Dialogue and Diplomacy

Why Dialogue is an essential part of listening to interest groups' positions.  Coming to the table to have our own perspective heard but remaining genuinely open to the perspectives of the "other" is the most important part of dialogue - a deeper understanding from which we can make clearer decisions about moving forward in personal conflicts and international conflicts.
See what Jonas Gahr Store has to say:
TED talk on the importance of Dialogue in diplomacy

Experiential Education Web Resources

An old professor of mine, James Neill put this site together - I believe it had something to do with his PhD.  Here are his fabulous comments on the ELC.


This one is interesting and navigates experiential learning through different perspectives of teacher and learner.

Important Names: 
John Dewey and his groundbreaking educational philosophies striving to understand human interaction with their learning environment and how responsible, dependable, citizens are crafted through meeting with the rawness of the wilderness, and how civil society is shaped through that learning - rugged individualism at its best!

Jean Piaget on theories of cognitive development...

David A. Kolb on experiential learning...
Collection of links/sites, relating to Kolb's work, but also explanations of why they are relevant to the work (also many thoughtful critiques)

More Classroom-based experiential learning here, but lesson plans and resources seem adaptable to any setting.


Team Building "Camp stuff," Initiatives, Trust activities and Processing -
http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/
http://www.thecampwiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Please feel free to add any educational resources that may be helpful to this type of learning!

Life Lessons from Stargate: Atlantis

I've always been a fan of scifi novels, fantasy novels, and movies that push the boundaries of technological advancement including elements of apocalyptic themes.  Watching/reading this genre causes me to consider two things: 1. my own mortality and 2. the possibility of limitless human creativity, resourcefulness, and spirit.

Mortality shows itself as the viewer/reader follows the characters along their adventures - identifying with their struggles, challenges, victories, wrestling with trust, individuality, resourcefulness, and courage as they face unending threats on their lives.  I see myself in the stories - or at least, can put myself in the preverbial 'shoes' of the characters quite easily.  I ask myself questions as I'm reading/watching Would I make that decision? Would I have trusted that person?  Could I be that strong and vibrant?  Could I kick someone's ass so efficiently?  How long would it take me to recover from such an ass-kicking?  How are MY leadership skills?  I think this is the reason humans like movies, novels, tv shows.  They are (in their brilliant entertaining way) alternate realities we can identify with that help us cling less fiercely to the reality we identify as our own.

Considering, or believing in, limitless human potential is another point.  Maybe MY limitless human potential (Be all you can be - or how much science can one truly understand in one's lifetime) is on the table and considering it motivates me to be less lazy, but to think about the potential of humans to create protective force fields, teleportation devices, magical potions, medical miracles, identify and utilize psychic abilities, storytelling gifts, and (brace yourselves) create a functioning community of trusting individuals gives me a lot of hope.  Yes, these communities I watch/read are imaginary, but it does leave me with the feeling that even if we are idealizing how humans live and work together, it must be possible to do so on some level.  We wouldn't be imagining these scenarios if we didn't have it in us, right?  (See Future Post about my Will Smith Theory).

So with Death and Hope as my overarching themes, this post is just one big justification for spending time watching an entire tv series from first episode to the last one.  A good/new friend let me borrow the entire discography of the scifi drama Stargate: Atlantis.

I'm not a big tv fan - don't own one, never want to.  But laptops work for tv on my own time.  (I fumble with that justification from time to time - what is it I really *like* about the experience of watching movies and tv episodes... the ability to watch when I want, what I want commercial free? or is this just a big fat time waster.  Most probably, the second.)  But here goes, anyway!

Here are some themes from the show that I want to keep track of for future teaching purposes (like my Tuckman's stages of group development through Fellowship of the Ring):

• building trust - how, why, it takes time, how you benefit from it, teamwork and relying on your teammates.  Does everyone need to be in a life threatening situation to learn to trust people? Is it true that everyone has their special place in the team - like a comic book? 
  
• Specialization - being a doctor, fighter pilot, weapons master, diplomat.   It's the ideal that if a team of specialists are brought together, many parts make a whole.  Reinforces importance of specialization rather than being a jack-of-all-trades.
• drawing/maintaining lines - not being pushed around, not dating the people you work with
• making decisions and taking responsibility for them - leadership, ethics, guilt?
• commitment to ideals and to others you trust are working toward those ideals
• working hard - what exactly does this mean?  Not taking care of yourself?
  
• unachievable perfection = perfect humanity
• authority (John subverting it, Elizabeth holding on to it by her teeth, Sam being even, interested, clear, capable, and nondramatic - I don't question her like I questioned Elizabeth's confidence)
  
• diplomacy (Elizabeth) - negotiations vs. destruction - there's always an ideal for 'peace' and trade relations to exist between civilizations, but do not stand idly by while the other agresses.  Not sure I agree with this one... peace as in 'mutual benefit' on both sides, yes.  And the negotiators are responsible identify the needs of each society and have an agreed-upon treaty or limit to the exchange.  What if one or the other feels they are being taken advantage of?  What if they don't?  What if one needs help and the other has the means to help?  
• development (Explorer teams) - teams explore the galaxy looking for viable trade partners.  They have yet to set up a peaceful treaty in almost 60 episodes (end of season three).  When the teams arrive on a new planet, they always assume the people are 'underdeveloped' living in 'simpler times' with no technology. Their assumption is that technology + warfare capability = developed nation.  (#55 "The Game" where 'Sim City' goes horribly wrong)  
  
• speaking your mind vs. holding your tongue: TACT (Rodney vs. Carson) Making excuses - sometimes it's better just to do it rather than make excuses about things.  It can take too much time.  (Rodney)
  
• Never look away from your enemy - it shows weakness. 
• power/energy/resources are limited and need to be utilized efficiently
  
• Small acts of self-protection can be viewed as aggression toward others, even when it's not meant as that.  You might have a war on your hands in a few episodes.
  
• Canadians say "sorry" and "out" differently than US Americans
• If you find a person-sized slimy cocoon/pod/egg thing, don't go looking for the thing that used to be in it.

Things that don't make sense:
everyone speaking english - even the 'alien' human races.  only the 'bad guys' don't speak english.  The ancients used to speak ancient, but they speak english now. 

Good Quotes: 
"Draw from your past, but do not let your past draw from you."

Good Quote for the Ending of a Journey

“Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the-glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. I feel better now, having said this, although only those who have experienced it will understand.” 

John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley

(This is from Beau - he read it at the final puja today. He usually paraphrases the part about 'blown-in-the-glass bum' - and today he added academic directors to the list in the seventh sentence.)

More than One Story

Power, stereotypes, and seeing them and others as more than one dimension.

What other examples are there - personal?

Good for - FSS session about perspectives, facilitation (in English) about stereotypes, unpacking assumptions, looking at others in a new light.

Facilitation Skillz

Just finished facilitating an ISP Debrief - 11 students talking about their experiences conducting fieldwork in the last month.  I realized I haven't been in a discussion the entire semester.

I can still do it.

In fact, I kept pretty quiet after presenting some context about why we would want to do some debriefing as a group, and planted a general start up question, "What were some significant moments for you in the past month?"  The students talked for just over two hours - speaking to each other, commenting, commiserating, sharing moments that they felt were significant.  They talked about gaining trust (what methods were helpful, and were they ethical i.e. language learning, helping in the kitchen, spending time with their families and newly made friends), talked about how it felt to encounter other 'tourists' and feel much more culturally appropriate, concepts of home, identity, whether or not the US has a culture and if so, what is it?

I directed them a bit when they were getting away from focusing on the what, so what, now what of the actual experience, but rather drifting off into metaphorical analysis of whether or not experience dictates reality.

I also stepped back in to ask them, "What was the most challenging piece of the last month."   The conversation got a little negative.  I said something clever about how part of the skill developing has to do with putting all the experiences (individually and collectively) in the middle and taking a step back to look at everything from an 'objective' angle.  Not taking things too personally.  Then we finished up with talking about how they see this experience as relevant to the remainder of their school career, and their lives.  They gushed about how it wasn't the 'research' but the life experience which made all the difference.  The space helped them identify confidence and passion to continue their work. 

They thanked me at the end - first for creating the space for them to process about their experience, and then for listening.  For planting open-ended questions and expecting honest responses.  For being a good facilitator.

It's not about me, it's about them processing their experience to get to the next place in their journey with new knowledge.  But it felt wonderful to be in that role again.  I had lost my own confidence and passion in the fact that I am okay at interacting with people and students.  That there's not something wrong with me and therefore I should stay far away from them.  Maybe some of that has been restored this afternoon.

Though, the processing of MY learning experience this semester would dictate that it's important to function from a place of humility.  There's no right way to do something.  Sometimes when someone projects that there indeed IS a right way, or if someone perceives that someone else thinks there is a right way to do something and there is no agreement, it creates lots of conflict.   I finish this afternoon gratefully, and humbly.

I can be a teacher, I think.  I can guide others to finding their truths. maybe.