[Oe List ...] Facilitation challenge

[George Holcombe]

With folks that don't read or write in our language or the current language of their land, they sometimes have forms of communication, literate and otherwise that they grasp.  The Aboriginals in Australia that we worked with were very literate (particularly the elders)  between their stories and what some people called "their paintings."  I'm not familiar with the people you are working with, but my experience was understanding the polity they operated out of was pretty important, too.  With the Aboriginals we worked with there was an order to how they spoke and the women spoke last.  With other village groups, their visioning and participation was often regulated by what the leadership and pecking order was.  The women were for the most part more oriented toward the future and the men were more concerned about their status in the group.  While there were exceptions to this, getting clear on the results of planning and next steps lay heavily upon the "local guides" who were sometimes pretty insightful as to what was taking place.  The visual and oral methods mentioned in the other communiques always work well, the bigger the better.  I always like bigger pieces of card stock or paper, so folks could see who didn't always have the vision we've come to accept in the west.

George Holcombe
14900 Yellowleaf Tr.
Austin, TX 78728
Home: 512/252-2756
Mobile 512/294-5952
geowanda at earthlink.net


On Feb 15, 2010, at 1:46 PM, James Wiegel wrote:

>  I have an event coming up next week with some unique challenges and I would be 
> > grateful for your thoughts and experience.
> I got this request from another list, looking for wisdom on how to engage participants who don't read or write.  Wondering if some on the list might have experience to share
> 
> Jim Wiegel
> > 
> > The event will be held in Addis Ababa for Oxfam and it concerns designing 
> > baseline research for an 11-year program to develop water rights in 
> > moisture-stressed regions. It is based on an innovative approach to measuring 
> > impact using so-called Theories of Change.
> > 
> > 
> > The facilitator challenge (apart from the difficulty in getting my head around 
> > all this) is that among the participants there will be several illiterate 
> > farmers. Looking at most of the design ideas I am working on, there is always 
> > the assumption that our participants can read and write. Furthermore, they 
> > (and a few of the other participants) don't speak English and simultaneous 
> > whispered interpretation will be provided.
> > 
> > 
> > Have you had events with illiterate participants? How did you manage? I think 
> > the challenge is both inclusion and ensuring that we are not patronizing.
> > 
> > 
> > Any thoughts or ideas would be most welcome.
> > 
> > 
> > Thanks in advance,
> > 
> > Dan
> > 
>  
> Jim
> 
> "If you really want to succeed, then you have to have the big heart, heroic will, tenacity, courage, and commitment to fearlessly engage with the evolutionary process until something profound, mysterious, and extraordinary happens that cannot be undone." Andrew Cohen
> 
> 
> Jim Wiegel
> 401 North Beverly Way, Tolleson, Arizona 85353-2401
> +1 623-936-8671 +1 623-363-3277
> jfwiegel at yahoo.com www.partnersinparticipation.com
> 
> 
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