Conclusions


After thoroughly examining the process of participatory flow during a whole-school art & craft activity, and in particular the ways the facilitator maintains participatory flow, the following conclusions have been drawn based on this research.

It has been concluded that the facilitator actively contributed to maintaining participatory flow, acting through all the eight major conditions of flow, applying a variety of identifiable social skills and techniques.

Reciprocated 'trust', alongside 'feeling safe' and 'belonging' have been identified as conditions of participatory flow. They are also key concepts, as they underline many of the other conditions, and in particular, contribute to the balance between challenge and skills.

The list of the conclusions, which have been extensively explored in the thesis:



-I. The sum of the skills and trust is in balance with the set challenges.

-II. The facilitator aims to maintain the conditions for trustful relationships to develop.

-III. The facilitator alternates between the setting of challenges and teaching skills during the periods of balanced flow, based on the trust she receives for her expertise from the participants.

-IV. As the risk of a process grows, more intensive facilitation is required to maintain trust if the process is to remain in flow. Keeping balance between risk and trust is orchestrated by the facilitator is raising challenge and teaching skills intensively at the same time.

-V. Therefore, during a participatory art & craft project, one of the facilitator's major roles is to influence the level of trust by continuously adjusting the level of skills and challenges.

-VI. As the level of risk and trust grows, so does the level of challenge and skills, and ultimately, the intensity of the resulting empowerment as well.

-VII. As the risk grows during a participatory flow process, the actions of the facilitator enabling the process, inevitably become more hectic and require ever more energy being invested. Facilitating art & craft participatory flow processes, which can lead to empowerment, is hard work that requires profession-specific skills and knowledge of the facilitator.

-VIII. As a practitioner, one should also consider that the most empowering process of art & craft facilitation, may not necessarily be the most enjoyable process for the facilitator. It can be intensive and tense, particularly for the facilitator. From my own experience, these situations often occur when time is at a premium and are often recalled as the most flowing period of the process. This may pose the questions, whether enjoyment is a valid descriptor of the state of flow and whether the traditionally accepted relationship between flow and happiness should be further reviewed.

-IX. When reciprocated trust, and consequently participatory flow deepens, the process may lead to a 'wow' experience. This social awe has similar roots to a sense of transcendence (Konecni, 2011; Shaw, 2017). Sawyer (2007) called it the work of the 'group genius'.