DEAR YOGESHREE
I've been thinking a little more about walking the journey with children and young people 'from the inside out' . It struck me that Maria Montessori watched processes of learning happen in the lives of intellectually challenged kids. She describes these processes and found ways to help learning through her observations. The advantage she had was that she saw learning happen in children in slow motion replay mode, this allowed us to recognise those patterns in children at their regular developmental rate.
It got me wondering how we can or do get 'windows' through which we can see what is going on when we encounter behaviour in troubled children and youth. It was always (and still is) a mantra for me , constantly repeated in my head when engaging with or engaged in incidents of events and reactions of young people in care.
"What is really going on here?"
"What is really going on here?".
What is really happening at some levels above and below the apparent? Thom Garfat's question is "What is the child getting out of this?" Whatever which way we are searching for the' beyond the surface' meaning of the child's behaviour.
We all know of Johari's Window.An image for me was a game of chess played at three levels... but there are surely more. At the top level of play the game moves can be seen. It is what is clearly observable. The second level of play is partly or even mostly obscured. You can get a glimpse of this game ... it's moves and it's impact on the game above it. What is clear is that the two games influence each other. The third game is at the deepest level. It is not really allowed to be directly observed. Each move, each game has a direct influence on the levels of play, especially on the level above it. If you are an astute observer an have an ability to see patterns in the behavioural play, you can begin to work out the rules, and work out "what is really going on here". It may sound like goobledy gooch, but it was a model that worked for me. ... What you are allowed to see.... what you might see..... and what is hidden.... like onion rings.
I heard Merle Alsopp use a different metaphor. She spoke of a stage on which the action takes place. The play unfolds in the life-space in the front of the stage. Veil-like curtains seperate each of the levels of behavioural influence deeper and deeper , one behind the otheron the stage. If you candraw back the curtains you can make the conections among each of the levels of the play of life and the levels of influence _ some of which are societal.
The place of 'culture in these metaphoric images of layers , is the concern of Leon Fulcher (Fulcher 2001). He takes up a metaphor used by Bronfenbrenner (1979). it, to "articulate his ecology of human development."
Bronfebrenner's metaphor is that of a child's toy of Russian nestling dolls. It is a lovely toy. When you open the first , there is a second nestling inside it. When you open that there is a third, a fourth .... in my set there are altogether six. The last one is tiny and solid.
To get Bronfenbrenner's metaphor most accurately articlated, I guess its useful to quote from Leon Fulcher's article (2001) directly:
"That metaphor used a Russian child's toy to nest a microsystem (the immediate setting where a child is, here and mow), within a mesosytem ( relationships with others that affect what is happening here and now with this child). These systems of influence close to each child are in turn nestes within an exosystem ( organisational and institutional structures that administer educational, social and health services) and a macrosystem (social and economic policy environments that sustains prevailing care ideals and maintains public order)"
Fulcher says we must as child care workers put the doll into a doll's house. In his metaphor, the doll's house is the cultural context. This he says is the real home in which meaning can be be given to events between the child and youth care worker and the children living there. He urges us in this important statement
'Child and youth care workers seeking to pursue cultural safety in their practice are encouraged to think about how each encounter is conceptually framed by a cultural context"
To be a professional , we have to learn how to know our cultural frame and to recognise our blindspots in our recognition of the cultural frame of others.
Johari's Window in this model will be completely framed by the cultural context. My chees game will be played in a glass cultural box. Mer Alsopp's stage is framed in the cultural context and the doll is in a cultural doll's house.
To understand the metaphors and to especially learn how to find the meaning of child and youth care incidents during real life encounters becomes what Fulcher calls " a huge undertaking"
Blessings
Barrie
Bornfenbrenner, U. 1979. The Ecology of Human Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Fulcher. L.C. 1990. Acnowledging Culture in Child and Youth Care Practice, 17, (321-338).
Fulcher, L.C.2001. Cultural Safety: Lessons from Maori Wisdom in Reclaiming Youth at Risk 10:3 Fall. (153-157).
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