Conversation and Safe Spaces: The Best Medium to Develop Understanding

Conversation and Safe Spaces: The Best Medium to Develop Understanding

In teacher capacity-building workshops or trainings, if we truly want to empower teachers or bring about small shifts in them, we need to create more spaces for dialogues or conversation and a safe environment. When we are able to provide such an experience, only then will teachers see themselves as capable and effective in carrying this experience back to their classrooms.

Most trainings are such that the PPT becomes the primary medium, limited only to sharing information. The trainer or stakeholder assumes that a training has been “done.” Through pre- and post-tests, it is also concluded that the training went well, because the questions are only based on the information provided. But in this, there is no real space where participants can share:

1. What did they feel?
2. What insights did they gain?
3. With what questions are they leaving this training?

Now the question is:

1. Are we able to see or understand whether our training has sparked curiosity?
2. Is that curiosity, which may have been lost within the schooling system (especially if one did not encounter inspiring teachers), coming alive again?

From my experience, and from my journey so far in the development sector, my understanding is that if our trainings are not alive, they will not reach the classroom. How much conversation happens, and how safe teachers feel, must be given priority.

Goals and Agreements as a space to connect and walk together 

Often, goals and agreements are shared and finalized in very direct ways. What happens then?

1. Participants do not get the opportunity to understand their own real needs.
2. The training becomes just a formality.

So, reflect for yourself and share your thoughts in the comments.

From my journey as a facilitator at Dream a Dream, I have come to understand that goals and agreements themselves are spaces for dialogue. They help in creating an atmosphere that is both safe and easeful.

When we talk about goals with participants, we invite them on the journey of transformation with us.

1. We connect their perspectives and training needs with ours.
2. The goals become their needs, not just some target mentioned in a circular.
3. They can then understand and accept what this training really offers them.

We also offer them the chance to see:

1. What these goals are doing for them.
2. How they will help.
3. The reasons behind them.

We call this approach “Wise Whys”, a concept we learned through facilitate.toolsi.ca and refined through Dream a Dream’s facilitator capacity-building journey.

Similarly, when we clarify the difference between rules and agreements, and move towards co-creating agreements, it strengthens both shared responsibility and autonomy.

As the points of agreement emerge along with their underlying reasons, we move closer to a safe and comfortable environment. Participants also begin to feel empathy for the facilitator, and both connect with each other more deeply.

An Invitation

My invitation to all trainers and facilitators is this: let us find such small spaces for dialogue, where mutual understanding can develop within a safe and easeful environment. This way, the intent of the training can be understood and shared in the right and simple way, and eventually, it can truly translate into the classroom.

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