-■■ ^*" ŕ^± uca< unße ■*$0 *\ :f*±. ír Riek Arnold Bev Búrke Carl James D'Arcy Martin Barb Thomas . 4 Working On Our Feet: The Practice of Democratic Facilitation USING SPACE: THE POLITICS OF FURNITURE 116 A story So what's going on? Tips on using space democratically MAKING THE MOST OF WHO WE ARE 119 A story So what's going on? Tips on making the most of who we are ESTABLISHING CREDIBILITY/SHARING THE EXPERT ROLE 124 A story So what's going on? Tips on establishing credibility/sharing the expert role GIVING AND GETTING FEEDBACK 129 A story So what's going on? Tips on giving and getting feedback CHALLENGING AND ENCOURAGING RESISTANCE 132 A Story So what's going on? Tips on challenging and encouraging resistance WORKING WITH DISCOMFORT A story So what's going on? Tips on working with discomfort CONFLICT: HEADING INTO THE WIND 141 A story So what's going on? Tips on handling conflict TIMING: EXIT LINES 144 A story So what's going on? Tips on timing THE FACILITATOR'S ROLE 148 \0 LDOKlNq fOWAM>: lmUie*Kc>ft$*for Dmrtwrk. nemo's ?> Shaping oui&TDcLS: üeoe>p^»na em working with discomfort ■0 dealing with conflict ■0 timing. 114 ' .ľ > > y &» . * <- 3 ■■* ^ * ■* . ¥» . * & .. : J^íľf ii EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE 4 WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation We're focusing on these eight issues for three reasons. First.social change education challenges ourselves and the people in our programs to refocus and reframe "common-sense" understandings and questions about what Is happening in our society. It challenges us to consider why these things happen, how theyhappen, what their Impact is and on whom, and what our own location is In these dynamics. In educational work the eight aspects are sites where, in our experience, responses to these issues are played out. Second, social change education is about developing democratic practice. The eight sites pose some of the most challenging problems for the educator in modelling democratic practice. Third, mainstream adult education literature abounds with ideas for managing troublesome individuals, But little has been written about facilitator roles in developing critically aware individuals equipped to recognize and resist injustices. And fourth, we want to affirm conflict in groups as something natural, potentially creative, and necessary in building collectivities capable of working together effectively. When you start a session there are always some dynamics you can anticipate, and you've taken these into account in your planning and design. But there is a universe of undocumented, on-your-feet experiences that are not only contradictory but also filled with tension, and sometimes painful. We want to explore these swampy places in this chapter. As authors we are aware of a central tension in this chapter. On the one hand we wanted to make the job of facilitation accessible to anyone attempting it, by analysing its most difficult aspects. On the other hand, the more we probed such moments and tried to Illustrate approaches to them, the more we realized that these descriptions might, in fact, overwhelm and disempower some readers. To this we respond that there is a craft to facilitation, most of which is learned on your feet. While it is true that "anyone can do this", we have found that one gets better and better through experience and through shared reflection with trusted colleagues. It is this shared reflection, at this point In our work, that we offer here. 115 EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE 4 WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation USING SPACE: A union invites two educators to provide training in popular education/or some of THE POLITICS their staff. When the educators arrive for the session they see a roomformally set OF FURNITURE up with a big table at the front, complete with a microphone, and with all of the chairs organized auditorium-fashion, facing the microphone. (The chairs, they A Story notice, are movable). Hiding their dismay, they ask if this is the normal arrangementfor a workshop room and are told that yes it is and thatthe union president will be opening the session. They raise no challenge. The president's opening remarks signal his supportfor the event and thus provide the psychological space for the educators to move. After his opening speech the participants wait expectantly for the educators' presentation. After all, the room is organized for someone to present something. The educators, maintaining the given arrangement, negotiate objectives and an agenda. Then they organize the participants into pairs to discuss expectations, after which individuals share their responses and ideas with the group as a whole. While this is happening people crane and twist their necks to see who is speaking. Next the participants go off to the f our corners of the roomfor small-group work in which they are to develop a role-play. Later, when they reassemble for presentation of the role-plays, participants rearrange the chairs so they can see. By noon the room looks very different In response to the need to see everyone's faces in a large-group session, participants had arranged their chairs in a circle, with facilitators as members of the group. At some point in the morning almost every corner of the room had been used. Before lunch thefactlitators ask participants to comment on the room arrangement and to compare it to the beginning of the morning. Participants comment that they like the current arrangement much better. They could talk and hear easier and see everyone's faces, including the facilitators'. They begin, right away, to reflect on their own use of space and furniture in union meetings. Participants agree that they would have resisted such an arrangement if it had been imposed by thefacilitators at the beginning of the morning. They say it would have confirmed their suspicions about the "touchy-feely" outsiders. 116 EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE 4 WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation So what's going on? The use of space is a statement about power relations in an organization. In larger organizations, power Is displayed by office, window, carpet, space, and equipment allocations. In a structured educational setting, the arrangement of furniture - conscious or not - makes power relations apparent. It shows these power relations in the anticipation of who will be talking, and who will be listening. While people may, at one level, resent being talked to all the time, they may also take some security in the predictability of such an arrangement, and In the position it affords as an observer. An arbitrary shift made by an outsider to the organization can be experienced as an affront to tradition, to "the way we do things". Such feelings, especially when they're fuelled at the outset of an educational experience that is already unpredictable and slightly uncomfortable, can derail the most engaging and exciting design. Facilitators, then, need to walk a bit of a tightrope. On the one hand they must model the respect for people and their ways of doing things that Is the basis of education for social change. On the other hand they must help participants raise questions about how such "innocent" arrangements reflect the very inequities that social change education seeks to challenge. But if participants themselves are to create democratic spatial arrangements in their own work, they must consciously participate in the creation of these arrangements, in response to felt needs. Any layout favours some people at the expense of others. The trick is to develop skills in assessing and shifting who Is favoured. For example, If you have two flip-charts at the front of aroomyou can angle your body in two different ways for each flip-chart, so you'll favour different people at different points. 117 EDUCATING FO RA CHANGE WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation Tips on using space democratically ♦ Do your homework. In your planning, ask about the usual spatial arrangements for educational sessions in the place you're going to, and how open to change participants might be. 4- Request the kind of space you need. If possible, see the space in advance or request a full description. Ask about the size, and if there are windows, carpets, and wall space for flip-chart paper. Ask about disruptive noise. Request an additional room for small-group work; and a lounge for evenings if you're teaching a residential course. Get there early enough to ensure that you get the space you need, and that it is set up appropriately. •f Use your design to shift things. Use different activities to get participants to move their bodies and chairs and to use as many parts of the room as possible. Share the power to get up and move around. 4- Occasionally move the "front" of the room. Following a group-work activity; get participants to report, using their own flip-chart notes, from wherever they are sitting. If you need to be standing or commenting, move to where the participants are. ♦ Where possible, use the floor. Many activities are designed for the floor. (See, for example, one of the variations in "The power flower" in chapter three.) Where there are no tables, and/or where the floor is carpeted, participants will often choose to work with flip-chart paper on the floor, which can also expand the use of space in the room. ♦ Encourage participants to use the walls. Activities that require participants to post comments, write graffiti, or assemble bits of data are occasions for encouraging participants to claim new spaces in the room. After an activity you may want to post particular sections of the flip-chart work for future reference in the workshop. Make sure you do this selectively so you won't drown participants in their own work. ♦ Share the "props". Share the tools you are using. Avoid maintaining a bank of markers, masking tape, folders, and flip-chart paper that only you as facilitator can touch or use. ♦ Make the process explicit. Spatial arrangements are not accidental, whether conscious or not. Particularly if you are training other educators, make time to pose specific questions about the "politics of furniture". 118 Who is set up to talk and/or to listen in the spatial arrangement? In what ways can certain arrangements reinforce or undermine relations of power? What kinds of arrangements assist democratic processes? How do numbers of people, tasks to be accomplished, levels of comfort influence the spatial arrangements we choose? How can education for social change build comfort in spatial arrangements that encourage a sharing of power? EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation MAKING THE MOST OF WHO WE ARE Threefacilitators who work together extensively-one Black, one South Asian, one White-are working with a group of teachers in the second stage of training in anti-racist work. Just before beginning in the afternoon, the teachers discuss who will make presentations to the Board of Education about hiring people of colour in A story senior positions at the Board. ABlack teacher is trying to sign up different people f or the task. The group suggests several people, none of whom are at the meeting. One of the facilitator s asks, "Why are you only naming people who are not here? What about the people who are here?" The group looks uncomfortable, and then a few White teachers suggest that theßrst Black teacher along with another Black teacher should do the job. Thefirst Black teacher confronts the group, saying, "It's always people of colour who have to do this. If you think it's less risky/or us, you're very mistaken. This is exactly why it's hard to trust White people's good intentions sometimes." One White group member protests "being made to feel guilty". "It's clear," he said, "that you (indicating the two Black women) are more experienced in this than lam." One of the Black women responds, "What I'm getting here is that even in this group, racism is still our issue. Don't you think we're afraid we'll say the wrong thing, or that this will have repercussionsfor our jobs? Infact, we're more likely to get nailed than you are." The threefacilitators look at each other. They can see that the greatest discomfort is surfacing among the White participants. It is clear that some work is required with the White participants, while they remain in the large group. The Black facilitator, who had heard this conversation all too often, signals, simultaneously, her support and her intent to observe. The South Asianfacllitator works inside the organization and both his racial and organizational identities make a lead role in this situation problematic f or him. Ajudgement has to be made, based on trust. Aformal time-out is not possible, so in afew glances the situation is settled. The Whitefacilitator moves her chair to a different spot, indicating her willingness to structure the ensuing discussion. The group spends two hours looking at what is going on. Individual Whites in the group examine what they would want to say if they were to make a presentation to the Board. They look at what made them afraid to do this, and under what conditions they might overcome such a fear. They examine the impact of their behaviour on their colleagues of colour and talk about the requirements for building real trust between Whites and people of colour inßghting racism. Through all of this the people of colour in the room maintain a watchful distance, occasionally posing questions of clarification and supportive challenge to the White people. Following the program, many participants, including the facilitators, send letters and attend the meetings where hiring is discussed. 119 EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE 4 WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation So what's going on? In this story there are three Identities: social (In this case racial); organizational insider/outsider; and educational (In this case, transformational educator). Social identity Whether the social issue is class, gender, North-South relations, disability, or race, your own location in the oppressed or oppressor group matters. (See the discussion of the power flower in chapter one.) In this case the White facilitator could have confirmed the distrust of White participants that was building in the room by avoiding the issue or moving on to another Item. At such times, even the closest of friends and allies can suddenly feel themselves as "part of the problem" or "part of the oppressed group" - on opposite sides of the room. At the same time, It would have been entirely inappropriate for the White facilitator to have spoken for or on behalf of the people of colour in the room. It would have been equally inappropriate for her to have focused the discussion on the behaviour of the Black women in the room, when they had taken all the risks in the discussion so far. But the White facilitator could play a useful role in encouraging Whites to name what was going on and to probe the reasons and impact of their behaviour. As a White person she knew this experience firsthand. As a White person her racial identity did not distract the White participants from their own task of examining the Impact of racism on themselves. She could use her racial identity to move the process forward. There are just as many occasions when it is the facilitator who is a woman, a person of colour, or a Native person who is best placed to address the particular issue, tension, or question arising. Trying to read the signals correctly, to find out when it Is best to play what role, is an important part of our work as educators. And this work is essential in building relations with the colleagues we are working with. Organizational insider/ outsider Being Inside or outside the organization also matters. Within organizations there are particular risks and benefits in challenging the way things are. Inside facilitators, as employees or members of organizations, share those costs. They can talk from or allude to their experience. Outside facilitators are not subject to the same constraints and must therefore avoid glib analyses of the consequences of action. They will not bear the penalties. Their clarity about this is essential if participants who do work inside the organization are to trust their leadership in analysing and developing appropriate action. Both Insiders and outsiders need each other. But they must be respectful of the constraints on - as well as the possibilities for - the other's actions. 120 EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation Educational identity - transformational Social change educators have a stake in the outcome of conflicts. They are not "neutral" facilitators. For social change educators, participants are often also colleagues and allies. There are times to take an appropriate distance. If the educator is an organizational outsider, the risks are greater for the organizational members planning the action than for the facilitator. As participants weigh both their fears and the consequences of particular actions or inaction, the social change educator's role is to help them clarify what those risks are likely to be and to help them make decisions based on their own sense of the consequences. The role is not to preach about what people should do. 4 WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation Tips on making the ♦ Clarify and name whether you are a target of the oppression or a member most of who we are of the dominant group. This has implications for your sources of knowing about this form of oppression, and for the sources of your credibility in challenging it. This does not mean that as a member of the dominant group (for example, men) you cannot choose to fight that form of oppression. At different moments, and in different groups, you may gain credibility for being connected with either the dominant or oppressed group. ♦ Clarify your interests. In the case of racism, people of colour and White people are hurt by racism differently. People of colour are its targets. All too often they are additionally burdened with the responsibility of educating Whites about it. They may resent doing so, and they may be resented for doing so. Whites are diminished by their inability to locate the ways in which racism hurts them, and by the distrust provoked by their reluctance to take the consequences for challenging racism. As an organizational insider/outsider, and as a transformational educator, you also have particular interests. These need to be clear to you as well as to participants. ♦ Name your fears. Ifyou, as a facilitator, are a member of the target group, you may already fear the sustained and continuing expressions of the oppression you face. In addition, the labelling, marginalizing, and dismissing of your efforts to bring about change may further frustrate you and have an impact on your work. However, clarity about these considerations in your work can inform and assist others seeking to work with you. For example, as a woman inside a male-dominated union, you may want to engage an outside male educator to work with male staff on the issue of sexual harassment. This educator needs to knowhow to avoid making conditions worse for you while at the same time challenging the men to look critically at harassment. -f Seek appropriate roles for yourself. Depending on your identity as dominant group or non-dominant group member, or as organizational insider or outsider, it may be appropriate to either support the discussion from the sidelines or play a front-line role. Even when two educators with different identities work together, they can adopt tactics for who does the processing and who injects new content. Avoid, for example, always having the non-dominant group member provide the content and theory about that form of oppression while the dominant group member provides the processing. 122 EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation ♦ Model equity in your working relationships. This means constantly moni-toringyour participation in aprogram to see if it is reinforcing or challenging inequities. In your working relationships you can make sure your education team is composed of dominant and non-dominant identities, regardless of the subject under discussion. (Often people with non-dominant identities are sought only for their expertise on the form of oppression they experience.) Watch that the roles you play in your educational work do not reinforce stereotypes. As an educator on your feet, you will also have to deal with how a group treats both you and one or more other facilitators, and how you can challenge dominant perceptions and practice. In addition, check which authors are reflected in your readings; who appears, who speaks in your audio-visuals; who has the opportunity to attend workshops; how publicity and registration processes can promote equity. ♦ Don't freeze yourself into a role. There are no axioms for selecting when it is appropriate to play a particular role, based on one's particular identities. For example, it may be useful for a White person to do anti-racist work for a while, with other Whites in a White-dominated organization. There may come a time when a more appropriate role is to coach or make way for people of colour who are already skilled in the work, and then move on. ♦ Make sure your own learning has varied sources. There are decided limits to what you can know about poverty if you are a middle-class person, or about gender inequities if you are male. Identify the limits and strengths of your position. Work with colleagues who can challenge you to extend your range, expand what you see, and use your strengths. ♦ Watch for co-optation by participants. Some participants who share your social identity may express certain expectations about you "being on their side", or of you "understanding where they are coming from". Use this as an entry point for helpful challenge rather than for unthinking alignment. 123 EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation ESTABLISHING CREDIBILITY / SHARING THE EXPERT ROLE A story A parent-teacher associatton organizes an evening workshop on the role of the media in shaping children's perceptions of gender roles. They hope to emerge with some actions they can take. A steering committee is charged wtthßndtng a resource person to run the evening. One of the members suggests an educator he knows who has done some work on this and who would run a participatory session. The educator meets with the steering committee to clarify their objectives and to find out about the participants and their needs. She then writes up a brief description of the objectives and the process for the workshop and sends the outline back to the committeeforfurther discussion. They approve her outline by telephone and she suggests a way of publicizing the workshop and doing the introductions. On the evening of the workshop a steering committee member who had not attended the planning meeting introduces her. He refers to her, briefiy, as an educator who has done a great deal of work on equity issues and then turns the workshop over to the "guest resource person". A parent raises his hand and says he hadn't come to talk about racism, he'd come to "hear about how the media worked". The educator, a Southeast Asian, suggests that someone else from the steering committee say something about her meeting with them and the planning process. Following afew additional comments by steering committee members, the educator asks if she can continue. After getting support to do so, she quickly negotiates objectives and clarifies the process she intends to use. People agree. By way of introducing the subject the educator asks participants to group themselves,first by the media they spend mosttime withand second by the media their children spend most time with. A lively discussionfollows, touching on the discrepancies between parents and children in both the form and content of media they watch and read. After a while the same man interrupts again and says he had come to hear someone who knew something about the media speakabout it. He had not come to play games. The educator calmly indicates that she is addressing the objectives agreed to by the steering committee and approved by the group. She asks if other participants feel the same way as the man. One woman states firmly that she doesn't. She says she had half expected a presentation but wasfinding the discussion stimulating, and she wanted more. Others agree. The educator points to copies of two articles on the media she had brought and gives the man a copy of each of them. "Nobody wants to waste their time," she says to him. "Ifyoufeel you'll be wasting yours, I won't be offended if you want to call it a night and take the articles with you. However, in my experience you canget factual informatlonfrom a variety of sources. It is analysing what that information means for what we do that is difficult. We can use our time together to help each other with that." 124 EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation So what's going on? There is a tension between the need to establish credibility and the need to challenge the notion of the expert. Yet to work effectively and democratically the educator for social change must do both. Let's consider four of the major issues arising from this situation: social identity and the image of the expert; the role of the insider in establishing the credibility of the outsider; reconciling the agenda with participant expectations; and the notion that learning is listening to someone who knows. The image of the expert In this case the educator had anticipated difficulty in establishing credibility. These difficulties might have arisen from four primary sources. First, she was Southeast Asian. In this group, her credentials to speak about the Southeast Asian community, or about racism, might readily have been accepted. The participant's comment that he had not come for a session on racism relates not only to the committee member's unfortunate Introduction but also stems from a pervasive perception that a person of colour only has expertise on racism. But the educator's task was to engage participants in an examination of the media. Broadcast and print media overwhelmingly use white males as spokespersons on most economic, social, and political issues. These images are powerful in shaping our perceptions of who is qualified to speak or lead an examination of the media. Second, she was a woman. It is not clear If gender dynamics were also at work in the male participant's resistance to her credentials. But this is not uncommon. Third, she was not a Journalist or academic; she was an educator with a knowledge of process and of the impact of media in shaping perception. Her skills and knowledge were not readily identifiable through a list of degrees and media postings: the trappings most people accept as indicators of a media expert. Fourth, the democratic process she was using was unfamiliar to people schooled in sitting, listening, and writing down Information transmitted by "people who know". Many people view with suspicion educators who resist "telling people what they know" and begin with a belief in participant experience and knowledge, (See chapter two, in particular, for our examination of this kind of process.) In anticipating these difficulties of establishing credibility, this educator had written and reviewed with the committee an appropriate introduction to herself that emphasized what she was bringing to the workshop. She had also fortified herself with some written handouts to reassure those who require print to make certain they are learning. Finally, in conjunction with the steering committee she had paid particular attention to the development of a design and hoped that the committee, with this additional experience of work with her, would be able to communicate her competence to the rest of the group. This form of democratic planning is necessary not just to establish credibility but also to ensure that the workshop meets the needs of those requesting it. 125 EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE It is also important to remember that members of any group will have different criteria for what makes a person credible. One facilitator may not be able to meet all of these criteria equally well. Insider / outsider There are different tensions for the insider and for the outsider in establishing credibility while working democratically. In this case, the educator was an outsider, recommended by one of the steering committee members because of her skills along with her perspective and experience. She used the planning process to make the rest of the committee familiar with her skills and then relied on the committee to establish her credentials with the participants. It is important that insiders who solicit outsiders to assist in their learning take responsibility for welcoming and confirming the abilities of the outsider to do so; and share the responsibility and the heat [when necessary) for the process. Participant Expectations Without belabouring the obvious, if participants attend a workshop thinking it will be one thing, and the facilitator offers something radically different, there will be trouble. In this case the educator had tried to reconcile participants' expectations with the design developed with the steering committee. She did this through the wording of the advance publicity, through a negotiation of objectives at the beginning, and through referring to the objectives when there was resistance. This approach accomplishes two important things: it establishes joint responsibility for the design of the workshop; and it provides a framework for common agreement. Any objections can be referred back to this agreement. Even so there is always the possibility that the original objectives will have to be revised and the direction shifted. 126 EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE 4 WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation Experiences of top-down education All of us have been schooled in undemocratic learning processes. Teachers teach; students learn. Teachers talk; students listen. Teachers know; students don't. These experiences inform the expectations many people bring to our workshops about who will do what, and how things will happen. Many people are comforted by having an "expert" at the front of the room. They can afford to be passive; they have someone to argue with, but not necessarily to engage with; they can scrutinize the expert and avoid their own location in the issue; and they can be assured that whatever happens they "are learning something" because someone is talking at them. And some experts can make wonderful, engaging presentations that do connect with people's experiences and deepen their understanding. This is not an argument against expertise. This is a challenge to use expertise democratically, so that the expertise of participants is also affirmed and called upon. Social change education encourages people to identify, value, and contribute what they know so they can solve problems together. The social change educator must design different processes that actively invite such joint learning and problem-solving. But to do so requires an acknowledgement that this is not familiar terrain to most people. We find that stating objectives, providing clear structures, and making print resources available are strategies that establish credibility but dontjJn themselves, confirm the educator as expert. At the same time, educators do bring particular skills and knowledge to events - otherwise they wouldn't be doing the work. They have to find the appropriate moments to add content that is new to the participants and to challenge strongly held views that are sexist, racist, or class-biased. Social change education is not an invitation for the educator to be self-effacing. It is a challenge to provide expertise strategically and respectfully. Tips on establishing ♦ Negotiate objectives with participants. Facilitators should tell partici- credibility/sharing pants about the objectives that inform the design. Allow for enough time at the the expert role beginning of a session to hear what individual participants want to learn. Talk about how these wants can be met, what shifts can be made to accommodate particular concerns, and what participant goals are not possible in the workshop. This process establishes that the educator has given previous thought to the workshop and signals a readiness to accommodate the particular, unanticipated needs of participants. It also indicates the limits of what the process can provide. 127 EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE 4 WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation ♦ Acknowledge participants who helped with planning /design. Crediting the time and insights of participants who helped with planning is a clear statement to other participants that the facilitator thought about their particular needs and drew upon expertise from their own ranks. It can also acknowledge that some of the members, in fact, were responsible for drawing up the objectives of the event. -f Speak to familiar aspects of the organizational culture. Try to use terminology familiar to participants. For example, with trade unionists, you'd say "course leader" rather than "facilitator". When you use illustrative examples from other contexts, frame them in the organizational language that participants will feel comfortable with. When you are not sure about the language or norms of the group, ask them for help. Draw on what they know best: their own workplace. ♦ Take time with introductions. Get participants to introduce themselves, along with the particular interest that brings them to the workshop. If you record these comments on flip-chart paper, participants will see that you've heard them and that you respect their knowledge and their hopes for the workshop. If people resist, saying that they know each other already, throw in some surprising or obscure questions (place of birth, number of brothers or sisters) to make sure that they learn something new about each other. (And remember the various activities for getting started outlined in chapter three.) ♦ Link the print materials you have brought to the discussion. Ironically, many people who are reassured by the provision of print material do not read it. But they often do read materials after a stimulating, challenging workshop. The use of print material reinforces a facilitator's knowledge of the subject. People are more likely to read it, though, if facilitators link each piece of material to something discussed during the workshop. -4- Type up and give back participant notes, when possible. If you have recorded participant comments, insights, and questions throughout the workshop, try to return this information to the participants. (The recording is best done on flip-chart paper or blackboard so participants can see what they are producing.) Returning participants' knowledge to them accomplishes three things: it documents the workshop and what it produced and makes this information available for future use by facilitators and participants; it confirms and values for participants what they know and have produced; and it provides an occasion to have further contact with participants following a workshop. (See chapter two for more detailed suggestions about the process of documenting the event.) 128 EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation GIVING AND GETTING FEEDBACK Some twenty women who work in shelters for abused women are participating in a ßve-day, facilitator-training program. On the fourth day, working in small teams, they design their own workshops and are about to begin practisingfacilitation. Thepurposeqf the exercise is notonly to strengthenfacllitatton skills butalso, A Story following each team's presentation, to practise giving each other supportive, critl-calfeedback. In preparation for the activity the facilitator helps participants develop rules forfeedback. She asks them, "What behaviours help you to hear people's criticisms as useful and not attacking?" The participants generate a list of guidelines they '11 use to critique each other's work. Among other things, they agree that each woman should indicate one thing she likes and one thing she thinks can be improved; that they should all speakfor themselves and not universalize their comments; and that comments be specific, not general. During the feedback after each team's presentation, two women continually interrupt and violate their own guidelines. They launch immediately into criticisms of what was wrong with the team's presentation, without mentioning anything positive. They make comments such as, "Nobody could understand your instructions," implying that the others agree with what they are saying. Thefacill-tator continues to stop the process and question their behaviour in Itght of the guidelines. Later, in the evaluation of the session, the two women reflect critically on their own inability tofollowfeedback guidelines. They name this as a significant problem in their own political organizations. The result, they conclude, is that people stop listentng to each other and instead spend energy defending and attacking. Critlcatfeedback becomes a way of hurting others and not building the work. So what's going on? Most people think of criticism as negative, and three important social factors encourage this notion. The first is that in many capitalist societies people are trained to view criticism as having meaning only at a personal level - and not at a collective level. Critical comments, then, become one person's response to another person's skills, knowledge, and understanding. People don't see these comments as an opportunity for everyone to learn something both for themselves and for their Joint efforts. On the other hand, if people adopt a spirit of shared responsibility for learning and action, this step would not only promote more shared ownership of a problem but also help establish a way of developing useful approaches to addressing the problem. Second, there's a standard response to this personalization of criticism, which is not to give it at all for fear of hurting the person's feelings. It's not uncommon for people to say publicly what they like and privately, to someone else, what they dislike. This produces dishonesty and distrust in groups, and 129 EDUCATING FOR A CHANGE 4 WORKING ON OUR FEET Facilitation prevents potentially helpful insights from informing the collective analysis and action of the group. Third, in organizations that view themselves as oppositional and action-oriented, a culture of criticism often develops that ignores personal feelings. Instead, the strategy and the work are deemed important. Despite persistent evidence to the contrary, personal feelings are viewed as a liberal luxury. This results in the suppression of hurt, anxiety, and anger and helps to produce ways of talking that are, in fact, competitive, aggressive, and non-collaborative. These processes also suppress more kindly emotions, such as approval or affirmation. A tendency builds up to reduce all differences to political tensions, even in situations where differences in social identity and organizational role may be significant. A central task of social change education is to develop skills in constructive, critical dialogue. These skills include abilities to: