Experiments in education

I have spent the last two-three years trying to answer a single question:

How can young people in today’s world start making and sustaining creative change?

Having experimented with curriculum, storytelling and social service, I finally took the plunge and entered the hallowed world of university education. In the last eight months, I have explored creative and meaningful methods in leadership education. And I have emerged a little bruised, a little disillusioned, but a lot hopeful for the world in which we hope to live in.

I started with what my predecessor handed over to me – a textbook, guidelines for two projects, and anticipation. Today, I have discarded the text book, banished those stories of extraordinary leaders, and refocused on what I knew before I got here: leadership is for everyone. There’s no courage involved in this. Just skill. And hope for a possibility of a new world.

Using, what was for me a new and phenomenal methodology, created and honed by Ronald Heifetz and colleagues at Harvard, I focused on the individual story of each student, and each group. The goal was to simulate the different systems that we live in, in the classroom itself. Supplemented by extracts from literature, music and films, I have spent the last ten weeks immersed in the everyday leadership we all experience, we all ignore, we all downplay.

The biggest highlights for me was:

1. Watching the shy ones open up, and start influencing their groups – both within their smaller project groups, and the larger class with everyone.
2. Watching the confident ones reevaluate their perceptions of leadership and authority, and walk away with hopefully new understandings, ideas, and insights into group thinking and functioning.
3. Celebrating each moment of success AND failure, acknowledging success without being thought of as ‘arrogant’ and recognizing that our failures are perhaps the most important sources of learning – more meaningful than any textbook, any other story
4. Realising that leadership is not to be feared, not about a single person’s responsibility – but that of everyone.
5. Understanding the cultural context – that what might work with mid-career, international professionals might not particularly succeed with young east-Asian undergraduates. And controlling for this.

And from that last point emerged my biggest challenge: how can I create experiences both within and outside the classroom, through which undergraduates can get exposed to the reality that is this diverse world? And the answer lies in the ecosystem’s willingness to allow for this. While I have had a small measure of success in the classroom itself – my own failure lies in my lack of understanding of this complex ecosystem which is the university. In my inability to penetrate the cultural and historical barriers in this region that i now call home.

The challenge in front of me now is to shake this system up a little bit. To show new ways, new ideologies to a highly traditional and conservative institution. The question is: am I more effective where I am; or should I now try from outside?

In the next few months I hope to document these experiments in a little more detail. I hope you will stay with me for them

Empathy, and not apathy

Recently, I was posed an interesting question: if you knew, for a fact, that a company was unproductive and a drain on resources, would you choose to shut it down, and cause the loss of hundreds of jobs? Or, would you bolster it, till it runs its course and dies a natural death, while wasting however many millions of dollars in the process? For me, this kind of question brings up a range of ethical and value-driven points of consideration. It is, of course, impossible to look at this uni-dimensionally, however tempting it might be. If we take an economic perspective, then perhaps it is better to cut our losses and look towards more productive uses for capital. At the same time, economic, social and political realities never function in isolation from each other. Looking at it from the perspective of an employee, or a family member, or a shareholder, or a board member, gives us different ideas and senses of how we can approach such a problem. Solutions ought to have maximum benefits for all stakeholders, and somewhere I believe that we need to move away from the idea of capital being zero-sum for the world to become more sustainable. Indeed, collaboration towards solving problems, and equality in stake will serve towards building such a sustainable world. And key to this is that element of empathy, one that could be defined as an openness to the world, an ability to understand and experience different perspectives and standpoints. For me, empathy underlies some of the best (and potentially the worst) decisions that we make, and design supported by empathy has the potential to solve some of the most pressing problems we face in the world.

Moving beyond ‘Putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes.’ Photo from here.

For a long time, the question of how we can activate empathy has been building in my head. I’ve used the word activate very consciously here – we are all empathetic human beings, some of us highly so, even as it lies dormant in others. We choose who we care about, and how we care for them. This is why we are able to shut ourselves away from different aspects of the world, as we believe it doesn’t affect us How then can we open ourselves up towards the whole world? Is that even possible, or am I envisaging a utopian, and ultimately unviable universe?

I don’t really have answers to these questions, but some things might lead us in the direction of these answers. I think the first thing to think about is improving our own critical consciousness. Moving away from just pedagogy, I see critical consciousness as the development of a framework of questioning: situations, responses, ideas. Taking it one step forward, it is also developing an ability to link things up, see the bigger picture as it were. Such an ability would suddenly put everyday instances in a new perspective for us. It would create a whole new awareness of the world. Developing this framework and knowledge would then inform our daily opinions, and choices, creating a whole new set of actions for us to draw from. Actions we wouldn’t ever have considered or discarded as useless before. In the case of the unproductive company, if we actually question what we mean by ‘unproductive’ and redefine it for ourselves, we suddenly see a whole bunch of new actions we can take towards not just salvaging a situation, but turning it around and making it healthy.

Would critical consciousness alone actively lead to empathy? I don’t know. However, I believe it is the basis for developing this skill. And I also believe it can happen at multiple times. For Buddha, it took three shocking events for him to develop it and actively seek enlightenment. For Ashoka, a terrible war suddenly made him see the consequences of the path he was in. But ‘shocks’ like this are few and far inbetween in a world as desensitised as our own. It might be far more powerful to start developing our empathetic abilities from when we are young.

And how do we go about it. I’ve experimented a bit in the past, with few results. With new opportunities beckoning, I’m hoping to spend the rest of this year finding out! So watch this space, yes?

Some thoughts on representation…

In the somewhat recent past, I have encountered some truly horrific attempts at representation of communities by the same people who claim to know them the best. Let’s leave aside mainstream media for now (because that is a whole other can of worms, we all know!). For those of us constantly engaging with communities, deprived or otherwise,  I think it’s time to take a step back and reflect on our methods of articulation of people’s needs and requirements, particularly as practitioners. Here are some examples of what has gotten me so riled up:

1. Positioning malnourished and emaciated children in poses of need and distress through photos and video.

2. This particular project, which looks at enabling the mainstream to experience how the marginalised live, through site visits to their homes, and walkthroughs in their living spaces.

While I am the first to admit that both attempts I have described have been made in complete sincerity, with only good intentions by the respective practitioner, I believe this throws up some important points for reflection. The main thing is to re-look at why these attempts at representation have been made. For me it comes down to empathy. For those of us working in the non-profit space, it’s a constant challenge to create feelings of empathy with our audiences. Empathy, for me, is a crucial element which enables people to act. And if our mission is to change the world, then our core strategy would be to build empathy across the board – those who we identify as stakeholders AND those who we do not. And how we do it comes back to my favourite topic – how we tell stories.

Storytelling is key towards building empathy, and we might choose a range of ways in which we can tell those stories. Media is only a tool in this, and each particular medium can help us in getting our messages across with maximum impact. But what is crucial is the message: how are we articulating our communities, how are we making them relevant to our audiences, how are we bringing meaning to our media, these are the questions we need to answer. So when we portray our communities as victims, whether intentionally or not, we need to question if this is how we want our audiences to relate to them. When we position our communities as an attraction, a way of entertainment, we need to ask if this is achieving what we have set out to achieve. Ultimately, are we getting our audiences to empathise with what our communities are going through.

For me, empathy emerges from understanding. Empathy emerges from experience. Enabling this through media is by nature a challenging task. Media is, at the end of the day, showing us things which are often removed from our everyday realities. And in a world where we are constantly under a barrage of messages, our stories need to stand out. And thus, as practitioners, we need to start observing carefully what we are putting out into the world, always keeping our end goal in sight. For what we want is empathy, and not apathy; building courage to act, and not remain indifferent.

Disclaimer: I have kept both illustrations intentionally vague, as I wouldn’t want to offend anyone. They were merely used as a means to talk about my larger point on representation in general

 

Need: New Social Movement

Recently, I had a short chat with Colin Gonsalves, the founder of Human Rights Law Network. My question: what do we need in this country, which will transform the human rights situation as we see it today? His answer, in short? An action movement which will topple the existing systems of power. Coming in the aftermath of a highly dramatized anti-corruption movement, which fizzled out almost as fast as it began, I was a little leery of what he was talking about. What good will another movement do, I thought. Previous movements that I had exposure to, like the Narmada Bachao Andolan, seemed to exist (atleast, in my reality) only in the media, and the glowing reports from several people I had met, who had been part of them. Did they really bring about much change? Or any at all? I was still skeptical.

Photo Courtesy, flickr user: vinaydv

And yet. Recently, I also had the great pleasure of interacting with Bablu Ganguly, the founder of Timbaktu Collective in the heart of Andhra Pradesh. And late last year, I was interviewed Chetna Gala Sinha, a phenomenal entrepreneur working out of rural Maharashtra. Both of them, working in completely different sectors and regions, both having achieved considerable significance and impact through the work they are doing, both of them naming a single source of inspiration: Jayaprakash Narayan and his call for revolution.

Hello World!

Hello dear Blog. I have missed you so.

So, since I’m in an unreasonably romantic mood (yes, it’s the full moon hanging plump in the sky tonight. yes, I’m also exhausted and hence slightly delusional), let me elaborate on how I will write more, read more, think more, reflect more AND connect more on the blank canvas of Infinite.

Did I mention I was in an unreasonable kind of mood?

So in a bid to bring this blog back to life, I propose several projects.

Project #1 – bringing back the fiction. I used to write a lot. I don’t anymore. Instead of mourning, there should be revival.

Project #2 – Crime and Media. Remember? So, watch out for more on this space. Starting tomorrow!

Project #3 – Invisible Cities. Yes tired and overused title but will hopefully bring out some new perspectives.

So now that this is cast in stone. Er, or on my screen to mock at me while I procrastinate. It should get me off my ass, at the very least!

Happy February all!

 

Book Review – The Secret of the Nagas

After reading Immortals of Meluha, I was fairly hard pressed to pick up Secret of the Nagas. Finally, I decided to give it a go. Maybe it would be better than the first. But since when have sequels ever trumped the glory of the first?

In Secret of the Nagas, we finally get some answers. Who are these Chandravanshis? What are the Nagas? We follow Shiva as he leaves the haven of Meluha to enter into the chaos of Swadeep. Now for a description of Swadeep: Here’s a place. It has many kingdoms. Each kingdom has its own law, culture, rules, people. It’s a place of poverty but freedom. People can do what they want, however they want to and when they want it. A perfect foil for Meluha. A poor metaphor, I thought, for West vs East; Order vs Chaos; Masculine vs Feminine.

Book Review: The Immortals of Meluha

Wow. So the past few weeks have been chock filled with drama. One Accident. Missed deadlines. Drama. Drama. Drama.

No wonder this book review got lost in the midst of all this.

I got the books of the Shiva trilogy (well, the first two books) together out of curiosity and excitement. I remember when the Ram books by Ashok Banker came out. I loved them! Lyrical writing, a great and strong character, superb world building. And now here was something on Shiva, one of my favourite gods. I am not a very religious person but Shiva has always been able to hook me. Combined with a trip to Roopkund earlier this year, a place abound with Shiva myths and stories, I was really keen to find out how this translates into fiction.

An honest, if one-sided, tale on Indian Maoism

Central India is an alluring place. Not for its vast tracts of impenetrable forests, not for the Gond tribals who make fantastic art , but for the whispered war playing out in its arena. It’s a war between the State and its many arms, against a few shadowy figures in fatigues who proclaim to stand for the people. This, dear readers, is not a war of words. This is a war of gruesome discontent, of vengeance and does not have a happy ending.

A training program in session for potential Maoist guerillas

The Maoist movement in India has been a long time object of commentary in mainstream discourse. Politically as well as ideologically, it has often either been elevated – for its emancipation of the landless peasants in central India, or slammed – for its violent nature. The movement firmly pitches the State as the imperialistic overlord which must be overthrown. The State is seen as being repressive, colonial and serving only the rich. The poor and the landless must throw off the yokels of victimization and rise up against the State. The Maoist guerrillas, educated, idealistic and fiery, are the ones who will facilitate this uprising.

On Storytelling!

Thanks all for the great comments and response to the ‘Creating Transformative Citizens’ two-parter that I published literally MONTHS apart. This has given me a whole new motivation to blog more, blog better and perhaps most importantly, blog regularly!

The past ten months at my (dare I say it) #firstjob has really taught me a lot – not just in terms of how to get the most out of a workplace but also in terms of the specialization I seem to have inadvertently chosen for myself. Getting into content development occurred in some kind of freaky coincidence, and though my focus at work has shifted slightly towards online marketing, at heart, I am still a content girl. This is probably because of the on-going love affair that I have had with writing and words (starting age 10) but also because of one integral aspect of content which I think so many people fail to recognise – that of story telling.

Because here’s the thing. Each piece of content produced, through whichever medium, tells us a story. Whether it is about how a product can change our life, or how a situation played out, or what a particular solution can be; these are stories giving us certain world-views about certain issues. When seen in this way, a piece of content gets transformed into something far more powerful than what we possibly envisaged it to be.

This is particularly poignant when it comes to providing content for non-profits. Non-profits thrive on good storytelling. Since they work closely with people, in many cases being heavily involved in changing their lives (and hopefully for the better), the potential for story telling becomes great!   This doesn’t mean embellishing the actual work of the organisation to make it read as a good story. Instead, it calls for a proactive eye, being able to see the real life stories of people even as they play out in front of us. It’s challenging, but what a fun challenge!

And so I count storytelling as an integral part of my work as a communications/content person! It’s a way for me to engage deeply with the work my organisation does. At the same time, it helps me detach myself from what’s going on around me – helping me understand perhaps more clearly, whether the work we are doing actually impacts people the way we would like it to. The stories of people we impact, systems we create, processes we set down all come to a natural conclusion. Some are not pretty, some look great, but they are all chock-full of learning. And discovering this story helps me see the world for what it really is!

And thus I look for the story in everything happening around me at work (and for that matter, outside work as well!). Whether it is through official communications, office gossip, people’s testimonials, outsider views, they all contribute to building a narrative around issues. And being able to thread this all together to come out with something real is the challenge. I believe that when we start doing this, our content will become a rich source of perspectives from the field. And it might inspire similar initiatives across the world!

I would love to know what you think as well!

Creating transformative citizens, Part II

So this post has been pending for a long time!

In my previous post I had discussed the need to move beyond active citizenship to something more transformative in nature. I detailed out my reasons for this. In this post I would like to tackle the ‘how’ of it, drawing on my experiences in curriculum design.

Transformation, for me, happens at two levels: at the individual and at the systemic. It’s a force which becomes effective only if all of us contribute to it. However, it still needs individuals to kick-start it. It’s this trigger person, the few who catalyse the many, which proves to be very elusive for those of us who want to make change.