As the name implies, the physical shape of the conversation is everyone sitting in a circle. This arrangement not only symbolizes the participants' basic equality as learners and teachers but also helps make it physically real. In the circle, everyone can see everyone else when they are speaking or listening. Sometimes the big circle will break out into small groups of three or four people, for discussion in which each participant can have more airtime than in the big circle. Learning circles grow out of assumptions about community and the need to create community in order to voice all group members and to voice many facets of each member.
Community is built through ongoing face to face sharing of information, concerns, and resources.
For this reason, learning circles work best in an extended setting in which group members share group meals, cultural actives, service projects, household or group chores and a common space. Learning circles as a tool for learning and social action grows out of a great tradition of people's education, democratizatic education, and community development. Some of the well-known leaders in this tradition are Myles Horton, Septima Clark, and Paulo Freire. The basic practices of relating as whole persons in respectful conversation about matters of deep concern, however, are rooted in the wisdom and caring of countless community leaders whose names we do not know. Make reservations for dorms with Tim Schindler.