A case study of learning to become a PD facilitator: ‘Climbing the tree’

This article describes and relates to classic and emerging theory, and the journey of one person, based at a Dutch university (Fontys University of Applied Sciences), towards becoming a facilitator concerned with transformational teaching practice. Following on from some background on facilitation within the context of practice development, the article summarizes and offers illustrations from a critical conversation between the two authors. Three themes relevant to climbing the tree were identified as (1) working with clarified values and beliefs; (2) movement: moving from technical single issues to working with complex questions and multiple practice development principles and (3) construction and reconstruction of a personalized embodied facilitation framework. These are used as a structure for the discussion. The case study concludes that becoming a facilitator, rather than the technical application of facilitation techniques and tools, is a continuous journey, with personal or internal dimensions where the person/facilitator is part of the learning process. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.