Continued from front fl ap PRAISE FOR FACILITATING GROUP LEARNING LAKEY Facilitating it brings all the elements of the author’s “ In this engaging and accessible book, George Lakey draws on a lifetime’s direct education approach together. experience to provide a highly practical resource to anyone seeking to understand Group Learning and respond to the complexities of group work. The book will be invaluable to Facilitating Group Learning also contains anyone trying to effect social change through groups while striving to stay material on sustaining the educator, simultaneously sane and employed.” addresses working with social movements, — STEPHEN D. BROOKFIELD, FROM THE ACCLAIMED COAUTHOR OF and includes the Training for Change Distinguished University Professor, University of St. Thomas A Manual for Direct Action comes toolkit of group learning techniques. F Facilitating Group Learning, an essential “ I’ve been working with forms of direct education for many decades, and I found resource designed to help educators, a new ideas and inspirations in every chapter. For anyone involved in teaching, trainers, workshop leaders, and anyone training, sharing skills, or leading groups, this book is an invaluable resource!” c who assists groups to learn. George Lakey — STARHAWK, i presents the core principles and proven author, The Earth Path, Dreaming the Dark, and Webs of Power l techniques of direct education, an i t approach he developed for effectively “ George Lakey has inspired our union to engage in education in a way that a teaching adults in groups. To illustrate challenges us to redefi ne social justice and equality in new and exciting ways. t how it works in action, Lakey includes a This book helps us to continue our journey to touch the souls of union members.” GEORGE LAKEY i wealth of compelling stories from his vast — DENIS LEMELIN, n experience facilitating groups in a variety national president, Canadian Union of Postal Workers g of situations. “ Facilitating Group Learning will ease the way of all who venture into the white GEORGE LAKEY G Direct education cuts through the waters of facilitation. George clarifi es the most basic, complex, and nagging challenges of facilitation, while honoring the realities of individual and social r pretense and needless complications that is visiting professor and research fellow power dynamics and providing real-life examples from the path of continued o can distance learners from subject matter. Facilitating for the Lang Center for Civic and Social growth and mastery. A rare gift!” u It removes false expectations (for example, Responsibility at Swarthmore College — NIYONU D. SPANN, that kinesthetic learners will strongly p and cofounder of the nonprofi t Training founding president, TRV Consulting and Beyond Diversity 101 benefi t from slide presentations) and false assumptions (for example, that a group is for Change. He is the author or coauthor L “ This book is a must-read for people who teach adults of any age, no matter what the simply the sum of the individuals). This of eight books including Grassroots and subject, and care about doing it in ways that yield deep and abiding learning. e Group Learning approach focuses the encounter between Nonprofi t Leadership and A Manual for Wonderfully well-written and rich with psychological and spiritual insights as well as a teacher and group; it replaces scattered Direct Action. practical strategies, it represents the fruits of a lifetime of transformational teaching r attention—of a teacher preoccupied with and learning by one of the foremost adult educators of our time.” n curriculum and participants preoccupied — PARKER J. PALMER, i with distractions—with gathered attention. author, The Courage to Teach, Let Your Life Speak, and The Heart of Higher Education n Strategies for Success with g Unlike other books on group facilitation, Diverse Adult Learners Jacket design by Michael Cook EDUCATION the author emphasizes critical issues related to diversity, as well as authenticity and emotions. Step by step this ground- www.josseybass.com breaking book describes how to design effective learning experiences and shows what it takes to facilitate them. Ultimately, Continued on back fl ap Facilitating Group Learning Facilitating Group Learning Strategies for Success with Diverse Adult Learners George Lakey Copyright©2010byJohnWiley&Sons,Inc.Allrightsreserved. PublishedbyJossey-Bass AWileyImprint 989MarketStreet,SanFrancisco,CA94103-1741—www.josseybass.com Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States CopyrightAct,withouteitherthepriorwrittenpermissionofthepublisher,orauthorization throughpaymentoftheappropriateper-copyfeetotheCopyrightClearanceCenter,Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600, or on the Webatwww.copyright.com.Requeststothepublisherforpermissionshouldbeaddressed tothePermissionsDepartment,JohnWiley&Sons,Inc.,111RiverStreet,Hoboken,NJ 07030,201-748-6011,fax201-748-6008,oronlineatwww.wiley.com/go/permissions. Readers should be aware that Internet Web sites offered as citations and/or sources for furtherinformationmayhavechangedordisappearedbetweenthetimethiswaswritten andwhenitisread. 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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Lakey,George. Facilitatinggrouplearning:strategiesforsuccesswithadultlearners/ GeorgeLakey.—1sted, p.cm.—(TheJossey-BassHigherandadulteducationseries) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-470-76863-1(hardback) 1. Adult learning. 2. Group work in education. 3. Learning strategies. 4. Continuing education.5.Adulteducation.I.Title. LC5225.L42.L352010 374(cid:2).22—dc22 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica firstedition HBPrinting 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 TheJossey-Bass HigherandAdultEducationSeries Contents Acknowledgments ix AbouttheAuthor xi 1. Introduction:Direct Education forAdult Learning Groups 1 PartI The Learning Group and the Individual 2. TheRole oftheIndividualand theGroup inDirect Education 13 3. Harnessing thePowerofIntention 20 4. Strengthening theContainer: Subgroups Jointhe Mix 31 5. TheSecret Life ofGroups 42 PartII Diversity, Difference, and Emotions in Group Learning 6. AcknowledgingDifference toAccelerate Learning 55 7. Diversity andConflictStyles 66 8. SocialClass andDiversity 72 9. Authenticity, Emotion,andLearning 80 vii viii Contents PartIII Designing Learning Experiences 10. Structures for Organizing theContent 95 11. BuildingonWhat theLearners Know 109 12. Learning Difficult Material 117 13. Sequencingfor Maximum Impact 126 14. Accountability in Direct Education 134 15. Emergent Design: Facilitating in theHere and Now 145 PartIV Facilitation 16. Setting the Toneand BuildingSafety 155 17. EdgyInterventions to Accelerate Learning 168 18. ThePowerofFraming 179 19. Sensitivity in Cross-Cultural Issues 189 20. TheDrama ofTransformational Work 211 21. Conclusion:Bringing ItAll Together 227 Resources AppendixA: TheSustainable Educator: Advocacy, Modesty, and Diversity ofGifts 241 AppendixB: TheSustainable Educator: Resilience and Revolution 248 AppendixC: ForFurther Reading 256 AppendixD: Toolsand Resources forDirect Education 266 References 271 Index 279 Acknowledgments As a working class boy, I’m proud to acknowledge how much this book is a collective product. Kathi Bentall and the Rivendell Retreat in British Columbia invited me to be their first writer- in-residence, kindly affording me the space and time to write the first draft of this book. The board of Training for Change (TfC) excused me from some training and administrative work so that I could write. Daniel Hunter, Judith C. Jones, other co-facilitators, andthestaffofmanyclientorganizationshelpedmetolearnfrom my mistakes and successes. They helped me to see that we really were evolving something worth sharing. Some TfC trainers wrote specific contributions to this book—Betsy Raasch-Gilman, Erika Thorne, Matt Guynn, Skylar Fein—and I’m grateful to them for sharingtheirexperience. The leadership, staff, and worker educators of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers were courageous in making their union a laboratory for many of these ideas. Denis Lemelin, the current CUPW president, was key in introducing the union to direct education, along with David Bleakney and Lynn Bue. Johnny Lapham, Viki Laura List, Carolyn McCoy, Frances and Howard Kellogg, Ann Yasuhara, and many other generous individuals shared not only their purses but also their hearts to keep TfC’s trainingonthegrowingedge. ix