What is a facilitator?
“[…] someone who uses some level of intuitive or explicit knowledge of group process to formulate & deliver some form of formal or informal process interventions at a shallow or deep level to help a group achieve what they want or need to do [,] or get where they want or need to go.”
–Ned Ruete
“A facilitator’s mission/job — to support everyone to do their best thinking” — Sam Kane
Connections
From a teacher’s perspective, this workshop reaffirmed the importance of being well prepared. Also, a similarity that I noticed between teachers and facilitators is that proper front loading is necessary to diminish potential challenges that participants (students or professionals) may encounter. Where teachers may differ from facilitators is that we are not necessarily always neutral. However, I can see how the skills and strategies that facilitators use are extremely helpful because many of the challenges which arise in facilitation sessions also arise in classrooms. For example, how would we as teachers deal with anger, sensitive issues, defensiveness, etc. when it unexpectedly emerges in our classrooms? Having a bank of strategies ready would be worthwhile for anyone to have, especially for those of us who work with people a lot.
Things to consider: rubrics, criteria, expectations, adaptations
Nice post, Dani. Just a point of clarification – facilitators are not neutral – we hold the same biases, passions and convictions as everyone else. What we work hard to do (and this is a discipline) is take a neutral stance (rather than a position) when there is an expression of anger, defensiveness or around sensitive issues, etc. The purpose of this is to to ensure that the facilitated environment remains a safe (neutral) place to raise questions and tackle the hard truths that sometimes go unexpressed in environments that are less concerned about the goals of the participants and more concerned with the goals of the “leaders”.
I hope your practicum experience with us brings many opportunities to reflect on the disciplines that teachers work to develop – beyond just strategies – which can sometimes ring a bit hollow without the discipline behind it.
Great, thank you for the clarification, Cindy!