Training of Trainers: Power Dynamics and Solidarity Practice

As activist trainers and group members, we are likely aware of the ways that training spaces reflect the wider systems in which we live. Oppression and privilege can show up explicitly and obviously, and also subtly –  in group dynamics, in facilitation choices, or even simply in how we respond to tension. This course offers a space to explore these realities, experiences and patterns with honesty and rigour, and to practice finding ways of holding power in transformative, grounded, enabling and relational ways.

Together we’ll reflect on how we navigate our influence as trainers – how we shift between initiating, accompanying, and witnessing. We’ll look at how we use our rank and influence responsively, in service to our group’s purpose. We’ll explore how to support groups to move beyond guilt, blame, and shame dynamics – towards greater understanding, responsibility, and solidarity.

Through experiential learning, reflection, and peer exchange, participants will work with frameworks of power and identity to better recognise how intersecting dimensions of privilege and marginalisation show up in groups and in ourselves. We’ll explore the different ways in which power manifests, addressing and unpicking dynamics related to different kinds of power – structural, contextual, economic, cultural etc.  We’ll apply tools and analytical models for analysing group dynamics, introducing training skills needed to navigate and work with power skilfully in its different manifestations.

The course will also focus on building emotional literacy and resilience, cultivating the ability to stay present with conflict and complexity, and strengthening the skills needed to centre positive values rather than reactive patterns when working with oppression.

Using case studies from participants’ own experiences, we will practice approaches to working with tension and difference, explore what supportive structures can sustain this kind of work, and reflect on how to find nourishing, long-term motivation for engaging with power and solidarity as core elements of transformative training.

The course will foster a peer-to-peer learning community of trainers – a supportive space to share practice, test approaches, and deepen collective understanding of how to create more equitable, resilient, and transformative learning environments.

Aims of the course:

• To deepen trainers’ understanding of power and its multiple dimensions within learning spaces.
• To explore how personal and systemic dynamics of privilege, rank, and marginalisation influence training practice.
• To strengthen the capacity to use trainers’ power and influence in transformative, accountable, and ethical ways.
• To develop skills for guiding groups beyond guilt, blame, and shame, towards collective responsibility and solidarity.
• To build emotional literacy, self-awareness, and resilience in the face of tension, conflict, and complexity.
• To deepen awareness of our own intersecting identities and positionalities, and how these shape facilitation.
• To create a supportive community of practice for ongoing peer learning and exchange.

So, the workshop will help participants to:

• Recognise and navigate power dynamics in training spaces with greater awareness and confidence.
• Integrate transformative solidarity practice into their design, facilitation, and reflection processes.
• Work with conflict and difference in ways that strengthen trust and shared learning.
• Apply frameworks for understanding intersectionality, privilege, and rank to real training challenges.
• Re-centre values of care, responsibility, and collaboration when responding to systems of oppression.
• Develop supportive structures and peer networks to sustain long-term engagement in this work.
• Find renewed, grounded inspiration to hold training as a space of transformative social change.

Who is it aimed at?

This training is for people already working as trainers. It is designed for experienced facilitators with a background in social movements or political education who want to take their practice further.

In general our trainings are aimed at people involved in socially engaged action addressing ecological, political and social justice issues. We embrace a broad definition of activism, including: Resistance – action preventing further damage to ecosystems and social justice; Renewal – action focused on developing and creating alternatives for healthier societies and communities; and Building Resilience – action supporting increased resilience in communities to weather the uncertain times ahead.

The main spoken language on the course will be English.

For accessibility and venue information see here.