IDEAS, NEWS AND RESOURCES | February 2022 |
|
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, and their application in relational, collaborative and appreciative practices around the world. |
|
The Many Ways to Get Involved! |
|
Brief Encounter with The Taos Institute |
|
"Children view the ordinary with enchantment. They look at what is not usually looked at, at the small events that represent the abundance of the universe."
|
"My role as a teacher has been to build dialogue and collaboration in teaching-learning contexts, helping students to speak and ask questions that reflect their concerns and positions in the world."
|
|
Welcoming Questions and Uneasiness in Higher Education
One of my daughters, Beatriz, is six years old. Unlike many children who are lulled by the movement of the car, she does not like to sleep on trips. Whether the journey is long or short, she goes along the road looking for reasons to stay awake. Watching the animals and landscapes, counting the cars, and singing songs are welcome distractions. Everything seems to feed her imagination, giving rise to infinite questions. On our last family trip, our minds were stretched as we tried to find answers to her questions: Are stick insects stiff? Do ants have blood? Do ballerinas have eye goop? Is there a star for everyone who dies? Can blind snakes climb trees? Can you hold a cloud? At each question, some uneasiness: Why, after all, do we take the world for granted?
Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano commented on this attitude of children towards the world. For him, in childhood “we are all pagans”. Children view the ordinary with enchantment. They look at what is not usually looked at, at the small events that represent the abundance of the universe. Galeano’s writing involved “keeping one eye on the microscope, the other on the telescope”, as a way of intertwining micro and macro contexts; and to relate everyday events to the great changes we want to see in the world.
For me, social constructionism has been an invitation to uneasiness. By pointing out the centrality of language and relationships in the configuration of social reality, social constructionism makes us reflect on how we participate in the production of the world we live in. We are invited to analyze the political implications (relating to the common good) of our discourses and practices and, in this way, envision alternative futures. We also realize the importance of building dialogic contexts of interaction, which favor safe dialogues around sometimes challenging topics.
The quest to build dialogic contexts of interaction in higher education has guided my practice as a teacher for several years. I work with students who have passed very selective exams to enter public universities. However, perhaps because they were in competitive and individualistic evaluative systems for so many years, they ceased to view the classroom as a place to ask questions and (un)learn. Because of that, my role as a teacher has been to build dialogue and collaboration in teaching-learning contexts, helping students to speak and ask questions that reflect their concerns and positions in the world.
In the last two years, I taught an elective online course entitled “Social Constructionism and Psychology”, divided into two modules: one on the assumptions of social constructionism and one on practical examples of these assumptions. The program did not include any lectures. Rather, a text was suggested for each class, and students were asked to bring only their curiosities questions, personal experiences, connections with everyday life. In this way, the class consisted of an affective and spontaneous dialogue around the topics they considered relevant.
As the final assignment, students were invited to choose something they enjoyed in their daily lives and to reflect on how social constructionist ideas might relate to their experience. They wrote beautiful and creative self-reflection pieces about poems, works of art, movies and contemporary themes (i.e. gender, global warming, racism, social inequality). Usually, the assignments were followed by demonstrations of gratitude for the teaching approach and the dialogic environment created in the classroom – free and relaxed, but rich with relevant personal and social learning. For some, this was the least demanding subject, but the one into which they invested themselves the most. Despite Zoom fatigue, we managed to zoom in on our discomfort, and from that place, to reflect on our participation in the relational production of knowledge and, therefore, of the common good.
Inspired by Galeano, I believe that learning involves creating ways to recover that child-like enchantment of the ordinary, and thus building bridges between micro and macro contexts. In the photo that illustrates this text, my daughter Beatriz holds flowers at the top of Serra da Canastra (Minas Gerais, Brazil), a scenery that reminds us of our smallness within the universe. Questions are like petals in the wind. When welcomed in safe dialogues, they can reach unimaginable places.
|
|
THERE IS STILL TIME
TO REGISTER!
|
|
Harlene and Sheila will introduce, discuss, and provide opportunities to put constructionist theory to practice in this 3-day seminar (3 hours each day). Given the challenges we confront globally, discussion will center on exploring the practical implications of social construction while giving ample space for us to collaborate in an effort to put these ideas into practice. Special attention will be given to participants’ own projects and professional contexts.
This seminar is for those familiar with social construction and relational practice as well as those new to these ideas. It is an opportunity to be in conversation with others who are working in or want to work in relational ways. It is a chance to forge connections that might help us sustain relational practices.
|
|
“I’ve mentioned this so many times before to you, and I shout it excitedly again: I am so grateful for the program, experience and the support you gave to me to make it happen! As a working mom, the flexibility was so important and the social construction ideas and resources drove my learning and reflection as a scholar.”
“Learning with the Taos Institute has been the best experience of any of my studies, practices and life. ”
|
|
At the Taos Institute, we support and mentor creative practitioners to form the future through relationships, collaboration, and ethical action. The International Diploma in Social Construction and Professional Practice exposes participants to multiple disciplines, all focused on collaborative and relational approaches to generating meaning, value, and practices of significance. The online Diploma program is not a fixed curriculum, with required lectures, readings, and graded assignments. Rather, it is an innovative, informal and tailored process of growth for adults looking for an independent study option. The Diploma program lets the learner embark on a project of personal interest with professional guidance and support of a Taos advisor.
|
Apply now to join the March 2022 cohort! |
|
NEW
Education as Relating - Ongoing Dialogue
|
|
Building on the enthusiasm generated at the Taos Institute's 2021
Education as Relating virtual conference, we are pleased to announce
a new series of free online events!
|
|
Join us March 1, 2022
1:00-2:30 pm EST (New York time)
for our first interactive gathering on the topic:
This informal conversation is hosted by educators, practitioners, and change agents who presented at the November 2021 conference. Watch the recordings to the right for inspiration before meeting with some of the presenters for a brief introduction to the topic, followed by rich small-group conversations. All are welcome, even if you did not attend the conference.
|
|
Feature Presentation Recordings:
Sally St. George, Richard De La Cuadra, Ingebjørg Mæland, Cathy Royal & Jen Hetzel Silbert (Canada, Norway, USA)
Thomas Buch (Denmark)
Peter Whitehouse (United States)
Ilana Reisz, Cooper Paul, Josie Paul, Randy Goswick & Richard De La Cuadra (United States)
|
|
All the presentation recordings from the conference are available on our
|
|
CUANDO HABLAMOS
Hacia una nueva comprensión ‘fluida’ del sentido común de los devenires relacionales
de John Shotter, por su traductor al español,
25 de febrero de 2022
a las 13:00 horas de Nueva York
El acceso es a través de zoom y totalmente gratuito y no es necesario registro previo.
|
|
|
The East Side Institute Presents |
|
 |
February 27 – May 22, 2022
In her book, The Overweight Brain: How our obsession with knowing keeps us from getting smart enough to make a better world, Lois Holzman contends that “knowing” keeps humanity stuck in how we do things already. Furthermore, seeking knowledge as the only or best way to solve personal and social problems is a deterrent to the collective creativity desperately needed to rebuild our so very troubled world and the pain and suffering of all of its people. We need a new way to live—a new social practice of seeing, feeling, thinking, becoming. Even a new conception of new! And we’ll all need to do some non-knowing growing to get there.
Details and registration available here.
|
|
|
|
October 2022 - June 2023
With deepening social, environmental and political crises worldwide, many who want to make a difference in the world are finding that they need new tools to make social change, to grow, and to develop their communities. The East Side Institute’s International Class is a 9-month virtual immersion in creative and cultural approaches to human development, learning and social change. The course introduces and examines social therapeutics, a philosophically informed, practically oriented method in which human beings develop themselves while building the ensemble, group and community.
Details and registration available here.
|
|
|
|
The Interfas Foundation, Argentina, in collaboration with The Taos Institute, USA and CINDE-University of Manizales, Colombia presents |
|
This yearly program (186 hours credit) offers professionals interested in expanding their understanding and skills of generative practices, the opportunity to learn a perspective and new resources that allow them to work with relational and dialogic creativity. Geared to professionals working with people and groups in different fields, it has an international faculty, all Taos Associates. It provides an exceptional space for dialogue, reflection, and learning, as well as the opportunity to belong to a multidisciplinary network of professionals who work with innovations and creativity in various domains of practice and social contexts. |
|
|
|
|
Desde Quito, Ecuador, abrimos este espacio para los diálogos relacionales transformadores, desde el construccionismo relacional-social, confiando que sea un aporte útil en nuestros contextos para generar preguntas nuevas, conversaciones y posibilidades creativas, reflexivas, significativas, distintas – Diego Tapia Figueroa, Ph.D. y Maritza Crespo Balderrama, MA
|
|
|
ISSUE 11 Available Now!
This free journal brings together members of a growing international community of practitioners, scholars, educators, researchers, and consultants interested in postmodern collaborative practices.
|
|
|
|
FREE downloadable books in 12 different languages. Like all of the Taos Institute Publications, WorldShare Books represent significant contributions relevant to social constructionist theory and practice. With over 30 books in English and many more from around the world, you will enjoy reading about education, spirituality, organizational life, community building, group dynamics, leadership and more.
|
|
|
|
|
By focusing on the positive aspects of aging and the availability of resources, skills, and resiliencies, research brings useful insights into the realm of practice, 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. For 20 years, late Taos Institute co-founder Mary Gergen, Ph.D. has inspired and driven the publication of this free newsletter - also translated in 9 languages!
|
|
|
|
Access hundreds of articles and papers on topics such as:
- Appreciative Inquiry
- Collaborative Practices
- Dialogic Practices
- Creativity and Change
- Narrative Practices
- Relational Research
- Relational Learning
- Qualitative Research
- and so much more!
|
|
|
|
|
Donate to the Taos Institute
In the current global context, the work in which we engage is more important than ever. You can make a difference by supporting our mission to create a promising future through social construction. Read more
|
Also choose The Taos Institute on
Amazon Smile:
|
|
|
|
In loving memory of Taos Institute co-founder and board member Mary Gergen, Ph.D.. Mary was an innovator in feminist theory, social constructionism, and qualitative methods. She was an inspiration and mentor to thousands of people around the world. She deeply cared about making the world a better place and her contributions will be felt for generations. Read more
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
