Facilitation Strategies
Questions to Promote Critical Thinking
Asking questions is a simple way to deepen discussion and promote critical thinking. We all make assumptions to arrive at opinions of how things are, what is important, and how things “should be.” Drawing out learners’ thoughts using critical questions can help you understand how to connect key concepts to learners’ experiences.
Key questions to encourage critical thinking could include:
- Could you say a little more about that?
- Can you take us through your thinking on that?
- Where did you learn that?
- When did you first think that?
- When did you start thinking about that differently? What happened to change your mind?
You also can ask questions to help reframe an issue. For example:
- Why do we teach people how to avoid sexualized violence rather than teach people how not to engage in acts of sexualized violence toward others?
- Why do you think that sexualized violence is usually seen as a women’s issue? What responsibility do you think men might have in stopping sexualized violence? How are people of all genders impacted?
Responding to Common Myths About Sexualized Violence
There are many stereotypes, myths, and beliefs about sexualized violence that do not reflect what research evidence tells us about sexualized violence. There are many different approaches to responding to common myths during a discussion, including sharing statistics or research, asking a reflective question, clarifying definitions and concepts, or sharing an anecdote or experiential perspective. Below are some suggestions on how to respond to common myths about sexualized violence.
| Common Myths | Possible Responses |
|---|---|
| False reports
“People are lying or exaggerating when they talk about experiencing sexualized violence.” |
“What are some reasons why people wouldn’t disclose? How are people usually treated when they say something? Do we really think people would lie knowing these barriers and potential responses?”
“The number of false reports for sexual assault is very low, consistent with the number of false reports for other crimes in Canada.” |
| Clothing that a victim was wearing or doing
“If they’re dressing ‘that’ way then they’re kind of asking for it.” |
“Nobody asks to be assaulted.”
“Research has shown that outfits aren’t associated with assaults – there’s no kind of outfit that makes violence less likely.” “Consider if this response was applied to other crimes. For example, if your car was broken into and the police officers began questioning you about why you chose to park in a ‘bad’ part of town. Does this sound fair?” |
| Ulterior motives
“Survivors are only looking for attention/status/money, or are acting out of regret.” |
“What kind of attention do survivors who come forward (especially publicly) typically get? Are they famous now?”
“Do we really think people would rather face negative social responses than manage their own regret if that’s what happened?” “How might people’s desire to see the world as a good/safe place influence whether they believe survivors?” |
| Caution has gone too far
“People nowadays are too sensitive/overly politically correct. Anything can be construed as sexualized violence.” |
“Who tends to be the person who is behaving ‘overly sensitive’? Who tends to be the other party?”
“If you knew that something deeply hurt someone, why would you choose to continue anyways? What do you lose by ‘not doing the thing that causes harm’?” |
| Drinking alcohol or using other substances
“So, basically, you’re saying anyone who’s had sex while they were drunk has actually sexually assaulted someone.” |
“The law says that in some situations a person may be affected by alcohol or drugs so much that they can’t give legal consent. When a person can’t give legal consent, any sexual activity with them is sexual assault. If you want to do something sexual with someone who’s been drinking alcohol or using drugs, you must be very careful that their thinking is clear. They must be able to decide freely if they want to be sexual with you and be able to communicate their consent clearly.”
“If a person is unconscious or incapable of consenting due to the use of alcohol or drugs, they cannot legally give consent. Without consent, it is sexual assault.” “Alcohol is the number one drug used in drug-facilitated sexual assault.” “Some people who have been sexually assaulted blame themselves because they were drinking and might not describe what happened to them as sexual assault. If they didn’t consent, it is considered sexual assault.” |
| Assumptions about perpetrators
“But they’re such a nice person! I’ve never been uncomfortable around them.” “Different countries have different understanding so they just do it more.” “Most sexual assault is committed by strangers, usually outside in dark, dangerous places.” |
“About 80% of the time, the survivor knows the perpetrator. They can include dating partners, acquaintances, and common-law or married partners.”
“Just because you have never experienced something with a person doesn’t mean others haven’t.” “We need to be careful with really broad generalizations about specific cultures. Perpetrators come from many different cultures and backgrounds. People from the same culture may hold very different values.” “The majority of sexual assaults happen in private spaces like a residence or private home.” |
Adapted from Sexual Violence and Prevention Response Office. (2020). Bystander Intervention (Facilitation Notes). Thompson River University. Used with permission.
Transitions and Difficult Conversations
While facilitating, you are likely to encounter challenging moments when you might not be sure how to respond, when you strongly disagree with a participant’s perspective, or when the conversation has shifted in a direction that makes you concerned for the comfort and safety of other learners.
Below are some potential responses for handling difficult moments (Sexual Violence and Prevention Response Office, 2020):
- Interesting. I’m not sure how to respond to that. Let me think about that for a minute, and I’ll bring us back to that.
- I’m not comfortable with where this conversation is going. I’d like to bring us back to some of the activities/questions we had planned.
- I’m just getting conscious of time here. Let’s move on for now.
- How do you think that comment might land for a survivor? I’m reminded of the commitments we all made when we came to the workshop…
- Tell me more about that.
- Where did you learn that/where does that thinking come from? Does anyone benefit from that?
- It’s okay for us to agree to disagree. Let’s move on for now.
Creative Approaches to Learning About Sexualized Violence
Community-based and campus-based anti-violence programs and initiatives have a long history of developing innovative and creative approaches to support learners of all backgrounds. Facilitators of graduate student training identify the importance of applying a facilitation style that resonates with the specific student group to increase the relevancy and buy-in from participants. For example, visual resources may be preferable for visual arts students while using a whiteboard could be more appropriate for math students.
Below are a few suggestions for creative approaches to education on sexualized violence prevention and response. These types of creative approaches to facilitation require preplanning, significant facilitator experience, and additional time than this workshop has allotted.
- Digital or paper collage. Use images from popular culture, including films, books, TV, and music to explore stereotypes. Ask questions such as: Who are consistently the main characters? Who are the “heroes”? Who has power or whose life and decisions are considered important and valuable? Explore ideas about what is considered “normal” and acceptable in our society and how this affects our attitudes and beliefs about issues such as sexualized violence and consent and our roles in supporting change.
- Group sculpture. Use objects and movement to help learners visualize power dynamics in society. For example, you could ask several learners to use a water bottle and chair to create a group “sculpture” in which one of the objects is seen to be more powerful and then ask the audience to respond and share what they saw.
- Guided imagery. Read a story about the day-to-day experiences of a member of your community and ask learners to visualize themselves as that person. For example, you could ask a cisgender man to imagine taking the bus to class from the perspective of a cisgender woman.
- “I can help create a safer campus” bingo. Create a bingo game that includes suggestions of actions that individuals can take to support safer campuses. E.g., “I cannot laugh at sexist jokes,” “I can give active consent when I want to have sex,” or “I can say something when I hear disrespectful language.”
- Take-home readings and viewings. Some groups of learners may benefit from having shorter sessions spread out over a period of days or weeks. This can create opportunities for take-home activities such as reading a graphic novel, watching a documentary, or analyzing a spoken-word video with a reflection component.
- Interactive theatre or improv. Scenario-based activities are an effective approach to learning skills related to preventing and responding to sexualized violence. Interactive theatre and improv approaches can build on discussion-based approaches to scenarios. They can help learners gain experience rehearsing real-life situations and explore short- and long-term consequences. Techniques such as “hot seating” can be a way of exploring the motivations behind the actors’ actions and can help develop empathy and compassion.
