In response to the recent impact of Generation Y in the sport marketplace, this researach article examines the association between consumer behavior preferences and two segmentation variables, gender and physical activity level, for an adolescent segment (ages 14-17 years) of Canadian Generation Y youth. Questionnaire results from a sample of 1,127 respondents yielded data related to various consumer preferences for sporting goods purchases. These factors include purchase decision making, price, frequency, location, and product features. Results indicate an association among Generation Y, gender, and physical activity level with respect to a number of consumer preferences related to sport footwear, apparel, and equipment. Discussion and implications address how sport marketers might interpret the consumer profile results according to both age and cohort perspectives.

In

Although outdoor orientation programs, as a special type of orientation designed to enhance student retention, are relatively commonplace in the United States – we are not aware of any such campus-wide initiatives in Canada. Research indicates that outdoor orientation programs impact students in a positive way, enhancing academic success, personal development, and integration into campus life. This exploratory, mixed methods pilot study reports on the results of an investigation that administered three pre and post surveys that measured indicators of “Life Effectiveness,” “Sense of Community,” and “Sense of Place” on a group of seven, first-year students who participated on a five-day canoeing trip in the wilderness of Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada. The program, entitled “Brock BaseCamp,” exposed students to a curriculum that included networking with student facilitators about campus life, in addition to acquiring technical skills of canoeing and outdoor living. Results indicated that students were positively influenced in all three measures and that the Brock BaseCamp experience enhanced their social integration into campus life.

This article examines the impact of an outdoor orientation program (OOP) on a cohort of first-year university students who participated in a canoe trip facilitated by peer leaders. The curriculum included training for outdoor skills and transitional guidance to university life (i.e., strategies for time management, critical thinking, becoming independent, diversity, and information about interpersonal relationships and healthy living). Employing McMillan and Chavis’s (1986) community development model and a qualitative case study approach, data were collected via a structured focus group designed to investigate the impact of the OOP on students’ adjustment to university life. Results of the study revealed that the OOP experience favorably affected students through the development of a strong sense of community, the facilitation of knowledge transfer from the wilderness context to the university setting, and the generation of a definitive sense of commitment and institutional loyalty to the university.

This paper presents an analysis of the Province of Ontario’s elementary school physical education curriculum with respect to the dominant discourses that framed policy documents from the 1850s to 2000. Through an examination of curriculum documents, archival materials, and interviews with those who were teachers and lecturers at the time, the paper argues that a male-centered physical education agenda—dominated by fitness and competitive sport—eclipsed a female-centered tradition, characterized by more broadly conceived movement curriculum of dance, games and gymnastics. This paper examines these competing ideologies in the waves of curriculum reform that characterized Ontario elementary school physical education curriculum during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.