her Honours thesis, Kelsey conducted case study research in the Repubic of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia (Yap and Chuuk States). Using interviews and observational techniques, Kelsey critically assessed pre-dive briefings and their capacity to influence divers' pro-environmental in-water behaviour. Questions resulting from her Honours Thesis lead her to explore certifying bodies introductory courses and their associated environmental education content across three of the largest international SCUBA diver certifying bodies in the world (BSAC, PADI, and SSI). Please click here for related publications and research summaries.
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)
Nature Journaling and Place-Based Learning
This collaborative research project is lead by Kelsey Johansen and involves researchers and practitioners from the Centre for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo and is funding by a Learning Innovation and Teaching Enhancement (LITE) Seed Grant. This project investigates student learning and alternative approaches to teaching and assessment by exploring whether place attachment, pro-environmental attitudes and nature stewardship can be fostered among University Students using a combination of PebblePad and online place-based nature journaling seminars. Please click here for related publications and research summaries.
Therapeutic Recreation, Self-Care and Pre-Service Training
This project explores the role of pre-service training in the development and implementation of positive coping strategies like a personalized self-care practices in preventing burnout, compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress among in-service undergraduate therapeutic recreation students. Please click here for related publications and research summaries.