[OSList] Open Space in schools

[Harrison Owen]

Jamie - I would be very careful with that "context setting" piece. And if
possible, I would separate it by time and space from the actual Open Space.
There are a whole bunch of reasons. First, Spending an hour on "limitations"
doesn't sound like open space. Practically, my experience is that
participants generally have a more restricted view of their possibilities
than the actual reality. They are usually more conservative than people
might think. And if they did push a few boundaries (perceived and real)
would that really be a bad thing? 

 

ho

 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

 

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)

Camden, Maine 04843

 

Phone 301-365-2093

(summer)  207-763-3261

 

www.openspaceworld.com 

www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)

To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST
Go to:
<http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org>
http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org

 

From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Jamie Colston
Sent: Monday, September 23, 2013 7:03 AM
To: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Subject: Re: [OSList] Open Space in schools

 

Dear All,

I have been working with a Secondary school in the UK to support students to
develop their school council into something which gives them a real voice in
their school and supports them to make things happen. As part of this
process, in the last academic year I ran some world cafe sessions with
Students, Teachers and the School Leadership Team and Governors to find out
more about their views of the student council and what they would like to
see in the future. 

This work has led to a year long contract to help build on this and I am
bringing together all of the Art of Hosting work to support the students to
build something emergent and powerful that inculdes the full school system.
In the next few weeks the school will be having their very first open space
meeting with members of as many of the various parts of the system there as
possible. 

For the opening of the open space I was planning to do a context setting
piece for everyone and invite the headteacher, leader of the governors and
the school council leadership team to just say a few words about the
boundaries that are there in terms of the academic and governance structures
so that everyone can be clear about what is possible and what isn't within
the constraints of the current system. I would them set up the open space
and ensure that the talking ends on a creative and upbeat note.

I would love any advice, thoughts and feedback. In my mind i think that to
keep it as open as possible is important and what has constantly been a
theme in all the pre work is working within the context of the
political/technical/academic landscape (they would not phrase it like this
but this sums it up).

If this year works, it is likely that I will be able to work for further
years bringing open space, world cafe, graphic facilitation and AOH into the
school as a key methodology for empowering change in the system so it is
very exciting and hence why advice and wisdom is most welcome. 

 

Thanks and look forward to hearing any inspiration

Jamie 



-- 

Jamie Colston 

Enabling young people to design inspiring events and host conversations that
matter to them, empowering them to find their voice and take practical
action towards creating a sustainable, peaceful and equitable world.

 

M: 07909 442006 E:  <mailto:jamiecolston at gmail.com> jamiecolston at gmail.com 

FB/Linked In/Skype: Jamie Colston  Twitter: spearthwarrior 

Nowhere ecl   <http://www.now-here.com/ecl> www.now-here.com/ecl

Green Vision Movement   <http://www.greenvisionmovement.org>
www.greenvisionmovement.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20130923/62da398d/attachment-0008.htm>