Popular education

Dedocracia is a pun I learned from activists from the Dominican Republic with whom I used to work. When someone designates the person who has to carry out a particular assignment -- by pointing at him/her rather than voting or reaching consensus -- it's a case of "dedocracia" (the rule of the finger).

But I have since learned about another form of dedocracia: five finger consensus, or "fist-to-five consensus-building." You can read about it here: http://freechild.org/Firestarter/Fist2Five.htm

Adapted from "Broken Squares": Preparing Students for Group Work, from Practicing Collaborative Learning, Maryann Feola Castelucci and Peter Miller, College of Staten Island, CUNY, Dept of English, Speech and World Literature, Winter 1986

This is not so much an activity or technique as a policy. But, it has implications for facilitation and for participants' actions.

At the outset of a course or workshop, as part of my self-introduction, I explain that there is one general rule that is very important to me, that is that everyone should feel free. (This is constantly evolving as I learn more about what feeling free can mean.)

The spiel:

People should feel free to be comfortable:

• to stand up if they need to stand up,
• to leave the room if they need to leave the room,
  

Summary:

This activity combines "What do we want? When do we want it?" with "Ten levels of 'Why?'"

Good for: animation, personal reflection, starting discussion of goals and strategic vision.

Set-up: circle-game, sitting or standing, walking (like on picket line), followed by individual work and then, at the end, circle again

Number of people: enough for a "we"

Materials: none (could be interesting to have people create placards or picket signs at the end)

Some education handbooks, especially those written for classroom teachers, add a "Time it takes" item to their descriptions of activities. I had initially planned to do this, because it is so important as a facilitator to have a realistic sense of how long any given activity might take, or, put otherwise, how much time to give it. No one wants to run out of time just when things get interesting, or find herself standing there with twenty minutes left and nothing to do.