A New Paradigm in Guiding: The Madrich as a Role Model

The "role model" guides encountered in the counselors of Israel Experience
youth study tours, contrast traditional concepts of pathfinder and mentor. This model type
is proposed as more appropriate for tours providing informal education and quest for identity.
Not drawing authority from official recognition but from a personal guide-tourist
relationship, madrichs rated characteristics essential to guides leading these trips. A multidimensional analysis uncovered the structure of these characteristics to create a structure of an "excellent" Israel Experience madrich. This structural analysis confirms an earlier typology
and helps to uncover another kind of approach towards youth guiding. Keywords: youth
tour guiding, authority, role model, madrich, informal education.  2002 Elsevier Science
Ltd. All rights reserved