My conversation with Rita yesterday about her vision and intents for the research group makes me realize how one individual with a desire to transform a workplace can have real impact. My conversation with Nelson also solidified for me how working at the individual and small group level can really have concrete impacts in the transformation of individual lives and subsequently larger social environments. Education and training in new processes for working and living can have ripple effects.
Also I am beginning to understand Peter’s desire to create spaces that allow individuals maximum space for their own creative and exploratory processes. By creating space for individual knowledge and creativity, do we then create environments that allow for more individuals to be actors and agents in their own journey’s? In some ways, these workshops seem almost like therapy for group and institutional environments that have closed down these impulses.
I am also wondering why it is that I am experiencing some inner tension and stress. I clearly have to work through my issues with authority and my inclination towards subservience that are highly detrimental to my own sense of confidence. What is it that is causing me to be in tension? I think some of it is my own misinterpretations or readings of things said. I am doubting my own intelligence and knowledge. Why is that? I struggle with some of these concepts. I too often present my language as certainties. What is that about? I often feel like such a dullard when Peter is explaining things as though my mind simply can’t grasp what is going on. Is part of the issue that I’m tired. I think there is part of me that still feels like that tween who was told she could be part of things and felt that there were too many controls in her life.
So what does this mean for collaborative knowledge? I suppose that for all to be present and participating in such environments, that those who feel less confident or weaker need to be supported. They also need to have the space to develop and present their own ideas and voices. They need to feel safe and have trust in others and they need to be comfortable in having ideas battled and challenged.