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IDEAS, NEWS AND RESOURCES | July 2018
We hope you enjoy receiving our newsletter which includes constructionist ideas and practices as well as news and resources from the Taos Institute.
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Brief Encounters with The Taos Institute
July 2018
This month, two of our Associates from Kenya, Nelly Nduta Ndirangu and James Karanja Kamau, talk about their work in their community delivering a curriculum that looks at ways of going on together, even in times of conflict.
Relationship building to mitigate conflicts before, during and
after national elections in Kenya
We work with a local NGO in Kenya called the
KIMO Wellness Foundation
. Our mission is to work towards peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and community-building. We want to share with you a story about our recent project. After each election in our country, there is unrest. We wanted to work on finding ways to lessen that unrest following the election this year. Our journey began with the hope of creating reconciliation in conflicting communities, and working with victims of ethnic and political conflicts.
Our team developed a curriculum and a dialogue process that we took into the communities and villages in our area. The goal was to train, teach and create opportunities to learn together about what strengths we have as communities, how we can support each other, and find ways to keep the peace after the election. We invited the various local organizations, youth, schools, religious organizations, etc. to be part of this project.
We thought that we had everything we needed to nurture relationships with organizations and diverse communities with which we would need to work. The composition of the Kimo training team was culturally and professionally diverse, including
Counselors and Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Social Workers, Addiction Practitioners, Teachers, Public Health Workers and Medics We carefully embraced the symbol of the young fig tree from the Aberdare forest which grows in our hilly ancestral land of Muranga County in Central Kenya. The fig
tree is a symbol of peace and unity in the African culture. This is a sacred place that prohibits the shedding of human blood. Our curriculum was aimed at empowering
leaders and institutional teams and was based on ideas drawn from social constructionism and Appreciative Inquiry. With everything ready, we invited the local community teams to come and sit down together.
Our first encounter
Our program team experienced challenges as we began interacting with the local communities. Our professional status had little significance to the community groups in resolving their present issues. The Kimo team realized that we had to learn to appreciate and adopt the local ways of being and realized that we would have to borrow practices from local cultural strengths. The program team took on the slogan, "Tukae Tusemesane," which in the Kenyan local language means "Let's sit down and reason together," in order to create strong relationships within the communities.
Our second encounter
We also recognized that there was a need to develop a language of "strengths" and we used the Appreciative Inquiry process to do this. We invited
community leaders to discuss through dialogical processes how to co-exist together without trying to reconcile political and ethnic differences. We were able to identify a set of character strengths and core virtues that seemed to be present and recognized within and across all the conflicting communities. With these strengths and values we were able to challenge the communities to embrace processes that would create peaceful co-existence with each other following the elections. As we sat together under the indigenous fig tree, we identified common ground to resolve their long existing conflicts. The communities resolved that they could live together even without trying to reconcile their ethnic practices and different political affiliations.
Kimo also worked with the youths in the communities and explored ways that their talents could help them to stand as ambassadors and become an army of peace in their communities and institutions. They created a display that showed a green cloth as a representation of our golden land of Kenya full of plenty while the red cloth is an indication that we attained our freedom by shedding blood regardless of ethnicity or political grouping. White dots indicate peaceful co-existence with each other.
They realized that together as a community, they had pushed their colonizers out of Kenya. This realization helped them realize that they wanted to remain united without having to shed any brothers' or sisters' blood. They would do this by working with their strengths such as love, gratitude, hope, bravery and worked on ways to spread the strengths outward throughout the community. In their social life, and through the dialogic practices, the youth learned to deepen their vocabulary of strengths as well as their capacity for dialogue about ways to unite them as one Kenyan community with common goals in life.
Through appreciative practices and dialogue, both the leaders and the youth began to appreciate the fact that they are bound by a common bond of citizenship as Kenyans. Furthermore, they uncovered that each community has a right to land ownership and to enjoying their own cultural practices as set by their creator. Indeed, we "sat down and reasoned together."
For more information on this project, contact Nelly and James.
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Taos Institute Events and Gatherings
The Many Ways to Get Involved...So many exciting learning opportunities coming up...We hope you take a look here...
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The Taos Institute Silver Jubilee
Exploring 25 Years of Innovation in Social Construction around the World
A Conference and a Celebration!
November 8 - 10, 2018
(Pre-conference Nov. 7-8)
Registration prices increase on Sept. 1st, so register now.
Cancun, Mexico
Join in as together, WE:
- Celebrate the Taos Institute's Silver Anniversary
- Explore 25 years of innovation in social construction theory and practice
- Learn along side creative practitioners from more than 20 countries
- Meet colleagues and friends from around the world
- Welcome a new generation of scholars and practitioners
- Create opportunities for dialogue, sharing practices, performance and fun!
We hope you will join us and bring others with you who are new to social construction and relational practice - student, colleague, co-worker, friend!
Let's co-create the future and engage with the next generation!
The hotel we've chosen in Cancun is in the top 4 of the best hotels/resorts in that area. We received a wonderful reduced room rate for our group to enjoy this exceptional
all-inclusive resort.
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| Click on the image to watch the video as two of the Taos co-founders Reflecting on the Exciting Things Happening |
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Taos Workshops
- Social Construction, Relational Theory and Transformative Practices, with Sheila McNamee and Harlene Anderson
Taos Online Courses
- NEW
- An Inquiry into Relational Leading Practice, an 8-week online course,
with Ginny Belden-Charles
- Social Construction: Premises and Promises - a 6-week online course, with Celiane Camargo-Borges
Friends of the Taos Institute Workshops and Events
- Appreciative Inquiry Community Jam! Lifting the Appreciative Voice and Choice Everyday.
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The Taos Institute's International
Diploma in Social Construction and Professional Practice
Pursue Your Dreams
- Earn a diploma for pursuing a project that excites you - writing a book, studying a topic, learning about new practices, engaging in action research, developing a website, creating a video, and more...
Travel with a Thought Companion
- Enjoy the company of a PhD scholar-practitioner in your pursuits, stimulating reflection and creativity.
Choose Venues for Learning
- Select from a range of on-line courses, or conference experiences relevant to your pursuits.
Join a Creative Community
- Participate in a global network of engaged scholars and practitioners.
Earn a Diploma of Distinction
- Become the recipient of a diploma from the Taos Institute, a non-profit, global organization, offering meaningful education experiences for over 25 years.
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International Relational Research Network
Third International Virtual Symposium:
Challenges and Opportunities of Doing Research from a Relational Perspective
September 25-26, 2018 - Live presentations and dialogue groups, and September 21 - 28, online poster and paper presentations
Explore doing research with a relational focus from different perspectives:
Academia, Community, NGOs, Indigenous communities
Free , all online/virtual, and open to everyone.
Please visit the Taos Institute website for information at:
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NEW Book - First Appreciative Inquiry Book for Kids!
STAN AND THE FOUR FANTASTIC POWERS
by Shira Levy, Marge Schiller, Sarah Schiller, Max Schiller
Illustrator: Stefanie Rudolph
AVAILABLE NOW!!
Meet the main character, Stan, and hear all about his adventures with Appreciative Inquiry. The book translates the research and application of appreciative inquiry into a book for and about children. The authors and illustrator are an intergenerational team, comprised of an Appreciative Inquiry expert, Nationally Certified School Psychologist, two middle school students, and an artist! Their journey in co-authoring this first ever children's book is truly a remarkable experience.
This book is great for children of all ages. Works well in a classroom to help students explore how their own strengths, combined with the strengths of others, creates opportunities for positive collaborations to happen that make the world a better place.
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WorldShare Books includes publications in English, Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese, Arabic, and even Farci.
Donate to the Peggy Penn WorldShare Books Fund
This fund helps to cover the expenses of offering these online books free of charge to anyone in the world.
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Paths to Positive Aging: Dog Days with a Bone and Other Essays
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by Mary and Ken Gergen
Mary and Ken Gergen are devoted to the cause of reinventing aging. To focus on the gains of aging is to realize that the later years are among the richest and most rewarding of one's life. In their dedication to this reconstruction, the Gergens publish the Positive Aging Newsletter, an electronic newsletter, available in seven languages (
www.positiveaging.net).
In this book, the Gergens share ideas and experiences designed to inspire others as they age.
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Communicating Possibilities:
A Brief Introduction to the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM)
by Ilene Wasserman and Beth Fisher-Yoshida
Communicating Possibilities is an introduction to the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM), a practical theory which at its roots, is an approach to looking at our social interactions. In the process of stepping back to look at our interactions and how we construct our social worlds, we open possibilities of alternative paths and outcomes. CMM offers tools and frameworks to use so when we pause and notice what we are making together and how, we open up spaces to make better choices with more desirable relationships each turn of the way.
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Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM): A Research Manual
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by Natasha A Rascon and Stephen Littlejohn
Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM): A Research Manual invites those who are interested, intrigued, or invested in CMM to explore the theory as method. Through conversations, Rascon and Littlejohn discussed the many research possibilities and created a manual that offers several frameworks for practical research. The manual provides contexts for applying CMM tools and models as well as many examples from researchers and professionals. Those who have been introduced to CMM and are interested in discovering possibilities for their research and practical interests at any level should enjoy the offerings of this book.
For more information
→
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By focusing on the positive aspects of aging, and the availability of resources, skills, and resiliencies, research not only brings useful insights into the realm of practice but creates hope and empowers action among older people. By moving beyond practices of repair and prevention, to emphasize growth-enhancing activities, practitioners also contribute more effectively to the societal reconstruction of aging.
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Join the Taos Institute NING Online Community website
Participate in online conversations, share resources, ask questions, connect with others doing similar work. Also, we feature special events on this community website.
Join in many different forums, groups and conversations:
1. Taos Institute Europe
2. Collaborative Governance
3. Relational Learning
4. Relational Research
5. Taos Latin America
6. Intergenerativity and Innovation
and many more at:
http://taoslearning.ning.com/
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Welcome (Bienvenidos) to the International Journal of Collaborative Practices. The Journal brings together members of a growing international community of practitioners, scholars, educators, researchers, and consultants interested in postmodern collaborative practices.
Sponsored by Taos Institute and Houston Galveston Institute
I
ssue 7- Available Now in English and Spanish -
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AI Practitioner - An Online Journal
We invite you to discover an appreciative world in 2018 by taking out an individual subscription for AI Practitioner. Support the future growth and vision of the online journal and the continued publication of articles written by and for practitioners and scholars of Appreciative Inquiry and related disciplines. As a member of the Taos community, you are eligible for a 25% discount when you use the coupon code - taos25% - when you sign up for your subscription.
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You can help to make a difference...
In a world needing more opportunities for collaborative, appreciative and dialogic practices, you can make a difference by supporting the Taos Institute's efforts to bring about more promising futures.
Help us to continue our work in:
- Creating and Expanding Collaborative Practices Globally
- Promoting Dialogic Means for Reducing Conflict
- Providing Degree and Diploma Opportunities for Practitioners
- Offering Cutting Edge Publications in Multiple Languages: Free or at Low Cost
- Generating Resources for Positive Aging
- Creating Global Forums and Conferences for Constructing New Futures
- Creating scholarship programs for students in need
Given the current global context into which we are moving, we feel the work in which we are engaged is more important than ever. We hope you can join with us as we continue to develop resources to aid the global community in co-creating more viable futures.
The Taos Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and all donations are tax deductible in the US.
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The Taos Institute's mission is to bring together scholars and practitioners concerned with the social processes essential for the construction of reason, knowledge, and human value.
We are committed to exploring, developing and disseminating ideas and practices that promote creative, appreciative and collaborative processes in families, communities and organizations around the world through a social constructionist lens.
We look forward to your participation in the dialogue.
Keep up with our updates!
Dawn Dole, Executive Director
The Taos Institute
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