The Art of Co-Creating Learning Spaces: A Practice of Trust, Restoration, and Shared Power
In a time when many organizations are grappling with how to foster belonging and sustain deep learning, the concept of co-created learning spaces has emerged as a vital strategy for transformational change. These are not traditional classrooms or transactional workshops. Co-created learning spaces are intentionally designed environments where every participant holds a piece of the wisdom, and where learning happens with and through relationships, not in spite of them.
At their heart, co-created learning spaces ask a fundamental question: how do we learn together in ways that nourish, challenge, and ultimately transform us?
What Is a Co-Created Learning Space?
A co-created learning space is more than just a group dialogue or workshop. It’s a dynamic, relational space where all participants contribute to shaping the learning process, drawing from their lived experiences, cultural knowledge, and aspirations.
These spaces are built on values of shared power, mutual accountability, and relational trust. Unlike traditional learning models that center a single expert or predefined curriculum, co-created spaces rely on collaboration, storytelling, and openness to emergence.
Kaylyn Eunice, an educator and equity practitioner, described her grandmother’s kitchen as her first—and most enduring—co-learning space.
“If you were in the kitchen, you were part of the process,” she said. “No matter what age or experience you had.” Her story is more than a nostalgic memory; it’s a blueprint for collective learning rooted in ancestral wisdom, everyday practice, and the humility to recognize that every voice has something to offer.
How to Create Co-Created Learning Spaces
Building such spaces doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intentional design and a commitment to practices that may feel countercultural in dominant organizational settings.
Here are key conditions for fostering these environments:
1. Start with a Shared Vision and Framework
Co-created spaces need an anchoring purpose. Kristyn DiDominick, a nonprofit leader, emphasized the importance of beginning with shared visioning and frameworks like targeted universalism, which focuses on shared goals while recognizing different starting points.
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there,” Kristyn said, quoting a favorite reminder from her learning community. “We need to keep coming back to our why.”
2. Normalize Vulnerability and Practice Humility
Fear of making mistakes, of saying the wrong thing, of being judged, often blocks meaningful participation. Creating space for vulnerability is crucial.
“Learning isn’t about performing knowledge,” nINA Collective affiliate, Caitlin Yunis reflected. “It’s about acknowledging who I was, who I’ve become, and who I’m still becoming.” Facilitators need to model this humility and create rituals or practices that make reflection and repair part of the culture.
3. Prioritize Spaciousness Over Urgency
Co-created learning cannot be rushed. Geraldine Paredes Vazquez, CEO of YWCA Madison, described how co-learning requires weathering - the patient, ongoing tending of relationships and ideas.
“This work asks us to be really, really present to what we’re learning, how we’re relating, and what we’re co-creating together,” Gery said. Leaders, especially those in government or nonprofit roles, must disrupt the pull of urgency and allow time for depth, discomfort, and repair.
4. Design for Restoration and Repair
Conflict, misunderstanding, and harm are inevitable in any space rooted in truth-telling and justice. Rather than avoiding these moments, co-created spaces must be built to hold them.
Dialogue is only one tool. Food, movement, collective work, and rituals of reconnection are equally powerful in restoring relationships after rupture.
Tools and Resources for Co-Created Learning Spaces
Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
Her seven principles offer a roadmap for adaptive, relational, and transformative change.Targeted Universalism by john a. powell and the Othering and Belonging Institute
A strategy that centers shared goals while addressing structural inequities.Social Change Ecosystem Map by Deepa Iyer
Helps individuals and groups identify their roles in social movements and how they interconnect.Unapologetic by Charlene Carruthers
Her five guiding questions—Who am I? Who are my people? What do we want? What are we building? Are we ready to win?—can ground group visioning.
The Essential Mindset: Co-Learning as a Lifelong Practice
Ultimately, co-created learning is less about the space itself and more about the orientation we bring.
“This is not a box you check or a project you finish,” Gery emphasized. “It’s the core of how movements, revolutions, and change actually happen—through sustained, relational learning.”
The most transformative co-learning spaces are those where people show up ready to be changed. As Caitlin put it, “How can we practice being ready to win together?”
If you or your organization is ready to step into this deeper, more restorative way of learning, you’re not alone. nINA Collective’s Community of Practice is holding these conversations every month—and there’s a seat waiting for you at the table.
Join us in the next CHOIR conversation to experience this practice firsthand. Your voice - and your wisdom - belong here.