Education as Expanding the Relational Self — Sailing the Seas of Complexity

In this story I explore the expanding of relational self by an education that connects to and co-creates regenerative futures through the metaphor of sailing.

As always, what is presented here is a work-in-progress. An example of thinking and working-out-loud. As such, some of the thoughs may be underdeveloped, underargued and/or plagued with English errors. But before all that I am very happy to share some of the results of our educational experimentation directly from the students themselves https://lnkd.in/ecvH9ZT. In this magazine the students who were involved in our leadership development course that connected to the sustainability transition in an area next to our university share their story.

Introduction

I am currently working with an amazing team on redesigning the Mission Impact course for the v0.2 for this coming September. The Mission Impact course is a relational approach to higher education that connects to and co-creates sustainability transformations in the ecologies of which universities are part. This experiment is firmly (as much as anything can be firmly placed in this already) in the relational paradigm to sustainability (education). The pilot acts as an experiment within formal education to explore the limits of the educational system when seen and enacted as an unfolding living system in service of (more-than-human) life.

A background on the pilot, as well as initial designs can be seen here:

Towards Regenerative Learning Ecologies in Higher Education — Designing Mission Impact | by Bas van den Berg | RLE — Regenerative Learning Ecologies | Medium

A Relational Education for Sustainability

There is a shift in sustainability sciences as well as education as sustainability sciences towards more relational approaches. That (try) to move beyond human exceptionalism and individual selves towards more relational forms of being-with. Where human learning is seen as an unfolding process that are part of assemblages of human, more-than-human, and materiality. Through this perspective, the centrality (or in some cases the sacredness) of individuals, as well as humans in general, is challenged. When this is translated to educational practice, this could have far-reaching implications.

In the Mission Impact pilot, we experience this by purposely placing the agency in the regions we are working with. Thus, the learners, primarily university students, were in service of unfolding future assemblages for the region. Where both the future, the place, and the different actors come together for learning ‘towards a relational expanded self’ emerges. Subsequently, this called for curricula that allow the expansion of the relational self which requires strongly connecting to place as living and unfolding systems. This also requires a strong degree of openness, both to emerging beauty… learning… and perhaps most importantly to confidently engaging in uncertainty.

As we explored in the pilot that we ran during the previous academic semester, there is a fine balance to be achieved (at least in the context of COVID-19) between completely opening up for an educational experience that emerges from the complexity of engaging with sustainability transformations and one that is safe enough for learners to engage with at their developmental level. Pragmatically, a completely open course would also not get approved as the educational system in the Netherlands demands intended learning outcomes which can be pre-defined with an open system. Of course, this could be circumvented by bullshitting your way through that step, i.e. just creating semi-plausible learning outcomes and then not paying specific attention to them again. This is assuming you value intended learning goals at all. The big (design) challenge for educators, at least in the current culture in The Netherlands, where students are not used to more living and relational forms of education and seem to perhaps even have lost or need to develop the psychological equipment to thrive in forms of education that embrace this complexity, is to balance and scaffold the process of expanding the relational self through working on wicked problems. This presents a very delicate issue that will take quite a bit of experimentation to figure out. In the first experiment, we were able to identify better questions and directions that deserve to be explored more intensely moving forward.

A psychology of (re)generative action

Psychology is the study of the human mind and behaviour. The mind has always fascinated me, as a neurodiverse person (I am autistic) it has simultaneously been an enigma and source of wonder. The human mind is also one of the major driving forces for the monumental challenges that humanity as a species is facing in our lifetime. Luckily, it is also a potential birthplace for the solutions to these challenges. From a relational perspective, the mind, body and behaviour are inseperably interconnected with place, life, materiality, ideas, and time. And one could argue that the human mind is nothing more than an unfolding assemblage between these relationships. A relational and dynamic network of immense complexity. Any changes in one of these relationships can have profound impacts on the remainder of the network. Previously, I have defined regenerative leadership as the ability to guide collective learning towards more sustainable futures, which inherently involves engaging with massive amounts of uncertainty that are involved in such transitional ecosystems. In the pilot it became clear that one of the key strengths, or requirements of regenerative leaders is the ability to stay in this uncomfortable place. This place of engaging in uncertainty even though it is painful and frustrating. This goes beyond resilience, the ability to go back to a healthy baseline after traumatic events to beyond able to thrive and persevere in the face of traumatic challenges. I see the design and enactment of educational constellations that nurture (future) professionals in developing the capacity to stay in this in-between as one of the key design challenges for educators. As I believe that being able to do so is key to being in service to life in these transitional times.

Discovering what these psychological changes, in the context of (re)generative action for sustainable futures require from education is of paramount importance. As it is only through a transformation of our behaviours (and thus our relational selfs) that we can work towards continuously more regenerative futures. In the pilot study of educating this type of action, the need for this psychology became clear. But we are not (yet) closer to developing such a psychological or educational science. We have, however, gotten closer to asking better questions to get to this psychology of (re)generative action. In the rest of this piece, these questions are explored in more depth. In the next instalment our educational design response will be shared.

There are, in my opinion, three central questions that need to be explored. With the fundamental assumptions that (1) I am missing many great questions for this emerging field, (2) that not all questions can be knowable yet and (3) methods to explore these questions so may still need to be developed.

1. How can education connect to and care for potential (desirable and plausible) regenerative future ecologies?
2. How can education nurture the courage to stay in these difficult in between places and to take (re)generative action to bring these potentialities into being?
3. What does the above mean for educational structures, systems and practice(s)?

Where regenerative ecologies are future socio-ecological systems where humanity has found a new balance and connection with more-than-human life. Where we live in balance within the social and ecological boundaries (see the doughnut model for example) and contribute positively to the planet’s ecosystems to thrive. This will likely involve large scale movements towards more green technologies, as well as social, business and personal innovations.

But I am not a psychologist (really I don’t identify with any specific scientific field or discipline), I am, however, active in (higher) education. My interest in this emerging psychological science then, is from a total human development of learning perspective (I suppose a humanistic psychology informed by a relational ontology). As I see it as education’s task in these times of collective crises to facilitate and nurture the development of (Re)generative Action. Particularly, but not exclusively, I believe us in the richer parts of the world have a moral obligation to contribute to a more sustainable world. The questions above then remind me of the words of dr. Zachary Stein ‘if education is not the answer you are asking the wrong question’.

Designing education for (re)generative action

So perhaps the real question then is: how can we design (higher) education that allows for the above to flourish? That is what I aim to discover over the next two years through play and experimentations at The Hague University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.

(Tamed) complexity as pedagogy

Sailing as a metaphor for learning-based change within complex learning environments such as Living Labs. Co-created with Prof Anja Overdiek and visaulized by Nicolas Landriati.

The above drawing is based on a powerful metaphor presented by Scott Kaufman on human development. Scott uses the metaphor of a sailing boat as a replacement (and update) of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, making the argument that the hull of the ship represents the rigid ‘safety’ dimension and the sail (and subsequent movement) represents the dynamic dimension of change and learning. One important aspect to stress being that without the whole, the boat cannot go anywhere. Translated to our project of designing and enacting regenerative learning ecologies that connect learners to regional sustainability transformations (both in the sense of socio-economic and personal changes as well as their interrelations). The hull of the ship would be the design of the minimum amount of structure that allows the crew to navigate into the unknown for as long as possible. Because if the hull is too weak, or leaky, the boat is not going anywhere but down (anxiety induced blockages to learning). If the sail is too rigid, there will be transformation of the region and the self at best but definitely no transgression. And if the sails are too loose, the travel will be all over the place (like in the pilot!). By adding the futures cone (e.g. Speculative Everything — Dunne and Raby, 2013) I hope to make this clearer. I also believe that the further away from probable futures, besides becoming less likely to be actualized, also requires more T-learning (transgressive, transdisciplinary, transboundary & transformative), as these futures are more likely to challenge the limits of our current worldviews.

Speculative Relationality

Using the power of our imaginations to speculate about subjective lived experience across a variety of systemic perspectives (including materiality, other people, organizations) as a form of exploring complex systems and opening up the mind towards multi-subjectivity. To imagine, as a living story, assemblages of unfolding from a multiplicity of perspectives to engage with complexity and mapping systems related to wicked problems. While it is questionable if we can ever step out of our human perspective enough to be truely connected to the relationality of life and more-than-life, there is value in the attempting as a way to restore the broken bonds with the rest of the natural world that we are so strongly educated out of.

This then raises a triality of roles (depending on whether it's before, during, or after the education) for the educator. This doesn’t mean necessarily, that these are heroic roles embedded within exceptional individuals, as I firmly believe that this type of education can only emerge from interconnected people(s), place, knowledge(s) and materialities. The roles are (1) architect, as (2) navigator, and (3) storyteller:

1. Architect: your job is to bring together the right forces that co-design the boat (supporting structures & materials) and put it into the sea (connecting to place).
2. Navigator: your job is to help pick the route (normative direction & support the process), listen to the weather (sensitivity to context), nurture the crew (feed their minds, souls, and bodies) and adjust course (adapt).
3. Storyteller: Restock for the next voyage (analyse and redesign) and share what was learned on the voyage (storytelling).

In short, you need to design a ship that is rigid enough to not sink (psychologically safe through a supportive structure), with sails that are loose enough to be navigated between probable and possible (unlikely) futures so that the more T-space future realities can be engaged with, and support the sailors so that they are on the edge as much as possible. My intuition is that some of the characteristics identified through the pilot (see link below) such as balance, action confidence, and openness are essential (psychological) qualities to develop and nourish to push the sails to thier limits. We have taken this metaphor seriously, as well as the need for engaging with the complexity that is so central to this type of emerging education. This led to thinking about structure, content, and community (both building & engagement) from the perspective of this metaphor. Looking back at the pilot, as well as the roles above, I only engaged partially with them. I hope that with the new designs, some of us which are very much only ideas at this point, these roles can be fulfilled more wholely.

Mapping Transition Narratives & Mission Impact v0.2 | by Bas van den Berg | RLE — Regenerative Learning Ecologies | Feb, 2021 | Medium

In the sailing metaphor, a developmental perspective to learning to engage with complexity can be found. Sailing through a canal (perhaps even without the sails up) is representative of highly structured, safe, and predictable learning environments which may be found in introductionary classes. These can still be organized and given in a transformative way, i.e. by pushing for a shift in perspective but that transformation is very likely limited. Then you could be sailing on a lake, or an open body of inland water. Now, there is a bit more influence from the environment and there is more dynamism (as you can go left to right or right to left). But you still know you need to get to the other side of the lake, so while there is space for movement, there is little space for transgression. This is akin to much project-based learning that happens ‘with industry’. The type of projects where a company, NGO, or other organization comes in with a ‘problem (sometimes real sometimes constructed for the university course)’ that likely has a set number of solutions and clear directions to take. Then there is a short sea crossing, such as from the Netherlands to the UK. The water is rough(er), there is a lot more space to maneuver but the destination is clear. These may be difficult or complex challenges where even the ‘owner’ doesn’t really know what to do entirely. Finally, there is open sailing on the ocean, where the environment is unpredictable and it may sweep you away to entirely different directions, the wind pushes you at its leisure. This form of sailing is characterized by the unknown, unclarity, and uncertainty. It is precisely this form of sailing (read education) that has the highest potential for T-learning and transforming our reality.

The different forms of educational design as forms of sailing where T-learning potential, complexity, the influence of context and the potential for societal learning increase as you move closer to Ocean sailing, digitalized by Nicolas Landriati.

The interesting thing in this perspective, for me at least, is that the strength and stability of the hull become more important (not less) as you progress from the canal to exploring the open seas. Because when the hull is leaky in the canal, you may jump out and swim to land (i.e. do some self-studying through Edx for example) but if your hull is leaky in the middle of the Atlantic, you drown.

However, I would argue that getting to the point where a learner or system is capable of engaging with this type of sailing is (1) different for individuals and (2) requires training. Placing the metaphor(s) next to a typical university education (4–5 years) could look something like this:

Year 1: Canal Sailing/Inland Sailing

Year 2: Inland Sailing

Year 3: Inland Sailing/Coastal Sailing

Year 4>: Coastal Sailing/Ocean Sailing

The forms of education in sailing metaphors mapped across educational development (at university level) and T-learning potential. Digitalized by Nicolas Landriati.

Linking this (ocean sailing) to the B.R.A.V.O acronym that emerged from the data in the pilot, what is interesting is to explore how the elements of B.R.A.V.O (Balance, Reflexivity, Action Confidence, Vulnerability & Openness) fit within the journey of sailing the ocean. For example, balance could be seen as the ability to manage (psychological) resources during the trip to stay beyond resilience and Reflexivity could be seen as the ability to be able to (re)chart a course as the journey unfolds. Or perhaps how these elements can serve as lenses for the passengers to explore their voyage when they look back on it.

Mission Impact phases — Phases

Moving forward we will be engaging with three-weekly phases in the Mission Impact course. Where each of the phases has a recognizable structure that includes kick-off meetings and retrospectives, while maintaining adaptability for changes in the broader context (the adjustment of the sails based on the winds and waves). Parts of the insights and their translation can be seen above in the Miro sketches and will be integrated into the future course. This includes workshops and lectures prepared by the teachers of the course, as well as classes prepared and given by the students to allow for emergence and exploration. Sailing on the open ocean is scary, and intimidating, and maybe even borderline insane. To get on a ship not knowing where you will sail to, or if there will be favourable winds. To take the plunge into the unknown with confidence that whatever you will face you are safe in your ship and can handle whatever you may face. But I look forward to sailing these seas. Who knows what we may discover.

Next instalment

• In the next instalment we will dive deeply into the full design of the v0.2 version of the Mission Impact course.
• I am working on ‘The (Re)generative Education Podcast’ where I will speak with leading educators active in or with universities to redesign education from a relational sustainability perspective. Are you, or do you know someone who would like to participate in an episode, let me know! You can reach me at b.vandenberg@hhs.nl

As always, I am open to comments, feedback, collaboration or just for a chat. Sharing and clapping is appreciated.