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iscussion Facilitation for Public Humanities Programs (Leah Nahmias)
- 1. Facilitating Public Humanities Programs Leah Nahmias (leahknahmias@gmail.com)
- 2. Group Brainstorm (5 minutes) Group 1: What are the qualities of a good conversation? Group 2: Think of a good conversation–what did the facilitator do? How did he/she encourage discussion?
- 3. Text-centered conversations: the gold standard of public humanities programming
- 4. Texts focus the participants and the conversation.
- 5. (Short) texts can be read aloud together, to get everyone on the same page before discussion.
- 7. Texts become a shared experience.
- 8. Considering ideas vs. building towards a consensus.
- 9. Facilitating a discussion about a text is NOT the same as teaching a text.
- 10. What do we want to happen because of these conversations? What choices create or preclude our desired outcomes?
- 11. Preparing to Facilitate 1. Before the conversation, read the text. a. First pass: just to get a sense of the text as a whole. b. Second pass: “snag points” – what catches your eye again? c. Third pass: themes –ideas that would be interesting to talk about (not just to point out) 2. Make a plan. 3. Write questions. a. First question: What tone do you want to set? What are we gathered here to talk about? b. Last question: What do you want people to leave thinking about? What idea do you want them to ponder at home, with friends, etc.? c. Rules for asking questions: i. Focus on what’s important to talk about. THEMES rather than topics. ii. Text as shared experience and neutral point of return.
- 12. Themes invite discussion, debate, or meditation about important issues in life. We understand themes through dialogue and exposure to other points of view.
- 13. Rules for Facilitation: Listen 1. Lean forward. 2. Pay attention. 3. Take notes. 4. Don’t answer your own questions (even if no one else is). 5. Be comfortable with silence (count to 10). 6. Let them talk. (85% them, 15% you) Focus on asking the questions.
- 14. Rules for Facilitation: Be Curious 1. Only ask questions that you want to know the answers to. (You’re not curious about your own answers.) 2. Invite input from everyone. 3. Follow up on ideas. (This is not a Q&A.) Choose questions that make sense for the conversation you’re in.
- 15. Rules for Facilitation: Doubt 1. Doubt consensus. (Be the rational minority.) 2. Doubt generalizations or stereotypes. 3. Be the voice of doubt. Model respectful disagreement. Hard and fast rule: Don’t ever say or be “the devil’s advocate”--it’s smarmy and condescending.
- 16. Rules for Facilitation: Build 1. Ask questions that make sense for the conversation already happening. 2. Ask follow-up questions that connect or clarify. 3. It should feel like a conversation among friends.
- 17. Good Questions Are… 1. Grounded in text. 2. Simply stated. 3. Open up the conversation. 4. Manage and direct the flow of conversation. 5. Given the conversation purpose.
- 18. Three* Types of Questions 1. Factual: What did the author say? What did the character do? What was the sequence of events? What happened? 2. Interpretative: What is the author’s intent? What is the character’s motivation? Why did things unfold the way they did? What could explain two contradictory statements or actions? a. Must be able to be answered in more than one way. b. Often formed around “snag points.” 3. Evaluative: Questions that ask about the larger themes or implications of the text, questions that connect the text to the real world, questions asking whether the reader agrees and why or why not. 4. Follow-Up: Questions that help participants consider what others are saying while also refining their own ideas. Questions that introduce new perspectives. Questions that link comments and ideas.
- 19. Example: According to the Declaration of Independence, who endows humans with “certain inalienable rights”?
- 20. Example: What is Dewey getting at when he says “we act as if our democracy were something that perpetuated itself automatically”?
- 21. Example: Esther Morris says she likes Wyoming because “everyone is important.” How is that true in this group? In our community?
- 22. Example: Why does Brecht say the man on the corner of 26th Street and Broadway “won’t change the world”?
- 23. Example: Jason brings up an interesting point. What do you all think?
- 24. Example: What are two things William James says struck him after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake?
- 25. Example: Do you agree with Dewey that persuasion and discussion are essential to democracy? If so, what role do they play?
- 26. Example: What did you all think of what we read?
- 27. Example: Did you like it?
- 28. More Thoughts on Questions ● Ask factual questions near the beginning, spend lots of times on interpretative questions, wrap up with a few evaluative questions. ● Too many factual questions and it feels like a quiz. It’s probably a sign that you’re “teaching the text.” ● Factual questions can recenter the group and get you back on track. ● Adults want to jump to evaluative questions (I liked it, I hated it). Your job as facilitator is to slow down this impulse. ● Over-prepare (10-12 questions for 90 minutes) but no forced marches! ○ In a good conversation, you may only ask 3-5.
- 29. Opening Introduce yourself + ONE WORD response to a question related to the theme of the text.
- 30. Closing Everyone goes around and has to answer yes or no (with no explanation) at the end of the conversation.
- 31. The WORST Questions – And Why 1. What did you all think? 2. Did you like it? 3. I was really struck by… 4. Yes/no questions* 5. We can all agree that…
- 32. Setting Norms
- 33. Set and post norms for the discussion. ● What is and isn’t okay to say? ● How should folks indicate they have something to contribute? ● What mindsets do you want people to enter with?
- 34. 1. Speak your truth. 2. Lean into discomfort and lean into each other. 3. Commit to non-closure. 4. Embrace paradox. 5. Seek intentional learning, not perfection.
- 35. Veterans Groups
- 36. Things to Keep in Mind: Opportunities ● Tap into “esprit de corps”: ○ Established shared goals for participation. ○ Help each other succeed in the discussion. ● Veterans have a lot of leadership skills that you can tap into as a facilitator, especially to address challenges within the group. ● Going to war and returning home are universal experiences that connect across time and place.
- 37. Things to Keep in Mind: Challenges ● Texts and conversations may surface difficult experiences that veterans haven’t discussed before. ○ Be prepared and be ready to remind and enforce “norms.” ○ The universality of some experiences, as illuminated in humanities texts, can be profoundly comforting (i.e., “I never knew how to put this into words before…”) ● These kinds of conversations can be therapeutic, but they are not therapy.
- 38. Things to Keep in Mind ● Avoid falling into societal tropes (“Veterans are heroes” or “Veterans are damaged”). ● Your own position as facilitator: whether you are or are not a veteran.
- 39. Rookie Mistakes + Lessons Learned
- 40. Don’t introduce yourself with an extensive bio, and DEFINITELY don’t ask participants to do so.
- 42. Start with some short quote or passage, followed by a question grounded in text.
- 43. Moments of silence are not a sign that something is wrong.
- 44. Get out of the way of the conversation.
- 45. Know when it’s time to move on.
- 46. Bad questions lead to bad discussions.
- 47. Never do popcorn reading or read-aloud from participants.
- 48. Direct negative energy towards and through the text, not towards participants.
- 49. Seat big talkers directly next to you (out of your eye line).
- 50. Turn and talk, taking a moment to jot down thoughts: these techniques get quiet people and groups talking.
- 51. Facilitation is a performance!
Notes de l'éditeur
- To me, text-centered conversations are the gold standard of public humanities programming. I’ve never seen anything work as well for getting a group of strangers who otherwise have little or nothing in common to come together and have a meaningful conversation in a short amount of time. There are other kinds of facilitation practices out there, coming out of organizing or consensus-building spaces, as well as practices that are more rooted in teaching/pedagogy. When I say text, that can really be lots of different things, including media, artworks, etc. Although I do think different media present different opportunities and challenges and you need to adjust your facilitation style.
- By neutral: the person who wrote it isn’t in the room (and may be dead). Unlike lived experience, it’s something everyone has access to center the conversation around (it’s hard to disagree civilly or productively when everyone’s just sharing their experiences without an object at the center of the conversation).
- It’s the only thing you can guarantee that everyone has in common. But it puts the onus on you to ask questions and plan conversation around the text itself–what it says, not to ask questions that can only be answered with extensive background knowledge. Questions that require a lot of secondary knowledge or specialized expertise create hierarchies.
- There are many approaches to facilitation. In organizing spaces, for instance, the purpose of facilitation may be to get people in the room to come together around a shared goal. What that kind of facilitation looks like is different than what we’ll be talking about today, where the goal is to get people to consider ideas and think about them in relation to self and to community. It’s okay if the conversation doesn’t “conclude” in a neat point.
- Ask for their ideas about what this means and what the differences are? Or state and move on (illustrate why in next part of discussion). When you’re teaching, you decide what is important and make sure that students understand or “get it” by the end. Facilitation is more open-ended. I often think about facilitation in terms of an “orbit” of conversation rather than a straight line or path like you might think about teaching. Also, when you teach, you might feel compelled to give lots of secondary or contextual information, or to cover all the “important” points about a text. When you facilitate, you choose the aspects of the text that are most important for exploring the theme or ideas of the conversation.
- As a facilitator, these are the key questions to ask ourselves, and to design accordingly. I’d love to hear a little from the group here about what goals you (or we collectively) have for these discussions.
- Sample discussion plan and mock planning worksheet Writing questions: First Question: What tone do you want to set? What are we gathered here to talk about? (Can be asked BEFORE you read the text.) Tip: Get everyone to say something (to hear the sound of their own voice.) Choose one word that describes your view of democracy. Last Question: What do you want people to leave thinking about? What idea do you want them to ponder at home, with friends, etc.? Rules for asking questions. Focus on what’s important to talk about. Themes give the text (and conversation) weight and importance. (Discuss difference between themes and topics.) Use the text as the shared experience and neutral point of return. FOR ART: Spend time looking and talking about the form of the art and it’s location first, before talking about ideas. (What do you see? What is around the art? What’s going on in this artwork?)
- Themes are concepts or ideas that invite discussion, debate, or meditation about important issues in life. Themes are best understood through dialogue and exposure to other points of view. Themes can be expressed through words that describe ideas such as “friendship,” “faith,” or “courage,” or through questions like “What is a leader?” or “What does it mean to be free?”
- Talk about the text with someone else before you facilitate to get all your thoughts out. It’s not about YOU!
- Doubt: especially yourself and your own beliefs.
- Grounded in text–they may ask participants to look at a specific quote and unpack it.
- Factual - confirming a key point in the text
- Interpretative
- Evaluative - text to real world
- Factual
- Follow-up (and evaluative) (what is this question doing–-bringing others into the conversation)
- Factual
- Evaluative (questions of values, real world implications)
- Evaluative (asks readers to make a judgement on the text) DON’T ASK THIS QUESTION, especially at the start of a conversation
- Evaluative – terrible question, especially at the start (they’ll just defend their own position). Also the least interesting thing you can ask about a text.
- A good technique for opening conversation combines introductions with getting people thinking about a major theme that you want to bring up. I.e., Take a moment and jot down three words that come to mind when you hear the word democracy. (Give a couple of minutes). Before we begin, I’m going to ask everyone to share their name and ONE of their words. I want one word, not a phrase, just one word. It’s okay if someone else chose your word. (As a facilitator, take notes on what people’s words were.) Asking everyone to say something at the beginning gets everyone to hear their voice in the room.
- An example: Do you trust our democracy (inspired by the Jane Addams piece). Or something else that draws upon an essential theme of the question. Now, what happens when you force everyone to decide yes or no at the end? You’re burning to explain yourself! That energy is great at the end, it suggests there’s more to say, it leads to continued conversation (in the room or at home). The key is to ask something that’s genuinely hard. If we had time, we’d actually model this, and I think you’d see how it works. It ALWAYS WORKS!!
- Background/experience running programs for veterans
- Share example of Rochester group/sex worker story.
- As with any group, having a PLAN will help you avoid some challenges.
- This kind of introduction TAKES UP TOO MUCH TIME (you’ve only got 90 minutes and we’ve all been in rooms where introductions take 30 minutes or more). And more importantly it creates hierarchies. EVERYONE has something valuable to contribute regardless of age, credentials, length of experience, etc. The only advantage of this is it helps you identify the assholes in a group. Best to avoid!!!
- Short texts are just as good as long texts for discussion, especially when you’re focused on themes, especially with busy adults. (This is not a college course, right?)
- Silence always feels longer to you than to the group. Count to 10 (at least). Say that you’re giving people time and really give it to them. Give people time to gather their thoughts or gather their courage. Waiting a couple of beats lets the conversation breathe and you’ll hear more from the quieter folks.
- A great conversation is people talking back and forth to each other, referencing the text when they’re talking about ideas, not just back and forth with you. Have a plan but it’s a good sign if you really only get to 3-5 questions in 90 minutes.
- Not everyone needs to speak on every point. It’s okay to pivot if you’re in a dead end, no one has anything to say (be self-deprecating), or you’re beating a dead horse.
- Did you like it? I was really struck by… Yes/no questions.
- People feel nervous, they pay attention to what they’re going to read, rather than what’s being said, or how fluent someone else rather than what’s being said. Plus, there’s pleasure in being read to, and adults don’t get it often enough.
- “Let’s take it to the text. Where do you see that in the text? What does the author say about that idea? Is there another perspective that we’re missing?”
- Talk with someone before you facilitate to get your own ideas out (so you don’t dominate the conversation by working through your ideas). It’s okay to be neutral or to express perspectives you don’t hold.