The other day, I was scanning the shelves at the half-price bookstore, and came across a book entitled Imagine What the World Could be in the 21st Century: Visions of a Better Future from Leading American Thinkers, edited by Marianne Williamson. It was published in the millennium year 2000 and contained about 40 short articles… Read more »
Tag: Transformative Learning
The Evolutionary Journey of Life
Life is a journey. I have been keenly aware of that for a good portion of my life. I guess I became aware of the power of the metaphor in my early twenties when I broke away from some cultural patterns that diverted me from what a friend called “the franchised life” — that more… Read more »
Strengthening Our Social Fabric
Recently I travelled to Finland for a conference which created an opportunity to travel around the Scandinavian countries. The country that left the strongest impression was Sweden. We took the ferry from Vassa Finland to Umea Sweden and as soon as we got on the ferry, I noticed something different in the way Swedish people… Read more »
Cross-cultural Encounters: A Gateway to Transformative Learning
This month I travelled to Finland for a conference on Culture, Values, and Justice. An interesting group of scholars attended who were exploring the many aspects, interrelationships, and applications of ideas that comprise these three areas. To me, these three subjects and their interrelationships suggest three questions that define the nature of being human. Who… Read more »
Education at the Edge of Possibility (Part II)
My most recent professional experiences have brought me back to think about evolving education. In my previous blog I shared a little bit of the journey that has taken me to this moment. By evolving education I mean both integrating learning into life as well as designing new learing systems. Both are necessary. The first… Read more »
Education at the Edge of Possibility (Part I)
Education has always been close to my heart. It is my joy for learning that has kept me connected to the educational field, even though I had some painful learning experiences in my formal education. As a mother, I see my teen daughter questioning schooling practices that are not relevant, meaningful or enjoyable. When I… Read more »
Creating Conditions for Learning and Change When “Everything You Do is an Intervention”
Following some encounters I had early last month leading up to the 104th anniversary of the International Women’s Day I am reminded of lessons learned here at Saybrook University on helping human systems. I participated in an event with a group of about 100 Christian women from one of the parishes in Southwestern Kenya at… Read more »
Complexity and Grace
I have been teaching systems thinking as an approach to deal with complexity for many years. Complexity has become a catch word, something that is recognized as a part of modern life, something that should not be ignored or simplified. We have too many examples of reductionist approaches that tried to solve a problem through… Read more »
Reflections on My Saybrook Experience
When I left my job to start out on my own, after 4.5 years of working with a non-governmental organization (NGO) in underserved communities in Ghana, I knew I wanted to work with people. My experience working in these communities brought me closer to people in a different way. I was slowly able to relate… Read more »
An Ecology of Life: Systems Theory, Relational Knowing and Stories to Reweave the World
This is the title of a seminar I will be offering next week at Saybrook’s Residential Conference to launch the spring semester. I’m excited to be offering it in collaboration with my dear friend and colleague Nora Bateson who has produced a profound film about her father — the anthropologist and systems theorist Gregory Bateson…. Read more »