Participatory Techniques
Definition
The named, codified methods — sociodramas, murals colectivos, el árbol de problemas, Phillips 6/6, débat mouvant, photolangage, termómetro grupal, and several hundred others — that a facilitator picks from when designing a workshop or structured group process.
They are most fully catalogued in the Latin American popular-education tradition (the ICAZ, ALFORJA, and CEAAL technique manuals), which has spent half a century building and refining the methodological library; the European civic-pedagogy tradition (Département de la Cohésion Sociale, InSite) and the Asian popular-education networks maintain their own parallel catalogues.
The practitioner craft is in the design choice: which method fits the group’s composition, the room’s constraints, the topic’s complexity, and the facilitator’s experience. The technique list is the menu, not the meal — and the most common error is choosing the most interesting technique rather than the most appropriate one.
Full page: [[participatory-techniques]]. [source: participatory-techniques] [source: alforja-tecnicas-participativas]
FAQ
What are participatory techniques?
Participatory techniques are the named, codified methods — sociodramas, murales colectivos, el árbol de problemas, Phillips 6/6, débat mouvant, photolangage, termómetro grupal, and several hundred others — that a facilitator picks from when designing a workshop or structured group process [source: alforja-tecnicas-participativas].
Where are participatory techniques most fully catalogued?
They are most fully catalogued in the Latin American popular-education tradition (the ICAZ, ALFORJA, and CEAAL technique manuals), which has spent half a century building and refining the methodological library [source: alforja-tecnicas-participativas]. The European civic-pedagogy tradition (Département de la Cohésion Sociale, InSite) and the Asian popular-education networks maintain their own parallel catalogues.
What is the practitioner craft in choosing a technique?
The practitioner craft is in the design choice: which method fits the group’s composition, the room’s constraints, the topic’s complexity, and the facilitator’s experience [source: alforja-tecnicas-participativas]. The technique list is the menu, not the meal — and the most common error is choosing the most interesting technique rather than the most appropriate one.