Frustration and Disengagement? A reflection of some communities?

[SkinnyTwin Theatre]

In my critique of the enquiry model of teaching, I noted with this method and structure, it would be easy for some people to feel intimidated, confused, not intelligent enough, which might be the intention and not say or participate in any of the discussions whilst some might feel not fully engaged by the subject matter, rationale, the organic nature of discussion etc then the law of increasing cost in participation kicks in. A need to engage within a higher reflective and meaningful debate to some individuals has arguably led to frustration and noticeable disengagement. Whilst a larger group has become more vocal and confident in participating in the discussions. This is interesting to me as I see the CCD class as a community and have noticed interesting correlations with some of the community groups I have worked with before:

Take for example a community I worked with last year, small community with about80 members, introduced ourselves and the work we did. Everyone was given a chance to introduce themselves going around the room. On the onset one guy, categorically stated that his interest in participating was to see the community work together to see political change in his home country. Most of those present looked uncomfortable with this, the meeting preceded but punctuated with political rhetoric from this fell, at one point he got tangled in an argument and a bit of verbal sparring with one of the community leaders about his intrusions and the subject matter not being welcome. The second meeting this fellow must have had a dressing down for he did not say anything but sections of the community were still noticeably uncomfortable, the third meeting he did not attend at all, there was obvious lightening up from the community, apparently this fellow had been pushing his own political agenda for some time. EVERY ONE SHOULD HAVE A PLATFORM TO SPEAK AND BE HEARD, THIS IS THE PREMISE, but what if the subject matter makes the listeners and participants uncomfortable? What if another shares a different view and because of the passionate nature, erupts into a full scale conflict/argument? This is one likely source of Frustration and anger; other vested interest might stir up emotion making the density of the whole interaction tense.

In a community setting , leadership and the superior facilitating skills by leaders, convener or coordinator might alleviate the above situation, but in a class that is open, open to enquiring minds, personal struggles in relating to the discussions, personality interests, ego and a whole other issues might clearly lead to frustration and disengagement , if this was a community group, how would I handle it better, would I confront the peoples and let them share their grievances , thoughts etc in front of everyone so people have more of an understanding of them? Or see them by themselves and resolve these outside, what of group consensus and dynamics? What though is the aim in confronting this apart from the above, Frustration and Disengagement, is it the likely effect on other participants? The ongoing unresolved tensions, effect on outcome? Either way, a macro can be reflective of a micro even though they are in a different milieu. A reflection on some aspects of communities, individual dynamics, expectations, passion and focus...