Dreaming workshops were designed for a specific research project carried out in Durban, South Africa. The methodology was developed to explore whether, and how, young people imagine race and non-racialism in their future; and what present day obstacles they identify to obtaining this dream. The original study investigated how groups of Grade 11 students (approximately 16 years old) from five different schools in the city of Durban, imagine this future. There are links on this site that offer more details on this study and its findings. During the process of running these Dreaming

Workshops however, we felt, as did some of the teachers we worked with it was also a useful mechanism for starting a much-needed dialogue about ideas of race, privilege, racism, antiracism and non-racialism amongst school learners. Following this we decided to offer the methodology more widely online. The workbook is available for download here and offers a step-by-step guide to running a Dreaming Workshop. This workbook is made for teachers, social justice activists and educational practitioners.

Dreaming Workshops offer a creative participatory focus group enquiry/dialogue that run over two sessions, and requires some preparatory work from the facilitator between these. It is particularly useful as a method to have a facilitated conversation about issues of inequality and social justice, in a way that recognizes the broader context in which inequality and discrimination exists. It also enables these difficult conversations to happen against the background of a loosely designed future horizon, in the form of a dreaming tree, which the participants have themselves collectively voiced.

We have used it in the South African context to study issues of race, class, social identities and difference, as well as thinking through what actions are needed if we were to work towards a more socially just and equal society. But this method could be used to focus on many others ways in which people both live together and live apart, and what these social relations mean for a better future (gender, sexuality and environmental degradation would be other obvious examples). Whilst this method offers a strong participatory element the direction of the conversation to a certain extent can be gently shaped by the facilitator (there is more on thinking through the pros and cons of choosing a facilitator in the workbook).

This method is particularly appropriate when researching children’s experiences and perspectives, as participants are recognized as experts and encourages them to view the process as communicating with peers, as opposed to only being interrogated by, or lectured to, by an adult.

Dreaming workshops are modes of debate that are less interested in how actors in the state or academic institutions believe the future should be defined. Dreaming Workshops focus on how participants take responsibility and agency in imagining a new social order, and what issues would need to be addressed in the present to arrive at a better future. When we imagine a better future for humans we must recognise that we are all already busy making or dismantling this future. Dreaming Workshops therefore, offer participants more than simply providing a description of their collective future, but a chance to analyse together where and how experiences, and societal structures, in the present inspire, or hinder, these future dreams.

Classrooms of Hope: Case studies of South African teachers nurturing respect for all. Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (2015)

On a Plate by Toby Morris