Relationships: the glue when all else crumbles

I'm attempting to bring together some thoughts on relationship as we work on a booklet (a sort of preparatory guide) which will capture how we see the service providers working together with Nyoongar Elders in our project, the Looking Forward Project. We developed a Handbook in 2013 to help prepare service providers to come into the project and think about what they needed to consider to begin their work with the Nyoongar community. Already we are seeing some activities between stakeholders provide some spaces for conversation and learning, based on the relationships that are bieng formed and deepened!

The booklet will extend our thinking and insights into how people with differing worldviews can effectively work together.

So, these are some first thoughts to get some things down in writing, which is a challenge when so much of this work is deeply experiential!

To be in relationship is to connect, to join together, to get in touch with, or establish rapport (cf. etymology of connect). We can relate a story, or associate with, or relate to others.

Some initial questions:

• Relationships are key to our work - why?
• What kind of relationships do we mean?
• Why are they so important and necessary?

Relationships keep us connected and alive. They bind us to those we know and those we trust in such vulnerable circumstances. They are what keep us grounded when all else crumbles around us. They also enable us to meet new people and try new experiences so we continue to grow and deepen our human capacities. So, in terms of the project, people can trust others more when they know each other better. They care for each other, so remain conscious of one another when in conversation or action together. People are more likely to remain open to new experiences, challenging ideas and different ways of being, working and thinking.

Image by Michael Sarver on Flickr.

Holding is relationship. Being held by others and holding others is an incredible investment in trust and respect, an almost sacred act. There is a deep sense of care and concern for oneself as well as for others. it takes time to not only make such a connection, but to make a commitment to doing so in the first place. We need to understand our own motivations and intentions in order to commit fully. No one can talk us into it, it comes from us alone. I'm reminded here of a quote by James Marcum (2001) from our Handbook about engagement, which points to an intrinsic willingness to connect with others:

Engagement is a “bottom up,” grassroots process that cannot be directed from above. Engagement occurs when [people] undertake tasks related to their interests and competence, learn about them continuously, participate freely with (equal) associates, immerse themselves deeply, and continue the task with persistence and commitment because of the value they attribute to the work.

Relationships - what do they look like? They are dynamic, oscillating, complex, light and shade, generative and integral to our human existence. They include values and beliefs, actions and behaviours, practices and habits, past and present, memories and moments. They require talking, touching, teaching, learning, time, frequency, preparation, mindfulness, reflection, vulnerability, honesty, trust, respect, authenticity, reciprocity and generosity. They require our whole being, and we require whole relationships to truly be the best versions of ourselves that we can be. I like Moustakas's thinking on relationships in terms of "being with," together...

Moustakas, Being-In, Being-For, Being-With (1995, p. 70, 71):

In the authentic relationship, there is a facing up to the feelings and issues, an exercise of wills, without the will on either side being negated, impaired, or broken. The will ignites the fires of determination and enables one to face the old patterns of criticism, adversity, and rejection; enables one to live with the negative feelings and thoughts while creating new images and meanings in the process.

And finally why is this all necessary? We have realised, through our project, that for people to manage the unsettled nature of the work they are doing, the relationships they develop help to provide a sort of human glue. Our project is a decolonizing one. It asks people to question their very foundations - the worldviews they hold and the values it supports. This is disruptive, destablising and disconcerting. Relating to others in this contested space enables people to feel safe during such struggle and each feels care and concern for the other.

Conversation is relationship. How we relate to each other occurs through our language and communication (verbal, body, explicit, implicit, coded, power-laden, and so on). A space in which to converse is potentially a decolonizing space - a contested space. It is a space that enables many different views to be shared without persecution and where each voice is respected in the representation of the speaker's worldview. It's not easy to maintain such a space but is necessary if decolonizing is to occur. Interestingly, the etymology of "contested" is, "to bear witness together" - I love it! :o)...

Decolonizing work - looks like undoing structures, breaking current habits and pausing current actions and processes - destabilising, ground moves from under us, we can no longer rely on what we know and think of as 'truth' and so feel displaced and uncertain. I'm reminded of Iseke's work with Canadian Elders when thinking about how this work can decolonize, through the very presence of the Elders and their spiritual rites, rituals and knowledge.

More thoughts to come, and though this may not be well structured as yet, I'm feeling the urge to write otherwise it's difficult to get the words out at all!

More on patience...or is it action?

Patience alone consumes itself in mere prattle; impatience alone consumes itself in irresponsible activism. Virtue, then, does not lie in experiencing either without the other but, rather, in living the permanent tension between the two. The educator must live and work impatiently patiently, never surrendering entirely to either Freire (1998: 44). 

I'm beginning to see how our intentions flow into actions, through the mechanisms that guide our thinking in the social sphere. In his collection of letters to teachers, Freire (1998) talks about the progressive educator having the foresight to stay with the tension between patience and impatience, as he describes in the above quote.

Patience clarifies our thinking (intention), while impatience sparks our actions.

Is it that we must grow in our wisdom to know when one or the other is needed?

I think my quest for patience needs to expand into a quest to tolerate uncertainty!

Being tolerant does not mean acquiescing to the intolerable... Tolerance is the virtue that teaches us to live with the different. It teaches us to learn from and respect the different Freire (1998).

Image: Etienne Valois (Flickr)

Spirituality as decolonizing: Judy Iseke

Voices in the Wind is a film series produced through Judy Iseke's research with First Nation Elders in Canada.

Some of the concepts that resonated with me when reading Iseke's work include

• spirituality as decolonizing

and

• research as ceremony.

These are powerful concepts enacted through the lens of cultural knowledge and everyday practices.

Iseke explains the work of the Elders as decolonizing work, which verifies "understandings of relationships to land, cosmos, and spiritual traditions embodied in their healing and ceremonial practices" (p. 36) that she explores in her paper titled Spirituality as decolonizing: Elders Albert Desjarlais, George McDermott, and Tom McCallum share understandings of life in healing practices (2013).

In terms of decolonizing then, Iseke notes, through her sharing in ceremonial practices with the Elders that

When one enters into the ceremonies and connects with the power of the land and all relations, it is no longer possible to continue to be in a colonized state. One is freed by grandfathers, the spirits, and the connections to Creator to live in a decolonized state (2013: 47).

Attending Noel Nannup's storytelling series (The Carers of Everything creation story) this past month, to learn more about Nyoongar culture, has helped me realise the inextricable link between people, land and knowledge. Noel describes cultural practices as perpetuating the relationship between spirituality, culture and environment that has served Nyoongar peoples for thousands of years, and these practices are embodied - indeed lived - in ceremonial stories, songs, dance, and art.

Nyoongar Elder, Noel Nannup, talks about Spirituality.

In this regard, ceremony and ritual are profoundly important to enacting spirit and thus living a spiritually connected life, not separated from everyday practices and activities. As Iseke recounts, "life is lived like a ceremony" (2013: 38). The role of the Elders is pivotal to ensuring the authenticity and perpetuity of these cultural practices:

The Elders' presence ensured that the ceremonies invited and included all those present, including the mostly non-Indigenous [film] crew that learned something about how to live in ceremony from these [research] experiences (2013: 38).

The presence of an inclusive ethos is evident to me in this quote too, another aspect I think is central to decolonizing - there must be "room in the tent" for us all.

Finally, Iseke recounts the advice from the Elders with whom she collaborates and notes that there is no substitute for direct experience; it is the way to truly understand ceremony and cultural practices, and ultimately decolonize ourselves through them:

The ceremonial practice of altering vibrations [eg. through music] helps us to be different and to connect to our understandings of the world at new levels and in new ways (2013: 50).

Our evaluation is seen in a new and different way in light of these understandings, or investigations. I'm curious to talk more with the Nyoongar Elders and understand how they draw connections between country, family and spirituality. No doubt it will be another humbling conversation or ten!

This line of thinking takes my own inquiry into a more spiritual place, and I'm not sure yet what it means (or will mean), but will remain patient and take a leap of faith to explore it further.

Further reading:

Styres, S, 2011, Land as first teacher: A philosophical journey, Reflective Practice, Vol 12, No 6, 717-731: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14623943.2011.601083

Land as first teacher is a contemporary engagement with Indigenous philosophies derived from a land-centred culture and based on very old pedagogies. These very old pedagogies are an acknowledgment and an honouring of the art and science embedded in traditional teaching practices (2011: 717).

From hard work to heart work

In recent times, I have understood that hard work is preceded by heart work, if hard work is to truly pay off for us in a productive and sustained way. I have been deepening my understanding of reflective practice especially in my current work and am sitting with these aspects to do with 'heart work'.

Creating conditions for 'heart work', some initial 'conclusions'...
Precondition: Be mindful of your intention and sit with it long enough for it to move from your head to your heart. Only then will your work be heart work!

Lesson 1: Get to know the conditions so well that you can describe them to another in detail.
Lesson 2: Be patient and sit with this necessary knowledge growth (or information gathering phase) - this connects your head with your heart.
Lesson 3: Test your understanding of the conditions with others, so that you are not only clarifying your own knowledge, but are - through your interactions - sharing knowledge too (this declares your position to others as well).
Lesson 4: Let your actions be governed by heartfelt intentions rather than that little voice that says "I should..." (this way we are fully aware of our responsibilities for our own actions).
Lesson 5: Enjoy the struggle, because usually it's something you care deeply about.

Now, here's the story...

Image from I ♥ Inspiration

I had a lovely and inspiring reflective afternoon yesterday with a dear friend of mine, who facilitated a visual reflection activity with me. I had, the previous week, chosen a series of images that spoke to the question I had, that is, "How did I see my (research / facilitator) role in the project that I am currently working on?" The origin of this question was borne out of the move of the project to the next phase, an evaluation whereby service providers and local Nyoongar Elders would work together to review and reshape the way services were being delivered.

I chose my reflective images without analysis or judgment, but with feeling - that is, my reaction or connection to them. For the rest of the week I sat with the images, peering at their detail and wondering at my connection to them (again, without judgment or analysis). I then began describing the images in turn, which sparked a further connection to them. I grouped them, moved them around, regrouped them, and so on. After a week, I felt I could engage with another in uncovering my thoughts about the images I was working with.

I also began to realise that I needed to sit with my feeling of impatience in understanding their meaning to me. I was aware that I was not yet ready to delve into an analysis until I had really got to know them and become incredibly familiar with them (that is, so that I could describe them to someone else in a vivid and detailed way).

It is from here that I diverge from my imagery story to settle on the focus of this blog post! (Maybe I'll write some other time about image-based reflection)...

This is about intention. What I realized through this exploration of reflection using images is how we are connected to - or disconnected from - our intentions. Being patient enough to allow these forms of connections to emerge is challenging.

Often we are intent on doing something. We set our sights on it and we work to get it done. However, I think often we are not truly mindful of our intentions when we do things. We get to the end of the day with a sense that we've completed many things and "been busy" (which, I argue, is the most overused and least understood phrase in our everyday!), yet often we do not reflect back to how well our actions and engagements matched our original intentions, or whether we were fully attuned to them in the first place. We also need to refine our observational skills so that we can better 'see' the world around us, and also realize our place in it.

So, in laying out the "lessons learned" above, I have included a precondition; that is, to ask myself what is my intention, and have I matched my intent with my feelings about them? That is, have I taken the time "to feel into the tone and emotion of that intention as well as stating it verbally to yourself or out loud" (see para: 13, Wise Heart, L. Lowe-Chardé, December 13, 2012)?

margoc

Our feelings determine our thoughts and our actions, whether we are mindful of this or not. They also provide us clues to our value positions, add to our personal stories, and echo our assumptions, as well as our histories. Our intentions further echo this and if we are mindful of how and what pushes our buttons, then we can both be triggered by and align with what we truly care about.

If we can align these three rings [What we do - How we do it - Why we do it], we are putting our best selves forward.  We have integrity between action and intention – and with purpose.   We do the right things, in the right ways, for the right reasons.  This reason I’m committed to practicing emotional intelligence is that it gives me a way to create integrity – alignment between who I am and who I mean to be (End para, Freedman, 6seconds.org, 7 Aug 2013).

If we can do this, then we don't need to struggle everyday being busy with hard work, but can struggle intentionally with heart work; doing things we really care deeply about.

Moustakas: The meaning of relationship

Moustakas, Being-In, Being-For, Being-With (1995, p. 70, 71):

In the authentic relationship, there is a facing up to the feelings and issues, an exercise of wills, without the will on either side being negated, impaired, or broken. The will ignites the fires of determination and enables one to face the old patterns of criticism, adversity, and rejection; enables one to live with the negative feelings and thoughts while creating new images and meanings in the process.

What assists us in overcoming the harmful roots of relationship is a new relationship, the presence of a sensitive and caring human being, a friend, teacher, counselor, or therapist. The new relationship is anchored in the reality of one person's presence to another, in the being there, and in the safety, security, compassion, and acceptance of this other person.

In his chapter on the meaning of relationship, Clark Moustakas talks about rhythms and rituals and the concepts of reciprocity and attunement, as well as "bodying forth" (pp. 79-81) as the necessary and basic conditions for engaging positively with others in an intimate way. As with the title of his book, he talks about "being" as central to relationships that are full, whole, creative and significant.

And so by way of connection... I was scanning through my photos and landed on this one of a fern frond, and it struck me that relationships are curled and circular in this way. One element must unfurl in order to make way for another, and so on. There is no rushing this. Patience is the key.

My mental 'note to self' this week is - patience, to be-with.

Photo by Marg on Flickr

Reflective image of the week: Citi Zen and self reflection

And more on mindfulness in the everyday... I'm noticing the interrelationship between self reflection and systems change thinking (the small in the big, or more, the big in the small as my tai chi teacher would say). Spotted this image on Flickr via Michael Coghlan and immediately saw the words "Citi Zen" and connected with mindfulness (perhaps as a Zen practice?) and the need to grow the "mindful citizen".

Photo by Michael Coghlan on Flickr

As the participating services engage with the Elders in their organizational review process, there's a need to create new spaces for conversations, a new shared language and more inclusive consensus building processes. More and more I'm convinced that none of this can occur without a person being self reflective and mindful of how they engage with others, despite the broader systems change references we've been referring to in the Project. We're talking about building relationships and deepening them. We can only do this skillfully if we are mindful of how we relate to others. From there it seems all the more likely that systems change can occur authentically and sustainably.

Also in the image, I noticed the juxtaposition of the tree in front of the building; two structures representing two different expressions of different worldviews. How do these work together? What environmental conditions help them to do so productively and sustainably? This is the work service providers are about to embark on as they work together with Nyoongar Elders in a process we are naming as decolonization (of service based workplaces). We have come to understand this to mean:

Decolonization is a process, not an outcome; it involves an ongoing discussion between those who are beneficiaries of colonialist practices and those who have been impacted by colonization. One of the key objectives of decolonization is to reconstruct and rewrite the discourses and practices that reinforce the principles of colonization to include those silenced voice.*

 

* Tiffin H, 2006, 'Post-colonial Literatures and Counter-discourse', in The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, 2nd Edn, Eds Ashcroft B, Griffiths G & H Tiffin, Routledge, London, pp. 99-101. 

Mindfulness in the everyday: Awake Youth Project

Something to cap off the week with... I wonder, when does reflective practice become mindfulness?



Awake Youth Project

Wisdom of children: Leadership

Little Miss Nearly-five was the first one dressed this morning, as did I in getting ready for work. She said that the girls could lead the trip (her planned adventure for the day) because we were ready first.

I suggested that maybe the girls could just lead the whole world, as I gave her a hug.

She responded with:

"No, there are only two leaders in the world, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny."

Pirate Clancy

Here are some more thoughts from kids about leadership, and what adults can do when they acknowledge the child within!

Happy Friday :o)

Reflective image(s) of the day: silos

It's been a big week in the world of service providers and with our evaluation planning. I am struck by the silos that still exist in the way some services are governed. The conventional and conservative approaches are alive and well (and comes as no surprise)!

I wonder how organisations that adhere to a more conventional model of governance see themselves in relation to the world around them? I fear there is an echo chamber rather than a (connecting) feedback process that perpetuates the silo-ed structures of such organisations.

Silo canisters by alandberning

How do we look out and connect to the world beyond, when we are silo-ed? How does this skew or colour our view of the world? What relationships are we able to enjoy (and endure)? How do we validate what we do? And with whom? How do we trust others with our knowledge and practices? How do we trust in ourselves?

Silos 1 by Cal Dellinger

The cultural challenge begins . . .

A leap of faith

We had our first meeting with service providers yesterday about the evaluation plan they will begin developing in a couple of months. It's an exciting time!

This evaluation is based on the work we did last year and the community findings the previous year. I was both anxious and excited about our meeting yesterday: anxious in seeing how people would respond to our outline and second would they "get it", plus excited by the fact that we were beginning the journey with them in earnest (after months of planning and talking about and with them!).

As a project team, we've also been synthesizing our thinking around connecting the personal/individual journey with the systems change journey - a "leap of faith" in some ways. We tentatively tested our thinking with the service we met with yesterday, and we didn't sense we were "off track" with our message. Mostly non-verbal indicators; nods, leaning forward, a sense of warmth in the room, and I am somewhat relieved.

It's also got to do, I think, with taking your message out, to really test it and see if it lives or dies. If it contributes to the ongoing dialogue, then it's valuable.

Reflecting on that phrase, "a leap of faith", I'm reminded of The Matrix and in particular, this excerpt:


What I've noticed in this scene are my own feelings as Morpheus takes the leap: taking a deep breath and jumping, the hard work required to take the jump, the effort to gather energy to leap, letting go in my mind, trusting the process, tolerating uncertainty...! I've noticed this based on our team meeting earlier today and our discussion around connecting person to process and the bigger picture (i.e. the system, where systems are people anyway).

And so, the inquiry spirals...


Further reading:
Katie Armstrong (2013) Tolerating Uncertainty, Changerous Blog. changerous.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/tolerating-uncertainty/ March 8, 2013.

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Seikkula J & Olsen M (2003) The Open Dialogue Approach to Acute Psychosis: Its Poetics and Micropolitics, Family Process, 42(3), 403-418, http://www.theicarusproject.net/files/OpenDialog-ApproachAcutePsychosisOlsonSeikkula.pdf

Meinhold, Roman (2009) Being in The Matrix: An example of cinematic education in philosophy, Prajna Vihara. Journal of Philosophy and Religion. Vol.10, No.1-2, http://www.academia.edu/232464/Being_in_the_Matrix._An_Example_of_Cinematic_Education_in_Philosophy

Generative versus expendable energy

It's often said that kids have energy to burn and how often have we said to ourselves "I wish I had that much energy"?

I read an article a while back about how kids use their energy and I've just reconnected with it after a conversation with a colleague about the lack of authentic presence in the online space these days (lots of arguments and theories around this ...that's for another time...), and I wondered in my reflections after our chat what it is about the energetic nature with which kids engage, one we can perhaps reacquaint ourselves with.

I recently took Clancy to see a show as part of the Perth Festival called The House of Dreaming. Kids from five to 12 yrs go on a journey through a house (an actual house was built in the ABC studios for the production) and engage with the story where the house is the main character. They hear the story within the walls of the house, through the artifacts in it and the travelling they do through it (from front door and back out again, including a passageway that came out through a suitcase!).


With each encounter (via a new room) kids learn more about the story and come ever closer to the magic flowers in the story (see more here). There's a slow unfolding of the story, building the picture, and a sense of awe and mystery about what's behind the next door - a bit like Alice in Wonderland, minus the nonsensical characters.

The story builds and begins to take on shape as you wander from one room to the next (in a structured way, following the story and the clues) and begin to "see" the layout of the house and its history and character (and the family that once lived within it).

A second production we went to was a physical theatre piece called Tangle in which kids are invited to add to the performance space using balls of elastic string. Kids along with the performers tie the end of the string to a gold pole (of which there are 5 sets of 5) and wind their way around the space. Clancy and Alfie, along with our friends, were a bit stand-offish at first, but warmed into it once they felt the space was 'safe' for them to explore. The performers (the weavers) interacted with the kids in comical and physical ways, wrapping the string around them or connecting each other with string, and so on. Over four days the tangled woven mess of strings became dense and colourful - a product of all those who ventured inside and participated. In addition (and I only realised this much later), the musician in the space improvised his music in response to the action in the space and the interactions (both between him and the performers, performers and kids, kids and him as musician). There was relationship-building going on, ownership of the space, rule setting (and stretching at times), developing of norms and shared meaning making, fun, laughter, engagement and physical movement that (literally) stretched between dance and performance/acting.

We didn't talk much after the show, the kids, our friends and I, except to comment on how much fun it was and how silly the red man was. The unsaid was powerful though - we were all bright-eyed, buoyant, full of energy, sweaty and openly smiling and happy.

This is generative energy. A procreative force.

Kids depend and thrive on this kind of energy - in fact, we all do.

It takes a lot - we invest a lot. Body, mind, soul, spirit, heart. Wholeheartedly.

These performances show me that the generative space is hugely important. It should be inviting. It should house within it the necessary norms or rules by which participants come to engage in that space so they are aware of what is expected or encouraged. These rules and norms are best often acted out rather than written down - "set the good example" rings true here, even better if they are constructed together. The space should be 'unfinished', unpolished, so that participants have something to work with but aren't afraid to touch something in case it might break.

The outcome is not known, unfixed, as it depends on the participation of everyone who enters the space, not just the performers there - the participants add the X factor ("je ne sais quoi", the unknown, uncertain elements) that make it truly authentic and real, dependent on the moment - essential liminality. And almost always exquisite.

How do we champion this in our learning and professional spaces? How often do you go home at the end of the working day and feel drained, depleted? Why do we not feel energised and replenished at - and from - our work? I know there are those of us who do, but a great many of us simply don't.

We seem to be perpetually caught in a vicious cycle of doing to, rather than doing with; talking about, rather than talking with; and looking at, rather than working beside.

Stephanie Pace Marshall says it clearly (as do so many others since 1997), that a new learning (and living) agenda must:

build individual capacity by stimulating natural learning, and it must be established and built upon a foundation of connection, coherence, mutually created meaning and purpose, dynamic relationships, and the evolutionary nature of the human experience itself.

and further on:

We have excelled in the language of schooling. We must now become fluent in the language of learning and life.

We have so much to learn from our local communities around us, not to mention the myriad others globally who bravely tell their struggle for change.

When will we reach a critical mass, take a slow, deep, generative breath and leap wholeheartedly into the liminal?

Design: going local

Here's how design, education and change go together, according to Emily Pilloton. Get local. Enough said!

Local design is most sustainable when it’s an educational process, nurturing new sensibilities from the inside out, rather than from the outside in.

...The work that is possible for a designer to do in a rural community is completely different than what’s possible in any city or design firm. Design as a means to overcome challenges is nonexistent, so the possibilities to inspire change abound. But design is also misunderstood and scoffed at as “fancy stuff for rich people.” That’s why we decided to move to Bertie County permanently and create a design-build high-school curriculum with Dr. Zullinger. We didn’t want to just be “creative consultants.” We wanted to build something from within and teach the young people of eastern North Carolina that design is first and foremost a sensibility that allows individuals to solve problems in different ways [my emphasis].

...Local design has an identity beyond a program’s branding because it has an ownership by real people and it requires person-to-person communication. Local design is wood and metal and eye contact and handshakes.

Reflective image of the day

"Dreams have only one owner at a time. That's why dreamers are lonely."

Reflection: the art of noticing

"What do you notice?"

A small, but powerful question, when you involve people in some self-reflection.
We are putting together a workshop for mental health service providers at the end of the month and part of the process during the workshop is to encourage and support participants to 'stay with their hearts' and not to too quickly seek out solutions to issues raised during the workshop.
It's tricky to ask people to reflect when they are not always open to, nor experienced in, reflective processes - some are more naturally adept at reflecting than others.
The art of reflection can be viewed as the art of noticing. You can notice things around you by looking, hearing, feeling, tasting, and so on. You can also notice things within: what are you feeling? resisting? holding some tension about? loving? dreaming about?

Andrew LaRowe beautifully explains some of his noticing in his comment on Elizabeth Cottrell's blog post about noticing:

In all of my years of walking down the beach looking for seashells, I had never found a sharks tooth until the day someone taught me how to look for them. I remember the first one I found after that, and how easy it became to pick them out as I walked along. Within a few months and several trips to the beach, I literally had collected hundreds of sharks teeth. If a person can learn to see sharks teeth in the sand, then I believe we can guide ourselves to notice the many things in life that need not pass by like ships in the night (July 10, 2011).

How do you cultivate this process of noticing? Practice, practice, practice! Nothing is more habit-forming than practicing something regularly.

Paper, Pen, Post by margoc.

Throughout this project, I've come to rely on our team meetings and phone conversations as a way to stay with the process and its emergent nature, as it keeps me in a 'noticing mode'. It keeps me connected and open to ideas (or the echo of ideas, that is, before they fully form and come into view). I have also taken up my pen and paper journaling again, which has really added another dimension to my process of reflecting (and 'staying with the question' - whatever that has come to mean for me from time to time).

Often there's a crossover between reflection and feedback. While these two processes are useful together, there's a need to be careful not to mix them up. Feedback is more about returning information in a situation (think of feedback in a sound system, for example). I explain reflection further on in this post.

There's also parallels between reflecting and debriefing. Again, you need to be aware of when you are reflecting and when you are debriefing.

I like to think of debriefing as a time to download and outwardly express thoughts, feelings, concerns, experiences. How do you think that went? What did you notice about X's reaction? It was good you prompted me when..., and so on. There's an instructive sense to debriefing, as in gaining knowledge and understanding.

Reflecting tends to be more inward: what will I take away from this experience? How will I connect this to future activities? What does this mean for me in the bigger picture? How would I do things differently next time? What did I notice about me? There's a consequential sense to reflection, as in deepening understandings and follow-on actions.

The debrief unpacks to experience; the reflection connects it to the bigger picture.

And so, here's Elizabeth Cottrell's question to finish:

What do YOU notice? What do you think it’s saying about who you are and what you value?

Some further reading:
Jennifer Stanchfield, 2011, Reflective Practice Versus Debriefing, The Inspired Educator Blog.
URL: http://www.experientialtools.com/2011/02/19/reflective-practice-versus-debriefing/
Joanne Roebuck, 2007, Reflexive practice: to enhance student learning. Journal of Learning Design, 2 (1). pp. 77-91.
URL: http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/2764/1/2764_Roebuck_2007.pdf
Prpic, J. (2005) Managing academic change through reflexive practice: A quest for new views. Research and Development in Higher Education, 28, 399–- 406.
URL: http://julianakaya.posterous.com/managing-academic-change-through-reflexive-pr

Views from the inside: A heuristic inquiry

Time flows on... Evan Leeson (Flickr)

This whole train of experiencing, and the meanings that I have thus far discovered in it, seem to have launched me on a process which is both fascinating and at times a little frightening. It seems to mean letting my experiences carry me on, in a direction which appears to be forward, toward goals that I can but dimly define, as I try to understand at least the current meaning of that experience. The sensation is that of floating with a complex stream of experience, with the fascinating possibility of trying to comprehend its ever-changing complexity. --Carl Rogers, 1952

I like this note from Rogers' essay. For me, it goes to the heart of what we experience and how we learn through our experiences (given experiential learning theories are most often based on Rogers' work). It also reminds me of one of the presentations from the ALARA conference held in Sydney last week, where Joy Murray, one of the presenters, talked about her use of Cybernetics to best describe her own experiences in the world. She made the point that we knit our use of theories and research to our direct lived experiences as a way to help us explain, or give some language to what we experience and how we make meaning of those experiences. We can only ever really account for our own experiences, others account for their own, in their own way, as they need to.
Joy was co-presenting with three community members with whom she had been working to develop a leadership program that was built on community needs and driven by community wishes (i.e. a community steering group was set up to "manage" the program itself). The project was a great example of supporting emergent community needs, developing empowered people and addressing issues at the local level.
As I've worked on this Aboriginal mental health service provision project over the last 8 months, I've come to focus more and more on my personal journey as a "researcher". I remember saying early on in the year (e.g. Brown's TED talk resonated strongly with me) that I expected to be changed in some way by working on the project. And as Rogers says, realising the "sensation ... of floating with a complex stream of experience, with the fascinating possibility of trying to comprehend its ever-changing complexity"!
We cannot ignore our experiences, most especially when we "research". Dave Hiles begins his 2001 essay, "Heuristic Inquiry and Transpersonal Research", with a quote from Braud and Anderson (1998, p.3):

Many of the most significant and exciting life events and extraordinary experiences - moments of clarity, illumination, and healing - have been systematically excluded from conventional research.

I have heard it said that to do research that is sustainable and transformative, the research must "own us".  Bruce Douglass & Clark Moustakas (1985) call heuristic inquiry "the internal search to know".
And so I enter - more knowingly than ever before - a journey of heuristic inquiry.

Further reading
Smith, MK (1997, 2004) 'Carl Rogers and informal education', the encyclopaedia of informal education. [www.infed.org/thinkers/et-rogers.htm. Last update: May 29, 2012]
Rogers, C & Freiberg, HJ (1993) Freedom to Learn (3rd edn.), New York: Merrill
Joy co-published a book with the abovementioned community members, which captures their own experiences of the community leadership project:
Murray J, Rash J-L, Creaton R, Cooley P and McClelland D (2009), Views from the inside: Participant Perspectives on Community Leadership. CommonGround Publishing Pty Ltd., Victoria.
More about the book:

In so doing the book explores the relationship between: one person's theory; a community development program in practice; and real life experience. It does this not through a voice of authority commenting on people's lived experience and attempting to relate this to the theory, but by showing what the program meant to the project leader and what it meant to each of the four participants. It tries to demonstrate, but not explain, how these disparate meanings connected, or otherwise, with the theory that the project leader believed she was applying; and how in the end all knowledge is personal, built up over a life time and stitched together with the threads of our relationships in whatever environment we happen to inhabit.

Hiles, D (2001), Heuristic Inquiry and Transpersonal Research, paper presented to CCPE, London UK, October 2001. Available: http://psy.dmu.ac.uk/drhiles/HIpaper.htm
Braud, W & Anderson, R (Eds) (1998) Transpersonal Research Methods for the Social Sciences: Honoring human experience. Sage
Douglass, B & Moustakas, C (1985), Heuristic inquiry: the internal search to know, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, SUMMER 1985, vol. 25, no. 3, 39-55
Moustakas, C (1990) Heuristic Research: Design, methodology and applications. Sage

Learning design and inquiry into teaching and learning

I've begun curating a topic on Scoop.it called "Learning design and inquiry into teaching and learning".
The theme is: How do we learn? Teach? Design for learning? What makes learning memorable, sustainable and effective?
I'm particularly interested in learning design research in its many guises, along with commentary and critique around learning design issues and theories.
If you have suggestions and would like to share them, please do!

2012 Action Learning, Action Research Association (ALARA) Conference

The Action Learning, Action Research Association (ALARA) annual conference is less than three weeks away. It will be held at the Sebel Hotel in Sydney over two days, 3rd and 4th of September, 2012.

This year's conference focuses on "Achieving Sustainable Outcomes through Dialogue and Engagement" and the presentations cover a wide range of topics.

I am presenting with my project colleagues, Dr Michael Wright and Tanya Jones, along with some of the community members with whom we've been working over the last 7 months. Our presentation will reflect the process through which we've engaged community members to talk more deeply about the issues they've faced to do with mental health service provision. We will set the scene for conference participants to experience a little of what we've attempted during the community group sessions and hope we will also learn from their participatory action research (PAR) experiences!
I've been an ALARA member now since 2005 and have found the Association to be incredibly supportive of its members. As always, conferences enable networking and (re)connections that help to both sustain the Association as well as AL and AR practitioners, and to share their work and experiences in (and of) the field.
Hope to see you there!

Virtuous cycles: (Re)building culture through authentic relationships

Yesterday I went to a panel discussion at the Telethon Insitute for Child Health Research, which featured four researchers, including Canadian researcher Professor Michael Chandler, who work in the area of Aboriginal health and wellbeing. Collectively, they are seeking to change the way our health systems and, more broadly, our society supports and acknowledges Aboriginal culture as vibrant, real and necessary for the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people (especially in Australia, as reflected by the panel members). Other panel members were Assoc Professor Cheryl Kickett-Tucker, Assoc Professor Juli Coffin and Dr Michael Wright.

In addition, I recently watched this interview with Professor Taiaiake Alfred (Canada), who also talks about the need to rebuild culture in order for Aboriginal people to thrive. Both Alfred's interview and the panel discussion highlighted the ways in which colonisation has heavily impacted on the wellbeing of Aboriginal peoples.


What has recently emerged for me too across these and other discussions, is the idea of "virtuous cycles", where one good deed is reciprocated by another good deed (as opposed to a "vicious cycle" let's say). This notion also fits the cyclical action research model where one action informs subsequent actions, observations and reflections in an ongoing cycle of iterative development and inquiry, to bring about positive social change.

This is more than undertaking analysis and answering a question: it is, as the panel members described yesterday, a heartfelt response to a community's wishes for help and support in ways that help them to grow, feel empowered and develop stronger cultural links. There's a great personal commitment to undertaking research of this kind, as it impacts on the researchers' own communities and families. It's engaging our right brains to develop our whole self through community based participatory research. There's a symbiotic relationship between research and living, community and culture, and also between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, potentially, as we come to understand that our own quality of life is linked with that of others, as realised in Watson's quote:

If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together. ~Aboriginal activists group, Queensland, 1970s.

I wished there were policymakers and government staff in the room yesterday who would have heard first hand the work these researchers are doing and how they were doing it. There's a strong focus on developing relationships both with communities and with government departments and service providers (particularly in the case of Dr Wright's project, on which I'm also working), and a heartfelt commitment to truly listen to the community's wishes and needs, as well as understanding the time it takes to grow such work (which is counter to the funded project habit of finishing up in one or two years, for example).

All the panel members are doing such great work and making a difference in their communities. If governments were this committed imagine how much could be achieved!

Professor Chandler used the phrase, "cultural wounds need cultural medicine", a number of times during the discussion which resonated strongly with those present. It says much about how non-Aboriginal culture needs to support more positive impressions of Aboriginal culture instead of the negative stereotypes and discrimination we are more familiar with today. Cheryl Kickett-Tucker mentioned this yesterday saying that such stereotyping supported misguided 'rites of passage' by Aboriginal youth reconfirming such stereotypes, as a way to confirm their Aboriginality - what a sad indictment on our society that it has come to this? Juli Coffin also confirmed the impact of stereotypes in her work and in fact both researchers have been working with kids to uncover aspects of school bullying and its links to racism and cultural identity. Coffin said that some Aboriginal kids they spoke to had no positive cultural experiences at school, yet it is essential to a child's wellbeing to develop positive cultural impressions in those vital early years. Interestingly too, there is no Aboriginal word (in the region Coffin works) for 'bullying' - it's a white man's word.
Aristotle said, "Hope is a waking dream'. By asking challenging questions and inquiring into why things are the way they are, yesterday's panel members, along with Professor Alfred and many, many likeminded others challenge non-Aboriginal people to "wake up" to the situation and be a part of a new era that sees us all participate in deconstructing the effects of colonisation, so that we all can become better people, in a culturally secure and just society.

Some further reading
Coffin, J (2007).Rising to the Challenge in Aboriginal Health by Creating Cultural Security, Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal, Volume 31 Issue 3 (May/June 2007).
URL: www.solidkids.net.au/images/uploads/articles/rising-jcoffin.pdf
Guilfoyle, A, Coffin, J & Maginn, P (2008), Chapter 10 Make sure there is a shady tree: Participation and action research with Australian aboriginal communities. In Paul J. Maginn, Susan M. Thompson, Matthew Tonts (ed.) Qualitative Urban Analysis: An International Perspective (Studies in Qualitative Methodology, Volume 9), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.213-240.
Wright, M (2011). Research as intervention: Engaging silenced voices, Action Learning, Action Research Journal, Vol 17, No 2.
Abstract: http://journal.alara.net.au/index.php/alarj/article/view/5
Kickett-Tucker, C & Coffin, J (2011). Aboriginal self-concept and racial identity: Practical solutions for teachers. In N. Purdie, G. Milgate & H. R. Bell (Eds.), Two way teaching and learning (pp. 155-172). Camberwell, Victoria: Australian Council for Educational Research.
Chandler, M & Lalonde, C (2008). Cultural Continuity as a Protective Factor against Suicide in First Nations Youth. Horizons --A Special Issue on Aboriginal Youth, Hope or Heartbreak: Aboriginal Youth and Canada’s Future. 10 (1), 68-72.
URL: http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~chandlerlab/Chandler%20&%20Lalonde%20(2008).pdf
Chandler, M, Lalonde, C, Sokol, B & Hallett, D (2003). Personal persistence, identity development, and suicide: A study of native and non-native North American adolescents. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Serial no. 273, 68 (2).
URL: http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~chandlerlab/Chandler,%20Lalonde,%20Sokol,%20&%20Hallett%20(2003).pdf
Professor Taiaiake Alfred: http://taiaiake.posterous.com/ [Lots of accessible work, publicly available.]

The story of journeying

We've been talking about journeying as we develop the Framework which is key to our project (especially over that past month). Certainly the Journey Towards Reconciliation has been discussed a number of times in our sessions. Check out some of the Reconciliation stories here (in particular, check out this one).
One of the research team described the double helix (DNA) as a visual metaphor for journeying and going on a shared journey.

Doing a quick search on the web for 'journeying' has resulted in books, blogs, websites and news that centres on spirituality and spiritual journeying. There's an obvious connection with spirituality and undertaking a journey of the Self based on belief, healing and wellness. It is deeply reflective and personal, but also engages the individual with community in the sense of pilgrim, travel and arrival. There's a sense of adventure and pushing the boundaries whether physical or personal/spiritual - traveling across landscapes and time and space.
There's also some scholarly work on the research journey, in particular participatory action research. For example, the opening lines of this particular article about PAR by Carol Stuart (1998) read as follows:

This paper explores the ethical dilemmas involved in Participatory Action Research (PAR), an adventurous research process that creates meaningful change in the lives of those who are engaged in the research.

Closely related to journeying I think is storytelling. The telling of the journey, or indeed within the journey itself. The oral record of travel, of landscape and a point or points in time. A recognition of relationship to place and others through an emotional expression artfully told. An acknowledgement of our connection to others and to place, inextricably linked by the journeying experience; a shared learning and living.
Robert Frost said it best:
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I'll leave this with you - a beautiful example of the story of the spiritual journey!

The storm approached – and I approached the storm; we were destined to meet, when all of a sudden I became aware of a lifting of the dark clouds and a lightening of the far horizon. Amazingly the rain and wind’s path changed direction a little to the north and was moving past me, not towards me any more. At that point my own path into the wind was able to change and with the threat now past I could turn away from the sea and back into the sand-dunes. Here I raised the woollen muffler from my ears and as I did so a sound pulled my attention back to the shoreline; my Oystercatcher, my constant Companion, gave a shrill cry and flew away northwards out of sight.

Leave by  ·BigGolf·

Once upon a story: Storytelling, analogies and metaphors

There are many cultures on earth, each with rich traditions, customs and opportunities for storytelling. All these forms of storytelling are valuable. All are equal citizens in the diverse world of storytelling (National Storytelling Network).

It has occurred to me for some time now that stories are powerful tools to convey that which is often hard to describe, explain, or sell.

Photo by M O O M O O !

Along with stories, metaphors and analogies are equally powerful tools and the three often work together. As we draw ever closer to an ideal mental health service model, I wonder how we can best convey, indeed pitch, the model to the project stakeholders.
Story as vision

Stories connect people to other people and to place, to the land and sea. Like the songlines of the Aborigines, stories map a place in a way beyond symbols and geography (Scott Edward Anderson).

How do we ensure the story holds up? Is the use of metaphor adequate? How do you keep the primary message clear? And what of multiple metaphors and analogies to tell the same story? We also need to come to some consensus on the shared story.
The model we are developing is taking shape much like an organism you could say, something that sits in cupped hands, lovingly held, like a flower unfolding. The layered petals add depth both to the metaphor and to the model - and so the analogy builds.
Story as explanation

When people hear stories about people they can identify with, the people in the stories become role models and their peers are encouraged to behave the same way. Such stories tend to be repeated and their lessons are spread (Kim Harrison).

What does it take to tell a great story? I came across this essay, The Healing Potential of Metaphor in the Narrative (2001), when searching for relevant mental health projects. The metaphor of water is used here in the "tidal model", an analogy of the ocean and one sailing on a wellness journey. When confronted by pirates (i.e. a health crisis) one must find a way to recover...and so on it goes. Reading about this model got me thinking not only about the power of narrative approaches, but how one must commit entirely to such a process - there's nothing more distracting and drab as a half-baked story!
Story as process

The most popular functional areas in which storytelling was used were envisioning and  goalsetting, reframing a situation and building self esteem. A smaller number [of coaches] said that they used stories to help with such issues as problem solving, empowerment and achieving success. (Margaret Parkin).

How might story be best used in our research project? Stories can explain, captivate, mobilise and remind. What would our (research) story achieve for us? At this point it would necessarily explain and perhaps more importantly mobilise people into action to bring about much needed change in the provision of mental health services (particularly to Aboriginal people).
A whole range of stories would also help to support the model in explaining each of its components in relation to Aboriginal people and their experiences (good and bad) of mental health services. These types of stories are hard to ignore when they come from direct lived experience.
To date we have used story techniques in our group work, including the role play scenarios, in addition to "elevator stories" and yarning. All have produced tangible outcomes and promoted deep thinking. And, as we draw nearer to an outcome, story may serve us well as part of our consensus and "sign off" process.