Paul M Galbally Am I asking to change you or am I asking about you The practitionerresearcher dichotomy in the context of Jack Mezirows transformational learning theory Content About Me What is Transformative Learning ID: 683985
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Slide1
School of Health & Social Care Research Seminar.Paul M Galbally
Am I asking to change you, or am I asking about you?
The practitioner-researcher dichotomy in the context of Jack Mezirow’s transformational learning theory.Slide2
ContentAbout Me
What is Transformative Learning:
Mezirow’s
10 Stage Model
The Disorientating Dilemma
Self Examination (Affect experienced)
Similarity of questions in therapy and research interview.
Intentional Games
Activating The Hyphen
ConclusionSlide3
About MeI run a family therapy team for a children's charity in Chelmsford and I am studying for a Professional Doctorate in Applied Psych.
My thesis looks at how conflict between separated parents influences talk about family and membership.
I am the first person in my family to go into higher education.
I am from Hackney, London, with a working class background of East End Irish and Romany Gipsy. My parents are separated and estranged. My mother has chronic mental health issues. My father is facing a custodial sentence for domestic violence and fraud.Slide4
Transformative Learning
Jack Mezirow believes that adult learners can learn in four ways (Mezirow, 1978, Mezirow, 1991):
Updating previous or current frames of reference
Acquiring new frames of reference
Changing the points of view (meaning scheme)
Changing the worldview, current paradigm (meaning perspective)
As learners mature, they are forced into changing structures that create meaning for them. This requires
critical reflection
to challenge assumptions, beliefs and attitudes.Slide5
Mezirow’s ten stage modelMezirow has created a model that he feels chronicles the journey of transformation learning. The stages are not mandatory and can occur in any order (Mezirow, 1991):
A disorienting dilemma
A self examination with feelings of guilt or shame
A critical assessment of epistemic, sociocultural, or psychic assumptions
Recognition that one’s discontent and the process of transformation are shared and that others have negotiated a similar changeSlide6
Mezirow’s ten stage modelExploration of options for new roles, relationships, and actions
Planning a course of action
Acquisition of knowledge and skills for implementing one’s plan
Provisional trying of new roles
Building of competence and self-confidence in new roles and relationships
A reintegration into one’s life on the basis of conditions dictated by one’s perspectiveSlide7
The Disorientating Dilemma – Stage 1Transformative learning is often initiated by a moment of crisis. A person realises that previous meaning structures they relied upon are no longer relevant in the face of new information.
I was interviewing a participant about moving from a form of sexualised labour and into a professional work role.
About half way through the interview, I realised that instead of carrying out an interview, I had suddenly slipped into a therapy session.Slide8
Self Examination – Stage 2Negative Feelings
Shame, guilt and embarrassment are often confused, enmeshed or misattributed (Tangney et al., 1996).
Embarrassment
– A sense of foolishness, transgressing social norms.
Guilt
– Motivates and involves reparation, in presence of the other.
Shame -
Unworthy or substandard, I am defective, has a moral connotation.
Imposter
(Brookfield, 1994)
Shaming story, it will emerge I am fraudulent, a professional imposter.
Links to background
– Class insecurity and legitimacy as an academic.Slide9
Similarity of Asking Questions:Circular Questions
The therapist compares and contrast the client’s experience within their social context and peer network (Tomm, 1988).
The central tenet of systemic therapy is
‘curiosity’
(Cecchin, 1987)
Dad with depression Example…
How do you know when Dad is depressed?
Who notices it first?
How is it dealt with?
What happens when Dad isn’t feeling depressed?Slide10
Similarity of Asking Questions:Qualitative Interviews
Build rapport and use open questions (Ritchie and Lewis, 2014) .
An attempt at “thickening” (Geertz, 1994: 2) an experience.
Similarity to “experience near and explanation far” (White and
Epston
, 1990) within systemic therapy.
Epistemologically similar:
Therapy is a collection of social vantage points (Hoffman, 1990).
Qualitative research collects the
essence of a lived experience
(Arber, 2006) or an account of the
participant’s reality
(
Polkinghorne
, 2005).
The knower and known: Systemically the
non-expert
(Anderson and Goolishian, 1992), the researcher
not knowing
(Arber, 2006).Slide11
Intentional Games
Therapeutic questions begin a cultural game (Wittgenstein, 1958) that assumes we are achieving growth or alleviating a problem.
The qualitative interview game attempts to create a shared understanding of a lived experience.
The differentiation occurs not within word use or order, but what game becomes activated and how language contributes to a process of “saying, doing and being” (Gee, 2011: 16).
How similar they appear (Two people talking, divisions of power, exploratory questions, epistemological stance, non disclosure of the therapist/researcher).
Analogy of football and rugby – How do we play the right game?Slide12
Activating the hyphen
The practitioner is in an ideal position to research phenomena, techniques or solutions to practice problems (Ragland, 2006).
Researching within a previous workplace can cause social, political and cultural identity conflict. Role conflation creates hostility and mistrust… “different
lifeworlds
” (Humphrey, 2007: 11)
Interviewing people about ageing “sticky moments” (Riach, 2009: 360).
A therapeutic session and the research interview share many core philosophical tenets such as psychological contact, empathy, use of self and co-constructed story telling. Unintentional counselling? (Bulpitt and Martin, 2010)
Alternative advocates therapeutic effect of researching sensitive areas, emancipatory?(Birch and Miller, 2000). Ethically challenging?Slide13
Conclusion – Mezirow’s
Reintegration
I assumed that because I ask questions as a therapist, it will be easy to ask questions as a researcher (Meaning Scheme). I had underestimated how context changes the encounter meaning.
Previously, I only ever asked questions as a therapist and only played one particular game.
Although therapy and research look similar, they have important distinctions - a new game with its own rules, obligations and values.
My meaning perspective has altered. I must be respectful of holding dual roles and not assume transferability.Slide14
References
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References
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