Most professional development asks teachers to talk about their challenges.
A Community Forum asks them to show them.

This final phase of the Community Forum process brings everything together. The trust built earlier in the workshop. The honest disclosures. The embodied images. The moments of shared humour and tension. All of it moves into a collective space where teachers explore not only what is happening in their classrooms, but what could happen instead.

This article walks you through the final three stages of the process and how they create a powerful form of collaborative learning.

1. Sowing the Seeds

At this point, teachers have already explored their dilemmas through movement, gesture and image theatre. Now they begin shaping these explorations into very short scenes.

In their small groups, they:

• Devise a brief scenario based on a real professional dilemma
• Identify the key conflict and the characters involved
• Rehearse and refine the scene
• Nominate a facilitator or director to guide the presentation

These scenes are simple. Usually two or three minutes long. They are not meant to be polished mini plays. Their purpose is to provoke questions rather than to give answers. They are intentional snapshots of unfinished situations that teachers recognise instantly. A tense parent meeting. A moment of miscommunication with a colleague. A class that suddenly turns against the plan.

These scenes are the seeds. And they are about to bloom.

2. Blooming: The Community Forum Event

The scenes are then shared with a wider audience. This might be peers, colleagues from other departments or invited guests. The session begins with a clear reminder that this is not for entertainment. It is a shared space for inquiry and experimentation.

The Forum unfolds in three steps:

• Each group performs its scene once without interruption
• The facilitator invites the audience to reflect
• The audience is then invited to participate in the scene

This is where things come alive. A teacher might step into the role of a stressed parent. Another might replace the teacher in the scene and attempt a different response. Others might propose an alternative action that changes the flow of events entirely.

As scenes are replayed, the group begins to see how small behavioural shifts can transform the emotional tone of a difficult moment. The Forum becomes a rehearsal room for real life. Teachers see what happens when someone listens differently, sets a boundary more clearly or responds with curiosity instead of defensiveness.

3. The Facilitator: Holding the Space

The facilitator, or the Joker in Augusto Boal’s original language, ensures that the Forum remains a safe and productive learning space.

They help by:

• Keeping emotional boundaries clear
• Reminding everyone of the purpose
• Encouraging multiple perspectives
• Making sure no single voice dominates

Their role is not to solve the problem. Their role is to help the group explore it with honesty, care and imagination.

The moment the audience begins participating, something shifts. There is no longer a divide between performer and observer. Everyone becomes a spect-actor. Someone who watches, questions and acts. Someone who helps the group see that there are always other ways to respond.

Why This Matters for Teachers

The Community Forum gives teachers a rare opportunity. It lets them examine pressing professional dilemmas with others who truly understand them. It allows them to experiment with responses they might hesitate to try in real life. It builds empathy as teachers step into the shoes of parents, managers, colleagues and learners. And it generates the kind of insight that spoken discussion alone rarely reveals.

Most importantly, the Forum shows teachers that change is possible. Not through a script. Not through a prescribed technique. But through shared creativity and collective intelligence.

And that is the real lesson. The Forum is not the end of the process. It is the beginning. The ideas generated in this space often find their way into classrooms, staff rooms and institutional conversations long after the workshop ends.

When teachers gather not only to talk but to imagine, move, embody and co-create, they discover something important. The challenges they face are real. But so are the possibilities.

If you would like to explore these methods with other educators, you are warmly invited to join the free ELT community. https://ukxnbkwfnorncgqc3wxo.app.clientclub.net/communities/groups/performative-elt/home?invite=6919af2cf092989823e7fc96