Don Strano in OZ: The Uni

Well, today was my last day of class activity. I sat in on my last session of the Narrative Certificate Program. The feedback from the students and lecturer was great. As is a common narrative practice they did an outsider witness practice with me in relation to my participation throughout the semester. Being in a role to witness others having a conversation about their experience of you is quite a different (and humbling) position to be in. The most striking thing was the observation of Ron - who is the leader of the subject - he talked about being pleasantly surprised by my approach, that I did not take an expert role pushing my weight around as has been his experience of many academics. This is so contrary to my experience of myself - I was coming in from a position of someone looking to learn and being aware of my position as an outsider. It teachers me to be conscious of how others might perceive me rather than assuming that they will know what my sense of myself is. At the same time I heard a lot of conversation about my quite, reassuring, calm and pleasant manner. This was nice to hear and is affirming of my approach and efforts to take a decentered position in relationships such as this.

I finished the subjects I have had a lead on earlier in the week. The Tuesday class (theories & techniques) was appreciative and complimentary of their experience of me - demonstrated with a little party & glass of wine at the end. The Monday class (Contemporary Humanistic Counseling) ended on a pretty good note with an engaged discussion. I would like to take credit for walking along with this group to a point where this could happen. We began with a mixture of structured lecture, discussion, and experiential activity (designed to perturb their frame of reference) and moved to a point where we could engage predominantly in a critical discussion on the topic at hand.

However in all cases I encountered an attitude toward the process that just astounds me. I have characterized this broadly as a casual approach to education. But more specifically I have experienced it as suspicion if not downright aggression toward ideas or expectations that do not fit what they come in with. The assessment process is very disconnected from the learning process and is something that happens after the fact (this is somewhat inherent in the overall system here). I experienced this in spades when discussing the final essay with many overtly saying how it was a difficult task and didn't see why they should have to do that. In a number of circumstances there was challenge and hostility toward the criteria set for the essay indicating they didn't like the criteria, shouldn't have to use them and would rather use their own. It would be nice to say this was solely a product of the anxiety and stress produced by the end of the semester. However I experienced this in different ways throughout. Any new theory or idea was dismissed as either nothing different that was done long ago or characterized as rather simplistic and OK if you work with light things but wouldn't do much good with "real" issues. I had them writing reflective notes on many of the readings and the most amazing is when identifying one thing they don't understand or would like to discuss more the issue was why the author had to use such big words and write in such a complex manner.

In all of this I run the risk of characterizing my classroom experience as a bad one. Quite the contrary - encountering such a different response led me to allot of reflection and exploration of myself, my identity as an educator and my approaches to training. My colleague at Bouverie suggests that this is characteristic of Australia broadly and Melbourne specifically. That the therapy community in Melbourne is down right brutal toward any new ideas. He shared that Michael White and David Epstein hated coming to Melbourne because the students here would attack. I have been able to not absorb the attacks and listen from a different position, hearing the alternative story within. I don't know that it made me much more successful with them but it has resulted in me being successful with myself. I am inclined to think that they have been impacted by me in a useful way - if I am to believe the feedback I have been receiving.