Co-Sponsors: Houston Galveston Institute and Taos Institute
Webinar 2: Relational Thinking & Practices Saliha Bava, PhD June 9, 2012 Series in Relational and Performative Practices for Transformational Change: Collaboration and Dialogue
Our Agenda • • • • •
Making connection with our practices Experience of E2V Exploring Relational Thinking Next steps online What else??
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Reflections
COLLABORATION & DIALOGUE
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What Makes Dialogue a Dialogue? Judith Butler (Gender Trouble, 2007, p. 20) states: The very notion of ‘dialogue’ is culturally specific and historically bound, and while one speaker may feel secure that a conversation is happening, another may be sure it is not. What Makes Dialogue a Dialogue? Saliha Bava, PhD
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Dialogue as Performing Imagination To imagine dialogue is to imagine: • Intentionality • Space for dialogue • Process of dialogue • Presence of "Withness" • Listening "as if" • Reflecting Saliha Bava, PhD
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Dialogue… • Process – – – – –
– – – – –
not-knowing uncertainty sense of belonging spontaneously responsive play
• Listening – – – – –
• Withness co-ordination invitation appreciation playfulness jointly shared activity
• Speaking – – – –
process attending to responding into learning with hearing as negotiating understandings Saliha Bava, PhD
to understand moving on together being with reflecting with
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Invitation to Dialogue • What are abstractions? – invite people to root (their) abstractions in a life story of their own -McNamee
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Collaborative Process: a practice of intention, play, patience, reflection and dialogue about not/knowing, language and making lives together… “going on together”
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Reflections
ESSAYS IN TWO VOICES
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E2V: When to Use • When you want to – open possibilities – rebuild or strengthen relationships – build community – explore the space between two divergent or conflicting ideas – appreciate different perspectives – express two perspectives to a wide audience without concern for matching things up – make a decision – talk something out
• When the partners in the conversation are of unequal power • When the relationship is just beginning Saliha Bava, PhD
Source: Essays in two voices: Dialogues of discovery (2011)
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RELATIONAL THINKING
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Relational Thinking • How are we creating? – We construct the world in different ways – In relationships we take on different meanings
• Focus on language games • Create community of traditions defined as life or practices What are the implications for practices and living? Saliha Bava, PhD
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Us: Makers of Conventions (Culture/Society) Self or our life
Collection of stories
Gives purpose & shape
Creates “us” Creates societal existence
…we live our narratives and our narratives become our living - Harlene Anderson, 1997, p. 216 Saliha Bava, PhD
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Knowledge Practices • Created within a language community • Language frames & is framed in context • Communities of practice center and decenters other (knowledge) practices
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DISCUSSION & READINGS
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Discussion/Forum: Suggestions • Invite posting – a question that pops up – a quote that captures you or resonates with your work/life – an idea or understanding about application – other ideas….
• Develop a schedule – a post by Sunday of each week (?)
• Reflect on expectations (Course Reflections) • The sequence of our readings is as follows: Saliha Bava, PhD
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View • Examined Life – Judith Butler & Sunaura Taylor [Video] – Invites us to consider how we construct and perform the world we live in – What reflection & internal dialogue does this video raise for you? Please share on the forum this coming week.
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Social Construction Readings Gergen & Gergen (2004) Pearce (2009) • Explore the two narratives of social construction • Ideas centered and de-centered by social construction practitioners • Practice implications Saliha Bava, PhD
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Locating the Meaning–Making Process Reading McNamee, 2004
Individually
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Socially
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The Deconstructive & Reconstructive Faces of Social Construction Reading Gergen & Cisneros-Puebla (2008) • We will visit this article at the end of this month • We will visit the journey of Social Construction -a situated activity
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What Makes Dialogue a Dialogue? Judith Butler (Gender Trouble, 2007, p. 20) states: • Perhaps also part of what dialogic understanding entails is the acceptance of divergence, breakage, splinter, and fragmentation as part of the often tortuous process of democratization.
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