Travelling as an educational experience

The connections between life and learning are complex, as is well known to researchers in the human sciences. In educational research, this complexity obliges the researcher to pay attention to both formal and informal contexts with a view to defining the specific educational processes that may be developed in each of them. An interesting example is provided by the experience of travel. This study explored the meanings held by travel experience for young adults, in order to identify under what conditions it may be considered an educational experience. Specifically, the research was designed to access the meanings of travel experience and their roles in the participants’ life stories. These stories reveal that certain elements of the travel experience are necessary to transform it into a learning experience.