The WeRo's Journey and the Art of Holding Space

Creating Conditions for Collaborative Learning Forests

Abstract

This paper discusses core qualities and principles of holding nurturing space in academic learning contexts, such as courses, conferences, and retreats. It draws on the author’s transdisciplinary framework for designing collaborative learning experiences as living systems in ways that foster conditions for autopoietic developments in the group—developments that give rise to new collective insights. The paper deepens this inquiry by introducing fourteen qualities of holding group space. It offers definitions, examples, and implementation strategies, and highlights self-reflection considerations for facilitators. While initially conceived for academic settings, the guidelines developed here apply to any context of holding space for groups or events.

The author then describes two recent learning contexts where a variety of space-holding strategies were utilized and where clear signs of collective wisdom emerged. The two learning experiences featured include a hybrid in-person and online master’s program in leadership studies, and a distance education asynchronous community college course in human values, both offered by learning institutions in Northern California. These courses drew on ecological principles and metaphors of nature to help facilitate a felt experience of belonging to an interdependent learning forest. The asynchronous online course featured a new module called The WeRo’s Journey where learners were encouraged to harvest collective insights arising in the group (The WeRo).   

During this divisive time, the author invites the readers to consider their own unique style of holding space and to experiment with new ways of supporting collaborative learning. The qualities of holding space introduced here are intended to encourage facilitators to co-create conditions for healing, peace, and creative solutions for a troubled planet.