Our Learning Through Values group opportunities enable you to join or form specific groups that are focussed on a particular interest (e.g. climate crisis, inequality, de/colonization etc.), or sector of engagement (e.g. NGO, university, school leadership, community etc.). All group learning opportunities will include the core Learning Through Values content but this will be tailored and adapted to suit the interest/s or sector/s involved.
Group learning is especially suited to organisations or to community groups with share interests or concerns. We periodically run 'open' group learning opportunities that are available to anyone to sign up for. These opportunities (and their focus) will be posted on this page as well as on our home page and social media platforms.
What is involved?
Each group learning pathway is unique and will depend on the focus of the group and the make-up and relationships of the participants. Despite this variance, a pathway will normally include four core elements:
Getting to Grips - an introduction to values and frames that ensures all members of the group are able to relate with a shared language and understanding of values.
Bringing it Alive - a collaborative process of bringing new ways of understanding and sensing values into relationship with a particular issue or context. This enables ideas of values and frames to be considered in ways that are directly relevant and meaningful to the group.
Making it Stick - this part of the pathway is focussed on the changes that might be appropriate or necessary in individual and collective practice if new ways of knowing in relation to values and frames are to be sustained and built upon. It is the part of the learning where we focus on tools and process to make things work through our everyday habits of mind.
Shifting the System - the final element of our group learning pathway is focussed on the systems that we are all part of and considers how these reflect or conflict with the values and frames that we choose to prioritise. It provides space to think more widely and to address your relationships with wider forces that influence the group.
Your commitment:
Group learning pathways are negotiated with the group or those convening the group. They will normally involve several sessions over a period of weeks or months. Some of these sessions will be face to face as this is considered central to the learning, but others can be run as virtual sessions using online platforms. It is possible to embark on a group learning pathway by only committing to the first two sessions and to then schedule further sessions should you wish to continue on the pathway.
Cost:*
Group learning pathways are difficult to cost as this will depend on how many people are involved, where the sessions take place and over what time period. We operate a 'fair-pay' policy at Lifeworlds and will use this to negotiate and agree a costing with you. This is a two-way process that aims to ensure:
- our practitioners are fairly remunerated for their experience, time, and reasonable cost-recovery expenses.
- you are fairly charged for the support you request are given an open breakdown of the costing.
A typical group-learning pathway for up to 20 participants would cost between £250 and £750 per person. The exact cost would depend on the length of the sessions, the number of people involved, the location and delivery format, and the amount of specific preparatory work required.
* As a community interest company (CIC) with a mandate 'to support learning communities in England' we seek to make our learning opportunities available to as many people as possible. If the cost of engaging with us is an obstacle to you then please contact us to discuss this. We are sometimes able to use our Community Interest Fund to offer bursary rates or subsidies and discounts to unwaged, students, international participants from low-income countries etc.