Most learning spaces are built around instruction.
Someone at the front delivering the content.
Others in rows receiving the content.
It’s a structure we’re all familiar with, and it quietly teaches us what’s expected.
Listen. Take it in. Wait your turn to share/speak/ask a question.
In my men’s wellbeing work, we often use a cypher, a practice rooted in Hip Hop culture. We sit in a circle.
The change in shape shifts the experience. No one is at the head. Everyone can see each other. Everyone is involved. You’re not watching something happen, you’re part of it. The responsibility for how the room feels is shared. The space becomes something we hold together.
In Hip Hop, the cypher has always been a site of exchange. MCs and dancers step forward, contribute, respond, and then make space for the next person.
There’s rhythm, respect, and accountability to the collective. It’s structured, and still alive.
Christopher Emdin has been pointing to this through his work, showing exactly what happens when learning spaces draw from cultural practices that already centre voice, identity, and participation rather than trying to engineer them from scratch.
The cypher creates room for young people’s voices to emerge without need for performance or pressure.
It invites showing up, listening with real intent, speaking when ready, and recognising they are shaping the environment as much as anyone else.
An intentional check in works wonders here.
A lot more than just a warm up or a gentle opener. It’s the moment itself where the collective space is established.
A deliberate point to arrive fully, to locate yourself, to recognise who else is present, and to acknowledge that what we’re about to do is collective. It plays a part in setting the tempo and tone to follow as well as setting expectation.
Once these spaces are held consistently and intentionally, they build trust. The group dynamics shift, things settle and co-regulation plays a poweful part in the equation.
The work can be oh, so simple.
Design shapes behaviour.
Change the structures and you can have an impact on how people participate.