A participatory student workshop on climate change and sustainability: A comparative case study

Climate change is an environmental and existential issue of great urgency, especially for today’s youth. Until recently, the French national school curriculum had not given students much opportunity to learn about climate change (CC), its causes and repercussions, and mitigating measures to reach sustainable climate conditions. This article describes a six-week participatory, experiential workshop that brought together two groups of French students (one age 10 and the other age 16) to learn and teach each other about CC. Older students learned about the Conference of the Parties, COP21 Paris agreement and the IPCC climate findings and recommendations. Together the two groups developed greater understanding about CC, and proposed concrete environmental actions that they could undertake at home and in their local district to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We examine four products of their collaboration:● slide presentations that they created jointly, ● students’ written reflections on learning about sustainability and CC, ● the group’s list of proposed personal and family actions to decrease their carbon footprint, and ● notes from a meeting with local governmental officials. We draw inferences from these sources, and extract two recurrent themes in the students’ learning. These themes highlight a mismatch between youth’s sense of urgency to respond to the climate emergency and the older generation’s sluggish pace of addressing it. This article is a qualitative case study of a successful attempt to raise students’ awareness of sustainability and climatic issues, and to involve them in thinking collaboratively with others about the tasks ahead to address the problem of climate change from a local perspective.

“There is Always Progress to Be Made”: Reflective Narratives on Outdoor Therapeutic Recreation for Mental Health Support

Due to the marginalizing effects of mental illness, the stories of individuals in early recovery from various mental health diagnoses are often invalidated. To address this concern, complementary modalities (e.g., massage therapy, naturopathy, arts-based therapy, horticulture therapy) have emerged alongside the fields of therapeutic recreation, psychotherapy, and outdoor-based practices. Less is known about how social/community approaches to practice are used within in-patient care settings to complement more traditional modalities (i.e., cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), talk-based therapy, trauma exposure therapy, pharmaceutical medication etc.). The current research project aimed to understand individuals’ experiences and reflections of engaging in an outdoor experiential workshop while seeking in-patient care for post-traumatic stress disorder and substance-use disorder. Narrative inquiry was the methodological approach we used to illuminate the voice in the cracks (Jackson & Mazzei, 2005), voices that are often left out of dominant medical discourses, to be heard. Focus groups and in-depth semi-structured narrative life-experience interviews were used to story individuals’ reflections of early recovery while participating in an outdoor experiential workshop beyond the conventional boundaries and structures of medicine-focused in-patient care.

The Heroine’s/Hero’s Journey—A Call for Transformation? Transformative Learning, Archetypal Patterns, and Embodied Knowing/Learning

This article explores the phenomena of personal transformation within the frame of a self-experiential workshop, named the Heroine/Hero’s Journey. The Heroine/Hero is the archetype who sets out on an adventurous journey, in pursuit of her or his call for transformation. Rebillot based on Campbell’s (1949) mythological work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces created an experiential approach in the form of a one-week workshop, which utilizes methods from theatre and Gestalt therapy. This phenomenologically oriented vignette research draws on interviews and co-experienced observations, which were conducted during the workshop in order to explore the participants’ experiences and the content of participants’ transformation. The embodied representation of personality patterns, conscious and unconscious and especially the confrontation of these patterns, created transformative experiences for the participants. The depth psychological understanding of transformative processes, highlighting the potential of embodied and archetypal ways of knowing, provides the theoretical frame for giving meaning to these experiences.

Teaching Racial Affinity Caucusing as a Tool to Learn About Racial Health Inequity Through an Experiential Workshop

Background and Objectives: In its landmark report, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, the Institute of Medicine concluded that unconscious or implicit negative racial attitudes and stereotypes contribute to poorer health outcomes for patients of color. We describe and report on the outcome of teaching a workshop on the tool of racial affinity caucusing to address these issues. Methods: Applying the framework described by Crossroads Antiracism Organizing and Training, we developed a 90-minute workshop teaching racial affinity caucusing to family medicine educators interested in racial health disparities. The workshop included didactic and experiential components as well as a panel discussion. We administered pre- and posttests. Results: Participants’ (n=53) impression of and confidence in implementing racial affinity caucusing significantly increased following the workshop from a mean pretest score of 5.40 to a mean posttest score of 7.12 (P<.01) on a scale of 1 to 9. Ninety-two percent of participants indicated that the workshop made them more likely to think about implementing this tool at their home institutions (P<.01). Conclusions: This study demonstrated the first exploration in medical education of racial affinity caucusing and illustrated that it can be easily implemented in residency programs as an effort to address racial health inequities. Though the participating educators were mostly unfamiliar with it, the workshop was an effective introduction to this tool and by the end, educators reported increased comfort and enthusiasm for racial affinity caucusing, regardless of their preexisting levels of knowledge of or comfort with the tool. In addition, the overwhelming majority of the participants felt they could implement it at their respective institutions.

“Hot Seat” Simulation to Teach Conflict Management Skills to Residents

ABSTRACT Background Conflict management is an important leadership skill for residents to develop, yet it is a challenging skill to practice. Objective We developed and evaluated a workshop that teaches conflict resolution skills to physical medicine and rehabilitation residents in a group setting with real-time faculty coaching and peer feedback. Methods A 4-step model for handling work-related conflicts was taught, and then residents practiced their skills during a realistic simulated conflict with a trained actor. A faculty coach supported the participant, and peers gave feedback and suggestions in real time as the scripted conflict unfolded. Immediate post-session survey results were analyzed. Results Workshops were conducted in 2015, 2017, and 2019. A total of 36 residents participated and completed evaluations out of a possible 40 residents in the cohort (90% participation rate). Post-session surveys showed that 100% of participants agreed the session content was relevant to their training and they would use the skills in the future. Ninety-seven percent (35 of 36) felt prepared to manage conflict following the session. Conclusions This experiential workshop helped cultivate an appreciation of the importance of conflict management skills in residents' professional development and confidence in their ability to apply a conflict management framework to real-world situations.

Moving Towards Family Solutions: An Introduction to an Immersive Simulation Workshop

Residential care organisations, such as children’s homes, are well-positioned to reshape their programmes to support family-based models of care. However, new models bring unknown factors, making organisations hesitant to transition programmes. To alleviate concerns and support transition, researchers developed an experiential workshop mirroring the conditions of an organisation transitioning to family care. Workshop participants are guided through a series of activities and discussions detailing the transition of a fictional programme to a family-based model of care. The workshop focuses on six key components: engagement, case management, families, asset transitions, measurement and fundraising. The workshop also gives participants the opportunity to create a personalised plan for their programme. The goal of the current article is to present this workshop framework and share the free Facilitator’s Toolkit ( https://cafo.org/ovc/sim-lab/ ).

TEACHING SEX AND AGING TO PRE-PROFESSIONALS: EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING OF A TABOO TOPIC

Myths and stereotypes of sex in late life prevail (e.g., sex becomes unimportant or irrelevant; sex gets worse as individuals age; older adults are asexual). Unless the workforce is adequately prepared and knowledgeable to address the sexual health needs of older adults, it is difficult to disrupt ageism that contribute to discrimination against older adults. Methods: We evaluated a two-day experiential workshop designed for students to develop factual community resources and educational materials related to sex and aging. Results: Using content analysis, we examined open-ended responses from 41 students. We identified three themes that depicted the value of experiential learning, specifically for this taboo topic. Students (1) increased awareness of late life sexual health and behaviors, (2) demonstrated comfort and creative strategies to discuss sex, and (3) appreciated the opportunity for transferable pre-professional skill development. Discussion: Providing pre-professional training helped close the knowledge gap about basic gerontological issues and issues specific to sexual health and sexual behaviors in late life. Students perceived the flipped classroom and collaborative structure of this experiential workshop as beneficial and practical for their learning and professional preparation. They developed skills for translating knowledge into practical resources that likely will transcend professions. Emphasizing the potentially uncomfortable topic of sex and aging provided students an opportunity to increase their comfort when addressing issues they will experience in their various professions. It is critical for gerontology educators to identify strategies to deliver sex and aging education among professionals to enhance interactions with older adults.

A “Learning from Action” workshop in Japan

Purpose Many people in severe mentally disturbed states do not use language or other symbolic media well or coherently. Therefore, the non-verbal medium needs to be understood by workers with such people. The “Learning from Action” experiential workshop was developed in order to provide an opportunity to learn about hidden messages in the relationships and roles occurring in activities. In August 2017, a workshop was run for the first time in Japan. The purpose of this paper is to report the experience and dynamics observed by the three consultants, who are here the authors of this paper. Design/methodology/approach After the workshop all the staff and members, including interpreters, were invited to give feedback. Findings Analysis of the feedback data showed certain important dynamics, concerning especially dependence, cultural defences and the defensive role of activity in a multicultural context. Research limitations/implications This is an initial experience to be followed up by later feedback and further workshops. Practical implications Workers awareness of non-verbal communication within the roles of work activities is a training possibility. It faces various resistances including the mental health assumptions of meaninglessness of any communication outside the verbal. Originality/value This is a method of training not widely used even in European countries, and is the first in a country in the far east.