A Typology of Approaches to Facilitator Education

Abstract

The literature on facilitation describes the skills, methods, models and theories of facilitation but gives less coverage to the assumptions and philosophies that underpin the processes by which facilitators develop. This paper reviews the literature on facilitation and provides a typology, which classifies the different approaches to facilitator education, based on the levels of consciousness proposed by Giddens' (1984). In the typology, technical facilitator education approaches are skills-based and formulaic, whereas intentional facilitator education approaches purposively ground facilitation skills and methods in theory. Person-centered facilitator education approaches intentionally emphasize the attitudes, personal qualities or presence of the facilitator, whereas critical facilitator education approaches seek to raise the awareness of the political nature of facilitation. The typology provides an interpretive framework to stimulate reflection, discussion and further research into the theory and practice of facilitator education within experiential education.