Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Pender Hill, Parker Palmer, Mark Johnson, and Dewey!

Parker J. PalmerImage via WikipediaRecently I attended a wonderful wedding of two young friends that happened to be next door to the Quaker Retreat Center, Pender Hill, outside of Philadelphia.  While I was unfamiliar with that name...I was familiar with the name Parker Palmer, who had spent many years there as student, teacher, and Dean.

Since the encounter with Pender Hill, I have been thinking more about Parker Palmer's work, which has always resonated with me. 

I have also been reading a marvelous book by Mark Johnson--The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics of Human Understanding--in which he comes back to Dewey's notion of the body-mind in fruitful and provocative ways.  

So this morning Parker Palmer had and out of body experience with Mark Johnson and John Dewey--in my mind as I thought about the struggle individuals and groups have with interactions.  Struggle is the problematic (a la Dewey).  We always have situations that are unbalanced, poorly understood, present an issue that needs to be explored, inquired about--that's what Dewey's notion of situation has embedded in it.  I was thinking about the issues of interactions as issues of power.  This led me to the notion of balance (of power...power with) vs power that is out of balance (power over or power under; victimizer vs victimized).  When one seeks power with, you are working from a position of confidence and capacity...you are power-ful.  When one seeks power over or under, you are working from a position of fear.  Power-ful is balanced, integrated, connected, calm.  Power-less is unbalanced, disintegrating, dis-connected and fearful.

This brought me back to Mark Johnson and Dewey as I thought about the ways these stances are embodied and how our feelings or reactions provide us with important information about the ways others around us are engaged in negotiating power.  I am so likely to think that I should discount physical information about how I am reacting or how I FEEL others are reacting, and yet this information is critical to understanding the structure and meaning of the power issues in an interaction. 



I've set myself the personal task of learning more about Parker Palmer's Circles of Caring work as it applies to higher education.  This seems like such a good fit with the notion of diversity in the workplace...in the largest sense of that term.

Thank you to all my distant teachers!  







Enhanced by Zemanta

Friday, August 20, 2010

Book Review

Collage BlendingImage by williamcho via FlickrI have just gotten word about a new review of the diGregorio & Davidson text:  Qualitative Research Design for Software Users.  The review was written by Dale Frick and published in Qualitative Social Work.  My thanks to Dale Frick (whom I haven't met before) for such a thoughtful review. 

You can access the review at:  http:qsw.sage.pub.com/content/9/2/287.citation
Enhanced by Zemanta

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Anthologize

Anthologize ScreenshotImage by MatthiasHeil via Flickr
Something very exciting has just happened in the world of academia and technology.  Thanks to Dan Cohen and his NEH funded group for developing a really interesting tool.  Take a look at: 

Anthologize

You can read more about the development of this project on Dan's Blog:

Dan Cohen on Anthologize

I think there is great potential for academic use here--turning blogs into articles and publications, providing students with new ways to write.  This was a tool that was waiting to happen.  Thanks to everyone who worked on it.  I look forward to trying it out. 
Enhanced by Zemanta