Reflective Practitioners’ Support Group

(an addition to Thinking for Change, files/tfc.html and an affiliate of the CCT Alum Network)

Led/shared by Peter Taylor (peter.taylor@umb.edu)

"Re-membering conversations” help a person acknowledge multiple past allies, aspirations for their lives, significant discoveries, problem-solving practices, etc. Such conversations should be valuable when any of us move into a new phase of our lives, e.g., when students enter CCT.

Learn more by downloading Michael White's workshop notes from http://www.dulwichcentre.com.au/Michael%20White%20Workshop%20Notes.pdf.

Disposition of questioner: Attentive listening, with genuine curiosity. Not a therapeutic mode of the person as a “problem.”

Script:

1. Remembering conversations evoke “life” as a club with many members and promote a sense of identity that emphasizes the contributions that others make to our lives and to our understandings of self.

2. This is an experiment. I appreciate your willingness to try it out with me, even though I’m a novice and can’t guarantee the impact of the things that will emerge.

3. Could you think of someone who’s been in your life at some point—which could be way back in your childhood or early adulthood—that wouldn’t be surprised that you’re attracted to participate in a “Reflective Practitioners’ Support Group”?

a. Who is that person?

b. Can you tell me something that [ ] contributed to your life? What did they invite you to share in, to be part of?

c. Could you say something about what [ ] appreciated about you, something that made them contribute these things to your life?

d. Thinking back, what did you do to take in their appreciation?

e. What do you think it contributed to [ ]’s life that you were available for them to take an interest in and appreciate?

f. How do you think [ ]’s life was different for knowing you in the way they did?

4. What has it been like to talk, as we have been, about you and [ ]?

5. Can you take a moment now to write some notes about your thoughts and feelings. When you’re done, we’ll switch roles.

An extension of this script is to have many people listen and follow the remembering conversation with “outsider witness retelling,” in which each person is asked a structured set of questions to reflect on what they have heard and then the first person is asked a similar set of questions based on what the outsider witnesses say.

Closing Circle (10/30/05)

One thing taking away to do more with:

Brought a deceased person back to life

Acknowledge influence of others in the way I see things.

Hoped to be directed more.

Able to distill experience with person.

Enjoyed dominant/subordinant scripts idea.

Frustration at not being done with all this processing of past.

Think more about what it is other people value inme.

Experience of group chewing on a script

Wants to touch base with an ally

Taking time to self-reflect

One thing that can be developed as we have more sessions:

Simplify re-membering conversations questions

Develop something to present at Community College Teaching/learning conference with theme: reflective practice

Would like to do exercise again.

Going deepr into the process

De-layering question

Decentraziing self

Break up questions

Adapt to instances such as classroom teaching