The Instructor-Professional! A Worker or an Animator?

The paper responds to the current phenomenon of young instructors working in organisations that are engaged in the development of individuals and groups using experiential methods. These young instructors are methodically well-equipped, but their experience often has only ‘instant nature’. Therefore, the text deals with the diff erences in the concept of the instructor working in the role of the animator on one hand and the instantly working instructor-worker


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members of the group. 6 An instructor-animator is a personality who, by his or her own example, infl uences his or her surroundings.

Who Is the Instructor?
At the beginning of our text, we have indicated that there are essentially two demands (professional and personality) when talking about the instructor. 7 In this sense, we could characterise the instructor of the experiential courses (who is the subject of this text in particular) as a leader of educational activity. He or she is responsible for the ideological, organisational, contentual, and methodological level of such an action. In general, instructors carry the intention of instructing someone, in other words, to teach something; an instructor in this sense is a teacher who leads a person or a group to a development goal, but (at the same time) takes care of a wide range of other related activities (for example, activities with an organisational character). However, the role of an instructor of an adventure course may change during the course -he or she can be an organiser, a teacher, a referee, an actor, or even a participant. 8 Th is demand for a very wide range of activities may, however, also cause the problem that we have outlined in the preceding chapter -the fulfi lment of a number of partial organisational-methodical tasks is easier to control and evaluate (it represents a contrast to a poorly measurable inspirational eff ect by one's personality). Th e instructor must therefore be understood above all as an informal leader, 9 not as a well-trained craft sman (as can oft en be seen in the requirements of organisations and according to the form of various methodological guides). 10 Lukas says that the leader is someone who has the ability to 'incite and inspire others to be benefi cial to the group ' . 11 In order for the leader to gain his or her supporters, he or she must 'persuade them about "his or her truth", present them a clear vision of the future, but also show the way how to achieve this vision and, if necessary, draw attention to the obstacles on the way' . And if he or she is convincing enough, he or she can gain followers who accept his or her vision for their own and make it a common thing -'the individual acquires and consolidates those forms of behaviour which he or she understands as corresponding to the principle or the ideology which he or she had accepted and the enforcement of which he or she experiences as highly satisfying' . 12 In addition, the instructor of experiential courses can also use social learning methods that work on the principle of interacting with others. It is known that 'a specifi c personality characteristic develops primarily in those activities that place increased demands on this particular characteristic' . 13 Instructors become personal models for a number of participants, especially for younger ages (up to 20 years). Th ese young people oft en accept -mostly uncritically -the habits, opinions and attitudes of the instructors for a long time. However, between the incentive to be active in favour 7 2017 of others (motivation) and manipulation (infl uencing for the own benefi t of the leader), there is a very narrow beam on which the leader (instructor), having a strong infl uence on the course participants, balances. 14 In addition, during the course, very deep and fi rm relationships are formed between participants and instructors. When thinking about the infl uence on the future life of the participants, there is a purely traditional imperative of excellent character, clear world views, and widely developed cultural interests of the instructor. 15

Th e Development and Growth of the Instructor
According to Plamínek, three phases in the development of the instructor can be distinguished. Th is regards a way from off ering specifi c modes towards giving incentives to think. He also mentions that 'there is no guarantee that every trainer must enter the third or even the second phase of this development' . 16 Th ese three phases he divides (according to the instructor's focus) into Ithey -it. Due to the fact that we consider this distribution to be fundamental for understanding the other parts of the text, let us briefl y summarise the description of the phases. In the fi rst phase, the so-called 'I-phase' , the instructor focuses primarily on him or herself and evaluates him or herself according to the chosen pattern. According to Plamínek, two outputs can be derived from this phase: escalating anxiety or content certainty, and procedural skill. Th e instructor is heavily focused on the process, trying to proceed as planned. Process focus can create a gap between the instructor's goal and the needs of the participants. Plamínek calls the second phase the 'they-phase' . Th e instructor focuses more on feedback from participants and organisers during his or her self-assessment. Again, there may be two opposition outcomes -trying to gain the sympathy of participants (even at the expense of the programme) or developing empathetic habits and a good image. Th e instructor relies on skills and motivational considerations; the activity may sometimes cause chaos. Th e third stage, the so-called 'it-phase' , is characterised by focussing on the issue and by the eff ort to make it easier and good for participants rather than just to make the instructor look good in front of them. Th e instructor evaluates him or herself on the basis of his or her belief in the usefulness of his or her activities. Th e output is oft en the personality of the instructor, who has both his or her bright and dark side. A personal approach is oft en used, with the intention to gain usefulness. Participants with a certain awareness of the subject and personal curiosity can obtain more value from the instructor at this stage. However (for slower and more passive participants) such a lecturer can seem to act distractedly and incomprehensibly. 17 In the described stages of the instructor's development, we can clearly observe the similarity with the instructor characteristics described above. His or her behaviour is based on the so-called instant experience, and then he or she gradually comes to resemble an instructor more who acts as an animator to the participants. It should be noted that, just as not all instructors reach the third stage of development, 18 in the same way not every instructor is capable of fulfi lling the requirements to act like an animator with respect to the group. Plamínek's phases of I -they -it have inspired us to name themes and subtopics in the so-called index during the processing of the 7 2017 frame analysis. It was focused on a deeper understanding of the instructor's work on experiential courses and it was possible to observe the instructor's development as described above.

An Animator or a Worker?
While most of the existing publications and research concern specifi c instructor professions (in the Czech environment, for example, ski instructors, etc.) and thus develop knowledge about the work of the instructor-worker, publications considering the personality of instructors are diffi cult to fi nd. However, we can fi nd an extensive amount of titles dealing with a related topic of leadership, for example, a title by P. G. Northouse. 19 A unique piece of research that focused directly on our target group, i.e., the instructors of experiential courses, was that conducted by T. Valenta and published in 2011. 20 Th is research was biographical in nature and its purpose was to fi nd out what role the instructor phenomenon plays in the human path of life. Inspired by the research and motivated by the contradiction in the possible concept of the instructor's work, we conducted a qualitative empirical survey. 21 Its aim was to map the perception of issues related to instructorship among the instructors of experiential events themselves. While Valenta's research on instructor education focused on the continuity of changes in the instructor's work during his or her life, 22 our research focused on various concepts of instructor work across instructor positions in several organisations. During the interviews, we focused on the topics of self-perception of instructors, and what they consider to be important with regard to individual positions (starting instructor -chief instructor). Another topic was collaboration with other team members, as well as themes that helped us to better distinguish between the designator instructor-worker and instructor-animator.
Th e partial objectives of the research that helped us to structure interviews with instructors were: • What do the instructors perceive as their strengths? • What requirements for individual positions in an organisation are considered important by the instructors? • What conditions do the instructors require to be willing to cooperate? • What diff erences do the instructors perceive between the work done by the instructor-worker and instructor-personality? 23 Th e main technique of data collection was a semi-structured interview. Th e interview is an appropriate way to examine members of a particular environment, a specifi c group, and the instructor community represents such a group. 24 Th e above-mentioned questions, based on the partial ob-19 NORTHOUSE, Leadership: Th eory and Practice… 20 Tomáš VALENTA, Fenomén instruktorství v životní dráze člověka (the presentation of research results), Gymnos Akadémos 1/2011, pp. 12-22. 21 As Valenta states in ibid., the phenomenon of instructor education is usually viewed in the spirit of the hermeneutical-phenomenological research tradition, which belongs to qualitatively conceived research. It is oft en not an explanation of this term, but rather a description and understanding of the breadth of the whole phenomenon of instructor. 22 VALENTA, Fenomén instruktorství v životní dráze…, pp. 12-22. 23 During the interviews with instructors, we used the term 'personality' instead of the term 'animator' in order to distinguish this approach of the instructor's work (versus the instant-worker concept); during the preparatory work, we encountered substantial contradictions in the framework understanding of the word animator, which could lead to a substantial distortion of the data found and, consequently, of the facts examined. 24 Cf. Roman ŠVAŘÍČEK -Klára ŠEĎOVÁ, Kvalitativní výzkum v pedagogických vědách, Praha: Portál, 2007, p. 159.

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jectives of the survey, have become the basis of the so-called questionnaire scheme, the basic axis of the interview with the informants; for individual positions (see below), however, partial sets of diff erent questions were prepared. Th e interviewees were selected from three diff erent organisations dedicated to the use of experiential methods to develop the personality of an individual or a group. Th e intention was to conduct conversations with people in diff erent positions from each selected organisation (starting instructor, advanced instructor, chief instructor); this made it possible to compare data across positions and across diff erent organisations. Th e interviewees were four men and four women, all of whom are active instructors, and all have university degrees or are studying in order to gain one. In order to analyse the obtained data, a qualitative framework analysis 25 was used, mainly because the data had a certain trace of enquiries and was therefore quite signifi cantly structured. Th e process of data analysis itself can be divided into fi ve phases described by J. Ritchie and L. Spencer: 26

Introduction to Data Management
At this stage, the researcher is thoroughly acquainted with the data material during which we identify the recurring themes and ideas that are used in the following phase.

Identifi cation of the Th ematic Framework
Here is the main task to compile the so-called thematic framework -the index (see Figure 1), on the basis of which (in the next steps) the data will be identifi ed, sorted, and compared.

Indexing
In the indexing phase, there is the application of the thematic frame to the original data, during which the researcher reads in detail the data of a textual nature and assigns them a numerical designation based on the index -i.e., the outlines of the main and sub-themes.

Th ematic Mapping
It consists of summarising the points of each part of the data and placing it in a table. A separate table is created for each topic, which contains a subtopic in the column, then individual cases in rows.

Mapping and Interpretation
Th e fi nal step is to illustrate all the information that has been identifi ed and the interconnection of related knowledge.
By applying the fi rst two steps we obtained the index shown in Figure 1. It indicates the development of the main topics and subtopics, where the naming (as we have already mentioned) was inspired by Plamínek's division of the instructor development phase and was further specifi ed. Subsequently, we used the index for further data processing: individual responses were assigned to individual topics. At this stage of data organisation (sorting participants' testimonies by sub -themes), the thematic mapping phase is established. 25 Th is scheme of qualitative data analysis was developed in the 1980s. Th e authors of the framework analysis sought to facilitate the systematic examination of qualitative data. Framework analysis is not very thoroughly described in the Czech Republic, the basic overview being provided by HENDL (2005) For the fi nal interpretation and compilation of the resulting mental map it was necessary to carry out a so-called descriptive analysis. Th e aim was to distinguish essential information and to present the content to make the message clear. Th e descriptive analysis contained three steps leading to the gradual abstraction and acquisition of the fi nal categories: 27 1. Identifying the substantial content and dimensions of the phenomenon under investigation; 2. Specifi cation and assignment of descriptive data to categories (fi rst degree of abstraction); 3. A classifi cation with a framework in which each category group is assigned to a more abstract class (second degree of abstraction) -in our case, on the basis of previous characteristics, we divided the categories into two basic classes, that is, the category belonging more to the instructor-animator's behaviour and the category belonging more to the instructor-worker's behaviour.
Th e fi nal phase of the framework analysis (mapping and interpretation) was (in our survey) taken up by the creation of so-called mental maps, which carry the advantage of the graphical arrangement of key concepts, indicating mutual relationships and contexts. As can be seen from Figure  2, we completely disagree with the original thesis that the instructor evolves over time towards an animator's conception of work because it includes (besides focusing on the target) also a strong preparation of the personality. But that is (according to Plamínek) a part of the 'I' phase. Th e resulting mental maps reveal, in essence, the basic profi le of both instructor roles, i.e., the in-27 Th ese three steps are commonly recorded in so-called generalisation tables, where the fi rst column contains text from a specifi c column of thematic tables, the second column is then a more general formulation, and in the third column we add the fi nal sub-category: Cf. Jane RITCHIE -Jane LEWIS, Qualitative research practice, London: Sage Publications, 2003, p. 243.

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structor-animator and the instructor-worker. Th ese are two hypothetical constructs, model profiles, which are more or less approached by real instructors in some respects. In terms of the results of this qualitative survey, however, it may be interesting that both profi les have been prepared in a mirror-like manner. It has been possible due to the fact that enough pairing categories have been found, and thus there is now an easier way to compare each. Only in comparison can we oft en fi nd signifi cant diff erences between the two profi les. For example, let us name a category labelled Positive Tune; we can fi nd this subcategory in both classes (profi les), while in the instructor-animator profi le the positive tuning is included in the category called psychological features, in the instructor-worker profi le it is a skill (i.e., it is not a natural thing but a learned part of the work). Similarly, interesting nuances can be found in other examples: while the instructor-worker enjoys the work being done, the instructor-animator has fun while working; and the instructor-worker uses a steady procedure, while the instructor-animator uses the best practice. We can see, therefore, that some of the very positive characteristics of the instructor-worker have an even more positive eff ect (when generally perceived) in the case of the instructor-animator: when the instructorworker tries to imitate his or her patterns, it is certainly very praiseworthy, but only in conjunction with the partner category (the instructor-animator as a model) is a signifi cant diff erence present.

Conclusion
As can be seen from our introductory description and also from the categories listed in the conceptual map, there are fundamental diff erences in the concept of the work of the instructor-animator and the instructor-worker. Th ese diff erences are particularly evident when looking closer and comparing categories in pairs. While the instructor-worker turns out to be a professional in the use of methods and precise application of the principles assumed, the instructor-animator is an inspirational personality that infl uences the group primarily informally. Th e advantage of an instructor-animator is his or her attractivity for the participants, and thanks to this he or she can better fulfi l the purpose and objectives of the course. Th ese results are an attempt to identify fundamental diff erences and tendencies in the work of instructors in the fi eld of experiential development and learning; it is about revealing basic paradigms of approach to the role of instructor. Any further generalisation of our results is not possible due to the methodology used; the investigation was based on the personal testimony of the instructors themselves, who expressed their own conception of their work. If we wanted to dig deeper into the starting point of these problems, it would also be necessary to carry out a psychological investigation. Similarly, it would be necessary to consider developing a diagnostic tool that would allow a more precise assignment of the instructor to a specifi c profi le.