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5.3
Identifying Your Communities
Submitted by Janice McMillan
This activity opens up the conversation and makes visible the many different understandings of the term “community.” Its meaning is often taken for granted. Participants also explore how they feel in relation to certain communities or how they exclude certain people from communities they are a part of.
Learning Goals
Develop a nuanced understanding of community.
Critically reflect on practices of inclusion and exclusion.
Instructions
Set Up: Prepare for the Activity
Provide participants with, or if doing this online ask them to have with them, drawing materials, like paper, pens, pencils, and/or markers, if they would like to draw during the activity.
Organize participants into small groups (3-4 ppl).
Begin by introducing the learning goals of this activity.
Step One: Individually Reflect on Community (10 min)
Invite participants to independently reflect on the following questions and write a few thoughts down or draw their response:
What does community mean for you?
What communities do you feel a part of?
Step Two: Generate a List of Characteristics that Constitute Community (20 min)
In small groups, invite participants to share what they have written or drawn.
Have participants reflect on the responses shared as they discuss the following questions:
What for your group makes up “community"?
What are the characteristics of a community?
Ask participants to then generate a list of characteristics that define community for their group. Invite each group to share this list on a board, shared screen, or other surface visible to everyone.
Step Three: Debrief as a Full Group (20 min)
Encourage participants to refer to the list of characteristics generated in their small groups as they discuss these questions:
Do you feel part of the university, workplace, or broader community where you are based? Why/why not?
Are there spaces where you feel like you belong and spaces in which you feel excluded?
TIME
50
min
MODULE
Civic Collaboration
This activity can be completed by any discussion group.
This activity can be used to support facilitation skills. See Sample Facilitation Certificate Program Design to illustrate sample sequencing.
This activity can be used to build trust and interpersonal connection.
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0 Comments
YD
December 3, 2022 at 1:58:08 AM
Activity 4.8 provides useful phrases and techniques, as well as helps participants develop their own, to join in during discussions and express their views according to the goals they choose for themselves on what they want to offer to the discussion and how they want to be perceived.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 1:52:48 AM
Activity 4.7 uses a tactile and fun method, like a bag of beans, to have participants experience what it is like to have different amounts of power in a conversation. This activity also highlights how we base our ideas of how power is distributed on stereotypes.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 1:48:29 AM
Activity 4.6 employs useful tools like the Question Chart to help participants learn how to craft "good questions" that move beyond any assumptions they have about the views of others based on stereotypes or third party descriptions, and unearth their true views on the issue.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 1:45:08 AM
Activity 4.5 uses visual aids like the Emotion Wheel to push participants to move beyond just cognitive empathy and shows how to reflect back the emotions and understand their source through dialogue. It also helps participants differentiate between messages of intentional empathy and problem-solving.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 1:39:46 AM
Activity 4.4 uses both individual written reflection and discussion in small and large groups to explore the which aspects of a person's identity we use to determine if they should be included in the conversation on a particular issue. This activity also give participants to practice explaining and negotiating who is chosen.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 1:33:37 AM
Activity 4.3 uses physical movement and both lighthearted and serious topics to help participants see how positions on different topics lie on a continuum and how positions can change as one is exposed to new information or perspectives. Participants also flex their imaginative and creative muscle by arguing for the position opposite to theirs.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 1:28:28 AM
Activity 4.2 breaks down the individual aspects of active listening into separate rounds/steps to help participants consciously and methodically learn and practice this skill.
YD
December 3, 2022 at 1:25:28 AM
Activity 4.1digs deep into the many facets of social identity, by using drawing, as well as both written silent reflection and verbal discussion in small and large groups.
YD
November 29, 2022 at 6:26:51 AM
Activity 3.8 easily helps visualize the many dimensions of a topic by using the fishbone diagram.
YD
November 29, 2022 at 6:24:44 AM
Activity 3.7 provides useful mind tricks to help practice patience and giving people the benefit of the doubt, thus creating the sense of psychological safety required in collaborative efforts.