These transformative times

My name is Anny Chen, and I am an educator and community member in Winnipeg. This blog focuses on education, community, and social change in Winnipeg and invites people to share their thoughts and have conversations with each other in a respectful way.

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Conversations on Racial Inclusion

Dear CBC Manitoba,

Last night, I watched the evening news and felt greatly disappointed by your misrepresentation of Our Summit: LOCAL Racial Inclusion Summit. At no point did any organizers describe our gathering as a protest, and it is frustrating to see media repeatedly pit the two Summits against each other. Leading up to Our Summit, members of the Winnipeg community had offered critique of Mayor Brian Bowman’s ONE: National Summit on Racial Inclusion. It is our role as community members to hold government and community leaders accountable. It is not a merely a protest, but a fulfilling of our responsibility to have expressed our frustration with the lack of representation in the speakers, planners and facilitators from local, grassroots organizations working to end racism; to have pointed out that the Canadian Museum of Human Rights is not a neutral space for many people whom racism most directly impacts in our city; and to have wanted a more accessible and inclusive event. While it is important to hear from experts and to participate in comparative analyses, the discussion is not complete without a balance of representation from local and global, grassroots and institutional leaders. The hope is that this feedback from citizenry will change how the Mayor’s office organizes future events. We share Mayor Brian Bowman’s perspective that both Summits are valuable opportunities for conversation. Our Summit was planned to give people an alternative, one which addressed some of the criticisms made about ONE Summit. It is not an either/or situation; we needed both ONE Summit AND Our Summit to have happened, and hopefully in the future, we will see the participants from these two events coming together. On Thursday, September 17, 2015, participants of Our Summit heard from speakers from Winnipeg’s First Nations, Chinese, Muslim, White, Filipino and Metis communities. After Opening Prayer and Song, we began the evening with a Welcoming Activity where everyone attending could meet and hear the story of a stranger. During the hour-long Open Space discussion that followed, we crowdsourced topics and facilitators in order to share the power inherent in decision-making and speaking with Our Summit participants. 13 groups formed around topics that were most important for the people present, which resulted in solution-focused discussions on  racism in the following areas: nutrition and food security, Indigenous and newcomer youth relations, missing and murdered Indigenous men and women, moving past our racial mistakes, Child and Family Services, jobs and employment, systemic racism, using dialogue to improve relations, water and Shoal Lake 40, kids growing up in a corrupt world, media representation, uniting humanity harmoniously, and Employment Income Assistance. The Open Space discussions ended with each person reflecting and sharing an action that they would take toward ending racism. An example of a solution was the bringing together of church congregations from the north and south ends of Winnipeg. We know that people want to build relationships, but sometimes it’s challenging to figure out how to create opportunities. The great news is that Aboriginal Youth Opportunities and 1justcity have been talking all summer and Meet Me at the Bell Tower and 1justcity will be hosting a Feast with Friends on Friday, October 23, 2015 at 6pm, which will bring together people from congregations in the north and south ends of the city, as well as community members from the North End and all around Winnipeg. As always, Meet Me at the Bell Tower is a free community event that welcomes people from all walks of life. People can find more details about Feast with Friends here: https://www.facebook.com/events/394310904113050/. We ended the evening with a march to the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. Crucially, before we left Oodena Circle, one of the organizers shared that we were marching in a spirit of collaboration with Mayor Brian Bowman’s ONE: National Summit on Racial Inclusion; and that we would best represent the change we hoped to see in our communities by demonstrating it for the people attending both summits, and most importantly, for the children in the crowd. We walked over in high spirits, having enjoyed a beautiful double rainbow, and now walking to moving drum music and a gorgeous sunset. We gathered at the entrance of the Museum, and we invited community members holding 13 Grandfather Rocks to come up and speak. They shared their discussions – their frustrations with racism, but more importantly, the solutions they see. Throughout the evening, we had the support of Manitoba Moon Voices and ACI Manitoba through Prayer, Song, and Drums. Thank you also to Aboriginal Youth Opportunities, Neechi Commons, Spirit Fusion, and many other groups for supporting the coordination of the event. We will be compiling the discussion notes and community's commitments to share publicly, and with the city’s Citizen Equity Committee. We hope that you’ll follow up on this story then.

All the best, Anny Chen

[thesetransformativetimes]

Dear child of mine,

So, my course has ended, but the world is still changing, and I'd like to keep writing to you and others in case I think of some wisdom I want to pass onto you but forget that I thought it up by the time I have you.

Today I watched a show called Absolutely Canadian for the first time on the CBC network, and they were showcasing an Aboriginal employment training program called Life Under Construction.

Early in the show, one of the staff commented about a potential student's tardiness on the first day, saying, "We need to go from 14 down to 10, and if he's late, maybe he just doesn't want it as much as the others do." It immediately hit me the wrong way. I know that this is the traditional assessment of motivation and effort (or the lack thereof), but it seems to me that someone who struggles with punctuality actually needs the program more than others may. It's not a reflection of their motivation or effort, necessarily, but rather, it's a reflection on the longer journey they need to make before becoming employable.

Katimavik staff face the same situation during program delivery. Each group of volunteers will have people who are born for the program. They have the leadership and communication skills, enthusiasm, and patience to really work well with others. They're ready to change and to make a difference. These are not necessarily the people who need Katimavik, though they are the people who make Katimavik look awesome because they come already equipped and leave even more equipped and also incredibly inspired by their group, their leaders, and their host communities. Then there are the difficult ones. Every educator knows this. There are the volunteers who seem apathetic, who are the troublemakers, who seem like they'd rather be anywhere than here - they are usually the ones who need the transformative process the most, but they are also usually the ones who get kicked out or quit the soonest. It breaks my heart to see people fall through the cracks, but I also realize that programs have their objectives to meet and sometimes we seem to sacrifice one person for the benefit of the whole.

What I hope is that we reach a point in our social services that we can differentiate programming to the point where people can be supported in their educational journey however long or circuitous a route they must take.

In the end, the show did make the very point that I was bristling to say. Sometimes, it's not the most skilled people who continue in their program - it's the people who show the most desire to change.

Don't give up on people - at least not too soon. If you have a little more love to give, give it. You don't need to hold onto it. Give it freely and it will come back to you in some other form.

Love, Mama 

[thesetransformativetimes]

Dear Ed,

I know that we are supposed to write 4-6 double-spaced pages that integrate how we’re holding this course, a gathering of our experiences and knowledge thus far, including our individual reflection in our journals. I feel overwhelmed by this prospect, as it seems like there is no container for transformative learning, even when I rationally understand that the course itself serves as a container for my reflection. I am glad that you framed our final integrative piece as a final journal entry, as it helps me to see this as just one more piece of collective knowledge or a single snapshot of my transformational journey.

I enrolled in Introduction to Transformative Learning Studies because I was doing work for which I had no name, but in my initial encounter with transformative learning, there was a spark of recognition. I forgot about this for a while. It feels like academia devalues experience in favour of theory, and I let my insecurity over my lack of theory take hold instead of finding connections between the new theory I was encountering and the work I had done and the work that I still want to do.

I remember a day midway through the course, the day we were in an alternate classroom, when I expressed that I was struggling to see how I could possibly contribute to a collective shift in consciousness. Liam, who has been a person of inspiration and validation in my life, was quick to challenge my insecurity, asking with some incredulity, “What about living and working with youth in Katimavik? If that wasn’t transformative, what is?”

At the time, my immediate, private reaction was to hold on even more tightly to my sense of inability, refusing or unable for a time to recognize and own my demonstrated and potential ability to impact the world in positive and meaningful ways. I was sitting in despair, staring at the vastness of our current ills and the distance separating our hearts and the fog clouding our eyes and minds. We had spent so much of the course identifying what was wrong with the world. I felt insignificant and alone and couldn’t understand how one individual or even how many individuals could contribute to a collective shift in consciousness.

It wasn’t until today, perhaps, that I realized how my understanding of my own location and role limited my ability to recognize my contributions and their impact. By self-identifying as one individual and identifying others as many other individuals working towards the same goal of shifting the collective consciousness of humanity, I was, ironically, artificially separating my work from others’ work and separating my personal shift in consciousness from the collective shift in consciousness at both communal and planetary levels. The crux of my struggle with the course was a disassociation from the concurrent and collective sharing and building of knowledge, critical reflection, and shifting of our collective consciousness, which includes my individual consciousness but is not separate from it nor is it the step that follows. This is a weakness in how we communicate in English. Written or verbal, everything becomes ordered, even when there is no order.

Planetary. Personal. Communal. Personal. Communal. Planetary. Communal. Personal. Planetary. Personal. Planetary. Communal. Planetary. Communal. Personal. Communal. Planetary. Personal. Planetary. Personal. Communal.

These locations are one. We, as humans, stewards, and change-makers, are one.

I want to give myself the gift of recognizing my work through the lens of transformative learning, to rekindle that spark of recognition when I had no name for my work and saw it in the description of this course. I want it to flame.

Below, please find entries where I work through the integration of my practice with Katimavik and the theory of transformative learning through Context, Survive, Critique, and Create.

Why this focus on Katimavik, you ask? I truly believe that the idea of Katimavik, an Inuktitut word that translates to "a meeting place to which we keep returning," is one worth spreading. The model, like any other, has its flaws, and I don't propose we transplant the model, but I believe the opportunity inherent to a program like this that brings people together; holds the intentions of community-building and self-directed learning; and encourages questioning and collaboration is one worth reflecting on as a satisfier of human need, a medium for transformative learning, and a way to shift the our collective consciousness.

Thanks, Anny 

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Context

What is the history and context for transformative learning within Katimavik?

Katimavik is a national youth service-learning program that provides youth with the opportunity to grow through the experiences of group life, service-learning, and community integration. Katimavik is open to all youth who will be between the ages of 17 and 21 on the first day of the program and who hold Canadian citizenship or permanent residence. Though I was able to apply and participate in Katimavik for free in 2003-04, Katimavik now involves an application fee, registration fee, and travel deposit, amounting to approximately a $500 initial investment, plus any additional spending the youth are required or may feel they need to do in preparation (e.g. medical examination fees). Drawing from the pool of applicants from across Canada, Katimavik forms a group of eleven youth, selecting for an even number of male and female youth and demographically representative number of youth from each region (in practice, each vertical slice) of Canada. Katimavik strives for each group to represent the socio-economic make-up of our country.

However, due to existing, powerful inequalities in our society and Katimavik’s marketing and recruitment methods, the demographic of Katimavik youth is heavily representative of white, middle class Canada and youth originating from urban centres and southern Ontario. A Katimavik group will often have one or more members who identify as LGBT* but consistently fails to be demographically representative of visible minorities, Aboriginal peoples, the homeless, those living in poverty, those living in rural or remote places in Canada, and other marginalized populations.

During the program, eleven youth live together with a Project Leader for three months at a time. In 2003-04, the year I was a participant, Katimavik offered a nine-month program, so my group had the opportunity to live in three regions in Canada, but by the time I returned to Katimavik as staff in 2010, Katimavik had been a six-month program for several years. In the program, youth spend the majority of their workweek volunteering full-time at not for profit organizations in their host community under the supervision of a volunteer work supervisor. Every week, rotating pairs of youth take leave from their work placements in order to assume the roles of house managers, whose responsibilities include meal planning and cooking, budgeting, and cleaning. In the evenings and on the weekends, the youth engage in group activities, workshops, excursions, community events, and additional community volunteering as a group, with the exception of four blocks of free time per week and a 48-hour period off every rotation. All of the above – the group life, volunteering, house managing, and the various activities – are opportunities for purposeful engagement that the youth, with the guidance of their Project Leader, plan, facilitate, and reflect on.

In 2010, the year I became staff, Katimavik launched a learning program, which included eight competencies:

To interact with others in a variety of situations

To adopt an open attitude towards the diversity of social and multicultural realities

To communicate in both official languages

To engage in diverse work experiences

To apply habits that favour a healthy lifestyle

To develop an integrated vision of environmental protection and sustainable development

To engage as a citizen, and

To prepare to integrate, as a citizen, into the job market, school, or other life event.

Katimavik understands competence to be a state of both having knowledge and acting on that knowledge. It was not considered sufficient to claim knowledge but not demonstrate it nor to act without being informed - not unlike the concept of praxis. With the new learning program, Katimavik youth were now explicitly expected to identify areas of competence that they felt they needed or wanted to improve, both collectively and individually, for which they then created individual SMART objectives and planned group activities, tracked their learning process using various methods of journaling, and reflected on their development throughout the process. As incoming staff with training and a background in the traditional educational system, I understood and agreed with the concept of competency-based learning, as opposed to activity-based learning. There was a lot of resistance to what had become the highly structured nature of Katimavik, which I will discuss later, but at the time that I worked for Katimavik, I believed in the power of structure and presented the style of learning to my youth as one way that they should try.

How is Katimavik a medium for transformative learning?

In Worldshift 2012, Ervin Laszlo observes, “When the integrity of a complex system such as a human society or the environment is impaired, single-factor remedies are bound to fail (p. 8). If we only address hunger or poverty or the exploitation of nature, the isolated and finite treatment of just a single factor within a complex system, even if the treatment is successful, will be overwhelmed by other factors impairing the system. After all, each factor of a system is interconnected and therefore impacts and is impacted by all other factors in the system.

The above understanding of what will and will not be effective remedies for healing and restoring the integrity of complex systems – in my case, the educational system - is what led me to walk out of the public school system and walk on to alternative models of education, beginning with Katimavik. I see promise in the way Katimavik offers a space for holistic and experiential learning, the development of interdependency and connectedness, and the satisfaction of human needs. I see parallels between the competencies, volunteering, and activities of Katimavik and the axiological and existential needs and satisfiers identified by Max-Neef and Hopenhayen (242-3). Though certainly not free of its own set of faults and failures, the experiential learning offered by Katimavik allows life to be the text and context for learning, and the people involved in Katimavik, from volunteers to work partners to community members, “become aware that we are like islands in the sea: separate on the surface, but connected in the deep” (Laszlo, p. 61).

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Survive

In what state of survival or sustainability do youth and staff come to Katimavik?

Not unlike the general public, Katimavik youth and staff arrive with varying degrees of awareness, criticism, and concern for the state of the world. Often, as we discussed in class, a single person can occupy and move between more than one level of consciousness depending on their capacity to manage their despair at a particular time or what particular aspect of the world they are grieving for.

Many youth come to Katimavik with a general sense that something hasn’t quite lined up in their education, leaving them feeling unprepared and unsure how to proceed as adults for various reasons, which might include contradictions between how they want to live and the expectations others have of them. Even if they are not conscious of this, their very desire to participate in the program (or sometimes their parent or guardian’s desire for them to participate in the program) silently recognizes a lack in their education. Despite the shared uncertainty with which they arrive, though, the youth are much more likely to be critical of themselves. They blame themselves for their unpreparedness to transition into adulthood; their discomfiture with personal, familial, and societal expectations; and many of the failures they have experienced prior to Katimavik. Having grown up in a competitive, individualistic, rational-industrial society, many youth are conditioned to look inward for insufficiencies and mainly occupy a pre-conscious, non-reflective level (O’Sullivan, p. 34) of consciousness regarding the western human society in which they live.

Some staff, too, tend to mainly occupy a pre-conscious, non-reflective state. In their tenure with Katimavik, they will focus on the aspects of the learning program that “take on the project of ‘skilling’ students to fit into the parameters of the market” (p. 34), seeing Katimavik mainly as a space to figure out what role to play in the global marketplace.

Occasionally with youth and more frequently with staff, the people involved with Katimavik occupy an emergent, survival-conscious level of consciousness, having directly experienced or observed failures of the current educational system and searching for alternative modes of education and sites for learning. They may recognize the need to build their own capacities, but they make connections between that identified need in themselves to gaps in their learning, which leads to “[questioning] the viability of current educational directions” (p. 34).

Few youth and staff may occupy critical conscious or visionary levels of consciousness, but it’s clear when we look at the Katimavik learning program that it is a product of our modern, rational-industrial worldview, and so these youth and staff often quickly become disenchanted by the limitations of the program and choose to leave or are forced to leave.

How are our western systems failing them?

Here are five of the challenges I faced as I worked with my youth during my time as a Katimavik Project Leader:

First, almost across the board, the youth were afraid to fail. They were products of an educational system that had taught them that learning is a competition and life always has winners and losers, even if the competition is on an individual level, where you pit yourself this month against yourself next month. The consequences of this teaching were youth who didn’t want to identify learning goals for fear of not achieving them and who focused on the failure to achieve learning goals to the detriment of recognizing spontaneous learning that had occurred in place of planned learning.

Second, again, almost across the board, the youth were afraid to question authority and the majority. Their educational experiences revolved around a narrow definition of what was considered good behaviour – a definition often determined by someone in a position of power, such as parents or teachers – and the youth naturally looked for the behaviour I seemed to approve of and followed suit, and if it wasn’t clear what I expected of them, they would ask for guidelines. As a human, I do have expectations of how I want to be treated and how I would like others to treat each other, and as an educator, I am not and would not want to be able to hide my beliefs, but it was very difficult (until the end, in some cases) to convince my youth that their opinions, criticisms, and ideas were welcome, and while I might suggest one way of doing things at their request, I was and I hoped the group would be open to any other ways they might like to try.

Third, along with a fear of challenging or questioning others, the youth often occupied a non-reflective state, living experiences as they arrived and letting them go as they went. Many did not feel they had agency or see the agency they had over their own lives, nor did many recognize the power of setting intentions, being mindful and present, and reflecting on experiences.

Fourth, many of the youth struggled intensely with intentional, communal living and the accompanying experiences of collective decision-making, transparent communication, and consideration for others. In a world where there are always winners and losers, the norm was to accommodate the wishes of the majority and let the minority become marginalized, ignored, or even disparaged. Cultivating a desire to be inclusive and considerate was an ongoing learning experience.

Fifth, related to their struggle with communal living, the youth often did not see the interconnectedness of their experiences, their group members, and all living things. They divided life, the world, and themselves into isolated components. Work, play, and learning were not the same, for example, and therefore were often viewed in a particular light.

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Critique

What is the cosmological sense of Katimavik as a program developed in the modern world?

Plain and simple, like most other contemporary educational programs and systems, a sense of the universe as a whole is not central to the operations of the most recent incarnation of Katimavik, nor is a sense of the cosmological foundational to the learning program. Katimavik is still, thoroughly, a product of the modern world.  While Katimavik exists as an alternative way of learning for Canadian youth, the understanding is that the program and the youth still need to function within modernism and meet the demands of the global market. As a result, the Katimavik learning program only goes so far as developing its outcomes with a sense of the youth’s role as a Canadian citizen.

Additionally, as an educational system that was fully funded by the federal government for most of its existence, Katimavik had multiple eyes, ears, and hands that ensured the separation of religion and spirituality from the state and, more subtly, the sacred from the everyday. While it would be highly unlikely that Katimavik would demand or claim objectivity in the teaching and learning experiences of their youth and staff, there is definitely a far greater valuing of quantitatively measurable outcomes; after all, these are the outcomes that secure funding. And while Katimavik previously received federal funding through Canadian Heritage for the program’s delivery of official language and French cultural education and the opportunity for the interaction between Francophone and Anglophone Canadians, the recent federal funding cut cited inefficiencies in financial management and program delivery as the main argument for canceling the funding.

How does Katimavik serve the unbridled global market?

On one hand, the Katimavik learning program challenges normative practices in significant ways. For example, Competency 6.4 invites the youth to evaluate and improve their ability to implement principles of eco-citizenship in their life, such as the exploration of alternative consumption strategies in relation to ethical consumer choices or conscious media and Competency 8 acknowledges other life events, in addition to the standard goals of the job market or school, as an option for which the youth must prepare to integrate. On the other hand, Katimavik is widely marketed, officially and by word of mouth, as a gap year in which youth can figure out what they want to do for their lifework, with an imbalanced but perhaps realistic and necessary emphasis of the few Competency 8 objectives that target preparation for the labour market.

More practically, Katimavik encourages youth to become more aware of the sustainability of their lifestyle and their perceived need for money or material objects, first in the Katimavik house but also in reflection of their way of living prior to Katimavik and which practices they would like to integrate into their lifestyle after Katimavik. Youth often explore alternative ways of living that are more ethical and more sustainable, such as local food sourcing and conscious transportation choices. Group life also forces youth to experience and consider the positive and negative aspects of communal living situations and collectivism both in terms of environmentally sustainable lifestyles and human interdependence.

However, Katimavik program operations were, at times, incredibly unsustainable and completely enslaved by the global market. (In some respects, the Conservative government’s criticisms of finances and operations are fair, though likely not unique to Katimavik or even social programs.) Constrained by budgetary concerns, regional and national policies often contradicted values espoused in the learning program. For example, some projects were required to purchase the least expensive food items without consideration of sustainable practices.

How does Katimavik fall victim to the familiarity and efficiency of hierarchical power?

Theoretically, Katimavik is a self-directed experiential learning program that operates in a collective context. Practically, youth need or feel they need varying levels and types of capacity-building before they are willing to facilitate their own learning. This is another product of our current educational system that has conditioned both the youth and staff to believe that teachers are trained individuals and only some individuals can be leaders. As a result, it’s easy for youth to defer to staff and for staff to assume an authoritarian role in order to accomplish tasks in an efficient manner.

As well, Katimavik is not immune to the structures of dominance and power that oppress individuals throughout the world. Participation in the program is influenced by patriarchal values, resulting in a much high number of female applicants due to a variety of reasons, such as higher pressure for potential male applicants to secure paid work and the greater association of social work, volunteering, and collective values with the feminine. As mentioned earlier, there is also overrepresentation of white, middle class youth, which means a missing voice in the program experience. During program delivery, youth also tend to refer to existing, accepted structures of dominance and power when managing conflict, such as listening to more masculine or mainstream voices in decision-making or valuing the logical over the emotional in discussion.

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Create

How does Katimavik offer an alternative educational vision in a cosmological context?

In its earliest incarnation in 1977, Katimavik did exhibit a greater sense of the cosmological and its structure (or lack thereof) allowed for greater exploration of spirituality by the participating youth. However, a sense of the cosmological was still never an explicit component of the program. Unsurprisingly, the program became associated with those darn “hippies” and the program funding was cut for the first time in 1986.

Despite the lack of an explicitly spiritual exploration, the current learning program does still value mental health and the self-care and mindful practices that contribute to mental health. As well, if the youth are interested in exploring spiritual or religious aspects, there is freedom to do so within the self-directed learning model. The program encourages youth to consider the positive and negative impact of their lives (individually, as a group, as a family, and in any association with any other groups) on the wider world. The program, if facilitated properly, does invite youth to consider their role in the universe by engaging youth in reflexive practices, although it is also often tethered to the labour market.

The best thing I could do as a Project Leader was to help my youth to see their own agency and to recognize and predict the reach of their thoughts and actions. In this way, youth can begin to identify and understand the problems we are facing and develop an openness to new stories and defining and living their lives according to them (Gare in O’Sullivan, p. 182-3).

How is Katimavik a medium for and example of integral development?

Katimavik holds that conflict is central to learning.

One form of capacity-building we do in Katimavik is to provide a workshop on the non-linear phases of group development: forming, storming, norming, and performing. In this model, the initial phase most groups experience is “forming” – a honeymoon stage where new members of a group live in seeming harmony. There is an exaggerated politeness and consideration amongst Katimavik youth during the first few weeks or sometimes days or months, of the program. Conflict is not absent but youth manage conflict with the tool of consideration and at sometimes at the cost of their own desires and needs or the expression of their true selves. In essence, everyone is on their best behaviour in an effort to portray themselves in the best light and to maintain harmony in the group. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say the honeymoon stage is a farce, I would say that it is a state of being that would be unrealistic to maintain and likely undesirable to maintain as well. Constant, uncritical agreeableness doesn’t challenge people to honestly consider their own beliefs nor to challenge the demands of others.

Instead, the phases of group development acknowledge “storming” as a necessary part of group development. In this phase, Katimavik youth tire of being selfless, and they tire of being on their best behaviour. The youth become publicly highly critical of each other and, often, also privately critical of themselves as they consider the criticisms others have made of them. The negative consequences of individualism tend to surface during “storming”: they argue for their own needs at the expense of trying to understand others, they initially react to conflict by withdrawing or trying to withdraw to the familiar, and they lose sight of the possibility for multiple truths and solutions to exist concurrently.

I’m happy to report that most Katimavik groups move out of “storming” (eventually / repeatedly). It’s important to note that while “forming” is often an artificially selfless management of conflict and “storming” is often a phase where conflict is left unresolved, conflict is still central to the “norming” and “performing” phases of group development. The key difference between the conflict that occurs during “forming” and “storming” and “norming” and “performing” is that in the latter phases, Katimavik youth work through conflict with the guidance of their Project Leader and other external resources in “norming” and autonomously in “performing.”

As a non-linear, cyclical process, Katimavik groups moved back, forth, and across the phases of group development. A new environment (such as an externally-presented challenge or a new rotation) often moves groups into “forming,” as they band together to manage challenges as a team, prioritizing the harmony of the group in order to survive as a unit. Different types of conflict may put a group in “storming” or “performing,” depending on the capacity of the whole group or individuals in the group to mediate or resolve the conflict. Regardless, conflict and resolution are constant factors in all phases of group development; what changes are the management strategies and the capacity to manage conflict.

I say this tongue in cheek, but as a Project Leader, I used to advocate for conflict all the time. My youth would tease me for my catchphrase, Go fight! Conflict was a site for growth, where the youth were challenged in their beliefs and forced to consider the validity of others’ beliefs. In the movement between harmony and disharmony, in the arguments that pitted one idea against the next, youth were called to find or create common ground, a synergy produced by the “dynamic evolving tension of elements held together in a dialectical movement of both harmony and disharmony” (O’Sullivan, p. 208-9).

What possible world does Katimavik envision?

When people ask me about Katimavik, I like to say that it’s the “How to be a Good Canadian” program. Of course, what constitutes a “good Canadian” is not definitive, but generally, the people I’m speaking to agree with the core values of Katimavik as reflected in their mission, objectives, policies, and learning program.

Katimavik envisions a world where:

Education is affordable and accessible. While administration has unfortunately allowed budgetary constraints to add a cost to Katimavik that previously did not exist, the program still provides a six-month learning experience for a $500 investment and will provide fundraising resources or even waive fees for disadvantaged youth.

Education is experiential, flexible, and holistic. In Katimavik, living is learning.

Individuals seek to understand the similarities and differences between themselves and others, rather than merely question others or defend themselves.

Communication is open and empathetic. One of the hardest aspects of re-integration into regular society for me was no longer feeling free to communicate openly and empathetically or with the expectation of empathy with others, particularly strangers, acquaintances, and those holding power over me. I taught my youth to adopt an attitude of critical consideration of their own and others’ beliefs and needs so that in situations of conflict, each person strived to meet the needs of the individual(s) feeling a lack or feeling oppressed.

Citizens are informed, engaged, and active. Katimavik is trying to create a learning space that encourages youth to move out of the pre-conscious, non-reflective level of consciousness, particularly in regards to social and environmental programs that the world is currently facing.

Individuals are self-aware and reflexive in their practices.

Individuals are committed to building community.

Humans are stewards of the environment. In Katimavik, knowledge about sustainability and sustainable practices are integrated into the daily lifestyle.

Alternatives to participation in the labour market are valued, such as volunteering and travel.

The sustainability of learning is a central consideration. The last three months of Katimavik involve increasing amounts of reflection and capacity-building for transition. As the program evolved, we became increasingly aware of the challenges youth (and staff) face in their reintegration into regular society, and so the program now expects staff to spend considerable time in the last months of Katimavik guiding youth through the upcoming transition with a variety of workshops, exercises, and individual reflection.

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I have a giant caveat for everything that I’ve said above.

As I mentioned in Survive, Katimavik staff themselves can sometimes mainly occupy a pre-conscious, non-reflective level of consciousness. Unsurprisingly, in these cases, the facilitation of the program becomes stunted as there is an inherent contradiction between the educational mandate of Katimavik and the intentions of its learning program and the complacency and complicity of the staff with various aspects of the rational-industrial era we live in. Again, if there is no conflict, there is no growth. Luckily, in some cases, a group may have one or two individuals who are strong enough to be the questioning voices, propelling their group towards becoming informed and engaged. 

[thesetransformativetimes]

Experiencing Transformation: Take-Home Messages

I asked myself, how do I currently do these things, and if I'm not, how do I wish to start?

Notice catalysts, windows of opportunity, and moments pregnant with transformative potential, large and small.

There is an energizing fear that comes along with noticing these potentially transformative moments. It's a combination of feeling inspired and fearing challenge but all the while your heart pulses with certainty that you could do good if you took this opportunity. This is the feeling I had when contemplating graduate studies and running for the Harvest Noon board of directors.

Recognize what you can - and do - bring to the table.

We are what we say we are. Everyone has stories they tell, and when we tell stories of what we cannot do, we cannot do them. Change your story to one that recognizes what you can and do bring to the table. This is what I did after several weeks of dancing and would like to do about attending grad school.

Discern what is right and true for you, based both on your subjective experience and your observations.

Making decisions based on how I feel and how I think is incredibly difficult for me. Most recently, I had to consider whether or not to move, and while I did seek out the advice of others, I only discussed the possibility of moving with a few people, looking for insight rather than for them to tell me what they would do. I purposefully forced myself not to discuss my decision with everyone I encountered, and in doing so, I feel as though I did a service to myself in discerning what was right for me, not others.

Practice holding intention, cultivating attention, repeating life-enhancing actions, and seeking both internal and external guidance.

Setting intentions, being present, repeating actions, and seeking help from myself and others are all actions and experiences I have gifted myself in my dance practice. It has been wonderful.

Integrate your transformative practice into your life.

I wish to be more mindful of how I use my time and to be even more present. I want to re-commit myself to my yoga practice. I want to give my best to the people and organizations in my life.

Expand your practice and your transformation beyond the personal.

I would like to work with the concept of extending my tribe.

Connect with the mystery, the sacred ground of all being.

I would like to work with poetic imagery to describe my surroundings, as suggested by Jon-Erik.

Live deeply, in every way you can.

I try to do this every day by being unafraid to be true to myself, and to love others fearlessly and freely as well.

[thesetransformativetimes]

Self-Portrait by David Whyte

It doesn't interest me if there is one God Or many gods. I want to know if you belong - or feel abandoned; If you know despair Or can see it in others. I want to know If you are prepared to live in the world With its harsh need to change you; If you can look back with firm eyes Saying, "This is where I stand." I want to know if you know how to melt Into that fierce heat of living Falling toward the center of your longing. I want to know if you are willing To live day by day With the consequence of love And the bitter unwanted passion Of your sure defeat. I have been told In that fierce embrace Even the gods Speak of God. 

I am a perfect example of the separation of the sacred from the material, the religious from the everyday. I’m allergic to the word spirituality. The discourse that goes along with that word makes me feel nervous because it’s presented as the option, a freer one, to religion, but I feel as though it isn’t necessarily freer.

I’d rather talk about love and action and energy and past and future and history and presence.

[thesetransformativetimes]

Dear child of mine,

A question that came up in class recently was the following:

How do you move to the next level within your position?

I think this is an excellent question. It's relevant and accessible because it's personalized. I feel overwhelmed when I think of a world shift in consciousness - the macro level of a shift in consciousness - while thinking of the micro level of consciousness shifts seems doable. I can live my life in a way that reflects my beliefs. I can talk to people about why I live the way I do and what questions are in my mind. I can do that.

This two loops model of systems help me to make sense of the great push back on innovation, whenever and wherever it happens. If we think of a system, even one that is human-made, such as the economy or energy use, as a living system, it makes sense that when there are signs that a system is failing, a new system will develop. But, the old system will resist and defend itself against any threats, so there's a giant push back. 

Deborah Frieze's description of the debate on whether we can be pioneers within a system really illuminates, if not completely clarifies, my past work, as well as my current perception on the work of my friends. My friends are both the hospice workers and pioneers working within the system. They show such strength and resilience and optimism in choosing to work in a system that challenges them on a daily basis. They are literally and figuratively catching the kids that fall.

I tried to be that person because I do firmly believe that sometimes the best way to change a system is from within it, but I failed to do so. If we put it in terms of transformative learning and levels of consciousness, I identify as someone having an emergent survival consciousness; I've started to question the system - I feel something is wrong. But I don't have the answers, and I don't have a clear idea of what I should do. When I realized that I lacked the strength to resist the system from within, I really despaired and eventually surrendered - at least I felt like it - to the system. Then I quit. I walked out of the system to save myself and walked onto a time of self-reflection during several months of unemployment and volunteering.

So, I'm not working in the larger system of education anymore, but neither am I walking with the pathfinders, edgewalkers, and pioneers. I think this two loop model of any system will always have micro systems swirling nearby, influenced by both the traditional model and the pioneering model, and this is where I find myself. Micro, alternative systems like Katimavik, that still work within larger systems that the educational system finds itself, but are experimenting with new ideas. 

Also, it's so important to think of that gap between the two systems. I'd like to redraw the model with the new system loop emerging beside the old system loop - the tail end starting parallel to the initial decline - to further emphasize that the two systems don't cross and there's a gap that means society is dependent on a system to continue functioning even as it collapses. It's significant when rising systems recognize that they are not nearly strong enough, stable enough, or large enough to take over for traditional systems. It's when they aren't aware of this and take on too much, burn out, and then fail the people they are holding that I am doubly hurt by alternative systems. A quick Katimavik example is when we recruit for Aboriginal volunteers without having adequately prepared the staff or volunteers with training in Aboriginal issues, education, etc., and we find that many Aboriginal youth struggle through the program because it often directly contradicts or causes them to resist or choose between traditional ways of living or res ways of living or rural ways of living and the idealized "Canadian" life presented in Katimavik. In one of the few Aboriginal professional development workshops, the project coordinators learned that 100% of northern youth who fail whatever reason they leave their community will return to their community and never try again. Isn't that a frightening thought? We have so much power as educators and we need to make sure that we are not promising more than we can deliver. Mindfulness and active reflection are so important!

Ah, it gets me so fired up! We all have a lot of power, kid. Every one of us will change someone's life, whether we intend to or not. So, we need to be aware of our reach and make it a positive one.

Love, Mama 

[thesetransformativetimes]

Dear child of mine,

Khaled believes that we are in a post-secular and post-religious society due to the development of science. He believes we are in the process of breaking down the boundaries between religion and science.

I'm not sure I agree. What does it mean to be post-secular and post-religious? Does it mean that we live in a multiplicity? A deconstruction? An absence? How are we pushing back against secularism and religion? How do we divorce secularism from science?

I don't fully disagree with Khaled's perspective. I do think we have broken and continue to break boundaries erected by religion, but I also think that the boundaries between religion and science are more easily permeated in one direction, from religion to science. From within the rational-industrial worldview, it is easier to add an appreciation for science - objectivity - to faith, but how does one find faith after a lifetime of being conditioned to see it as this "airy fairy" stuff?

Religion is an engagement in search for meaning in our lives, and spirituality tries to get us to attend to life more deeply than we do at the everyday level, says Ed. Humankind has been searching for the meaning of life since we have had conscious thought, so I understand meaning of these concepts and see the labels of religion and spirituality as just that - labels. These are the names we give to the search, and God is the name we give to the creative power that exists in our world, whether we believe that creative power is concentrated in one being, dispersed amongst many, living in nature, or living in our hearts (literally or figuratively).

You, I'm sure, will engage in a search for the meaning of your life and the lives of those around you. You will wonder why some must struggle and sacrifice and why the sun shines on others with consistency and care. You will feel loss and be lost, you will feel joy and love. You will wonder where you came from and why you're here and what will happen afterwards. You may believe in things that I do not believe, and you may decide to do things I disagree with, but you will be mine, so I will love you.

Love, Mama 

[thesetransformativetimes]

We are sovereign, and you are sovereign as well.

Harleen Panesar, in describing the meaning in the creation of the wampum belt.

[thesetransformativetimes]

Address consumerism to address respect for the sacred.

Discussion on November 28, 2012 - Introduction to Transformative Learning Studies, OISE

[thesetransformativetimes]

Experiencing Transformation: The Art of Interdependence

It's funny that this practice should begin by asking for what I determined I needed to do in the last one:

Let your mind drop into your heart and, with all your senses, welcome the world in while you contemplate the sacredness of everything.

It goes onto instruct readers to

First, find a place to sit outside comfortably. This could be in your backyard or favourite park, at a beach, mountain, or stream. Just sit, relax, and let yourself merge into your surroundings.

I have a problem with this.

First, it's winter. Half kidding here.

Second, and more seriously, when we "welcome the world in" while we "contemplate the sacredness of everything," are we limiting ourselves to contemplating the sacredness of nature? Are we saying that not all objects are sacred? 

In class, we discussed how there is a separation of the sacred from the everyday (or profane) in modern consciousness, and I see that separation further underscored by meditative practices such as this that privilege the value of and connection with nature over human-made products. By privileging the sacredness of nature, we reinforce the artificial separation between the human world and the natural world. Wouldn't a meditative practice of interdependence be even more meaningful if the practitioner experienced his or her meditation in the spaces he or she occupied on a daily basis? Then, the ability to see, feel, and appreciate the sacredness of everything would permeate the everyday.

How do we develop a fundamental and foundation respect for the sacred? In place of the practice offered by Living Deeply, I'd like to offer Jon-Erik's suggestion:

Sit and describe a person, place, or thing in detail using poetic imagery. All things eventually lead to a similar source.

Earlier in the term, our Creativity and Wellness course asked us to keep a touch diary of three incidents of touch (or lack of touch) that occurred throughout the week. The instructions suggested that we were to record incidents of touch between humans, but one student recorded a complete absence of human touch during her week and therefore described three incidents of touching material objects in the spaces she occupied. While she noted the surprise and sadness of not having had human touch during this week, she also remarked on the deep connection she felt with all things as she touched objects with intention. Her wooden desk made her consider the tree that must have given up its wood, which made her think of the forestry workers who cut it down from the forest where it dwelled, the years it grew on the land and the mill where it was turned into wood.

Or perhaps I am misunderstanding what the sacred is and must begin by asking, as Jon-Erik did, "How do we identify the sacred in order to respect it?

[thesetransformativetimes]

Dear Mama,

Tell me, what is it you plan to do With your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver

Another world is possible.

I know your friends are worried that you won’t be able to turn back the tide in time to save this world for us, your children, but they are forgetting a key point. You are not alone in time. While it is your responsibility now to protect the world for future generations, it will be my responsibility soon. There is no “in time.” There is just time. There is not only you, there is us. We will make another world possible.

In order to transform our interaction with all living things, we have to transform our collective consciousness. We need to change how we see life and matter. In order to transform our collective consciousness, we need to transform how we educate humanity. Modern education has been used as an effective tool of colonization for centuries. As Lost People Films asks in introducing their documentary, Schooling The World: The White Man’s Burden, “If you wanted to change an ancient culture in a generation, how would you do it? You would change the way it educates its children.” We cannot let ourselves be tricked into thinking that the dominant school system can be reformed; it is inextricably embedded in the capitalism, consumerism, and individualism of the rational-industrial era. If we are to fundamentally challenge the culture that we live in, we need to re-imagine our way of learning and understanding the world.

There is no singular form that a transformed educational system will take. That is one of the problems of the dominant school system. It teaches to the middle and lets children found at the extreme ends of any spectrum become marginalized. It also educates for the global market and devalues those who it perceives as unable to function or contribute. The dominant school system relies on best practices, routine learning, and replicating effective teaching models, but any one model is bound to leave someone out.

Instead of describing how I think you should teach me, I’m going to describe what I think I need to learn. The how can only be determined in the context that arises around the learning, and we won’t know what that context is until we are there.

Teach me:

How to question

How to understand

How to love and be compassionate

The meaning of gratitude

How to be mindful

How to be humble and how to avoid the progressive arrogance of the previous educational system

How to inform ourselves and how to engage as a citizen

The meaning of enough

The meaning of service

The meaning of happiness

How to cultivate my heart

How to look to nature for teachings

How to relate to all life and matter and understand the Mbuntu saying: I am because you are. What I do to you I essentially do to me.

How to create and value community

How to create and value a sense of place

How to see the intrinsic value in all life and matter and respect the sacred

How to cultivate my creativity

How to cultivate optimism and hope

How to be courageous

How to spread joy

Love, Your little one

[thesetransformativetimes]

Dear child of mine,

Naturally, I'm pretty Type A, and I know it. I'm a dominant personality who often takes the lead in any situation where I feel I have expertise or more knowledge and experience or confidence than others. I'm a listmaker and planner. I'll create a Facebook event five weeks in advance in order to save a date, and people will actually RSVP immediately because, well, they received the invitation from me. If someone else takes the lead on a project, I'm right up there contributing and questioning and asking for details. I check and doublecheck to ensure we're meeting people's expectations. I'm a rule follower and strategic rule breaker. I identify criteria, research best practices, check for approval, and take action with a plan towards a goal. I have a need to understand and, even worse, I have a need to get the best and the most I can possibly get out of every situation. I'm a maximizer. I want to have my cake and eat it, too, and I believe it's totally possible to do so.

As my child, I bet you know all these things.

As my child, I bet you become frustrated with all these traits. Eventually, you'll see that your frustration likely stems from a recognition of yourself in me. Like mother, like child.

So, you can imagine that when I read Walk Out, Walk On I was both inspired and destabilized; in other words, reading Walk Out, Walk On helped me to grow, exponentially. Two particular stories stood out to me.

First, In the Jardim das Criancas in Brazil, their process for community organizing and development completely turned my ideas and experience on their heads: the idea of using play as a way to engage others and to imagine (rather than plan), and then acting on those plans with the faith that collaboration and shared goals would attract the necessary resources and inspire the necessary approval, rather than seeking approval and funding before starting. Then, the idea that I could spend my time and energy building something, only for it to be torn down, and then being challenged to see how my mistake contributed to something better and to embrace that process as a productive process. These are all new ideas for me, especially when they involve deadlines and funding needs. I like to aim for the most effective and efficient route possible, with the openness to straying off course if it’s beneficial, but if there is a “better” way, I prefer to take it.

Then, the idea of the bicycle-powered machines and how we should transplant ideas so they can take root in translocal ways, rather than creating manuals for replication that may or may not meet the needs of the local people and may or may not be possible due to limitations in resources. Transplanting ideas may not be efficient, but it can be more effective in the end as people improve on ideas without being limited by previous plans.

How does this apply to my work as an educator and my understanding of transformative learning?

I've heard sharp criticism for the concept of "best practice" on two occasions recently after never having heard it before. "Best practices are not best practices," Liam paraphrased from the book. I suppose whenever I encounter the word best practice, I don't understand it to be the "be all and end all" but rather one successful way. I suppose, though, that it's easy to slip into copying a previous method out of convenience or ease or fear, rather than creating your own, specialized way.

At Harvest Noon, I am trying to build my understanding of board culture. How do we give and receive permission in an egalitarian structure? Is permission even necessary? When individuals act on behalf or for a cooperative, are we always thankful for their contributions? If we’re not, what do we do? How do we negotiate the freedom and patience involved in playful planning and spontaneous implementation with co-op bylaws, policies, and regulations, expectations from our members and the public, and the wider community that we operate in - the university, the sustainability and food-related communities, etc.?

I see the initiative that already exists in Harvest Noon's board's "wet behind the ears" model. People are optimistic and eager, often spearheading or championing projects with little planning or approval, if any, beforehand. What happens, then, is a very circuitous route to an end that seems to satisfy our membership. What I struggle with, despite my general belief and practice of process over product in my teaching, is the thought, "Isn't it just better to plan just enough so that we don't waste time figuring it out?"

Then again, I also abhor the never-ending discussions of all the angles we could approach a project. So, is it all just a matter of balance in the end?

You'll hear that word a lot from me, kid. Balance. It's what I want.

Love, Mama