Knowledges Interchange
Recognizing the plurality of our knowledges, and anticipating the positive outcomes from the interchangeArchive for Random Thoughts
More on the Olympics
At least one of my colleagues has challenged me on my observation that athletes seem to go to the Oympics to win, not to learn. I’ve been watching the games for more than a week now, and I’ll admit that I was probably a little off the mark. That same colleague has pointed me to the postings of Elliott Masie (http://www.masie.com ) on the training and coaching that is going on at the games. You can actually see that happening, for example as the coaches speak to high divers after they’ve completed each dive, presumably to help them correct for the next dive.
I still think the main goal of all the competitors is to win. But based on all the interviews I’ve watched, there are a lot of them, particularly the younger folk, who go for the experience and truly want to pick up ideas from the mature, successful athletes. Many of them say so to the camera, and the commentators point out that they will be back in 2012 when they’ve grown a little more in the standings. As for unintended learnings, the camera shows that the intercultural interchanges are quite remarkable.
The big question that is being hotly debated in Canada’s popular press whether the cost of sending athletes to the Olympics can be justified if they are not at the point in their careers where they have learned enough to win. Is the price of admission worth it to taxpayers, when we need to pay for learning in so many other areas–literacy, English as a Second Language, trades and technology? How does it help us to solve the world’s problems if we dedicate resources to sports? Yes, the athletes I’ve seen being interviewed are very bright, articulate people, but will they repay the investment in them by assisting to increase global harmony, or will they continue to focus on their own aims to achieve stronger, higher, further?
I don’t pretend to have answers, but just a lot of questions, and perhaps I’ll wait until 2010 to resume this Olympic thread.
The Olympics as a Venue for Knowledges Interchange
Some people think the Olympic Games are nothing more than a commercial opportunity to promote Wonder Bread. (BTW, I love the Wonder Bread ads they’re running right now, with children trying out sports, even though some people object. The little kid trying to move a curling rock brings back memories of my own failed attempt to curl!)
Myself, I like the Olympic Games because of the vision they can reflect if our eyes aren’t clouded by cynicism–or Beijing fog/smog. I focus on the extraordinary effort of the athletes, and consider them all winners–which is why I hate the way the TV interviewers pounce on “losers” demanding to know why they “failed”!
In particular, I like to idea that we might one day live in a world where people meet and interact, where competition is keen but nobody dies (sigh for Munich) and where the whole world participates in whatever way they can in a cultural exchange.
I’ll argue there isn’t enough of a focus on learning at the Olympics, beyond recognizing the skills that the competitors have acquired and their obvious intelligence in applying those skills. I’m fairly sure that the athletes don’t strive to reach world class standards in their sport in order to demonstrate their knowledges. It seems to me they are there to win, not to show what they have learned. However, there are unintended teachings and learnings about culture, communication styles, political infrastructures, ethics…and so on. Those who criticize and ignore the games are surely overlooking the opportunities for interchanges that can educate us and serve to strengthen international ties.
I live in hope that world peace will prevail, even while I recognize the near impossibility of that. Of course, I am not naive enough to think that all peoples can live in harmony and agree on all things. I have a fair amount of interpersonal conflict in my own life, and I know there are some people I will never like, and who will never like me. But if we can know enough about each other to break down barriers such as race, gender and class, and if we can educate ourselves enough to find solutions to battles over land and religion, then maybe we can share the same planet without killing each other.
Knowledges Interchange on July 1 and July 4
On the eve of the American July 4th celebrations, I’m still feeling happy about the good time I had on Canada Day, July 1st. It occurs to me that perhaps I haven’t mentioned how much I love the exchange of knowledges when I am meeting and greeting people.
I decided to volunteer the morning of July 1st at Granville Island in Vancouver. What a pleasure to interact with hundreds of people on a lovely sunny day. The crowd was a sea of red and white, and I helped by giving out flags. Waving at the cars who were coming to the festivities, I was amazed at the smiles and cheers from people of all cultures and backgrounds, all ages and sizes. Kewl looking guys in convertibles cheerfully broke out of their poses to yell “Happy Canada Day”. Older, more grizzled men came up to me demanding flags and lapel pins…but saying “please.” Children were urged to say “Thank You”. I was also thanked with smiles and nods and waves from bus loads of tourists, as well as locals on bikes.
This interchange of goodwill was infectious. I particularly liked it when people offered up a piece of themselves. Someone was having a 70th birthday on July 1st. A couple wanted me to share the news that they had just gained Canadian citizenship. And I really enjoyed the conversations I had with visitors from a number of different countries — the Netherlands, Australia, UK and the US. We asked each other questions, we shared jokes, and of course we discussed the weather. What could be more fun?
I hope our American cousins enjoy July 4th as much. They have a great deal to celebrate as we do — even more, given the age of their country compared to ours. I really hope that they will all find themselvers engaged in interchanges of knowledges with people from many cultures and lands. I hope everyone enjoys the party together.
My thoughts in the past six months
My conviction that we should conceptualize knowledges in the plural, and that the interchange of those knowledges is crucial to many endeavours remains as strong as ever. However, six months after beginning to blog (first on Knowledges Exchange and now on Knowledges Interchange) I now know that it is not easy to engage in dialogue around these concepts. I was told by a young colleague recently that there is no such word as knowledges. I addressed this in one of my first blog entries: http://knowledgesinterchange.wordpress.com/2007/06/02/is-knowledges-a-typo/
So what is it about my attempts to “teach” this new paradigm that have caused them to be unsuccessful? First of all, the loud sound of knowledge (in the singular) is deafening, and people cannot hear my subtle use of knowledges in the plural. I am irritated at myself for not publishing and presenting more, so that I reach a wider audience who are tuned in better to my message. To extend the sound metaphor, I seem to be on a different frequency from others, so it’s no wonder I’m not being heard.
But is it as simple as that? Are there other factors that are causing barriers as I seek to help people understand what I am trying to say?
For one thing, I’m talking a different language. Most of my listeners do not recognize the language of critical theory, and its extension to critical pedagogy. I believe that is because their culturalization makes them accept a cognitive framework grounded in the belief that there is one overarching body of knowledge.
Knowledges Exchange at Kwantlen
Kwantlen University College in British Columbia is hosting a Symposium this month entitled: Forging Our Own Path: Dialogues on Teaching and Learning and I’ve been invited to facilitate a session on “Knowledges Exchange as a Framework for Scholarship in Teaching and Learning”.
I’m looking forward to the exchanges with the Kwantlen faculty and staff, and other attendees. The challenge for me is to be open to those exchanges. If I’m to be true to what I believe in, I must resist going to the session with a PowerPoint presentation all prepared and a lecture rehearsed. What, no PowerPoint? It always brings a laugh.
I’ve made presentations on the topic a few times now. For example, I’ve already mentioned my participation in the STLHE and ISSOTL Conferences. I always appreciate the thoughtful expressions that cross people’s faces when I raise the notion of knowledges in the plural. I’ll use this blog to report on how my suggestions are received in Kwantlen.
An Alternative Persective
In spite of my good intentions, I wasn’t able to find the time or access to post messages to this blog while I was travelling in what we in the northern hemisphere call “down under”. My trip included visits to Hawaii, Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand. It was a wonderful trip and my heart and mind are full. So many images, so many ideas, so many breathtaking vistas, so many unexpected encounters and fruitful exchanges.
I brought back with me a map which is now on my office wall. It is the Kiwi “Upside Down” map of the world, showing New Zealand top and centre, and the rest of the world’s countries displayed underneath. This will be a permanent reminder that there is always at least one other point of view, and that I should always look for it.
Now that I’m back in Vancouver, I can resume my discussion of the concept of Knowledges Exchange, and I want to focus particularly on the literature that I find relevant to the framework I’m suggesting. Onward
