In the book, Taking Yourself Seriously, the authors encourage readers to participate in the online forum so as to engage the authors and each other in ongoing conversation and in sharing resources, struggles, and accomplishments. Comments on this post will serve as the forum.
Join the Book Tour for Taking Yourself Seriously: Processes of Research and Engagement by Peter Taylor and Jeremy Szteiter (The Pumping Station, 2012)—a “field-book of tools and processes to help readers in all fields develop as researchers, writers, and agents of change.”
At each “stop” (conference call) on the tour Peter or Jeremy spend 5 minutes to introduce themselves, the key “4Hs” theme, and one of five vignettes from the book:
Then participants are led through a 30-50 minute process involving writing, reflecting, speaking, and listening to make connections with their own work (http://bit.ly/FivePhase).
Sign up to join any conference call on this list or propose to convene an event at another time.*
* Conveners volunteer to find at least five people who will join a conference call at an agreed-on time (9am-9pm, any day, subject to confirmation), then post that time, the skype names or phone numbers of the participants, and their vignette preference. At the time of the event, the book tour organizers initiate the call (from skype name newssc1) and provide the link to the visuals for the introduction. Afterwards they send the convener a free copy of the book.
A field-book of tools and processes to help readers in all fields develop as researchers, writers, and agents of change
A wide range of tools and processes for research, writing, and collaboration are defined and described—from Governing Question to GOSP, Plus-Delta feedback to Process Review, and Supportive Listening to Sense of Place Map. The tools and processes are linked to three frameworks that lend themselves to adaptation by teachers and other advisors:
Researchers and writers working under these frameworks participate in Dialogue around Written Work and in Making Space for Taking Initiative In and Through Relationships. These processes help researchers and writers align their questions and ideas, aspirations, ability to take or influence action, and relationships with other people. Bringing those dimensions of research and engagement into alignment is the crux of taking yourself seriously. The tools, processes, and frameworks are illustrated through excerpts from two projects: one engaging adult learning communities in using the principles of theater arts to prepare them to create social change; the other involving collaborative play among teachers in curriculum planning. A final section provides entry points for students and educators to explore insights, experiences, and information from a wider world of research, writing, and engagement in change.
Authors
Peter Taylor is a Professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he directs the Graduate Program in Critical and Creative Thinking and the undergraduate Program on Science, Technology and Values. His research and writing links innovation in teaching and interdisciplinary collaboration with studies of the complexity of environmental and health sciences in their social context. This combination is evident in his 2005 book, Unruly Complexity: Ecology, Interpretation, Engagement (University of Chicago Press).
Jeremy Szteiter is a 2009 graduate of the Critical and Creative Thinking program and now serves as the Program’s Assistant Coordinator. His work has centered around community-based and adult education and has involved managing, developing, and teaching programs to lifelong learners, with an emphasis on a learning process that involves the teaching of others what has been learned and supporting the growth of individuals to become teachers of what they know.
Books available through The Pumping Station:
The Pumping Station 