STRATEGY MEETING - 8 to 12 MAY 2005

General aims:

to adapt/develop the core content and negotiate the delivery strategies for the transnational literacy/global citizenship programme to be piloted in educational contexts in the UK and overseas

to design the methodology for the educational research project to be submitted to AHRB (data collection, triangulation and guidelines for the development of case-studies)

Objectives:

to construct a shared vision of principles, visions and contexts

to construct a shared understanding of the methodology of 'pedagogical open spaces'

to negotiate roles, responsibilities and expectations

to discuss the overal strategies of the programme

to provide an opportunity for partners and other stakeholders to get to know one another

Proposed programme (to be discussed)

Sunday 8/05 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm arrival 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm introductions/team building group dynamics/negotiation of principles and agendas 7:30 dinner 8:30 free time to rest (for the jet lagged ones) or talk (for the chatterboxes!)	One (big) challenge.... "When one puts objectivity in parenthesis, all views, all verses in the multiverse are equally valid. Understanding this, you lose the passion for changing the other. One of the results is that you look apathetic to people. Now, those who do not live with objectivity in parentheses have a passion for changing the other. So they have this passion and you do not. For example, at the university where I work, people may say, ‘Humberto is not really interested in anything,’ because I don’t have the passion in the same sense that the person that has objectivity without parentheses. And I think that this is the main difficulty. To other people you may seem too tolerant. However, if the others also put objectivity in parentheses , you discover that disagreements can only be solved by entering a domain of co-inspiration, in which things are done together because the participants want to do them. With objectivity in parentheses, it is easy to do things together because one is not denying the other in the process of doing them." Humberto Maturana - Interview 1985.
Monday 9/05 7:30 breakfast 8:30 AM objectives (getting to know contexts + one another): -Background information -Context presentations -Collective construction of shared principles, visions/horizons -Negotiation of roles, responsibilities and expectations 12:30 Lunch 13:30 Group walk 14:15 PM objectives (understanding the bigger picture): -Construction of shared understanding of methodology -Negotiation of methodological procedures -Comparison with P4C procedures -Selection of topics for 10h core programme -General design of research methodology -Negotiation of communication strategies amongst group participants 19:30 dinner 21:00 get together (can anyone play the guitar? perform? recite? dance?:)
Tuesday 10/05 7:30 breakfast 8:30 AM objectives (looking at what we have got, identifying what we haven't got and starting to work on it): -Building of 10h programme (revision and/or adaptation of what can be used from OW materials + mapping of work that needs to be done) -Design of research tools (questionnaires/guidelines for focus groups/research diaries) -Content development 12:30 Lunch 13:30 Back to Nottingham 15:00 PM objectives: (group work at Hallward library) -Content development 18:00 dinner at Willoughby Hall 20:00 group evaluation of progress/process
Wednesday 11/05 7:30 breakfast 8:30 AM objective: content design 12:30 Lunch at Trent Cafeteria 13:30 Presentation and revision of content developed in the morning 16:30 Planning of communication/revision strategies and timetable for the development team 17:30 Presentation of finalised action plan and programme 20:00 Dinner (outing)
Thursday 12/05 7:30 breakfast 9:00 AM objectives: (Jubillee campus) -Brainstorm of briefing text and project 'image' (how the project will be promoted to different audiences) -Discussion of research budget -Discussion of project evaluation and role of advisory group -Thinking ahead: first thoughts about project expansion, outreach and dissemination -Final thoughts and meeting evaluation -Getting to know other project partners/friends/advisors (EES officer?, advisory group?, evaluator?) 12:30 Lunch PM free

This proposed programme will be discussed in a meeting with the local project team on 7/04. If you have any comments or suggestions, please send them to me by 6/04 (taxvoa@nottingham.ac.uk).

Background/Useful reading:

Project proposal - essential reading! (see text)

Appendices to the proposal with statements of support received (see text)

Other Worlds Units available at www.mundi.org.uk/otherworlds
It might be important and useful to get acquainted with what has been produced for the Other Worlds project as we will be evaluating and adapting what there is available in the meeting. I'd recommend sepecially the introductory unit (with the revised procedures), the revised units (that can be found in the handouts and documents area) and the questions section of all the other units.

What I have done with other people about the OW project or on the context of development education in Engalnd:

Potentials and Challenges of Pedagogical Open Spaces (see text)
An article I wrote for the Ephemera journal that tells the story of the Other Worlds project and outlines some of the principles of the open spaces methodology as I see it

WSF, Ethics and Pedagogy (see text)
An article I co-authored with Emma Dowling for the Unesco Social Science journal that also outlines my assumptions in relation to the open spaces methodology (this name was borrowed from the methodology of the WSF)

Presentation of the Other Worlds Project (see presentation)
It is an overview of the project development, methodology and conceptual framework (of reflexive ethics)

Case-study analysis of the first three pilot groups of the Other Worlds Project (see text)
A summary written by Tracy Slawson and myself

Preliminary Report of Other Worlds (see text)
Written by Sujatha Raman

Learning about others, learning about ourselves: assumptions about 'North and South' in development education in England (see presentation)
(Yes, it has got a similar title!) This is a presentation with the summary of my PhD that outlines the problematic nature of the educational context in the UK for this area. I conclude with suggested directions/horizons that are in line with the purposes of this project. In many ways my PhD presents a case for policy and practice review and presents the methodological principles of this project as a possible direction that would overcome the problems and limitations I identified in my research. As the research findings are going through a peer review process, any feedback is more than welcome (this is due at the end of May).

Other Texts:

Autopoiesis and systems education: implications for practice (see text)
A text written by Robert Kay that summarises Maturana and Varela's theories about systems education that are very much in line with the methodology of the project and its justifications.

Subaltern Talk: an interview with the editors in Landry and MacLean, eds. The Spivak Reader, 1996, pp. 287-308 (not available online)
An interview with Spivak where she talks about Transnational Literacy and education. I also like the introduction of the authors in this book. She also mentions transnational literacy in the last chapter of the book 'A critique of post-colonial reason', but if you are not used to her language, I'd recommend to start with the book 'The post-colonial critic' as she is much clearer in her interviews than in other genres.

Post-colonialism - a very short introduction - Robert Young (book)
If you do not know much about post-colonial theory this is definetely the place to start. It is a pocket book that costs £6.99 at Blackwells. Very clear, full of examples and easy to read.

Death of a Discipline - Gayatri Spivak (book)
A book about literary theory, but the principles that she outlines (especially those related to a 'planetary vision' as opposed to 'globalisation') can be transferred to other educational contexts and might be important for the project.

If you would like to add books or articles to this list, which you think are related to the principles or methodology of this project, please let me know.