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Facilitation

For students particularly, a continuous focus on the enormous and seemingly intractable problems of the world may lead to feelings of apathy and helplessness.

Consequently, it is important to regularly focus the open inquiry on what is good about school, life, community so that the participants stay engaged with the possibility of a brighter future.

Creating Ground Rules for Open Inquiry

As a creative and reflexive process, the first step in developing ground rules for open inquiry is to have participants think of the best group conversations they have ever been involved in. What were the things about this conversation that made it so satisfying?

Activity

In a one or five minute paper, have students think about the last satisfying conversation they had within the last month [six months; semester] and write down:

  1. Where and when did this conversation take place?
  2. Who was there and what was their role?
  3. What were the issues involved that made the conversation so satisfying?

Have the group take turns telling the story of what made the conversation work. Listen for themes, shared experiences, and characteristics of the conversations and write them down so that they are visually displayed to the group.

Now have students write a one or five minute paper describing the last unsatisfying conversation they had within the last month [six months; semester] and write down:

  1. Where and when did this conversation took place?
  2. Who was there and what was their role?
  3. What were the issues involved that made the conversation so unsatisfying?

Again, the students take turns telling the story of what made the conversation unsuccessful. Listen for the themes, shared experiences, and characteristics of the conversations and write them down so that they are visually displayed to the group.

Then, have the students decide on the characteristics of good conversations that they want to abide by. For each characteristic that the group selects, have them suggest three things the group can do to ensure that these are present during their open inquiry. Finish the exercise by trying to draft a charter for open inquiry.

Suggestions (Brookfield, 1987)

  1. Every time a participant makes a general assertion, they are required to provide a story of their experience that supports that assertion.
  2. After every 20 minutes of conversation, five minutes be set aside explicitly for anyone who has not contributed in the previous 20 minutes to say whatever is on their minds.
  3. Participants in the open inquiry talk without interruption for more than a certain number of minutes.
  4. Every time a participant wishes to criticize or disagree with another person’s comments, that participant must first say what aspects of that person’s comments hold merit.
  5. Periods of mandated silence be included in the group’s deliberations, during which all participants take the time to reflect on unacknowledged biases, themes for further discussion, excluded perspectives, and points of significance.
  6. Every open inquiry starts with a reflective stocktaking of the group’s process; what has worked well, what needs improvement, who feels shut out and unheard, and so on.
  7. Participants take turns over the life of the group in having their experience constitute the focus of the open inquiry.

 Common Ground Rules for Dialogue/Open Inquiry