Issues in Recreation and Leisure

Learning to resolve a dilemma ethically is a complex skill that recreation leaders and managers must learn in order to be successful, because they face ethical issues every day. They must ask themselves, “What is the right thing to do in this situation?” “Is my decision ethical for everyone involved?” “How will my decision affect each of the stakeholders—and my career?”

Teaching applied ethics requires an understanding of how moral dilemmas can be justly resolved as well as techniques and approaches to accomplish these goals. Issues in Recreation and Leisure: Ethical Decision Making guides students though this complex process of resolving real-life recreation dilemmas by presenting activities, techniques, and a field-tested three-step process. This process helps students develop sound approaches to dealing with contemporary issues in leisure and recreation.

In addition, this text contains the following features:

-Thematic chapters that address current major issues in recreation management, therapeutic recreation, outdoor recreation, tourism, and culture so that students can comprehend the range of issues in these diverse areas of recreation

-Eight case studies based on current dilemmas from a variety of recreation and leisure settings, providing students with valuable practice in applying the three-step method for resolving ethical dilemmas

-Learning activities in each chapter that help students apply leisure philosophy to resolve dilemmas

Part I explores ethics in leisure services and examines how dilemmas are naturally solved. It covers ethical theory and introduces a three-step method that can be widely applied. Students learn how recreation professionals worked through an actual dilemma and how their problem-solving strategies affect their solutions and their careers.

Part II presents real-life dilemmas common to a variety of leisure management areas, ethical issues in therapeutic recreation, and problems in outdoor education. The authors also tackle various issues surrounding tourism, including culture, sex tourism, the natural environment, and virtual tourism.

Part III contains a consideration of professionalism in parks and recreation and related fields, a peek into the future, and eight contemporary case studies drawn from leisure services fields. These case studies test students' abilities to apply ethical problem solving by using the three-step method presented earlier in the book. The studies present issues in four major areas of recreation and leisure.

Issues in Recreation and Leisure: Ethical Decision Making provides new insights into the recreation and leisure profession. It comes with a flexible format that can be used for one- to three-credit-hour courses in recreation issues. It arms students with the theory and knowledge they need for ethically resolving dilemmas. As such, it prepares them to make a difference as effective leisure service providers.

Donald J. McLean, PhD, is an associate professor in the department of recreation, park, and tourism administration at Western Illinois University–Quad Cities in Moline, Illinois. He has been teaching ethics classes since 1989. His interest in this area was spurred by practical experience gained through 12 years of coaching competitive rowing and founding rowing programs and clubs at the varsity, campus recreation, and community levels. He has presented papers on applied ethics at national conferences and served as guest editor for a special applied ethics issue of the Journal of Applied Recreation Research. In his own leisure time, he enjoys golfing, traveling, and boating.

Daniel G. Yoder, PhD, provided most of the case studies in this book from his experiences. Yoder is a professor in the department of recreation, park, and tourism administration at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. He has taught at the university level for 12 years and has also worked in the leisure services field for 12 years. He is a member of the National Park and Recreation Association and of the Illinois Park and Recreation Association (IPRA), having served in a number of positions with the IPRA. He is also involved in a variety of nonprofit organizations dealing with recreation and youth in his community. Yoder has served on various university judicial boards, hearing cases involving students' alleged misconduct. Besides his teaching and community involvement, he is a husband, father, part-time farmer, full-time conservationist, and avid beekeeper.