I facilitated the first unit out of five - the Agriculture Unit. I chose to do the first unit because I wasn't particularly interested in any one topic and I wanted to get the facilitating responsibilities out of the way and really immerse myself into the rest of the semester.
There were five people in my facilitation group - Eileen, Kati, Julie and Sara Weber. I was already pretty close friends with Eileen and Kati - we had bonded quite a lot through our senses of humor during orientation, but I wasn't too close with Julie and Sara.
Before we started facilitating, I had no idea what we were doing, what we were supposed to do and what the group wanted us to do. We were going in quite literally blind. Two out of the four program facilitators were going to help us through the unit and they started by holding a meeting for us so we could share our strengths and weaknesses. While the meeting was relatively useful in terms of accurately defining my own strengths and weaknesses, I have to admit that I found out a lot more through my actual experiences of working with my fellow uFacs.
I'm afraid I'm kind of falling asleep right now and I'm about to go on my last unit trip (Unit 5) tomorrow - so I'm having trouble remembering everything right now.
Ultimately, I just wanted to note how different it is to be facilitating and then to be a regular group member. When you're facilitating, you have to make sure your fellow students in the group are getting the most of the unit and the exchanges during our homestays. Before we go into the villages, we read our reading packets with several different articles so we know the global and national context before going to the villages. We as facilitators plan for the reading discussions and the briefings and what roles we would play. We spent a good amount of time trying to come up with creative activities and deeply engaging questions so the group would be excited or passionate about the unit all on an equal level. Then, with each exchange, we talk to villagers, NGOs, government officials, and community leaders - all on different days, different times. With at least four exchanges per unit, you have to be sure that each exchange is unique in the information it offers - it shouldn't get repetitive or dull.
Being a facilitator didn't mean that we were big "leaders" of the group. We were there to learn just as much as the student group and we were constantly group members just as we were unit facilitators, so it wasn't as if we were to separate ourselves from the group. That's why the term is "facilitator" and not "leader" - I value the difference now that I've been in both roles before and now I realize that what I thought was previously a leadership role was probably more a facilitator role.
For example, being a choreographer for FlipDis FunkDat might be considered a leadership role but I see it more as a facilitator role - a role in which I learned just as much as my group did. I think a leader is slightly separated from his/her group - they are there to teach or lead based on what they already know and the leadership skills they possess. But facilitating involves more group skills - skills that involve conflict resolution, honesty, teamwork and self-analysis - and I learned more about facilitation through working with the group than before. My role was very dependent on how the group was feeling or what direction the group was supposed to take, while taking into my account my own learning. So perhaps what I'm trying to say is that facilitation is more dependent on the group than leading.
I'll have to flesh that out later.
Nevertheless, it was eye-opening - I thought I would get sick of the word facilitation, but I see that the word's usage is very intentional and accurate in describing exactly how students fit into the program....
Now I wonder...
what else am I going to facilitate and will I continue to know the difference between leadership and facilitation in the future?
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