Using words in a special way can be either confusing or helpful. We try to keep jargon to a minimum. The reason to use it at all is to be able to be able to make a precise point more quickly than giving a long explanation every time. Here are some of the common TFC terms!Using words in a special way can be either confusing or helpful. We try to keep jargon to a minimum. The reason to use it at all is to be able to be able to make a precise point more quickly than giving a long explanation every time.

For example, we use the word "mainstream" instead of: "The subgroup in any group or organization or society that sets the tone of the whole group, gets its preferences followed or at least respected by the others in the group, and provides the leadership for carrying out the mission of the group. The mainstream may or may not be conscious of its role and higher status. The mainstream can also be called the center (compared with the periphery), or the in-group (as compared with the out-group). When we talk about the mainstream, we contrast it with the margin."

Those are a lot of words! Simpler just to use the word "mainstream."

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allies (pair of allies): allies look out for each other in a workshop, give each other support, may even challenge each other to risk for growth. Sometimes called buddies.

auditory channel: see "learning channels"

body language: the communication that comes from physical gestures, like eye contact, raised eyebrows, shrugging shoulders, leaning forward, etc. Body language, like the language of words, can be cultural.

buddy system: see "allies."

class consciousness: individuals' awareness that they are part of a social class. In our workshops we encourage participants to identify themselves as working class (not "lower class," or "middle class"), to become aware of the negative messages sent by the culture about working class people, and to affirm the positive values that are encouraged in working class people.

climate/atmosphere: The climate or atmosphere is a way of describing the energy or character a group is showing at a particular moment: "hostile," "excited," "bored." Groups (and individuals) have an energy they are showing and another energy they're not showing at any moment. "Bored" may have underneath it "fear," or "avoidance." "Hostile" may have underneath it "discouragement," or "sadness." Because groups (and individuals) have more than one kind of energy at the same time - one they are showing and one they are not - they can be volatile and switch quickly from one to another. Arnold Mindell calls the one they are showing their "primary process," and the one they are not showing their "secondary process."

comfort zone: the habits, beliefs, feelings, behaviors that people are familiar with and take for granted. When participants are in their comfort zone they aren't learning much, because they aren't considering new beliefs or trying out new behaviors - they are in `'same old, same old.`' When participants leave their comfort zone they have the chance to learn.

conflict field: a way of pointing out that a conflict influences others besides those who primarily fighting with each other. It is sometimes the case that those who are, for example arguing, are actually acting out a deeper conflict present in the group or "field" and are representing that conflict while others who feel it remain silent.

conflict styles: It's convenient to talk about individuals having a tendency to go to a particular style when conflict comes up, just as some people are more likely to revive their vitality by choosing to be with others (extroverts) and other people prefer to be alone (introverts). There may be individuals without a strong pattern in the way they orient themselves to conflicts. The characteristic patterns, or styles, are: attacking by jumping in with a point of view, leaving the scene (physically or mentally), going along with the drift, or rebelling by taking an opposite position from the prevailing one.

container: a word for the degree of safety the participants are experiencing. A workshop starts with a weak container - not much safety - so participants are concerned about how others see them and have less attention for learning. The stronger the container, the more participants become authentic and take risks to learn.

cross-cultural training: the educational situation when the facilitator is of a different culture from some of the participants. Teaching outside one's culture takes extra awareness and sensitivity.

debrief: reflect, generalize: debrief is also called unpacking or processing - it is essential in experiential learning. Debriefing has two steps: reflect and generalize. When participants reflect on their experience, they identify what happened for them. When they generalize, they ask what it meant (for their lives, or for the group, or for their understanding of how the world works), and why it matters.

design: the placement of learning activities and exercises in a sequence to maximize impact. A particular activity may work well at one point in a workshop and poorly at another point - the designer thinks about proper placement.

direct education: an approach built on the foundation of popular education and experiential education. Training for Change added to that foundation emphasis on (a) group dynamics, (b) four learning channels, (c) anti-oppression work, (d) the value of expression of conflict in the group, and (e) the usefulness of transformational work.

elicitive question: a question that draws out from participants their knowledge, or wisdom, or feelings, or humor, or motivation, etc. An elicitive question is also an open question (not "What is the capitol of Quebec?") and cannot be answered "yes" or "no." A convenient way to test if a question is highly elicitive is if you could make a list from the responses: "What are some of the ways that the owning class oppresses workers?" An elicitive question is called "juicy" when it delves more deeply and provokes discovery: "What are ways that workers make it easier for the owning class to oppress us?" When we ask a series of juicy elicitive questions, we're peeling the onion: "What might be ways that workers could support each other to be less vulnerable to oppression?" "Which ways have you yourself used to support other workers, or have seen used?" "What are some feelings that come up for you when you consider risking to support other workers?"

elicitive tools: exercises or activities that draw out participants' knowledge, wisdom, feelings, humour, curiosity, motivation, and so on. When facilitators use elicitive tools, they find that the participants already know most of what the facilitator wants to teach, and the facilitator only needs to add. Elicitive tools invite participants to do most of the work of education, instead of the facilitator!

emotional channel: see "learning channels"

empowerment: the enhanced sense of power or capacity to change things that can come from learning, from personal/spiritual growth, from struggle, and from the deep experience of solidarity.

energy (as in "when the energy peaks"): participants usually respond to a direction or elicitive question first with low intensity, then with rising intensity, then with declining intensity. Watching the energy curve in response to a facilitators stimulus enables us to notice when the energy reaches its highest point and begins to decline. All of group life can be observed in terms of energy.

experiential education: designing learning experiences in which the first step is an experience (activity, exercise), the second step is reflecting on the experience (understanding what actually happened during the activity), the third step is generalizing from the reflection (giving larger meaning, putting the reflection in the context of theory or worldview), and the fourth step is applying (testing the knowledge in a new situation). See also "popular education," a largely overlapping approach.

facilitator: in an educational setting, someone who takes responsibility for (a) setting up experiences, (b) eliciting reflection and generalization from those experiences, (c) sharing relevant information and theory from the field in ways that elicit further reflection and action, (d) modelling respect, assertiveness, and caring. A second meaning of facilitator is someone who guides the process of a decision-making group. Educational facilitators are sometimes distinguished from "trainers" and "teachers," but in this context we use facilitator and trainer interchangeably. "Teacher" traditionally includes the role of expert and chief deliverer of information and wisdom.

feelings (in debrief): feeling states include anger, amusement, interest, despair, joy, excitement, fear, embarrassment, and so on. A good workshop elicits all those feelings and more. A percentage of participants is hugely influenced by their emotive channel in how much they can learn, so a workshop without attention to feelings is a workshop that prevents some participants from learning.

fishbowl: a format in which two or more members of a group move into the center to do some work while the others in the group sit in a circle around them, silently observing. The ones in the center are like fish in a bowl.

forming, storming, performing: the stages through which the most effective groups move. A learning group typically stays in the first stage, also called the "honeymoon" stage, in which people are polite to each other and hide many of their true feelings. When a group storms, also called the chaos stage, the group is turbulent, distracted, and unhappy. When the group gives up trying to fix itself through external measures, and accepts its nature, it moves into the stage of high-performance: excellent work, interdependence and collaboration, enthusiasm and satisfaction.

four-step model of experiential education: see "experiential education"

go-round: the form of participation in which one person starts and then the others follow, one at a time, in an order decided ahead of time. For example, in the closing circle, the facilitator announces the task, goes first and the participants follow one at a time around the circle. It is OK for someone to "pass" if they're not ready - go back to them at the end.

ground rules/group agreements: the norms that members of a group agree to abide by to support the learning and increase a sense of safety.

group dynamics: a phrase to call the facilitator's attention to the fact that a group is never simply a collection of individuals, but instead has its own character, moods, ways of behaving, and self-generated rules that influence the individual members.

harvest: gather the information on a list that is generated by the group. The list has a title, like "What works" or "Learnings" or "Characteristics."

inner work: intentional reflection and other processing that takes place inside individuals in a learning group. While all good teaching stimulates processing by participants in their own time, "inner work" refers to intentional processing through, for example, journal writing, listening to music, running, while not communicating with others.

internalized oppression: the accumulated impact of negative messages and discrimination which reduces the self-esteem and personal power of individuals in an oppressed group. Internalized oppression is expressed not only in self-invalidation but is also expressed in negative attitudes toward others of the same group.

kinesthetic channel: see "learning channels"

learning channels: There are four major channels through which people learn. Most people learn strongly through one or two and less strongly through the rest. The four are: visual, auditory, kinesthetic (body in motion), and emotional. Another way to remember the four: eyes, ears, body, heart. Traditional education emphasizes visual and auditory and virtually ignores the other two. Effective teachers use all four of these channels, to reach all the participants.

learning group: a cluster of individuals united by their intention to learn and grow; the group may or may not use a classroom or formal educational methods.

mainstream: the center or in-group. The mainstream sets the tone for a group or organization or society, its own preferences become the norms for the group, and it provides most of the leadership for carrying out the mission of the group. The mainstream may or may not be conscious of its role and higher status. Everyone is a member of some mainstream or other: even a working class Jewish radical lesbian may be able-bodied, for example, and "able-bodied" is a mainstream identity. When we talk about the mainstream, we contrast it with the margin.

margin: the periphery or the out-group. Everyone is a member of some margin or other; even a white heterosexual owning class Protestant man may be a vegetarian, or a "night person" who hates working before noon.

mingle: an exercise in which participants crowd together and engage in one-on-one interactions, carrying out some learning task. The facilitator gives them the task, stops the mingle when enough has been experienced to learn from, and then debriefs to enable them to reflect and generalize.

nonviolent struggle: a technique of action used in conflict situations to achieve social change goals or to defend economic and political achievements. Over0 methods of nonviolent struggle have been used historically, in campaigns ranging from getting a stop sign on a street corner to overthrowing dictators. Also called "people power," nonviolent struggle has been used for thousands of years but only recently has it been accompanied by theory and strategy, and its use is now accelerating.

noticings: observations without judgement. Used by facilitators to elicit curiosity and awareness from participants, and build observational skills. Noticings are different from evaluations, which are observations with judgement. Through noticings we train participants to reduce the tendency to make snap judgements, and instead to become more curious about what is actually happening in the group.

pacing and leading: a method for increasing effectiveness of communication by first getting in step with the other person, whether through tone of voice or in some other way. Only after you are sharing the same rhythm as the other person do you seek to communicate something important that might result in change. In workshops, for example, a facilitator walking in might adapt her or his energy to that of the group: laid back, excited, making jokes, or whatever. Only after the facilitator is thoroughly part of the group's energy does the facilitator move, gradually, into a different mode.

peeling the onion: when facilitators peel the onion they ask a series of questions that enable the participants to go to deeper levels of understanding. For example: "What has unemployment meant in your life, or for your friends and family? What difference might it make if we didn't have unemployment? What are some groups in society that would like a policy of full employment? What are some reasons for opposing full employment? What are some groups that might oppose such a policy? If everyone knew that we could have full employment, where would the majority stand? What would the government have to think about if it found that the majority of the people want a full employment policy?" and so on. See also "successive approximation."

popular education: an approach which emphasizes the active involvement of participants in their own learning, and the alternation of action/reflection/action/reflection. Associated with the Brazilian radical educator Paolo Freire, who affirmed the people's own wisdom. See also "experiential education," a largely overlapping approach.

positive reinforcement: the facilitator (or the group) expressing appreciation for the behavior of a participant, for the insight s/he gained or the risk taken. Positive reinforcement has been found scientifically to be more powerful than criticism in changing behavior and accelerating learning.

Process Work: a school of psychology that gives tools for supporting the unfolding of groups as they move through phases of conflict and chaos to reach their next level of integration. Founder Arnold Mindell believes that the concept of nature suggests that "the flow of even painful or difficult events such as illness, psychosis, or hate can become useful if we follow them exactly, compassionately, and with awareness." (The Leader as Martial Artist, p. 8.)

rank: Every group assigns rank to people according to how closely they measure up to the group's values. Members of a bowling group value skill and good sportsmanship, so they give each other rank accordingly. Members of a church value piety and leadership, so they give each other rank accordingly. Some kinds of rank that society gives can be earned (for example hockey skills through practice), and some kinds of rank are given because of unearned characteristics (being born into a wealthy family, or being musically talented). The important thing to remember about rank is that it is given to you by others, not given to you by yourself. Psychologist Arnold Mindell adds to the usual kinds of rank "psychological" and "spiritual" rank. Pschological rank is often given by groups to individuals who have experienced hardship and suffering and nevertheless show striking balance, resilience, and other indicators of fine mental health. Spiritual rank is given by groups to individuals who have unusual access to a transcendent dimension and show that through exemplary acts (e.g. Mother Theresa).

roleplay/demonstration: In a demonstration participants act out a script they've agreed to ahead of time, in order to dramatize a point. In a roleplay the facilitator sets the scene and tells the participants their roles, but doesn't tell the outcome - the participants have to "make it up as they go along." The outcome of a roleplay is less predictable. Demonstrations are useful when the best way to make a point is to show people, rather than to tell them. Roleplays are useful when participants need to discover something for themselves, or when they are ready to practice a skill.

roles in social change: effective social movements include people who play four different roles: organizer, advocate, helper, and rebel. The organizer gets people together to act on their own behalf; the advocate represents the people in negotiations; the rebel carries out the direct action that puts pressure on the powerholders; the helper supports and assists people to hang in there for the long run.

safety: the sense that it's OK to risk and leave my comfort zone because I am not in danger of mental or physical injury. The facilitator increases safety for participants by building a container that rewards risk-taking.

simulation: a learning exercise set up to mimic how the world works, in some way or other. In a classic simulation school children are assigned by their teacher to privileges based on the colour of their eyes. After some hours, when the children have experienced the injustice sufficiently, they get to reflect on their experience and then draw parallels with the reality of racism.

skit/mime/statues: a skit is a short drama acted out by a group that has agreed upon a script or narrative. A mime is similar except words are not spoken, so the message is conveyed through movement. Statues are similar except that the actors do not move; the message is conveyed through the actors' poses.

sociogram: an exercise in which participants arrange their bodies to show something about themselves or to stimulate a new awareness. For example, participants are asked to range themselves along a line that shows how long they've been active with a particular cause. See also "spectrum."

spectrum: a particular kind of sociogram formed when the facilitator sets up two poles - for example, pro-capitalist and anti-capitalist - and asks participants to put their bodies where they would fall on a range or spectrum of opinion.

successive approximation: a way of organizing the content of courses to match the way most people learn. Most of us first gain a very vague image of some reality, like the geography of our country or how discrimination works. If we're motivated to learn more, we get a new picture that is somewhat more accurate, but still an approximation. In a series of steps we get a more and more accurate picture, and at some point we get to be called a scholar, but even the most expert person learned by first having a simple picture and then, step by step, making it more complex. See also "peeling the onion."

support groups: subgroups of participants whose purpose is to give their members both safety and encouragement to risk and go outside their comfort zones. See also "allies."

teachable moment: an unexpected "happening" in the life of a group when an experience opens the door to deeper understanding, for example, when a conflict erupts between two participants and someone's intervention "works," or a group's resistance to taking a risk is named in a way that enables it to see a new dimension of union mobilization for struggle.

third party nonviolent intervention: a method for shifting a destructive dimension of a conflict by, without taking sides, using your presence to assist the parties to respect each other. Useful in situations where the parties will not use mediation and one or both parties are being hurt. The immediate goal is not to gain agreement, but to reduce the violence. The best-known practitioner of this method is Peace Brigades International.

trainer: see "facilitator"

transformational moment: an unexpected "happening" in the life of a group when a limiting belief held by some (for example, that workers are stupid) is exposed in an vivid way, and there is opportunity to release painful emotion that has held the limiting belief in place.

transformational work: facilitator interventions that assist one or more participants to go beyond their limiting beliefs to a new possibility of power and freedom. This work includes release of painful emotion which held the limiting beliefs in place. Training for Change does transformational work only when (a) the participant gives permission, (b) the group will support it, and (c) the content is related to the content of the course.

visual channel: see "learning channels"

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