McWhirter's four-requirement empowerment model as a framework for adventure therapy programs¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The paper adopts McWhirter's (1991) model, in which empowerment is broader than autonomy or efficacy and reaches outside the individual. It specifies four necessary requirements: awareness of power dynamics, developing skills and capacity for control, exercising control without infringing others' rights, and supporting the empowerment of others. The paper uses these four requirements as the transferable structure of an adventure therapy program.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• All four requirements must be addressed for empowerment to be complete; the paper states that until the person supports the empowerment of others, true empowerment has not taken place

Constraints¶

• The model is contextualised for Western industrialised countries, per the paper's framing of the fishing adage in that context

Target Learners¶

• participants in adventure therapy and training programs, including young people and dispossessed groups

Target Learning Objectives¶

• becoming one's own agent of change
• gaining control over one's life
• supporting others' empowerment

Claims¶

Related Theories¶

• Empowerment in counselling defined as a five-part process of awareness, skill and capacity, exercise, non-infringement, and support for others' empowerment
• Peer counselling empowerment as a process by which people, organizations and communities gain mastery over their lives
• Five Cs model of counsellor education: Collaboration, Competence, Context, Critical Consciousness, and Community

Examples¶

• Use isomorphic framing to draw parallels between the empowerment model and the program's primary therapeutic theme
• Design programs with two themes: a primary therapeutic theme and a secondary empowerment-model theme
• Structure adventure programs in two parts: preparation and training phase followed by the wilderness project
• Address staff technology reluctance by building an empowerment mindset that educators model daily for learners

Key Sources¶

• Hyde-Hills, I. (1998). It Is Better To Learn To Fish: Empowerment in Adventure Education. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED424058