World Café between research and teaching: Individual and community empowerment
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1825-8670/20125Keywords:
World Café, Empowerment, Action research, Teaching, Social changeAbstract
This article aims to describe, from both theoretical and methodological perspectives, the characteristics of the World Café as a participatory technique particularly flexible to the context in which it is employed, thanks to its ability to create informal and relaxed settings as opportunities to generate and share knowledge. The authors trace its origins and guiding principles, explore its possibilities of application — both in-person and online settings —, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses in the fields of research, teaching and education, as a methodology capable of promoting and fostering empowerment, soft skills and social change among participants.References
Adnan Hekmat Al-Bayati, A. (2020). The effect of using the global café strategy on the achievement of sixth-graders in science subjects and the development of their creative thinking. PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology, 17(7), 11145-11184. Retrieved from https://archives.palarch.nl/index.php/jae/article/view/4449
Al Yakin, A., Wafi, A., & Harianti, V. (2021). Utilizing the World Café method to inboost students’ motivation and learning outcomes. Cape Comorin. An International Multidisciplinary Double-Blind Peer-Reviewed Research Journal, 3(2), ISSN: 2582-1962. Retrieved from https://capecomorinjournal.org
Albrecht, J., Stark, A. L., Dongas, E., Wrona, K. J., & Dockweiler, C. (2022). Hosting an online World Café to develop an understanding of digital health promoting settings from a citizen’s perspective: Methodological potentials and challenges. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19*(16), 9969. https://doi.org/10.3390/IJERPH19169969
Aldred, R. (2011). From community participation to organizational therapy? World Café and Appreciative Inquiry as research methods. Community Development Journal, 46(1), 57–71. https://doi.org/10.1093/CDJ/BSP039
Altares, A., Hobbs, S., Sobel, D., Nelson, T., Serpa, M., & Bellows, L. L. (2022). Cultivating community change to promote food access and healthy eating through participatory action research with youth. Journal of Community Practice, 30(4), 378–394. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2022.2139035
Banfield, M., Gulliver, A., & Morse, A. R. (2021b). Virtual World Café method for identifying mental health research priorities: Methodological case study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/IJERPH19010291
Bartels, N., & Hahne, K. (2023). Teaching building information modeling in the metaverse: An approach based on quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the students perspective. Buildings, 13(9), 2198. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13092198
Bazilio, J., Pereira, J. de A., Figueira, M. C. E. S., & Silva, E. M. (2020). Generating meaningful conversation: World Café in strategic interprofessional planning in Continuing Education. Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, 73(5), e20190279. https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2019-0279
Bettencourt, L., Simões, F., Fernandes, B., & Fonseca, J. (2023). Designing vocational training policies in an outermost European region: Highlights from a participatory process. European Educational Research Journal, 23(4), 524-543. https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041231157445
Bowne, M., Cutler, K., Debates, D., Gilkerson, D., & Stremmel, A. (2010). Pedagogical documentation and collaborative dialogue as tools of inquiry for pre-service teachers in early childhood education: An exploratory narrative. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(2), 48-59. http://www.iupui.edu/~josotl
Bradbury H., Steier, F., Brown, J., & Silva, F. M. (2017). The World Café in action research settings. In: The SAGE Handbook of Action Research. 2017, 211–219. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473921290.N21
Brown, I., Isaacs, D., Margulies, N., & Warhaftig, G. (1999). The World Café: Catalyzing Large-Scale Collective Learning. Leverage: News and Ideas for the Organizational Learner, 33, 1–2. https://www.theworldcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/catalyzinglearning.pdf
Brown, J. (2002). The World Café: A Resource Guide for Hosting Conversations That Matter. Whole Systems Associates.
Brown, J., & Isaacs, D. (2005). The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Camacho, H. N., Rybels, S., Coppens, T., & Pineda, A. F. V. (2020). World Café as a participatory approach to facilitate the implementation process of problem-based learning. Journal of Problem Based Learning in Higher Education, 8(1 Special Issue), 19–40. https://doi.org/10.5278/ojs.jpblhe.v8i1.2660
Charterina, J., Pando-Garcia, J., & Periáñez-Cañadillas, I. (2020). “Attitudes do matter”: Generic competences in the selection of Business graduates. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, 10(1), 239–254. https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-04-2019-0057
Cooke, N. J., Manzini, R., Benedetti, M., Wint, N., Griffiths, J., Torres, F., Johannsen, T., Winkens, A. K., Tilley, E., & Kim, H. (2023). Who, what, how? tackling skills challenges: future relevance, stakeholder differences, and teaching hurdles: the engineering skills sig world café. SEFI 2023 – 51st Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education: Engineering Education for Sustainability, Proceedings, 3131–3137. https://doi.org/10.21427/RC9V-GT53
D’Alessandro, D., Rebecchi, A., Appolloni, L., Brambilla, A., Brusaferro, S., Buffoli, M., Carta, M., Casuccio, A., Coppola, L., Corazza, M. V., D’Elia, R., Dell’Ovo, M., Dettori, M., Fara, G. M., Ferrante, M., Giammanco, G., Gola, M., Gori, D., Lauria, A., Capolongo, S. (2023). Re-thinking the environment, cities, and living spaces for public health purposes, according with the COVID-19 lesson: The LVII Erice Charter. Land, 12(10), 1863. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12101863
Dantas Galvão Ozório, F. J., Monteiro Muniz, Q. H., de Moraes Paim, I., Soares Neto , J., Mota Neves de Almeida, S., Cavalcante , P., Vieira Barreto Gomes , R., & Santos Cerqueira , G. (2020). World Café method: The possibility of understanding active methodologies in remote learning . International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, 8(11), 234-245. https://doi.org/10.31686/ijier.vol8.iss11.2740
Dawson, D., Britnell, J., & Hitchcock, A. (2010). 1: Developing competency models of faculty developers. To Improve the Academy, 28(1), 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2334-4822.2010.tb00593.x
Decker-Lange, C., Lange, K., Dhaliwal, S., & Walmsley, A. (2022). Exploring entrepreneurship education effectiveness at British Universities: An application of the World Café method. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 5(1), 113–136. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515127420935391
Dumont, I., Gambazza, G., & Gamberoni, E. (2021). Interstizi e novità: oltre il Mainstream. Esplorazioni di geografia sociale. Geography Notebooks, 4(2), pp. 11-273. https://dx.doi.org/10.7358/gn-2021-002-pic1
Elden, M., & Levin, M. (1991). Cogenerative learning: Bringing participation into Action Research. In W. F. Whyte (Ed.), Participatory Action Research (pp. 127-142). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412985383.N9
Fallon, H., & Connaughton, L. (2016). Using a World Café to explore new spaces and new models for front line services: A case study from the Irish University Library sector. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 22(1), 43–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/13614533.2015.1126291
Filies, G. C., Yassin, Z., & Frantz, J. M. (2016). Students’ views of learning about an interprofessional World Café method. African Journal of Health Professions Education, 8(2), 229. https://doi.org/10.7196/ajhpe.2016.v8i2.844
Fonseca Peso, J., Caro González, A., & Milosevic, N. (2020). Innovative co-creative participatory methodologies for a dreamt-of quality education in Europe. Sustainability, 12*(16), 6385. https://doi.org/10.3390/SU12166385
Geduld, D., Sathorar, H., & Moeng, M. (2020). Reflecting on BEd students’ experiences of unfamiliar school contexts during school-based learning: A proposition for transformative learning. Journal of Education (South Africa), 80, 87–105. https://doi.org/10.17159/2520-9868/i80a05
Ghafili, A., Azzouzi, W., Hamdoune, M., Gantare, A., Lobet-Maris, C., & Gourdin, M. (2023). Mobilizing the World Café method for adequate development of non-technical skills of midwives in Morocco: A pilot experiment. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 11(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/HEALTHCARE11040519
Grakhova, S., Fayzrakhmanov, I., Zhundibayeva, A., Yakutina, M., Sharipov, R., & Stepykin, N. (2019). Information, pedagogical and facilitation technologies in teaching a special philology class at non-specialized faculties of higher education institutions. International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering, 8(12), 1613–1620. https://doi.org/10.35940/IJITEE.L3154.1081219
Gulliver, A., Morse, A. R., & Banfield, M. (2022). Keeping the agenda current: Evolution of Australian lived experience mental health research priorities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(13), 8101. https://doi.org/10.3390/IJERPH19138101
Gyllenpalm, B. (2000). Connecting Diverse People and Ideas: A Virtual Knowledge Café. Whole Systems Associates. http://www.theworldcafe.com/stories/virtualcafes.pdf
Hafford-Letchfield, T., Pezzella, A., Connell, S., Urek, M., Jurček, A., Higgins, A., Keogh, B., Van De Vaart, N., Rabelink, I., Robotham, G., Bus, E., Buitenkamp, C., & Lewis-Brooke, S. (2023). Learning to deliver LGBT+ aged care: Exploring and documenting best practices in professional and vocational education through the World Café method. Ageing and Society, 43(1), 105–126. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X21000441
Halås, C. T. (2021). The Dialogue Café as a participatory method in research: Potentials and challenges. In T. Wulf-Andersen, R. Follesø, & T. Olsen (Eds.), *Involving Methods in Youth Research: Reflections on Participation and Power (pp. 155-183). Wiesbaden: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75941-4_7
Harper, M. G., & Maloney, P. (2021). Informing the nursing professional development scope and standards: Exploring current and future nursing professional development practice through a World Café methodology. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 37(3), 176–182. https://doi.org/10.1097/NND.0000000000000735
Hornett, A. (2007). World Café: Simulating seminar dialogues in a large class. Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, 34, 256–258.
Huang, S., & Chen, C. L. (2022). Consolidating strategies for innovative business models, Action Research, 22(3), 223–242. https://doi.org/10.1177/14767503221145335
Inoubli, A. K., & Khedher, D. M. Ben. (2022). Serious games in management to support the active construction of knowledge in engineering studies. IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference, EDUCON, March 2022, 628–633. https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON52537.2022.9766664
Kleinsorgen, C., Ramspott, S., Ehlers, J. P., Gruber, C., Dilly, M., Engelskirchen, S., Bernigau, D., & Bahramsoltani, M. (2020). Communication skills in undergraduate veterinary education in Germany: Approaches for the development of a core curriculum. Berliner Und Munchener Tierarztliche Wochenschrift, 133(1–2), 12–21. https://doi.org/10.2376/0005-9366-19028
Kotzur, M., Amiri, R., Gatting, L., Robb, K. A., Ling, J., Mooney, J. D., & Christie-de Jong, F. (2023). Adapting participatory workshops to a virtual setting: Co-design with Muslim women of a faith-based intervention to encourage cancer screening uptake. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 22, 115. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069231205194
Laine-Gossin, J., DeKoven, S., & Bordman, R. (2022). Making connections: exploring residents’ perspectives on a virtual World Café as a novel approach for teaching Indigenous health issues. Canadian Medical Education Journal, 13(2), 92-95. https://doi.org/10.36834/cmej.73098
Lefika, P. T., & Mearns, M. A. (2015). Adding knowledge cafés to the repertoire of knowledge sharing techniques. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), 26–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.IJINFOMGT.2014.09.005
Löhr, K., Weinhardt, M., & Sieber, S. (2020). The “World Café” as a participatory method for collecting qualitative data. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19, 115 . https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406920916976
Lorenzetti, L. A., Azulai, A., & Walsh, C. A. (2016). Addressing power in conversation: Enhancing the transformative learning capacities of the World Café. Journal of Transformative Education, 14(3), 200–219. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541344616634889
MacFarlane, A., Galvin, R., O’Sullivan, M., McInerney, C., Meagher, E., Burke, D., & LeMaster, J. W. (2017). Participatory methods for research prioritization in primary care: An analysis of the World Café approach in Ireland and the USA. Family Practice, 34(3), 278–284. https://doi.org/10.1093/FAMPRA/CMW104
Masha, M. F., Mboweni, M. S. J., & Mtshali, T. I. (2020). Advanced scholarship of teaching and learning in agricultural technology among technical vocational education and training College students. New Models for Technical and Vocational Education and Training Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development, 91–114. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-2607-1.ch006
Mayer, M. (2013). Un Café per parlare di valutazione nei musei, Museologia Scientifica Memorie, 10, 159–161. Retrieved from https://www.anms.it/upload/rivistefiles/76597475d5407feb3e9d864ccbb44f99.pdf
McCunn, L. J., Bjornson, A., & Alexander, D. (2020). Teaching sustainability across curricula: understanding faculty perspectives at Vancouver Island University. The Curriculum Journal, 31(3), 557–572. https://doi.org/10.1002/CURJ.16
McKimm, J., Ramani, S., Kusurkar, R. A., Fornari, A., Nadarajah, V. D., Thampy, H., Filipe, H. P., Kachur, E. K., & Hays, R. (2020). Capturing the wisdom of the crowd: health professions’ educators meet at a virtual world café. Perspectives on Medical Education, 9(6), 385–390. https://doi.org/10.1007/S40037-020-00623-Y
Moe, R. (2019). How to Teach Kindergarten Teacher Education Students about Play? The Perspective of Academic Pedagogy Teachers. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 7(3A), 60–67. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2019.071307
Monforte, J., Netherway, J., & Smith, B. (2023a). The World Café is an unmethod within co-produced research. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 20(3), 398–419. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2023.2239728
Oldenburg, R. (1989). The Great Good Place: Cafés, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors, General Stores, Bars, Hangouts, and How They Get You Through the Day. New York: Paragon House.
Pađen, L., Pajnič, M., Vettorazzi, R., Pérez-Perdomo, A., Stefaniak, M., Claes, N., Franco, H., Vandervoort, A., & Ravljen, M. (2023). “Learning a way of thinking”: World Café on clinical reasoning in nursing and midwifery education and practice across five European Union countries. Healthcare (Switzerland), 11(22), 2969. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11222969
Pavesi, C., & Ferrari, N. (2020). Intervenire sulle forme di marginalità attraverso la comunità nella prospettiva del welfare responsabile: il percorso di ricerca azione partecipata “Exponiamoci. Scatti di comunità”. Studi di Sociologia, 3, 309–324. https://doi.org/10.26350/000309_000099
Pettican, A., Goodman, B., Bryant, W., Beresford, P., Freeman, P., Gladwell, V., Kilbride, C., & Speed, E. (2023). Doing together: Reflections on facilitating the co-production of participatory action research with marginalised populations. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 15(2), 202–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2022.2146164
Pettican, A., Speed, E., Kilbride, C., Bryant, W., & Beresford, P. (2021). An occupational justice perspective on playing football and living with mental distress. Journal of Occupational Science, 28(1), 159–172. https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2020.1816208
Picone, M. (2021). Geografia sociale e partecipazione. L’esperienza di #esserefiera. In Dumont, I., Gambazza, G., & Gamberoni, E. (2021), Interstizi e novità: oltre il Mainstream. Esplorazioni di geografia sociale, Geography Notebooks, 29-40. https://dx.doi.org/10.7358/gn-2021-002-pic1
Pinto-Pinho, P., Ferreira, A., Matos, B., Santiago, J., Henriques, M. C., Corda, P. O., Lima, T., Rodrigues, M., de Lourdes Pereira, M., & Fardilha, M. (2023). The World Café method and spaces dedicated to active teaching & learning: A dynamic combo that motivates students for biosciences learning. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 61(5), 897-911. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2023.2259384
Psaroudakis, I., Quattrone, F., Tavoschi, L., De Vita, E., Cervia, S., Biancheri, R., & Lopalco, P. L. (2020). Engaging adolescents in developing health education interventions: A multidisciplinary pilot project. European Journal of Public Health, 30(4), 712–714. https://doi.org/10.1093/EURPUB/CKAA012
Rahmawati, F., Rahman, A., & Usman, U. (2021). The Effect of World Cafe Learning Method on Students’ Oral Communication Competence in Biology Learning, Gagasan Pendidikan Indonesia, 2(1), 48-59. https://doi.org/10.30870/gpi.v2i1
Rania, N., Coppola, I., & Pinna, L. (2021). Adapting qualitative methods during the COVID-19 era: Factors to consider for successful use of online photovoice. The Qualitative Report, 26(8), 2711–2729. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2021.4863
Ravneberg, B. E. (2024). Co-creating and co-producing learning environments in adult education through the World Café method. Frontiers in Education, 9:1335747, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1335747
Recchia, V., Dodaro, A., De Marco, E., & Zizza, A. (2022). A critical look to community wisdom: Applying the World Café method to health promotion and prevention. International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 37(S1), 220–242. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.3594
Recto, P., Lesser, J., Zapata, J., Paleo, J., Gray, A. H., Zavala Idar, A., Castilla, M., & Gandara, E. (2023). Teaching person-centered care and interprofessional collaboration through a virtual mental health World Café: A mixed methods IPE pilot project. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 44(8), 702–716. https://doi.org/10.1080/01612840.2023.2212780
Roitto, H. M., Aalto, U. L., Söderling, R., Laakkonen, M. L., & Öhman, H. (2020). Delirium Café: Interactive learning to enhance delirium care. European Geriatric Medicine, 11(1), 113–116. https://doi.org/10.1007/S41999-019-00283-0
Ropes, D., van Kleef, H., & Douven, G. (2020). Learning in the World Café: An empirical evaluation. Journal of Workplace Learning, 32(4), 303–316. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-10-2019-0126/FULL/XML
Rossini, G., Concia, V., Cagetti, M. G., & Strohmenger, L. (2018). World Café at Summer School of WHO Collaborating Centre for Epidemiology and Community Dentistry. Universal Journal of Public Health, 6(2), 79–83. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujph.2018.060207
Salvi, A., Caldonazzo, C., Fioravanti, C., Romano, F., Chiappelli, T., Mangani, S., Fabbri, M., & Mugnai, M. (2019). Paths of intercultural and digital citizenship with the new generations: the #IOPARTECIPO project. Rivista Italiana Di Informatica e Diritto, 1(2), 91–105. https://doi.org/10.32091/RIID0012
Samardzic, T., Wildman, C., Barata, P. C., & Morton, M. (2023). Considerations for conducting online focus groups on sensitive topics. International Journal of Social Research Methodology: Theory and Practice, 1(6). https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2023.2185985
Santini, L. (2021). The World Café and the flipped class technique as collaborative learning methodologies in a Translation Course: A case study. Multilingual academic and professional communication in a networked world, Proceedings of AELFE-TAPP 2021 (19th AELFE Conference, 2nd TAPP Conference) Arnó, E., Aguilar, M., Borrás, J., Mancho, G., Moncada, B., Tatzl, D. (Eds.) Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona), 7-9 July 2021 Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. ISBN: 978-84-9880-943-5
Santos, G. S. Dos, Queiroz, A. B. A., Pereira, C. S. de F., Rosas, A. M. M. T. F., da Silveira, L. M. C., & Rodrigues, S. R. B. T. (2019). Group practices for teaching the state of the art with multiprofessional residents in health. Revista Gaucha de Enfermagem, 40, e20180210. https://doi.org/10.1590/1983-1447.2019.20180210
Schiele, H., Krummaker, S., Hoffmann, P., & Kowalski, R. (2022). The “research world café” as method of scientific enquiry: Combining rigor with relevance and speed. Journal of Business Research, 140, 280–296. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JBUSRES.2021.10.075
Shyshenko, I. V., Chkana, Y. O., Martynenko, O. V., Udovychenko, O. M., Stotskyi, I. I., & Semenikhina, O. V. (2023). Implementation of a facilitative approach to teaching mathematical disciplines to future mathematics teachers by means of the MAPLE Package. MIPRO 2023, Proceedings of 46th ICT and Electronics Convention (pp. 635-630). ISBN 978-953233104-2. https://doi.org/10.23919/MIPRO57284.2023.10159878
Thomas, C. M. (2010). Teaching nursing students and newly registered nurses strategies to deal with violent behaviors in the professional practice environment. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 41(7), 299–308. https://doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20100401-09
Thompson, W. T., Steier, F., & Ostrenko, W. (2014). Designing communication process for the design of an idea zone at a Science Center. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 42(2), 208–226. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2013.874570
Vasilieva, E. (2020). Engineering education and a new paradigm of project thinking. In: Sukhomlin, V., Zubareva, E. (eds) Modern Information Technology and IT Education. SITITO 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol. 1201. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46895-8_2
Villa-García, L., Davey, V., Peréz, L. M., Soto-Bagaria, L., Risco, E., Díaz, P., Kuluski, K., Giné-Garriga, M., Castellano-Tejedor, C., & Inzitari, M. (2023). Co-designing implementation strategies to promote remote physical activity programs in frail older community-dwellers. Frontiers in Public Health, 11, 1062843. https://doi.org/10.3389/FPUBH.2023.1062843
Yankeelov, P. A., Faul, A. C., D’Ambrosio, J. G., Gordon, B. A., & McGeeney, T. J. (2019). World Cafés create healthier communities for rural, older adults living with diabetes. Health Promotion Practice, 20(2), 223–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839918760558
Yawson, R. M., Osafo, E., Berko, D., & Yarney, L. (2023). The Knowledge Café as a case method in synchronous online classroom-“The OD Consultant at Animens” Case Study. Advance. https://doi.org/10.31124/advance.23709255.v1
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Nadia Rania, Arianna Marci, Ilaria Coppola
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
