Corrie-Festo- Ethical and Compassionate Education for a Complex World

Thanks for all of the collaborative learning over the past few months. This class made me feel more inspired and hopeful about my journey in lifelong learning, and connected theory to my wide ranging practice. I’ve appreciated the opportunity to share my thoughts and writing, and to be able to read and comment on everyone else’s musings.

This Corrie-Festo is based on the concept of manifesto- a public declaration of intentions and aims mostly used by political parties and movements. Well, I’m not officially part of any political party, and I belong to too many movements to count, but I do love the idea of publicly declaring my intentions as an adult educator based on all that I’ve learned in this lifelong learning processes class.

Some might call these guiding principles or a mission statement, but I prefer the political under and over tones of manifesto. Though to make it my own, and honour my unique identity as an educator I’m calling it a Corrie-Festo. As educators we tap into the core of our strengths, vulnerabilities, and wacky sensibilities. I believe that those who do this well are the most authentic and transformative educators. I’ve had many strong mentors to walk behind, and I hope my evolving journey takes me a few steps closer to being a more capacious, generative, and compassionate educator.

This Corrie-Festo of my top ten learnings and intentions outlines the kind of educator I aim to be based on what I have learned in this class. I write it in present tense, as I strongly believe that the intentions we put out in the world change who and how we are.

As an adult educator I:

RECOGNIZE that as learners we are anchored in our bodies and brains. We are an historic and evolutionary mix of mammals, vertebrates, primates, and humans. We learn with all of our senses and emotions with and from each other. We learn most deeply when we connect honestly and openly with our heads, hearts, and hands.

COLLABORATE to understand the needs, desires and strengths of my learners. Humans understand one another as intentional beings and that is the reason we are who we are. Through collaboration we create, accumulate, pass on, and transform knowledge and culture. Collaboration demands engagement and participation, and requires deep and active listening.

BELIEVE the aim of adult education is collective transformation and well-being. I want the education I’m involved with to help learners become more critical, moral, self-reflective, and compassionate beings. As educators, we help produce and reproduce knowledge and culture. I want to be part of creating and supporting the revolution, not the status quo.

ENABLE identity development and transformation by supporting learners to explore their identities, tensions, and conflicts to expand what and who they believe themselves to be. I believe learning can transform who we are by changing our ability to participate, to belong, and to negotiate meaning.

UNDERSTAND that learning is not an individualized process, but occurs within and between communities of practice- webs of people, culture, biology and identity. This is where we develop, negotiate, and share theories and ways of understanding the world.

UNPACK conflict and tension to understand deeper meaning. Conflict often occurs when we negotiate meaning, unpack our multilayered identities, and deal with differences across boundaries. Dealing with conflict to better understand our values, assumptions and judgements can be an incredibly transformative process.

INTERROGATE relationships of power by asking “Who benefits?” and “Who’s missing?” All educational contexts are shaped by power, necessitating a constant awareness of personal, interpersonal, institutional, and systemic relationships of power. The boundaries that demarcate difference can be a locus of change. Wenger states, “They are where the unexpected can be expected, where innovative or unorthodox solutions are found, where serendipity is likely, and where old ideas find new life and new ideas propagate” (p. 254).

IMAGINE alternatives, new possibilities, and innovative solutions. To do this I aim to cultivate open-mindedness, the ability to empathize and suspend judgement. Envisioning unorthodox solutions and connections requires creative, interdisciplinary, and wise thinkers.

CRITICALLY REFLECT to more deeply understand my own vulnerabilities, faults, and desires, so that others can trust me to explore their own. I also ask learners to critically reflect by stepping outside of their individual identities and communities of practice, to begin to straddle the boundaries of their multimemberships and multiidentities. This builds the capacity for communities of practice to examine their identities and belonging in relation to political, institutional, and systemic forces of power.

EMBRACE the magic of learning as a continuously unfolding, complex and emergent process. While it can be influenced, shaped, and supported, it cannot be designed, only designed for. There is a need for balancing personal and collective learning, local and global perspectives, and efficient and emergent learning designs.