The Container Concept:
Creating a Sense of Community
in Our Communities
Experiential Educators’ Conclave 2014
Agenda/Flow
•
•
•
•
Introduction/Context
Mission: What is a sense of community?
Vision: Why create a sense of community?
Strategies: Conditions for creating a sense of
community
• Closing
INTRODUCTION/CONTEXT
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time
-T.S. Eliot
Protocols
•
•
•
•
•
Assume good intentions
Salad in the teeth rule
Make the experience work
Right to Pass
Others?
CONTAINER CONCEPT
Not all Containers are Alike
We Have Choices…
We have Influence…
What are the qualities of your container(s)? How have
you & others felt/operated in healthy containers?
Unhealthy containers?
Mission:
What is a Sense of Community?
From Group to Community
“In genuine community there are no sides. It is not always easy but
by the time they reach community the members have learned how
to give up cliques and factions. They have learned how to listen to
each other and how not to reject each other. Sometimes consensus
in community is reached with miraculous rapidity. But at other
times it is arrived at only after lengthy struggle. Just because it is a
safe place does not mean community is a place without conflict. It
is, however, a place where conflict can be resolved without physical
or emotional bloodshed and with wisdom as well as grace. A
community is a group that can fight gracefully.”
M. Scott Peck M.D.
The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace
Thomas Sergiovanni states that “the need for
community is universal. A sense of belonging, of
continuity, of being connected to others and to
ideas and values that make our lives meaningful
and significant -- these needs are shared by all of
us.”
“The people in one’s life are like the pillars
on one’s porch you see life through. And
sometimes they hold you up. And
sometimes they lean on you, and sometimes
it’s just enough to know they’re standing by.”
Anonymous
Community is consciousness of connection,
combining and comprising: Courtesy,
communication, collaboration, cooperation,
consideration, caring, compassion, curiosity,
commonalities, common goals, confidence,
creativity, courage, challenge, camaraderie, and
conceivably chocolate.
CTC Group, 2004
"… a feeling that members have of
belonging, a feeling that members
matter to one another and to the
group, and a shared faith that
members' needs will be met through
their commitment to be together.”
~ McMillan & Chavis, 1986
Vision:
Why Create a Sense of Community?
VISION
• ACTIVE
• AT PEACE
• CARING
• COMPASSIONATE
• CONFIDENT
• CONTRIBUTOR
• CREATIVE
• CRITICAL THINKER
• EMPATHETIC
• EMPLOYED
• FORGIVING
• GENEROUS
• GET ALONG W/ OTHERS
• GOOD COMMUNICATOR
• RELIABLE
• GOOD PARENTS
• RESILIENT
• HAPPY
• RESOURCEFUL
• HEALTHY
• RESPECT
• HONEST
• RESPONSIBLE
• INDEPENDENT
• SELF DIRECTED
• INTEGRITY
• SELF ESTEEM
• LITERATE
• SELF RESPECT
• LOYAL
• SELF SUFFICIENT
• MOTIVATED
• SENSE OF HUMOR
• PATIENT
• SUCCESSFUL
• PERSEVERENCE
• POSITIVE ATTITUDE • WELL-INFORMED
• PROBLEM SOLVERS
• PRODUCTIVE CITIZENS
Creating a sense of community…
SUPPORTS LEARNING
Elements of Sense of Community
•
•
•
•
Membership
Influence
Integration & Fulfillment of Needs
Shared Emotional Connection
McMillan & Chavez
Learning &
emotions are
intertwined
Fight, Flight,
Freeze inhibits
learning
Fear,
embarrassment,
frustration,
boredom…
…can trigger
fight, flight,
freeze
Fundamental Elements of Brain-based Teaching & Learning
Caine, et. al. Brain/Mind Learning Principles in Action
Relaxed Alertness: Creating the
optimal emotional climate for learning
Orchestrated Immersion in complex
Experience: Creating optimal opportunities
for learning
Active Processing of Experience:
Create optimal ways to consolidate
learning
Creating a sense of community…
PERSONAL/SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Through
FOSTERING A SAFE ENVIRONMENT
Maslow’s
Hierarchy
of Needs
Esteem
Belonging
Security
Retrieved from: http://two.not2.org/psychosynthesis/articles/maslow.gif
Supports Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
See www.CASEL.org
Elements of Sense of Community
•
•
•
•
Membership
Influence
Integration & Fulfillment of Needs
Shared Emotional Connection
McMillan & Chavez
Strategies: Conditions for Creating a
Sense of Community
Conditions for Community to Develop
• Intentionality
• Safe and Trusting Environment
• Balancing “Me” and “We”
• Ownership
• Positivity
• Others?
g
tin
s
Tru ent
&
fe ronm
a
S
vi
En
INFLUENCE
”
INFLUENCE
Positivity
me
“
ing e”
c
l an “ w
a
B
&
Po
sit
ivi
ty
Ownership
Ownership
In
te
nt
ion
ali
ty
INTEGRATION &
FULFILLMENT OF
NEEDS
SHARED
EMOTIONAL
SHARED
EMOTIONAL CONNECTION
CONNECTION
MEM
BERS
HIP
MEMBERSHIP
INTEGRATION &
FULFILLMENT OF
NEEDS
Intentionality is Key
Presenting activities do not, in
themselves, guarantee the attainment
of lifelong learning and skills.
The more intentional and systematic
we can be, the more possible it is to
achieve what we wish to achieve.
Invitational Education – a Container Framework
Making time for relationships
Invitational Education
www.invitationaleducation.net
INVITATIONAL EDUCATION
INTENTIONALLY
UNINTENTIONALLY
INVITING
INTENTIONALLY
INVITING
UNINTENTIONALLY
INVITING
DISINVITING
INTENTIONALLY
DISINVITING
UNINTENTIONALLY
DISINVITING
Safe Environment
Relational Trust
Physical/Emotional Safety
• Physical and verbal violence has to be
addressed.
• Ground rules and social commitments help in
establishing boundaries.
• Instances of harassment, hitting, etc. though,
must also be dealt with quickly.
Relational Trust
Relational Trust
“one’s willingness to be vulnerable to another based on
the confidence that the other is benevolent, honest,
open, reliable, and competent.”
Tschannen-Moran, M. (2004). Trust Matters: Leadership for successful schools.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. (p. 17)
“In the context of building a team, trust is the
confidence among team members that their peers’
intentions are good, and that there is no reason to be
protective or careful around the group. In essence,
teammates must get comfortable being vulnerable with
one another.”
Lencioni, P. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. (p. 195)
Empowerment “Me”
Social Commitment “We”
Empowerment [is] a multi-dimensional
social process that helps people gain
control over their own lives. It is a process
that fosters power in people for use in
their own lives, their communities and in
their society, by acting on issues they
define as important. —Nanette Page &
Cheryl Czuba
Empowerment is the process of increasing the
capacity of individuals or groups to make
choices and to transform those choices into
desired actions and outcomes. Central to this
process are actions which both build individual
and collective assets, and improve the efficiency
and fairness of the organizational and
institutional context which govern the use of
these assets. —The World Bank
Youth Empowerment is the outcome by
which youth, as change agents, gain the
skills to impact their own lives and lives of
other individuals, organizations and
communities.
—Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES!)
SOCIAL COMMITMENT: “WE”
The central message of the consumer culture in
which we live is: You’re the most important thing
on earth. You’re the heaviest object in the
universe and everything orbits around you. And
we’ve enshrined this idea as ‘human nature.’ Not
remembering that most people in most places
have had other things very near the center of
their identity – the tribe, the community, their
relationship with the natural world, or the Divine
– something that gave them more of a sense of
identity not obsessively rooted in themselves
Bill McKibbon (Interview aired on May 26, 2007)
GOAL SETTING
The 3 ‘R’s
• Routines
What are some routines you have in your
setting?
• Rituals
What are some of your family, cultural, or
personal rituals? What are some of your
traditions? What is a rite of passage you have
experienced?
• Responsibility
What do you in your setting to engender
responsibility toward self and others?
Reflections on the 10
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•
•
•
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Joy
Gratitude
Serenity
Interest
Hope
•
•
•
•
•
Pride
Amusement
Inspiration
Awe
Love
From: Fredrickson, B. (2009) Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to
Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive.
New York, NY: Crown Archetype.
Positivity
Individuals
Groups
1. Broadens our
minds and our
hearts
2. Transforms us for
the better
1. Asking questions and focusing
outward (open to new ideas)
3. Fuels Resilience
2. Connectivity and attunement
of the team. More responsive
to one another
3. Bouncing back from adversity
rather than getting stuck in
self-absorbed advocacy
Positivity Ratio
The Tipping Point
Flourishing = 3 to 1
“… only when positivity ratios are higher than 3 to 1
is positivity in sufficient supply to seed human
flourishing.” (Fredrickson, 2009)
A Place for Negativity
• Global and unfocused
• Specific negative
negative emotions
emotions help us
overwhelm and
focus and take action
poison
us.
(such as in resolving or
transforming conflict). • The difference
between anger and
contempt or guilt and
shame
An old Cherokee is teaching his
grandson about life. “A fight is going
on inside me,” he said to the boy.
It is a terrible fight and it is between two
wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow,
regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt,
resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride,
superiority, and ego.” He continued, “the
other is good – he is joy, peace, love hope,
serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence,
empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and
faith. The same fight is going on inside you –
and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a
minute and then asked his
grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied,
“The one you feed.”
I am because we are
我是因为我们
私たちがいるので、私は
Ako mao tungod kay kita
हम कर रहे हैं क्योंकक मैं कर रहा ह
Mimi ni kwa sababu sisi ni
Yo soy porque nosotros somos
To download this PowerPoint,
please go to my website:
www.goalconsulting.org
Laurie Frank
GOAL Consulting
+1-608-251-2234
LSFrank@mac.com