I am participating in a group with four educators within an AUT paper title Educational Futures.
Tomorrow, we are assessing the quality of each others individual reflections.
"We'll see how everything reverberates"
The group I am working with is like this exhibition. Every word, gesture reverberates within the group. We share a common wish, the wish to be able to communicate with our colleagues, in such a way, that we can support learning spaces where possibilities are fizzing and conversations are things we expect to be on high rotation.
Where ourselves as professional educators can confidently step into uncertainty, as it is through uncertainty that new possibilities are possible.
Interesting things about my group:
1. NO CHOICE:
I did not choose to work with the members of this group. I am so used to making my own choices, I was unsure about being just put in a group. I felt uneasy as I knew I needed to get on with these people. How was I going to do this? I knew we shared the same wish... so I also knew it must be possible connect in new ways with the members of my group.
2. ACT, THINK, DO CONFIDENTLY:
Through working in my group I have been able to act, thing and do in different ways that would not have ben possible had i been working on my own. Often on my own I get a little stuck. Talking to myself has never been attractive. Although I do not share a daily physical space with members of my group, their shadow is always very close by. Knowing we are are doing this together and I'm pretty excited. When we do different it is not the work of one person. The reflection is of us all.
3. ROLE SWAPPING:
We appeared to each have quite different roles. And we some times swapped those roles around a bit. One of the roles that swapped was when we didn't understand a member of our groups thinking. We each stepped in and nudge our groups conversations a little further forward. I think there have been a couple of opportunities where our group could have decreased in numbers. What interrupted this happening was a commitment that we were doing this together. We would think and move together. My contribution to this was standing firm in the knowledge that to work in a future focussed space means it must be possible to work with difference. Inspiring!
4. UNCERTAINTY
At one point a member of our group, tossed a mountain of questions at the project we were working on. The kind of questions where we might throw in a project and start again. My first thought was, I wonder where this is going to take our groups thinking. Experiencing uncertainty started the process of distilling key ideas. Brilliant!
4. UNCERTAINTY
At one point a member of our group, tossed a mountain of questions at the project we were working on. The kind of questions where we might throw in a project and start again. My first thought was, I wonder where this is going to take our groups thinking. Experiencing uncertainty started the process of distilling key ideas. Brilliant!
5. HUMOUR:
My specific role has seen me injecting humour into the group. Laughing so we can all breath through some really tricky thinking. Laughter almost creates a space where we can all relax before we hunker down to refocus and think.
I finished my day at the beach.
Whilst at the beach...
I constantly thought about the educators I am working with.
The educators who inspire me to act, think and do things differently with them.
The educators who have influenced my own participation and contribution in our group.
The educators I am standing close with to ensure we work together to nudge a difference.
all of this in a space called dusk.. the in-between space.
