Thanks Romy and Joelle and Doug and Michael and Judi, and everyone, This idea of sharing information is part of what I'm trying to get at. The idea of sharing information has a humility about it that feels right to me. When I think about going into a classroom to "teach," I feel very uncomfortable.... like I'm violating the proper relationship between me and others. The hierarchy of teacher-over-student doesn't resonate with me.
At the same time, I also feel that part of the proper relationship between people is to share information. I think we help each other along the way if we share our insights and learning with each other. Sharing information simply makes it available. It doesn't require allegiance or acceptance by another, but simply makes it easily accessible. It isn't graded, and there is no judgment passed about whether another person agrees or disagrees with the information. (Ahhhh.... the thorny problem of grading raises its head again..... and I have this funny feeling I might be arguing against something I said earlier..... oh well....) So....... if we're going to share information with required reading material or selected things posted on the walls, then why not share information verbally, in conversation and dialogue? Why separate these different ways of sharing information? They are all forms of communication. Once we decide we're going to actively and deliberately communicate something TO the group, why stop there? Why not actively engage WITH the group? It seems to me that if we're going to try to translate the OST process from the boardroom to the classroom, there needs to be room for information sharing by everyone, including the "teacher." I guess I'm circling back to the idea wendy and fredr'c came up with... if the person in the role of teacher wants to participate on a given day, we need a different person to facilitate... and if we do that, the OST process will serve very well.... .....but only if the space is truly open. That means taking care of the things OST has already learned to take care of ~ defining a theme that matters to the people who will participate, inviting voluntary participation, not being wedded to a particular outcome. But all of that is tricky in the school setting. Help me out here 'cause I'm feeling stuck again. Part of my role is to help students learn how to mediate. That's a pretty narrow goal, and the parameters of what it means to mediate are limited by the definition of what mediation is. There's lots of opportunity to maneuver within the process, but all in all, the space feels pretty closed. There is an expected outcome: adherence to a specific process. Does that mean that if my goal is to help students learn a particular skill, OST might be the wrong process? I can imagine using OST in the classroom if I broadened the theme to something like "What issues and opportunities do we have to resolve conflict in our school?" With a theme like that, this entire discussion would be unnecessary. It would be pure and simple OST. And maybe that's the answer. If I want to integrate OST into the work I do, maybe I need to consider redefining the parameters of what I'm doing. At the same time, I'm curious about this other question. Is it possible to use OST to facilitate learning about a specific and limited skill-set, like mediation? Julie * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
