A whole society for...
Life in society is shaken by a continuous fragmentation of the uses and practices of living together. The post-war social contract is no longer self-evident. Social roles, genders, affiliations, political cleavages have become porous or even confused, disputed or excessively variable according to circumstances.
Everyone conceives of the world in their own way.and changes their minds according to the moments of their lives. Each one takes actions to assert his vision, his specificity, his singularity, even his sufferings. Institutions such as political parties are crumbled, religions huddle around their ideologies, trade unions represent a limited number of employees. Companies do not make dreams come true since researchers or consultants point to the lack of trust or disengagement of a mass of employees and even put the cost at 12.5Keuros per year.
Families are broken up, recomposed, single-parent and are sometimes struggling to play their educational role. The school is more and more difficult to be the sacred place where knowledge is transferred. It has become a social issue, a place of debate and sometimes an arena for confrontation, dispute or violence. Rap songs abundantly denounce the school institution "it's not the school that dictated my codes" (Diams) offering the law of the street as the only reference point. But, Alongside school, there are other places of socialization and other educational practices at work.
Other reference points than school: popular education, the associative world, committed without labels
The popular education (permanent education in Belgium) draws its roots in France from the resistance. It is resolutely focused on the general interest, and has produced many socio-cultural movements concerned with the most fragile, with societal or intergenerational issues, and with local development. Its pedagogical practices have inspired many very active associations and movements. The multiplication of associative initiatives contributes to maintaining links when large institutions are weakened by the tensions and fractures encountered.
Informally or, on the contrary, in a highly professionalized manner, the promoters of associative movements inspired or not by popular education have acquired remarkable know-how to engage in action without using the hierarchical constraint that is common in companies. Indeed, it is difficult to coerce a volunteer.
Informal micro-collectives also operate in close proximity outside of official counts and do not even bother with the legal status of an association to devote themselves fully to their mission and vocation. In this sector of social life, in a few years, facilitation practices have progressed and with them those of dialogue in circles, which could be a hope for democracy.
A wide variety of circles have developed (coach intervision circles, study circles, reading circles, legacy circles, dialogue circles, learning circles, teaching circles, etc.) with the corollary of deepening the purpose of the mission and the links between members on the one hand and on the other hand an opportunity to hone one's listening and interpersonal skills.
These qualities are essential because inner democracy, the easing of one's own tensions, is at the heart of democracy. Circle dialogue practices have penetrated many worlds. They could bring to the living together a surplus of respect that we too often lack in heated political debates. What if these practices invigorated society in all its compartments by putting the desire to share at the centre of exchanges?
The figure of the facilitator is emerging, as is a posture of facilitation. Let's remember that to facilitate is to make it easy. It is to make the group learn by itself the conditions for its development. It is possible to wonder if facilitation practiced on a large scale could spread in society (companies, schools, hospitals, administration, etc.) new relational practices based on the learning of all by all? Like a tea bag in hot water, facilitation could bring a warmth, a flavor and a soothing sweetness.
The case of Northern Europe
Circle dialogue practices are very old (cf. Wisdom of the Native Americans). Then they began to be described in the 19th century.
In this regard, it is interesting to observe the Norwegian society that supported the establishment of study circles on a national level. Jonathan Kaplan's thesis gives an account of a high-impact scheme that has shaped the living together admired in the rest of Europe and the world.
Through the medium of exchange, the Baltic countries benefited from these ideas of education among adults, which would have allowed these countries unprecedented educational development after their detachment from the Soviet bloc.
Similar practices are also being developed in Canada in an effort at social transformation as proposed by Samantha Slade or to develop singular abilities as with reading circles. "A reading circle is a structured didactic device in which participants, gathered in small heterogeneous groups, learn to interpret and construct knowledge together from literary texts or ideas. Beyond the collective construction of meanings, the interactions between readers should promote the internalization by each of them of fine strategies of comprehension and interpretation." (Terwagne, 2001)
In France collective intelligence dialogues are taking hold, the political world is initiating, circles are being set up in companies with professional facilitators. Practices are moving that would deserve to be more strongly supported.
An idea of collective responsibility
If the intuition of this text is the deployment of the pedagogy of circles, facilitation functions and roles are an invaluable perspective to strengthen living and learning together. It would be useful to recognize their virtues and promote their practices across entire countries.
Making a quality pedagogical practice a real "public policy", e.g. training circle facilitators for free would undoubtedly allow them to meet. This is an opportunity to decompartmentalize and create bridges between disjointed spheres of interest. Creating observatories of facilitation practices in collective intelligence would allow us to emphasize the conditions favorable to the development of collective learning, that "desire to learn together" that is a prerequisite for living together. This social practice at the basis of exemplary democratic societies in Northern Europe would be a way to foster transitions that require acting in concert and with speed.
In the same way that after the war we were able to invent "vocational training" with its methods, discourses, and practices, it seems that the time has come to invent facilitation and to promote collective self-training. In a knowledge-based humanity, this would be an opportunity to learn how to face the challenges ahead of us with collective intelligence.
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