深夜亚洲福利久久

A Focus on Facilitation

8 Feb 2021

It may seem obvious that facilitation鈥痵kills matter for Community Engaged Learning, but the value of giving this some dedicated focus 蝉丑辞耻濒诲苍鈥檛 be underestimated.鈥疓ood teachers are already facilitators of learning, so鈥痶he chances are you already鈥痟ave a good foundation, even if you haven't鈥痳ecognised鈥痶his as a core skill. Equally鈥痺hilst facilitation skills come more naturally to some than鈥痮thers,鈥痑ll facilitators can and should work on knowing and enhancing their facilitation style.鈥� 

Not all CEL initiatives require educators to play strong facilitator roles. For example, if you are preparing individual or small groups of students to go out to multiple community organisations without your input then the requirement for facilitation skills may be less obvious that CEL initiatives that, for example, have one partner that the lecturer and their students work with for a defined period.  

Generally, CEL is an experiential process involving community and student participants and facilitating the CEL process and discussions is central to ensuring participants stay engaged with the initiative.鈥疘f you鈥�have the opportunity to鈥痷ndertake facilitation training before鈥痵etting out on鈥痑 CEL initiative, it would be a worthwhile investment of your time and鈥痵trengthen your confidence and ability to manage the outcomes of the鈥�. 

Of course, that's not always an option鈥痵o the next best thing is being prepared and planning a clear sequence of activities for the collaborative sessions with your community partner. Here's our checklist for things to think about: 

A skilled facilitator:鈥� 

• Pays attention to the setting in which participants meet:鈥痠s it accessible, can everyone be creative in this space, can students and community participants easily work together, what are the acoustics like, is there refreshments (who pays for these and who prepares them)? etc.鈥�鈥� 
• Is aware of their audience: is there a mix of languages, are there any additional learning needs to be met (hearing impairments?), are the community participants familiar and confident interacting with or are they skeptical of 鈥渢he university鈥�? 
• Has a strong arsenal of resources and knows when to use鈥�them.鈥疶he resources for participative methods of learning and research are endless and there are specific tools for specific disciplinary areas which serve a particular purpose, depending on what it is you want to achieve.鈥� 
• Is adaptive and intuitive. You may have planned to make progress on a particular emerging topic but when you arrive at your community partner鈥檚 premises you notice the mood is low for example, due to a recent government announcement which negatively affects your partner.鈥疊eing sensitive to what your community partner is going through can provide your students with a unique learning opportunity to understand, for example, the deep impact of sudden policy changes is a more important learning rather than the perceived risk of deviating from the plan.鈥�鈥� 

In Practice:

Read this Independent Thinking article which highlights how three members of the UCC community - Dr Naomi Masheti, Stevie Grainger, and Vera Stojanovic are reaching out in a practical and impactful way, to respond to the needs of the migrant community in Cork. Their actvities demonstrate creative approaches that facilitate engagement rooted in core values of collaboration, reciprocity, information and power sharing and the inclusion of community. 

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This Practice Insight is published by  and  as part of the CE Toolkit for embedding civic and community engagement in the curriculum. Discover more about How to Cultivate Core Values or find out more About the Toolkit here.