Integration in Treehouse Camps

Building tree houses begins with learning by seeing – the participant must not be able to understand the language to participate.  That lowers language barriers and makes them manageable – of course communication about safety rules must be clearly understood.

The building process is learning by doing with plenty of opportunity for further explanation if the task needs to be clarified.

Shared positive experiences promote integration. Gaining different experiences and sharing all that together creates a foundation of overcoming stereotypes and prejudices about each other or a specific culture. Cooperation tasks, sport activities and other actions together as a group are a suitable foundation for (cultural) openness.

A special ‘helper’ in experiential education is reflection. Reflection can be very helpful for analyzing and slowing down individual actions or group processes. That makes it possible to reflect the group interaction, understand different (cultural) habits and find alternative ways of communication or interactions. Intentional reflection of (cultural) diversity can be a great opportunity for understanding and enrichment.

Working, building, and living together in treehouse camps is a fulltime group-based activity and where communicate with each other is necessary. Although there are multiple challenges in understanding intercultural participants and making sure all the safety rules are defined and understood there are many opportunities and benefits of intercultural communication. In addition to verbal communication, participants can use actions, signs, and facial expression to clarify their points. Showing with gestures can communicate more than one might expect and the treehouse building vocabulary will grow quickly - the learning process is expedited by interest in the subject matter.

The heterogeneity of an intercultural group implicates a different understanding of values (for example tolerance, respect, punctuality, being open for each other etc.). Due to an open process the participants are supposed to develop mutual values.

An important aspect of social norms is the religion. For successful integration, the question of religious contents, prayers etc. must be discussed and it needs to be clear for all participants before the treehouse camps starts. Tolerance, food regulations, prayer times, traditions, religious festivals, dress codes etc. need to be considered while planning and discussing the treehouse camp.

Integration is a process by choice. It does not mean that values, traditions, perceptions or religious attitudes can be imposed on anyone. Showing tolerance and appreciation for cultural diversity opens doors and the willingness to engage into new perspectives.  

Rules need to set a standard despite intercultural differences. Different countries may define safety at work differently, but to avoid risks safety must be clearly defined.

Safety is a very important part of the treehouse building process. To make sure everyone understands and maintains the rules, the leaders need to ensure understanding among the group. There must be ways to test the understanding to be sure of their compliance.

While planning and preparing intercultural treehouse camps everyone has to be aware that there might be participants with refugee experiences. Certain situations (for example living in tents during the treehouse camps) might be reminders of these experiences and can generate post-traumatic stress disorders.

The preparation of tree house camps requires a certain sensitivity towards such experiences. The leaders must discuss if a treehouse camp is appropriate for certain participants with trauma or find fitting solutions (for example living in houses instead of tents).