13 March – 15 March 2026 in Florence, hosted by Paramita Lab.
Overview of the teaching abroad
In the 3 days long teaching the following activities and tasks were undertaken:
- Embodied awareness and grounding practices: Short guided exercises aimed at developing attention, presence, and awareness of body and environment as a foundation for reflective learning.
- Social Presencing Theater core practices: Experiential methods such as 20-minute dance, stuck practice, village practice, and seed practice to explore personal and collective challenges through embodied inquiry.
- Collective sensing and systems exploration: Group exercises that help participants perceive relational dynamics and systemic patterns within social or organisational contexts.
- Small group reflection sessions: Structured dialogues allowing participants to reflect on experiences, share insights, and connect embodied learning with societal and civic themes.
- Case exploration: Participants may bring real societal, organisational, or community challenges to explore through SPT practices, fostering collaborative learning and systemic understanding.
- Peer learning and feedback: Participants engage in mutual observation and reflective feedback processes to support learning and collective awareness.
- Integration and harvesting sessions: Final reflection activities to synthesise insights, identify applications in civic, professional, or community contexts, and translate learning into future actions.
The activities were designed to promote experiential learning, collaborative inquiry, and reflective engagement with societal challenges, supporting participants in developing competences relevant for active citizenship and community participation.
Learning outcomes
As an invited expert delivering an intensive training in Social Presencing Theater (SPT), Paola Bortini supported participants to develop a range of citizenship-related competences that support active, reflective, and collaborative participation in society.
The methodology combined embodied learning, collective inquiry, and systems awareness to strengthen the following competences:
- Active citizenship and civic engagement: Participants learned to recognize their role within social systems and communities, fostering responsibility, participation, and initiative in addressing societal challenges.
- Collaborative problem-solving: Through group-based practices, participants developed the ability to work constructively with diverse perspectives, co-create solutions, and engage in participatory decision-making processes.
- Intercultural awareness and inclusion: The embodied and dialogical practices of SPT cultivate empathy, openness, and respect for diversity, supporting inclusive participation in multicultural environments.
- Critical and systemic thinking: Participants were guided to perceive social dynamics and structural patterns, strengthening their capacity to analyse complex societal issues and reflect on their own position within them.
- Communication and relational skills: Exercises enhanced attentive listening, non-verbal communication, and constructive dialogue, enabling participants to engage respectfully and effectively in civic and community contexts.
- Personal agency and ethical responsibility: The practice encourages self-awareness, reflection, and alignment between individual values and collective wellbeing, reinforcing responsible and ethical civic action.
Through experiential learning processes, the training contributed to the development of key competences for democratic participation, social responsibility, and collaborative leadership, supporting participants in acting as engaged and reflective citizens in their communities and professional contexts.