Facilitating Group Learning: Strategies for Success With Diverse Adult Learners

by George Lakey

Praise for Facilitating Group Learning "In this engaging and accessible book, George Lakey draws on a lifetime's experience to provide a highly practical resource to anyone seeking to understand and respond to the complexities of group work. The book will be invaluable to anyone trying to effect social change through groups while striving to stay simultaneously sane and employed."—Stephen D. Brookfield, Distinguished University Professor, University of St. Thomas "I've been working with forms of direct education for many decades, and I found new ideas and inspirations in every chapter. For anyone involved in teaching, training, sharing skills, or leading groups, this book is an invaluable resource!"—Starhawk, author, The Earth Path, Dreaming the Dark, and Webs of Power "George Lakey has inspired our union to engage in education in a way that challenges us to redefine social justice and equality in new and exciting ways. This book helps us to continue our journey to touch the souls of union members."—Denis Lemelin, national president, Canadian Union of Postal Workers "Facilitating Group Learning will ease the way of all who venture into the white waters of facilitation. George clarifies the most basic, complex, and nagging challenges of facilitation, while honoring the realities of individual and social power dynamics and providing real-life examples from the path of continued growth and mastery. A rare gift!"—Niyonu D. Spann, founding president, TRV Consulting and Beyond Diversity 101 "This book is a must-read for people who teach adults of any age, no matter what the subject, and care about doing it in ways that yield deep and abiding learning. Wonderfully well-written and rich with psychological and spiritual insights as well as practical strategies, it represents the fruits of a lifetime of transformational teaching and learning by one of the foremost adult educators of our time."—Parker J. Palmer, author, The Courage to Teach, Let Your Life Speak, and The Heart of Higher Education

Genres: Education, Social Justice, Activism, Teaching, Nonfiction

291 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

George Lakey is the director of Training for Change. He began his career as a trainer at the Martin Luther King School for Social Change, and has since gone on to lead over 1000 workshops on five continents. He has run trainings for coal miners, therapists, homeless people, prisoners, Russian lesbians and gays, Sri Lankan monks, Burmese guerrilla soldiers, striking steel workers, South African activists, and others. Trained as a sociologist, he has taught at the college and graduate level and is the author of six books. He consults regularly with a wide range of nonprofit groups.

George has given leadership to a number of social change movements. In late 1989 he led a team of Westerners in Sri Lanka who for 24 hours a day accompanied human-rights activists at risk of assassination. He has done neighborhood organizing, once successfully preventing tree-cutting and another time creating a neighborhood festival to celebrate ethnic diversity. He co-founded the Movement for a New Society, which for nearly 20 years specialized in organizational innovation. He founded and directed the Philadelphia Jobs with Peace Campaign, a coalition of labor, civil rights, poverty and peace groups. He was a designer of and staffed the Campaign to Stop the B-1 Bomber and Promote Peace Conversion, which mobilized sufficiently to gain cancellation of the B-1 in 1977 and raise the visibility of the concept of economic conversion. He was director of A Quaker Action Group when it assisted Puerto Rican nationalists in stopping the U.S. Navy from using the inhabited island of Culebra for target practice. He was also a founder of Men Against Patriarchy, which organized pioneering projects for the early men's anti-sexism movement of the mid-'70s.

George has taught peace studies at Swarthmore and Haverford Colleges, Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn he brought the program from 11 students in one class to 105 in three sections; the administration lauded the program for the way it reached out to students of color. He also created a group dynamics lab at Penn for training men in new leadership styles under a federal grant for feminist education.

George's sixth book is on organizational development: "Grassroots and Nonprofit Leadership: A Guide for Organizations in Changing Times" (1996). He is author or co-author of five previous books: "A Manual for Direct Action" (often called the "Bible" of direct action by Southern civil-rights activists of the '60s); "In Place of War, Moving toward a New Society"; "No Turning Back: Lesbian and Gay Liberation for the '80s"; and "Powerful Peacemaking: A Strategy for a Living Revolution." His publications have been translated into Swedish, German, Danish, French, Japanese and Thai.

On the personal side, George is a Quaker, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather in an interracial family. He received the national Giraffe Award (1992) for "sticking his neck out for the common good," and the Ashley Montague Peace Award (1998) from the International Conference on Conflict Resolution.

Reviews

[Rhiannon Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book uses lots of stories and anecdotes - an approximation of the experiential method it recommends for the classroom - to explore ways of delivering what Lakey calls 'direct education'. Many of the key themes are familiar from other work on education (I wouldn't mind if nobody ever again told me that there are four kinds of learners with four different learning styles...), but some were new to me and his use of the theories is often innovative and engagingly presented. Some aspects, such as building a container (creating a strong group who can work together on learning), I realise I had been applying instinctively in some ways, so having something spell out the process is helpful to my understanding of what I'm doing. Other parts, such as the interplay between mainstream and margin, don't seem so intuitive to me - something to watch for in future situations, perhaps. I'd certainly like to experiment with some of the specific ideas here, especially making the focus on participant's responsibility for their learning more explicit.

[Nina Luo · Rating 5 out of 5]

concisely summarizes, complexifies and applies w stories & theory the best educational experiences i've had

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so much fun to read. While the subtitle is "Strategies for Success with Diverse Adult Learners" the strategies can be applied to youth and children too. Lakey combines stories of his 50 years of experience leading people through self-exploration and learning, tips and tools, and a strong theoretical framework. A great find.

[Margaret Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you work to facilitate groups, meetings or classes, this is a just-read. The best book on group dynamics taking into account gender,race, class, ability, sexual orientation etc.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great descriptions of many things I'm thinking about these days in education. Lots to try!