DEALING WITH DIVERSITY & INTERCULTURALITY AS A SUPERVISOR A Train-the Trainer-Module Developed by the Grundtvig Learning Partnership 2008-2010 “„Counseling in a Multicultural Europe – A Key Competence within Life Long Learning TABLE OF CONTENTS PREAMBLE 3 INTRODUCTION TRAIN-THE TRAINER-MODULE (2 DAYS) CONCEPT FOR STRUCTURAL FRAMEWORK ORGANIZATIONAL ASPECTS FORMAL CONDITIONS 4 6 6 7 7 METHODOLOGICAL BASIS 8 COMMON GROUND MODELL “DEALING WITH DIVERSITY IN GROUPS” 9 9 TOOLS & WORKSHOPS 12 PART ONE – ICEBREAKERS, WARM UP WORKSHOPS PART TWO: PERSONALITY, INTERNAL DIMENSIONS, REFLECTION ON PERSONAL 13 RESPONSE TO DIVERSITY PART THREE: EXTERNAL DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY PART FOUR: ORGANIZATIONAL DIMENSIONS – CULTURE 19 30 33 APPENDIX: READER 38 THE BASICS OF (MANAGING) DIVERSITY SYSTEMIC APPROACH DIVERSITY & SUPERVISION METHODS 39 39 39 39 PREAMBLE INTRODUCTION The module framework links experiences, feedback, reflection and theory as a foundation for learning and teaching. Learners and teachers together form a learning team and are learning by doing. Learning and development means to create an efficient relationship between person and environment. Supervision and Coaching are ways of professional counseling. Reflection is a key competence for professional learning and development. In the supervision process supervisors offer learners possibilities to reflect upon their tasks and / or organizational issues. By this it enables not only lifelong learning for learners but it contributes also to the learning process of their organizations. This was the starting point of the Life Long Learning Program Grundtvig running from August 2008 until August 2010. This program enabled a learning partnership including three participating countries an learners from eight different countries to develop an International Module „Dealing with Diversity & Interculturality as a Supervisor“. OBJECTIVES AND MAIN GOALS Why should we deal with diversity in supervision? This question – first brought up by Lee Gardenswartz and Anita Rowe - has been a key question in our Grundtvig project, as it is a key question in any Diversity process. We identified several major aspects which we feel to be important in answering the question, both on an individual level focusing on the supervisors or their clients as well as on an societal level focusing on the communities of supervisors within Europe. These aspects are: Exchange of theoretical knowledge and practical experience according to the issues Diversity and Interculturality Improving competences for dealing with Diversity as Supervisors and Coaches as well as Supervisors trainers Discussing various standards in counseling, supervision and coaching in different European countries In this workshop experiences, feedback and theory-based reflection are the foundations for learning and teaching. Learners and teachers together form a learning team and are learning by doing. The simple exposure to experience is not the same as learning by that experience. What makes the experience meaningful and educational is the systematic analysis and reflection upon that experience. Participants own experiences will be used to point out the positive and demanding effects of Managing Diversity in professional counseling. CORE COMPETENCES FOR SUPERVISORS AND COACHES DEALING WITH DIVERSITY Sensitivity for Diversity Knowlegde of your own luggage Developed sensibility of diversity Willingness to investigate your own matter of course Dealing with Diversity Knowlegde of views/opinions in other cultures Insight in ones own norms and values and those of „others“ and the capacitiy to make interventions bases on this insight. The capacity to act free from imposing norms The capacity to switch perspectives or codes Managing Diversity Knowlegde to define roles and how to give structure Capacity of recognizing exclusion/unequal treatment and engage in dialogue about this The capacity to intervene in case of discrimination Process aspects: To be able to deal with different ways of communication Ability to deal with power and dominance when diversity is under discussion Ability to create space and time for ‚not knowingʼ Knowlegde to handle conflicts The ability to turn friction into brilliance EDUCATIONAL METHODS Teaching methods are based on the idea that supervision involves critical thinking, methodical skills, and high-level decision-making in different contexts and situations. To improve intercultural and diversity competences, dialogue and reflection are essential parts of a training program. For adult learners it is important to be actively involved in their own learning process. By using the studentʼs own practical experiences, critical thinking and problem solving will be practiced. These basic principles of learning and teaching and the reflective circle form therefore the substructure for the educational methods used in this module. Consequently workshops, simulation and skills-lab training among assignments and log keeping will be part of this training. The following methods provide examples how the topic of diversity can be addressed. The methods are divided in four different parts: • • • • Part one: icebreakers, warm up workshops Part two: personality, internal dimensions, reflection on personal response to diversity Part three: external dimensions of diversity Part four: organizational dimensions – culture TRAIN-THE TRAINER-MODULE (2 DAYS) CONCEPT FOR STRUCTURAL FRAMEWORK Time 9.0010.30 Session Introduction Getting connected Warm-up Topic Syllabus: Getting in touch with Managing Diversity theory Share professional experiences and beliefs Link them with theory The trainers facilitate this process by focusing on here and now and linking it with theory. Leading questions: 1. Sensitivity for Diversity What are my experiences? What are my “hot spots”? How to press the buttons for them? 2. Dealing with Diversity How much Diversity can I/the people handle? How do I as a professional reduce complexity? 11.0012.20 14.0015.30 16.0017.30 2. day 9.0010.00 10.3015.30 16.0017.30 3. Managing Diversity How much managing does a SV process need? Which competences should we discuss according to Managing Diversity? Which competences should we teach supervisors to be able to deal with Diversity? Warming up, Self awareness linked to own experience getting aware Interactive Collection of the answers Theory Discussion of: Development What are the general issues in the answers? Collection Linking with Diversity-theory Input Dealing with Diversity. in SV – national approach Theoretical impact Evaluation of Day 1 Methodological impact Ending Convivial evaluation Giving a try to several methods and discussing their impact Conclusion, Feedback ORGANIZATIONAL ASPECTS The content should be mirrored in the setting of the different national contexts, which demands slight modifications in the workshop frame. The training team as well should be binational. FORMAL CONDITIONS CERTIFICATES The attendance and successful completion of the module should be rewarded with a certificate. This is on one hand to honour the efforts undertaken by a participant and on the other hand might be necessary for one or the other participant to e.g. provide an example for continuous or ongoing education to their supervision organization. The certificate will be given by ANSE (Association of National Organisations for Supervision in Europe). WHAT IS NEEDED TO GET A CERTIFICATE? A certificate will be given to those participants who 1. attend all classes actively. This means the student shows an active attitude to discuss and practice. 2. are able to talk about their own experiences, bring in new ideas and ask questions about literature and topics; 3. have been able to share experiences and to reflect on these experiences. 4. have attended all classes. PREREQUISITES FOR PARTICIPATION: WHAT ARE PREREQUISITES TO TAKE PART IN A MODULE? Participants need to be prepared for the following points: You are: • Working as a supervisor and coach • Able to understand, speak and write in English; • Willing to learn about your experiences and talk about your practices; • Willing to be active in the group; • Willing to give regular supportive feedback on performance that provides encouragement and reinforcement; • Able to put theory into practice. METHODOLOGICAL BASIS COMMON GROUND MODELL “DEALING WITH DIVERSITY IN GROUPS” Reflection Leadership Perspective Awareness Leadership „Container of common Ground“ = Safety Leading a group in an inter cultural context or other aspects of diversity requires to balance the abilities of reflection – leadership – awareness. That means to be aware of the situation with its different aspects, to take in an active and considered way of leadership and to reflect all actions and the whole situation. Being in an attitude of appreciation, respect and curiosity it will create an atmosphere of safety and confidence. This process is to understand in a way like a spiral: on each new level you have the same topics and challenges but in a diverse way, with new questions, new observations and experiences, new reflections. Inter cultural Learning or learning inter cultural competencies1 means learning in a continuous dynamic process, which goes in different dimensions and enriches and develops like a spiral. The dimensions are: • Level of motivation (attitudes and behaviour) • Competence of acting • Competence of reflection (as an internal effect of intercultural competencies) • Constructive interaction (as an external effect of intercultural competencies) 1 This you can increase to other aspects of diversity By way of explanation and translation: „Handlungskompetenz“: competence of acting: extensive knowledge of culture, competencies of communication, competencies of solving conflicts „Haltungen und Einstellungen“: attitudes and behaviour: appreciation of diversity, tolerance of ambiguity „Konstruktive Interaktion“: Constructive interaction (as an external effect of inter cultural competencies): avoid to overstep rules Reflexionskompetenz“: Competence of reflection (as an internal effect of inter cultural competencies): relativization of frames of reference, competence of empathy. The more dimensions are reached and the more they will be gone through the more high will be the level of inter cultural competencies. All four dimensions will influence each other. For example: each inter cultural interaction will have an effect back to the basic motivation, the competencies of acting and reflecting of the actors. In our focus, leading a group, this model illustrates the character of a spiral too. The leader has to go around within this process, this simultaneity of the different dimensions. TOOLS & WORKSHOPS PART ONE – ICEBREAKERS, WARM UP WORKSHOPS METHOD FOR DEALING WITH DIVERSITY IN GROUPS Name Lemons Aim This is an icebreaker that introduces the idea of individual difference and similarity. It can be used at the start of a session around stereotyping, differences, similarities and equality of opportunities. Group size 8 - 14 Material / Resources Enough lemons for everybody in the group needed A carrier bag Duration 30 – 60 minutes, depends on group size and level of reflection Description 1. Ask each group member to choose a lemon. 2. Ask everyone to look closely at their fruit, examine it for distinctive marks and feel the skin. 3. Encourage people to personalize their lemon by giving it a name. 4. Allow five minutes to do this and then collect all the lemons into the carrier bag. Shake the bag to mix the fruits. 5. Spread all the lemons out on the floor in front of the group. 6. In turn, ask each person to come forward and collect his or her lemon. 7. If there is an argument over whose it is, try to adjudicate, but if they still cannot agree, place the lemon to one side as unidentified. If this happens, you should be left with two at the end to reunite, but will find that most people (amazingly!) can successfully claim their fruit. 8. Reflection: - How sure are they that they claimed the right fruit? How can they tell? - Encourage them to look at the parallels between this exercise and differentiating between people. Examine the stereotypes: are all lemons the same colors? Are they all the same shape? - Compare this to the stereotypes that exist between people of different cultures, races and gender etc. - What does this mean to the group? Source T-Kit on Social Inclusion, Authors of this T-Kit: Tom Croft, Veronique Crolla, Benoît Mida-Briot, Council of Europe and European Commission, June 2003 METHOD FOR DEALING WITH DIVERSITY IN GROUPS Name Common definitions Aim To tune the participants to the common meaning of the diversity issues. To get in the closer contact with our different understanding of diversity and some other concepts, to get better communication in the group. Group size 12 to 16 Material needed / Resources Paper, pencils Duration 60 minutes Description Everybody gets the task to write down personal understanding of the term: DIVERSITY, BOUNDARIES, (any other by choice). In couples they compare their results and find commo ones. Two couples join in a bigger group and do the same and again in the group of eight (snowball technique). Every big group presents their results as a poster. In the following discussion the group reflects on the process and results. Source Adapted from communication Richard H. Greene: The new METHOD FOR DEALING WITH DIVERSITY IN GROUPS Name Wall of prejudice Aim To introduce concepts of stereotypes and prejudices; to make a difference within those concepts; to meet your own prejudices and stereotypes Group size Material needed Duration Description 8 – 14 / Resources Flipchart paper (or any 10 big blank, wall papers), pens 45 minutes, depends on group size and level of reflection 1. To put on the wall 10 white papers with titles. Titles are different groups of people, made on different criteria (for example, women, man, artists etc.). 2. To approach all the papers and to write down one or two characteristic for that group of people. Rules to give: Your task will be It is your first association – do not over think this exercise! Do not think about it at all if you can, try to do this as fast as you can. Donʼt read other things that are written, weʼll have time to read them. This is silent game, so please donʼt discuss and comment nothing while you are doing this. When you are finished, please sit down, just to see how many of you have finished. You can start. 3. The trainer and participants reads all the papers afterwards. 4. Reflection: - What we have now on the walls? - Discussion what stereotypes are, what are prejudices etc.? Source http://www.salto-youth.net, submitted by: Marija Gajic, mari.gajic@gmail.com METHOD FOR DEALING WITH DIVERSITY IN GROUPS Name Acid River Exercise Aims To emphasize the responsibility in teamwork and the connections everyone plays in accomplishing the groupʼs goals. To allow for observation of team interaction while exploring problem solving, To enhance communication skills, cooperation, planning, roles and expectations. Group size 01.12.24 Material / Resources Carpet Squares (1 tile for every 2 people) needed 4 lengths of rope Duration 3 hours Description 1. Divide space into 3 sections of river (you can do two sections, and reuse one). Make the river wide enough to be a challenge for the group to get from one side to the other (look at about 15 – 25 ft.) Mark the river with rope. 2. Distribute the carpet squares – 1 tile for every 2 people. 3. Explain to the group that the river is acid and will eat up everything that touches it, except for the magic tiles. However, the magic tiles must be touched at all times they are in the river. If the tile is not touched, no matter for how brief of a moment, it is lost, swept away in the current. 4. Everyone must get over to the other side of the river. If using two sections of river, no one can cross the next branch of the river until everyone is over the previous branch. If any one touches the river, or falls (a foot half on the tile and touching river, hands in, whatever), everyone must go back and start again. 5. No scooting or sliding on the squares. This can be a safety issue and it emphasizes individual work versus teamwork. 6. Once the group has started the process, your role is to take carpet squares that are “swept away by the current” and to watch for safety issues. 7. The facilitator can take away (or give) carpet squares arbitrarily. Processing Questions: Instruct participants to speak from their own experience. 1. What happened during the process? What worked? What didnʼt or what hindered the process? 2. Was leadership demonstrated during the process? How so? What did you observe? 3. What were the individual roles people played? Were members comfortable with their roles? 4. Who knew what the process for crossing was? Who didnʼt? How did you communicate the plans to group members? 5. What might the different aspects of the exercise represent in your organization: the carpet squares, the river, the loss of tiles, the facilitator, etc? Variations: 1. The tiles can only go forward. backwards. They cannot move 2. No one can finish until everyone has left the “bank” of the river. 3. You can choose to add challenges like muting individuals, using only 1 arm, eyes closed/blindfolded, no one can talk. 4. You can give them an object that they need to carry with them to safety and discuss what that might represent. 5. You can create situations for them to draw from that are connected directly to their organization; e.g. their budget has been cut - lose ½ of their tiles, your last three meetings have been unproductive and full of inside jokes - lose 1 person, youʼve just come back from a retreat where you set goals for the year and did team building with the group members - add a tile. Source The Leadership Center at Washington State University PART TWO: PERSONALITY, INTERNAL DIMENSIONS, REFLECTION ON PERSONAL RESPONSE TO DIVERSITY METHOD FOR DEALING WITH DIVERSITY IN GROUPS Name You as a Culturally Diverse Entity Aim Learn to know oneʼs own “cultural software” Group size 8 – 16 Material needed Duration / Resources Working sheets 45 minutes for filling in and reflection in pairs 45 minutes for reflection in whole group Description Directions: In each circle write one of the sources of your cultural programming. Then next to each circle write the most important rules, norms, and values you learned from that source. Share your insights with another person 1. What reactions and/or surprises do you have to your own cultural diversity? 2. Do any of your cultural programs come in conflict with one another? If so, where? Share your insights from the process with the whole group. Discuss focusing on resources and pitfalls Source Managing Diversity: A Complete Desk Reference and Planning Guide ©Lee Gardenswartz and Anita Rowe Work sheet: YOU METHOD FOR DEALING WITH DIVERSITY IN GROUPS Name Identity Aim To allowed offer a space for participant to reflect: - On their own identity - On their diversity Group size Material needed 8 – 14 / Resources Paper, pencils Duration 60 minutes, depends on group size and level of reflection Description 1. Introduction of idea of onion. The onion of identity onions are made of many different layers, people are also made of different layers of identity. Some are more important, these are the ones which are closer to the core. 2. 20 min of individual reflection where participants decide which things make up their own different layers. 3. Then choose one person they want to share some of this information with. 4. Reflection in group: 3. Easy/difficult? 4. Which criteria play a role? 5. What you discover during talk – similarities, differences? Theory on different factors of identity: - no one can be limited only to one criteria - all different/all equal - the complexity of identity "to make space of the Other in our own life", "to speak of the Other is in fact to speak of ourselves" - Dealing with diversity is learning is to listen. Active listening is a very difficult exercise The task can be matched with Four layers of Diversity, see Theory part Source http://www.salto-youth.net, submitted by: Xavier Baró Urbea xavierbaro@trajectorya.ee METHOD FOR DEALING WITH DIVERSITY IN GROUPS Name Awareness Aim Getting in touch with one's own emotional, cognitive and behavior reactions to diversity is important for everybody who wants to act as a good professional in the multicultural environment. By diversity we mean meeting differences, for example: different cultural backgrounds, organizational cultures, different professions, attitudes that are very strange to us. The activities in the workshop are taking the participants through the reflection process, based on the experiences of meeting diversity. Becoming aware of the emotions, thoughts and reactions in diversity situation is the first goal. The second goal is the abstraction of the particular responses and formation of the small or ground theory about the responses to diversity. The third goal is implementation of the theory into practice. The self-evaluation tool for dealing with the diversity is the final result. Group size Material Resources needed 15 to 20 participants / colored stick – it papers (three different colors) and colored pens (one color for each small group), the big board or big table (or we can use the floor as well). Duration Approximately 4 hours Description a) gathering the material: the participants are asked to think about the experience of meeting somebody/something so very strange and different from themselves. It can be from their professional or personal life. For example: meeting the different culture, entering the organization with the very strange values and organizational culture or somebody with very different attitudes, behavior, etc... Shortly, to think about the moment when they had experienced the „culture shock“. They are asked to write down the key words from the experience. After forming the small groups (five participants in each) they quickly exchange the stories, just the short description. b) small group work: the first task in the small group is the choice of the material to be presented more detailed and distribution of the following roles: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. supervisor supervisee observer – emotions observer – thoughts observer – behaviors The supervisor helps the supervisee to describe the experience very detailed, to reflect upon it. He/she offers effective and empathic listening and questions that follow the story and opens the space for reflection. It goes deeper from the events to supervisee`s thinking and feeling processes. While the process goes on, the observers write down every word, that represents any emotion, thought or action taken. Use one sheet of stick – it paper for every description. The time is limited and is responsibility of the supervisor to take care about that. After the process, the small group members share their impressions of the process. Was it difficult to follow the role, did they learn anything, did they have any associations... c) plenary work: the groups get together again and share the summary of the process to the other group members. d) the ground theory: now the observers get more active role and the others are asked to observe and comment at the end. All observers of the emotions get together and the rest two groups the same way. They compare the results and look for the descriptions that are present in all cases and the ones that are particular for the specific case. The goal is the abstraction of the responses to diversity. They do it by sticking the papers to the board, putting them together into clusters and trying to get to some assumptions and generalizations. After the first round, the others are invites to comment, add anything and propose the changes to the big picture. e) implementation of the results: the participants go back to their original small groups and perform the brainstorming about the question: how can we use those results in our work. The ideas are first gathered and secondly evaluated (how useful it is and is it possible to implement it). They then work on the self evaluation questionnaire that offers useful questions based on the results gathered before. The questions are meant to help supervisors who work in multicultural settings to get in touch with his/her response to diversity and to gather the awareness faster and to be consequently more efficient in this kind of environment. f) the conclusion of the workshop: the feedback on the task and the process are shared. Source METHOD FOR DEALING WITH DIVERSITY IN GROUPS Name Diversity Reflections Questionnaire (DRQ) Aim Basing on the Four Layers of Diversity (Gardenswartz & Rowe), the DRQ can be used for a guided self-reflection or reflection in groups in order to sensitize on the influence of different diversity dimensions and linked aspects of diversity issues. Since combined patterns of diversity dimensions form a filter through which we see the world as well as a screen through which others view us, understanding the elements of that filter can help to avoid becoming victims of those factors and can enhance more conscious choices about behavior and reactions. Group size 1 to 12 Material needed / Resources Diversity Reflections Questionnaire with an introduction on the dimensions of diversity (see attached papers) on handouts, flips or cards. Paper Pens Duration 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the group size and intensity of reflection Description After a short introduction to the dimensions of the Four Layers of Diversity the individual answers on the DRQ (see attached papers) are written down and a) used for a self-reflection or b) if there are at least two persons, in a second step the chosen dimensions and insights can be shared with one other person and discussed. If a group is working on the same situation, in a third step the pairʼs insights into the situation can be presented to the others. Source Gardenswartz, L. & Rowe, A. 1998: Managing diversity: A complete desk reference and planning guide Abdul-Hussain, S. & Baig, S. 2009: Diversity in Supervision, Coaching und Beratung Diversity Reflections Questionnaire Introduction The „Four Layers of Diversity“ (Gardenswartz & Rowe) provide an informative and structured overview over different levels and dimensions of diversity such as Age, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Physical Capability, Ethnicity and Race as internal dimensions, Home Geographic Location, Income, Personal Habits, Recreational Habits, Religion, Educational Background, Work Experience, Appearance, Parental Status and Marital Status as external dimensions and Occupation, Work Selections, Professional Training, Seniority Work Location, Union Affiliation and Management Status on the organizational level. The „Four Layers of Diversity“ present the individual Personality as a core surrounded by these three dimensions (Gardenswartz & Rowe, *Internal and External Dimensions are adapted from Marilyn Loden and Judy Rosener): Questions To have a closer look at these dimensions and to familiarise yourself with and explore aspects of diversity issues, use the following questions, either for a) a reflection just for yourself or b) in groups, where you have the opportunity to share and inspire each other. Start to write down your answers from 1. To 6. If you work in a group share the dimensions you chose and your insights with an other person. If you work on the same situation present your insights into the situation to the others. Feel free to add other dimensions and to play with the questions. 1. Choose a situation at work, for which you find it valuable to reflect on different dimensions of diversity. Look at the different dimensions of diversity and use the following questions to reflect: 2. Which dimensions (e.g. Age) could be relevant for the situation, from your point of view. Please write them down according to their priority! 2.1 On a scale from 0 to 10 please tick the number that reflects the relevance every dimension has for you (0 = this dimension ist not relevant at all, 10 = this dimension is very relevant)! 2.2 On a scale from 0 to 10 please tick the number for the relevance each dimension has - from your point of view - for the majority of the focus group / system! 2. 2.1 2.2 Dimensions Personal relevance of this Relevance of this dimension for dimension the majority of the focus group/ system 1 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 2 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 3 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 4 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 5 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 6 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 7 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 8 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 0 (not relevant) - 10 (very relevant) 3. Choose two or three dimensions, which have or had an important influence on you in your daily life now and past. What do these dimensions mean to you and how do or did they influence you? 4. Choose two or three dimensions, that influence the way you get in contact with others. How does that influence you and your interactions at work? 5. Choose two or three dimensions, which make you feel uncomfortable if others are/ act too different. How does that influence your behavior and your interactions at work? 6. Did these reflections give you new insights into the existing situation? METHOD FOR CONNECTING EXPERIENCE AND THEORY´ Name Interactive Theory Development Aim Connecting theory with oneʼs own experience. Group size 8 - 16 Paper, Flipcharts Duration 90 minutes Description The exercise may be initiated by any group experience (exercises, T-group sequence, ...). Examples for exercises: 1. One professional situation when you felt completely stupid and confused. 2. What happened? What did you explain to yourself? Did you change your mind during the process and if so in what way? One professional situation when you felt perfectly in control. Same questions. Variation according to the 4 Layers: 1. Select two dimensions that have had the biggest impact in your professional life. What is their impact? How have they influenced you? 2. Select the two dimensions around which it is easiest for you to connect with others. How does that influence your behaviors and interactions at work? 3. Select the two dimensions around which you feel the least comfortable with people different from you. How does that influence your behavior and interactions at work? In a first step any participant answers the questions for him-/herself, then shares it with 2-4 other ones. The insights from this process are collected within the plenary on a flipchart: experiences, observations, explanations, ideas, etc. Are to notice. In a second step the participants collect ideas according to the question: How do we avow the effects we observed to ourselves? In the third step, the outcomes are linked to theory by the trainer. In my experience even complex theories are well-understood if they relate directly to the participants experiences and ideas. I proceed here for the "principle of Enlightenment": I only bring that theory building blocks that can be well developed from the previously collected. Everything else can wait. For advanced participants the leading question will be: Which models of explanation (epistemologically as "personal") do we use as professionals? Source Michaela Judy PART THREE: EXTERNAL DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY METHOD FOR DEALING WITH DIVERSITY IN GROUPS Name Caleidoscopia Aim · To make diversity visible and stimulate discussions about diversity · To clearly underline the significance that players assign to dimensions of diversity · To raise playersʼ awareness of how you can and wish to deal with differences and similarities In summary, the intention is to offer a relaxed way of learning about dealing with the different dimensions of diversity. Group size 2 - 16 Material / The game consists of eight sets of nine cards in different colors. Each set Resources of eight cards contains a blank card which the player can use whatever needed he or she likes. These dimensions are: gender, a playerʼs present phase of life, class, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, talent/handicap and environmental socialisation. Duration 1 h, depends on group size and level of reflection Description The game can be played by an individual player, or in small and large groups, for example: 1. During an introduction Ever Everyone takes a card and introduces themselves based on the dimension given on the card. 2. When discussing a situation or theme Asking a question. For instance: which dimensions were most instrumental in shaping the person you are now (this can apply to either a personal or professional situation). Every player picks out the relevant dimensions in order of importance and, taking turns, talks about them. This fundamental question can be used as a springboard for other topics. OR: exchange two cards and discuss what the impact that changing these dimensions has or could have on your life/work/career, etc. 3. During management sessions: when supervising, coaching and training For example, when placing yourself in another personʼs position, based on a question or situation, and arranging the dimensions in order of importance from the other personʼs perspective. You can explore the results by discussing the differences and similarities between yourself and the other person, and your coach can offer suggestions about the next steps to take in the management process. 4. In teambuilding Use a question to encourage players to classify the dimensions in order of importance to reflect the culture and collaborative dynamic of your team, company or institution. What do you discover from this hierarchy? What would you like to change and how can you go about it? 5. When researching certain social or political situations. You can take a specific question – such as how diversity is promoted within our party – and explore the values and dimensions in the party program. A set of ʻrules of interactionʼ helps improving communication while playing the game. Also the 8 dimensions of diversity are explained. Source The colored cards can easily be self-produced or ordered at www.Caleidoscopia.nl PART FOUR: ORGANIZATIONAL DIMENSIONS – CULTURE METHOD FOR DEALING WITH DIVERSITY IN GROUPS Analysis of Culture Name Aim A guided self-analysis of organization. But with this attempt he keeps distance from usual investigations which alone cannot adequate realize the complexity of organizations. Especially phenomena which are not conscious to the staff or organizations at first sight cannot be achieved by reserved technique of inquiry but need a mutual research process in face-to-face settings. Group size Material needed 7 – 12 / Resource Flip-Charts, pens, different rooms Duration 2,5 – 4 hours, depends on group size and level of reflection Description See attached papers Further Info This experience is more interesting if two or three groups compare there processes and results. You can change it for different situations, e.g. alternative to „organization“ you can analyze a specific group. Source Edgar Schein: The Corporate Culture Survival Guide. Culture Analysis as Model of the organization questionnaire (following the concept of Edgar Schein) Starting Questions: In the guided self-analysis you as a member of your organization can do the attempt to “decode” the specific culture of this organization. This culture analysis has three goals: To achieve the cultural profile of this organization; To compare these with the results and the procedure concerning cultural analysis, which participants of other groups or parts have done; To examine cultural research exemplary as medium of sensitizing for cultural and intercultural influential facts. Background Data How is the organization called which you will analyze? What are the line of business / organization / legal / number of employees, etc.? What is your status / position and your role there? What are the client's or customer targetgroups of the organization? Which occupational groups are represented in the organization? Where do the employees of the organization come from? (Country, region, city) How does the organization represent to the outside world (marketing, logo, etc.) and inside (buildings, rooms, etc.)? Step 1: Culture Analysis: Brainstorming!!! Description of Artefacts write long flip-chart lists What can you recognize within the organization? (if somebody what look at the group from outside and its surrounding?) - for example: the kind being dressed locality desired ways of behavior among each other behavior with official in charge kind of speech predominating resp. remarkable emotions dealing with “troublemakers”, other-minded behavior of the head influence of the representative informal behavior (evening arrangements, festivals, social events …) image of the organization what is not talked about Step 2: Brainstorming Finding of “Declared Values” - write long flip-chart-lists Gathering of goals, values and convictions, for instance - goals and values, which are documented (website, announcements ..) - goals and values, professional norms, which are represented verbally by course leader by several officials in charge by employees by other important persons about the organization about the line of business slogans Intermediate Step Arrangement of “artefacts” and “declared values” Which figures can be noticed from the artefacts and declared values up to now? Do the determined “declared values” explain the artefacts? Where remains something unexplainable resp. contradicts the official statements? Where do exist contrary, hardly to combine things? Step 3: Insight into Basic Premises The logic of obviously contrary cultural elements which belong together can be looked for f.i. in the history of foundation, in the ideas of foundation, in the personalities of the founders at different representatives of culture in norms and mentalities of profession in changes by challenges from the outside in the community model (labor, trade, occupation, family …) in the profile of qualification to people Which culture premises can be named which rely on the organization and which can explain contradictions? How does the interplay of premises look like, which could bring up explanation for the behavior within the organization and the kind of dealing with the demands (a partial gist of culture)? APPENDIX: READER THE BASICS OF (MANAGING) DIVERSITY Gardenswartz, L., Rowe, A.: Managing Diversity. A Complete Desk Reference and Planning Guide. McGraw-Hill Companies (1998) Chapter 2: Diversity then and now: Changes and Trends Chapter 3: Examining the four Layers and Many Dimensions of Diversity The Handbook of Workplace Diversity by Judith K. Pringle, Pushkala Prasad, und Alison M. Konrad von Sage (2006) : Konrad, A. M., Prasad, P.; Pringle; J. K.(Ed.): Examining the Contours of Workplace Diversity, Mir, A, Mir, R., Wong, D.J.: Diversity – The Cultural Logic of Global Capitalism SYSTEMIC APPROACH Judy, M./ Milowiz, W.: On the Construction of Reality – Systemic Thinking in "Managing Diversity". In: Aschenbrenner-Wellmann, B.(Ed.): Mit der Vielfalt leben. Evangel. Verlagsanstalt (2009) Judy, M./ Milowiz, W.: MORAL CODES. Value Conflicts and their Consequences. In: Bruchhagen, V. ./Koall, I. (Hg.): Diversity Outlooks. LIT (2006) DIVERSITY & SUPERVISION From: Ehmer, S./Goeschel, D. (Hg.) Intercultural Perspectives in Supervision and Coaching. Kassel University Press (2010) Havrdovas, Z.: Is there one Culture in Supervision Ehmer, S.: „Supervision and Coaching“. Goeschel, D.: Intercultural Communication, Intercultural Competence or Cultural Competence. Gotthart-Lorenz, A.: About Analysis of Culture (following Edgar Schein) METHODS Dijkhuizen, G.: ʻDonʼt tell me, show me.....ʼ Methods/Techniques Diversity in supervision. Fred Korthagen & Angelo Vasalos: LEVELS IN REFLECTION: TOWARDS TAILOR-MADE SUPERVISION OF TEACHING PRACTICE 22 I / MAKING DIVERSITY WORK: THE WHAT AND HOW FOR MANAGERS AND TRAINERS have an intuitive belief that it matters, we can adopt a line from Jerry McGuire. Instead of "Show me the money," the hew and cry is "Show me the results." We fail to do so at our peril. • Equating diversity with a change process. If diversity continues to be seen as "a training intervention," it will continue to be a box that needs to be checked off on someone's performance appraisal. We attend conferences where colleagues get together and we talk about diversity as a process, but we may be talking to the already converted. Perhaps people in organizations don't understand what real change around diversity requires. Among the essentials are resources, commitment, patience, durability, and tenacity. We hear lots of talk, and the right words are frequently espoused. But following through to make real culture change happen in an organization is very hard work. As a field, we have to improve at sharing what works and where the pitfalls are. The following three examples are reasons for some of the disappointing efforts we have experienced. The organization changes priorities when it hits survival mode. Commitments are made in more sanguine times. Those who commit in theory don't realize what the changes really mean. Once they do, egos, fear of change, desire for power, and protecting vested interests are among the many subtle and not-sosubtle reasons for sabotaging success. lt takes tons of diligence and stick-to-it-iveness to make changes happen. Many employees have so much going on and are so fragmented that giving the diversity effort what it requires in order to see real change take place is too demanding. There is not sufficient reward structure in the organization to complete diversity work at the expense of other organizational priorities. These and other reasons make the accomplishment of sustained change difficult. A diversity process in the service of anything less than more humane, inclusive organizations, and better, more sensitive, and respectful service to all of our customers (internal and external) is irrelevant, costly, and not worth the effort. A long-term diversity change effort that alters the way business is conducted and how people see the world is required. The consequence of starting down this road and not completing the effort is one that will breed increased cynicism and lack of trust. From: Konrad, Alison M., Prasad, Pushkala; Pringle; Judith K.(Ed.): Handbook of Workplace Diversity, Sage (2006) On the Construction of Reality – Systemic Thinking in "Managing Diversity" Michaela Judy & Walter Milowiz The systemic-constructivist approach introduces aspects to Managing Diversity's activities which can at first be particularly unsettling. The main reason for this is that certainties, which until now provided us with some guidelines in our lives, are shaken up. "I once suddenly realized that circular thinking does not threaten my sense of reason, but actually broadens my understanding. In the thought of no longer basing oneself on an external reality, but on one's own experience, there can be a feeling of deepest satisfaction and reassurance." (Maturana 2002, S. 37) On the one hand, it is frustrating to see that we are ourselves constantly involved in the construction of the very differences that we will later have to deal with. On the other hand, it will eventually open the way to a more relaxed approach, which will make these differences show themselves in a clearer and more manageable way. Realising the ubiquity of difference also has at first a frightening effect, but soon helps us to recognise most conflicts as the consequences of differing perspectives and thereby as basically comprehensible and manageable (see also Milowiz 2005). In the following lines we would like to present and comment upon the main assumptions underlying the systemic approach of Managing Diversity. 1. Human action takes place in a social context, in an always-present process of interactions. It is this context that structures (but does not determine) such action, inasmuch as the behavioural expectations of the person involved constantly cause him or her to treat, and thereby influence his or her environment, albeit unconsciously, according to these expectations. The person's conceptions remain unchanged if they are confirmed by means of behaviour patterns derived from these conceptions. Confirmation will be given by feedback from the environment, i.e. based on the reactions elicited by those behaviour patterns. "We literally create the world in which we live by living it": Humberto R. Maturana, Erkennen; Die Organisation und Verkörperung von Wirklichkeit. Ausgewählte Arbeiten zur biologischen Epistemologie (Realisation – the Organisation and Embodiment of Reality. Selected works on Biological Epistemology) (in: Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaft und Philosophie, Vol. 19, Braunschweig & Wiesbaden 1982), p. 269 People can never perceive a reality that is not affected by them. Perception is always preceded by action, and controlled by a pre-existing conception of the world. The idea that one may perceive the world without an already-existing picture of the world, i.e. without "prejudice", or at least pre-conceptions, turns out to be impossible: "We see something, or feel something, and the correlation between the perceptions and the sum total of neuronal processes creates a world, which we may call a table, a cube, or my beautiful red-haired girlfriend." (von Foerster & Pörksen 1998, p. 23) 2. Human action also develops within relationships, where social-psychological as well as sociological phenomena, such as influence, interests, loyalties, cooperational and competitive elements, are translated into a common structure, which does not need to be perceived by all in the same way, but must be treated consistently, for only then can conditions be stable. "As living systems, we live in complete loneliness within the limits of our individual autopoiesis. Only by creating worlds with others in areas of consensus, do we create an existence for ourselves which transcends this fundamental individual loneliness, and yet we cannot put an end to it. (...) We cannot see ourselves if we do not learn to see ourselves in our interactions with others, and by seeing others as reflections of our "selves", also see ourselves as reflections of the other" : (Humberto R. Maturana 1987, p. 117) 1 The more open and the less pre-defined the relationships, the more necessary it is to "negotiate" them. This partly occurs verbally (metacommunication), but mainly non-verbally – through action – and unconsciously. Although this makes social relationships more varied and more amenable to change, it also multiplies potentials for conflict. What appears to be settled is normally accepted without further consideration and thus saves energy for other issues. Managing Diversity implies management of tension, inasmuch as difference becomes an issue especially when it creates tension, i.e. where the acceptance of existing formal or informal rules becomes difficult or impossible. 3. Every interaction necessarily implies ascriptions by all those involved. Nobody can know more about another person than what is provided by their perception of a concrete interaction with that person. In other words, people actually have no idea of how the people with whom they interact think or feel. They only know what thoughts and feelings are triggered within themselves by offers of interaction from others, and can observe what effect their own offers of contact have on others. Any more than is unachievable. But for communication to be possible, people also need to proceed on the assumption of predictability. This is why relationship structures are largely processed through ascribing characteristics to others. Every ascription has effects of its own and thereby contributes to structuring events. Social relationships are to a great extent validated and sustained by acts of characterisation, or self-characterisation, and thereby create social reality. "When people first meet and start a relationship, a wide range of potential patterns of behaviour between them is possible. ... Depending on how these people define their relationship to each other, together they construct the type of communication behaviour that should dominate in this relationship. Out of all possible messages, they select particular types and agree that these are the ones they should use. These limits – drawn between what is to be accepted and not accepted in the relationship – can be described as the common definition of the relationship. Every message exchanged between them, by its existence, either consolidates these limits or works towards shifting them, thereby making other forms of messages possible. The relationship is therefore defined interactively – by the presence or absence of messages exchanged between the partners." (Haley, J.: Gemeinsamer Nenner Interaktion, p. 17f – originally as: Strategies of Psychotherapy) 4. The central core of behaviour expectations and descriptions of reality in a social structure manifests itself largely in the construction of norms and values. Norms and values on the one hand create predictability and a guidance framework for individual behaviour. Their function is to help with decisions about behaviour in social situations. On the other hand, they constitute restrictions, and cause uneasiness when such support with decision-making is no longer perceived as helpful since all the alternatives seemto be unacceptable. And they lead to conflicts, sometimes political conflicts, when – and this is normally unilateral at first – they are rejected and/or attempts are made to change them. Norms and values usually appear in sets, since they are linked to the customs of a culture or subculture. The adoption of some particular norms or values of that culture generally lead to the expectation – on the part of the environment as well as the person involved – that the rest of the set will follow. However, as there can be great variation as to how smoothly a change in values proceeds, the change being even sometimes only partly desired, intrapersonal conflicts – often value conflicts – can easily emerge, as well as new culturerelated conflicts (siehe Judy & Milowiz 2007). A young woman, who had moved from Serbia to Germany with her violent husband, obtained a divorce. She brought up her child alone and learnt to see herself as a liberated woman. She came into conflict with herself when she realised that she could not respect a man who 2 took her out, but did not pay for her meal in the restaurant. Changes aimed at ascriptions, norms and values, are particularly difficult. If feedback from the environment confirms behaviour expectations held until now, then these will remain unchanged, regardless of whether the feedback takes the form of approval or rejection. 5. Every struggle for the "right attitude" consolidates perspectives in their old forms. As long as the object of discussion is the "right" treatment of "people with spezial needs", as long as such people are thought of as something different, the differentiation will be confirmed for the future and the decisive question remains the belonging to one group or the other. For Managing Diversity this means that every struggle involving ascriptions (such as group characterisation, or stereotypes) will only confirm these. Attention will continue to be focused on the ascriptions. And this is the crux with all work involving so-called "minorities": even though legal distinctions form an indispensable framework for any change of status, the labelling of individuals as "members of a minority group" will cause them and their behaviour to be seen above all in terms of their belonging to that group. For example, a law that explicitly protects women from violent men, by doing so, ascribes – even on a legal basis – the weak role to women, and a violent role to men and thereby supports society's ascription of such roles. The systemic approach of Managing Diversity responds to this fundamental problem by focusing on the fact that forms of interaction can be changed, provided that one or more people with a significant role in the process change their behaviour in terms of the relevant criteria. On the streetcar, a man insults a black man by calling him a drug dealer. Another man interferes: „This is certainly no dealer.“ Asked, how come he knows, he answers: „I am a dealer myself, if he was one, I would know.“ Another example: In a training course on the subject of „Managing Diversity“ where the participants are primarily Austrians it is hotly discussed and argued whether "one" must bend to the fact that „Orientals“ have another image of reliability and the observance of appointments. On the other hand, the affected "OrientaIs" accuse the Austrians of being racist. The trainer confirms that different concepts of punctuality often lead to discrepancies and asks for experiences with it. It turns out that these problems appear among Austrians, too. The subject then shifts from the fundamental handling of time to the additional workload some participants have to carry out to join this training. The systemic approach Managing Diversity tries to make the diversity of all those involved visible, instead of constructing "homogeneous" groups based on a single variable. This is a process which increases complexity, whereas the usual process of awareness reduces complexity. Managing Diversity tries to include as many as possible of the dimensions (e.g. "Four Dimensions of Managing Diversity") where differences may arise. A useful tool are the „Four Layers of Diversity“ by Lee Gardenswartz and Anita Rowe. 3 "Instead of creating "homogeneous" groups by focusing on one dimension, such as gender, ethnicity, educational background or sexual orientation, we prefer to emphasize on the various diversities of all participants. To do so people need to be highly competent in negotiating all these differences (interpretations, meanings and cultural codes). This is a process that increases complexity. during the normal process of perception reduces complexity. (= gleiche Passage im vorigen Absatz?!?) That is the case because different views, ideas and expectations need to be given space in order to develop goals and structures for change.“ (Judy 2005) Even the smallest sub-system develops its own "cultures" and patterns of behaviour, which are not comprehensible to others without further knowledge. That is why there are as many different systems as there are human beings, for differences do not simply "exist", but are „formed" on the basis of socially defined fundamental differences. This however does not occur without preconditions, but rather, awareness is structured by conscious and unconscious cultural guidelines. 6. Discrimination and social differentiation perform the important social function of regulation, or reduction of complexity. Whenever such complexity surfaces or re-surfaces, then irritation, insecurity and resistance are comprehensible responses. And yet, this is how domination cultures maintain themselves, i.e. through the constant reproduction of "obvious" attitudes by sets of behaviour patterns or expectations which operate in a particular social structure. Those for whom these attitudes are not obvious constantly have to make invisible efforts to adapt, and this diminishes the energy available to cope with the requirements of their daily lives. 4 It is therefore often tiring, if not disappointing, to work with the systemic approach of Managing Diversity, as all human beings to a greater or lesser extent expect their own behaviour expectations, attitudes, ascriptions, norms and values, to hold for others as well. This first step is nevertheless useful as a means of breaking free from the well-trodden paths of traditional stereotypes based on gender or ethnic groups. When referring to the active participation of "all those involved in the process", we really mean everybody. Even observers always contribute to the "realities" they observe, describe and process. As our second step, this realisation that everybody is interconnected to perceivable phenomena forms the basis upon which mental constructs of "them and us" become increasingly impossible. References: Bruchhagen, V., Höher, F., Koall, I. (2002.): Vielfalt statt Lei(d)tkultur - Managing Gender & Diversity in Theorie und Praxis, Münster Cecchin, G..: Wie sich Voreingenommenheiten von Therapeuten nutzen lassen. In: Keller, T. & N. Greve : Systemische Praxis in der Psychiatrie, pp. 209 – 214. Bonn Foerster, H. v. & B. Pörksen (1998): Wahrheit ist die Erfindung eines Lügners. Gespräche für Skeptiker. Heidelberg Gardenswartz, L. & Rowe, A. (1998): Managing Diversity: A Complete Desk Reference and Planning Guide, Revised Edition. McGraw-Hill Companies Haley, J. (1987): Gemeinsamer Nenner Interaktion. Strategien der Psychotherapie. München Hartmann, G. und Judy, M. (2005.): Unterschiede machen. Managing Gender & Diversity in Organisationen und Gesellschaft, Edition Volkshochschule Judy, M. & Milowiz, W. (2007): Moralen - Wertekonflikte und ihre Folgen. In: Koall, I., V. Bruchhagen, F. Höher (Hrsg.): Diversity Outlooks. Managing Diversity zwischen Ethik, Profit und Antidiskriminierung, pp. 280 – 287. Hamburg Koall, I. (2001): Managing Gender & Diversity - von der Homogenität zur Heterogenität in der Organisation der Unternehmung, Münster Maturana, H. R. & B. Pörksen (2002): Vom Sein zum Tun. Die Ursprünge der Biologie des Erkennens. Heidelberg Maturana, Humberto R.: Kognition; in: Der Diskurs des Radikalen Konstruktivismus, hrsg. von Siegfried J. Schmidt (Frankfurt am Main 1987) Milowiz, W. (2005): Das Fremde ist immer und überall. In: Hartmann, G. & M. Judy (Hrsg.): Unterschiede machen. Managing Gender & Diversity in Organisation und Gesellschaft, S. 153-166. Wien 5 Michaela Judy, Walter Milowiz MORAL CODES Value Conflicts and their Consequences Examining the concept of "morality" confronts us with great richness of meaning as well as the high degree of emotional charge involved in the topic. Our approach is based on a systemic meta-view which focuses on the circular self-reproduction of moral codes as well as on the question whether and in what way distinct moral codes may be reconciled. By "moral code" we mean a set of rules and personal codes of conduct which prescribe what is to be done or allowed by whom and in what circumstances. Unlike laws, moral rules are informal. They are rarely accompanied by legally defined penalties, but operate on the basis of a collective feeling for what is appropriate and inappropriate. Such feelings, e.g. approval, embarrassment, outrage, etc., are embedded in a collective opinion of them. This opinion is what makes such feelings "right". Correspondingly, sanctions consist in social exclusion, personal condemnation, or treatment as a disease. Wikipedia (German version) defines morality as "the complete range of social norms, values, principles, which regulate behaviour between human beings in a society and are agreed to or at least accepted as binding by the society's overwhelming majority." 1 Now, who do we actually mean when we refer to "a society"? A society is not as homogeneous as the definition suggests. And what happens if one part of this society holds different views from the rest; or if one part does not (any longer) agree to or accept the (continued) validity of a rule? As for individual cases, a mutual "educational process" will normally operate by making individuals conform to the rest of society, but it will 1 www.wikipwedia.de, headword "Moral"; as of 17 Dec 2005 Michaela Judy, Walter Milowiz also invariably be accompanied by an – albeit slight – change in the society's general moral perceptions. Now, if rather than isolated individuals, we are dealing with groups of people, in which case moral conceptions may be upheld against outside influence, then antagonisms will arise, and these cannot simply be removed by getting those concerned to conform to the majority. The activities of Managing Diversity involve the development of a cooperative and productive relationship betwen people with diverse characteristics, be they physical, spiritual or cultural in nature. Its goal is effective and fruitful cooperation based on mutual acceptance. The organisation works on characteristics, stereotypes, prejudices and habits, as well as on (organisational) cultures, attitudes and no-longerfunctional preconceptions. In this paper we deal with an aspect to which little attention has been paid until now: the encounter between different moral conceptions and their corresponding observable patterns of behaviour. The question can therefore be phrased as follows: What can happen when differing sets of rules and codes of conduct come into contact? And how can this be managed? When people who meet have different perceptions of what a "decent" person does and allows, they will reject each other mutually. If one person has learnt ever since childhood that lawbreaking behaviour is not to be directly atoned for, but reported to the authorities for further treatment, whereas another is just as convinced that basically all conflicts are to be dealt with directly, for it is dishonourable to go to the police, then peaceful co-existence between the two will be difficult. In other cases, the contradiction may be less conspicuous. One of two schoolchildren may come from a family where a "decent person" is someone who gains a respectable position through his or her own hard work, while the other child's family looks down on people who try to stand out through personal achievement. The two children cannot but feel mutual contempt for each other. Conflicts are inevitable and rejection cannot be avoided as long as contradictory perceptions remain unchanged: 2 Moralen Different moral codes cannot co-exist in the long run. If others may do what our own moral code prohibits, then the current state of affairs cannot last long: either nobody may do what I may not do, or the universality of the rules of conduct (or personal restrictions) comes into question, together with our moral code as a whole 2 . The moral code can therefore be transgressed, or at least converted into individual "partial solutions" – one for each person's individual morality. The bottom line is that no binding morality is any longer manifest. The "set of rules" has at best become latent. These processes take place continuously and people adapt to each other. In modern societies though, such confrontations and changes occur at high speed and with great intensity. At first however, such encountered behaviour that contradicts a person's moral conceptions is perceived as immoral, and whenever the other side does not conform to one's own moral representations, conflict will arise. This particularly concerns "...the problem of metacommunication. There must surely be common rules about how to deal with misunderstandings and how to define rules together. But you will not find them readymade at the supermarket. They can only be developed through trial and error. And each person in an encounter brings along his or her own rules of the game." (Milowiz, 2005b, S. 161) To make the various possibilities appear more clearly, we have chosen the general conflict-resolution model proposed by G. Schwarz (cf. Schwarz, 2003 p. 35ff; Antons 1992, p. 224ff): Types of conflict resolution 2 The exception represented by so-called "caste distinctions" is only apparent: a moral code may itself pre-define different types of behaviour as honourable or dishonourable for different "categories" of people. The common acceptance of these different categories is part and parcel of the binding moral code. 3 Michaela Judy, Walter Milowiz Form of resolution conflict Advantages Disadvantages Flight simplicity, nobody loses no progress, no solution Fight: annihilation low-cost long-term solution not rectifiable Fight: submission potential for future development new conflicts Delegation reliability, low risk, neutrality the parties to the conflict do not take part in its resolution -> no identification with outcome Compromise partial agreement, responsibility of those involved partial satisfaction Consensus/ Cooperation agreement, high investment/input, resolution of conflict invariably related to a specific, concrete conflict Encounters between people with differing moral conceptions will accordingly present themselves in various different ways: • If the parties want to push through their own moral conceptions, and (re-)impose society's rules by force ("their own rules" is rather what is implied here), then the result is a fight or war. • One way of avoiding resolutions worked out on an individual basis is to delegate them to the legal system. Yet, at the very least this can only work if the authority is recognised by both parties. • If both sides are prepared to negotiate common rules, then compromises and consensus are possible. And here lies the scope of Managing Diversity's activities. However, so that Managing Diversity may become effective in supporting the negotiation of sets of rules, participants first need to develop the motivation required for the process. The expected benefits must appear 4 Moralen sufficiently attractive to justify giving up – at least partly – the views and expectations they held until now. In order to search for new solutions, the parties involved need to develop an interest in concerted action. As a matter of fact, motivation rests on one of three factors, "the use of force", "hope", or "fear". "What ways are there to get someone to do something? The use of force, hope, or fear. The use of force is normally obvious and can be immediately identified. Hope and fear can be generated in various ways, which are not always easy to identify. Basically, we are dealing here with symbolic material. A gun is for instance a symbol of pain and death. A high-value banknote triggers a feeling of hope for most people, inasmuch as it is a symbol of the hope for the satisfaction of certain needs." (Milowiz, 2005a, S. 20) A possible answer is therefore the hope that by cooperating, each person's individual world will work better, that with mutual acceptance life will become easier in some respect, that the world and fellow human beings will (once again) be more predictable, and it may be possible to find one's bearings (again). "As long as there is no common history or common language, misunderstandings, prejudice and projection of assumptions onto others will predominate. The stronger side spontaneously tends to impose its way of thinking onto the other, as with a rubber-stamp. Even just the fear of being dominated by the other can make people cut themselves off. Misunderstandings are pre-programmed. ... What can be done to bring together people with different origins and mentalities...? ... They do not necessarily need to think and act the same way. But ... partners must – no matter how different they are – be mutually predictable." (Doppler/ Lauterburg, 1995, S. 28f) If hope for such improvements cannot be aroused, or if hope cannot be built upon, then any form of cooperation towards mutual understanding cannot be expected either. 5 Michaela Judy, Walter Milowiz Therefore it seems that people's involvement will not necessarily be totally disinterested: if cooperation puts the hope for improved personal conditions, such as rewards, into focus, then a corresponding degree of motivation is to be expected. There is then however a significant risk that commitments may be made only in words and are not heartfelt, while the agreements reached in the process are eclipsed or even unconsciously boycotted. As a matter of fact, "the real underlying rules of the game [may] only be understood in the way the process actually develops." (Milowiz, 2005a, S.23) "Sabotage potential" is indeed related to conforming to official norms verbally, when such norms hardly affect the behavioural dimension. This is all the more so since moral rules are usually learnt in childhood – with the development of the Superego – and it seems questionable whether a substantially different moral system may be taken on in the space of one generation. Now Managing Diversity, if it is successful at bringing about changes, should not only enable people with different conceptions to live and work together. It must also work towards filling the moral vacuum created by the process itself, i.e. for the existence of acceptable common rules coding for predictable behaviour, and not only in the formal, but also the informal sphere. The implicit moral code of MD implies pluralism, i.e. a fundamental attitude that treats different moral systems as equal in value and the belief that these – at least partly – may, or even should, exist side by side. The focus is to draw out what is acceptable for all, to connect with what is necessary for cooperation, and honourably lay aside everything else. In practice, it is precisely this "laying-aside-everything-else" that proves to be particularly tenuous. It means respecting the dignity of the individual together with those very beliefs which made him or her into a respectable person. This is all the more difficult when domination cultures and their sometimes explicit rules come into conflict with their own self-perceptions and norms. An example from one of our sessions may clarify the point. In a small business the company technician realized that a small trolley which was normally kept in the tool room had disappeared. This caused immediate uproar. The next day the trolley was there again. The 6 Moralen manager was almost sure that it had been taken by the cleaner, who had worked there for many years. But before the manager could discuss the matter with the her, the cleaner went on sick leave. When we discussed the case in a session, the idea came up that Ms X., an illiterate Roma, may have acted entirely according to different moral values, inasmuch as collective rather than individual property might have ranked higher. You will use whatever is available, and then bring it back when someone else needs it. Agreement was reached on the way to proceed. The woman would not be confronted directly, but during the next team meeting the manager would thank the unknown person for bringing back the item, and in addition announce that as a rule people there did not normally just borrow things. The decision was however never implemented. Ms X. resigned while she was still on sick leave. Ms X's departure was first of all experienced as a loss by the "abandoned" team. She was respected as a colleague and – from the perspective of her Austrian colleagues – well integrated. They asked themselves what they had done wrong, and the impossibility to make renewed contact with Ms X. fuelled explanations along "culturalist" lines. Precisely in the context of their great readiness to engage in reflective types of work, the failure was in itself experienced as Ms X. "undeservedly" hurting their feelings and rejecting them. A little relief finally came from the suggestion that Ms X. apparently did not think that Austrian bosses and colleagues were capable of stepping out of the thought pattern "taking = stealing = crime", and wanted to pre-empt being labelled as a criminal. In doing so she may indeed have been unfair to her colleagues, and yet they were also eventually able to see that Ms X's perception was totally realistic in a wider context. They were able to re-establish a – though now only imaginary – relationship with Ms X. as a respectable person, and thereby bring the real relationship to a conclusion. "The alien ceases to be alien and will no longer be experienced as alien as soon as a relationship arises between the Ego and the so-called alien. Distinctions are the outcome." (Kronsteiner, 2003, S. 16) It is important to note that this highly complex form of respect is a value system in itself, which in turn calls for predictable and acceptable common rules in both the formal and informal spheres. It establishes 7 Michaela Judy, Walter Milowiz new sets of rules and codes of conduct which prescribe what is to be done or allowed by whom and in what circumstances. Let us consider such codes of conduct according to the principles of cybernetic epistemology: "We see everything we perceive as a world of messages and information. Everything that a person does or says is a message for someone. If nobody listens, there is no message. Therefore there must be a listener for there to be a message." (Bateson 1981, zit. n. Cecchin, 1996, S. 209 ) The message in this case requires the common agreement that Managing Diversity's pluralistic moral code is a superordinate (= better?) one. Managing Diversity gives a new perspective to social/cultural differences in organisations. From a problem to be simply brushed aside, they become an opportunity to reflect upon personal values and patterns of conscious behaviour and develop new, modified values and patterns of action. Managing Diversity urges us to adopt this new perspective and these negotiation processes as the best way to accept how social/cultural differences are to be dealt with. After all, what MD requires would necessarily lead to conflicts if it was practised on the basis of any other moral value system, namely the notion that other value systems than our own are to be valued as well, and have their own inherent legitimacy. MD's "moral code" is necessarily its overriding principle, while all methods and reflective processes involved can only be described as auxiliary tools, which if possible should help to make the moral code more amenable to its acceptance by all. The integration effort which Managing Diversity requires of all participants simultaneously marks the limits of diversity. Even Managing Diversity, in its endeavour to pass on a meta-moral system as well as to promote concrete action, is governed by forms of exercise of power. The reason is that Managing Diversity defines a reference point based on the concept of (social, economic) equality, this being connected to its use in the world of economic activity. The involvement in economic and political processes should as much as possible include everybody – the willingness of all concerned to participate is presumed. 8 Moralen This is why all basic preconditions of Managing Diversity operate in the context of normative assumptions. "Everybody should have an equal opportunity to participate" or in contrast "Participation is a duty that every individual is required to perform". Managing Diversity may only operate if everybody accepts such norms. If one of these is challenged, then the basic assumption is no longer functional. (vgl. Judy, 2005, S. 58ff) If we do not deny the existence of this aspect, then Managing Diversity could also possibly define new areas of collective focus. In any case, the concept of "diversity" gives "...a positive meaning to difficult processes involving increases in complexity, or the management of complexity itself, as well as negotiation processes, which become unavoidable with the currently experienced increase in diversity, and thereby provides security in dealing with insecure areas." (Judy, 2005, S. 61) We understand these new areas of collective focus primarily as prevention. On the one hand, we mean preventing the consolidation of older moral codes, and on the other, preventing the loss of moral bearings, which occurs when people feel that morality is no longer valid. References Antons, Klaus (1992): Praxis der Gruppendynamik, Übungen und Techniken. Hofgrefe Verlag für Psychologie, Göttingen-TorontoZürich. Cecchin, Gianfranco (1996): Wie sich Voreingenommenheiten von Therapeuten nutzen lassen. In: Keller, Thomas / Greve, Nils (Hrsg.): Systemische Praxis in der Psychiatrie. Psychiatrie Verlag, Bonn, 209-214 Doppler, Klaus/Lauterburg, Christoph (1995): Change Management. Campus, Wien - New York. Judy, Michaela (2005): Unterschiede machen. Systemisches Denken im Managing Gender & Diversity. In: Hartmann, Gabriela & Judy, Michaela (Hrsg.): Unterschiede machen. Managing Gender & 9 Michaela Judy, Walter Milowiz Diversity in Organisationen und Gesellschaft. Edition Volkshochschule, Wien, 57-80. Kronsteiner, Ruth (2003): Kultur und Migration in der Psychotherapie. Ethnologische Aspekte psychoanalytischer und systemischer Therapie, Brandes & Apsel, Frankfurt/Main. Milowiz, Walter (2005a): Wer definiert Macht? (Vortrag im ÖAGG, Feb. 1988). In: BASYS - Berichte des Arbeitskreises für Systemische Sozialarbeit, Beratung und Supervision. Lfd. Nr. 18; Heft 1/2005, 2126 Milowiz, Walter (2005b): Das Fremde ist immer und überall. In: Hartmann, Gabriela / Judy, Michaela (Hrsg.): Unterschiede machen. Managing Gender & Diversity in Organisationen und Gesellschaft. Edition Volkshochschule, Wien, S.153-167 Schwarz, Gerhard (2003): Konfliktmanagement. Konflikte erkennen, analysieren, lösen. Gabler, Wiesbaden. 10 Prof. Dr. Susanne Ehmer Supervision as Culture of Interculturality 1 Dealing with the theme interculturality some challenges tempt us for research, education and practice: - keyword supervision and neurology for an improved understanding; - keyword supervision and dialogue for a deepened exploration; - keyword supervision in Europe: Bologna-Agreement of Universities; - keyword diversity, apparent hopelessness or orientation in the observed lack of orientation. Interculturality is part of work with supervision, here engagement with the strange is a central challenge: strange structures, organizations, modes of work, behavioral patterns, forms of conflict solutions, terminologies, cultures – all that we know. The “being strange” as part of the professional role not only allows the respective necessary distance but at the same tmle stimulates the eager research spirit. However being of different opinion one also is confronted with own limits and fears. On the one hand capability is necessary to recognize that other cultures also exist and on the other hand to handle the differences between cultures and to move in “between” them. Supervision with its own professional culture of watching, recognition, reflection and self-reflection provides the frame of dealing with questions and problems but also with chances of development and changes, with which we are confronted in connection with globalization, with changes of values in the Western industrial societies, with the intensification of national and international competition and with the opening of inner European borders. This text describes the access to the theme as supervisor and teacher, shortly outlines the context of social developments and definition of culture and enters into interculturality and supervision. However I want to start with a quotation of a lecture Zygmund Baumann gave at the ANSE conference in Leiden 2004. “The secret of teaching and learning also contents the mediatorship of capability to analyse and to refuse cognitive frames which we got used to and in which we comprehend informations about our surrounding.” (Baumann 2004, 8) This sentence especially expresses the request to promote and to accompany changes and developments. Culture as Context of Understanding A second request which shares much with supervision is meeting and understanding and by that the possibility of choosing different attempts of understanding. Here culture is an imprtant access – later I will stress it more thoroughly, for the cultural context makes it possible by neglecting the individual person being confronted with to watch, to understand and to orientate without giving them personal attributes, characteristics and etiquettes. I myself can decide to interprete differences or similiarties on a personal level or by facts, f.i. different educational orientation of 1 Slightly shortened text of the same article in the magazine Supervision 3/2006 1 supervisors. The last just gives me a larger choice, it allows me to feel people facing me, but to understand their behavior in a certain context. At the beginning I said that for me the changes and development are very important. Culture as context of undertanding allows me to be able to initiate changes without having to query the person in her or his individuality or identity because the focus concentrates on norms, values, rules – consequently on transpersonal dimensions. If I change the obvervations from a personal level and motivation to a social perspective, than it can be said, that an interest cannot be overseen in the theme culture in literature, daily press, texts and discussions. There exist enough reasons which have made visible this theme on the basis of human companionship, reasons we are directly confronted with: globalization, European expansion, migration, refugee movements, thus world-wide movements, which also affect each individual. We show interest for other cultures, we are confronted with different kinds of strange cultures – not always well-minded and voluntarily. Sometimes we react irritated or feared due to required or absolutely necessary dealing with an “other” culture. Yet it seemed to be necessary to deal with it. And with the question which “misery” needs to be changed, in this text I will refer to the question of orientation vs. lack of orientation. Why is that Theme Placed in the Foreground? Up to now culture had the function which helped to overcome limitation, i.e. to offer parameter of decision, how could be chosen out of an endless variety of behaviorisms. Therefore as message into the inside, into the system – “here one behaves that way”, “here one is thinking that way”, “these are our values” – and at the same time as message to the outsinde; “We are we and you are you.” The other, the outside, could stay outside unpunished as the strange. When one faced it, one could decide oneself for fear, pleasure of fear or fascination. An emotional experience which in former times one didn’t need to make so often. Now in connection with globalization, expansion of Europe and other things we have to recognize that there exists a variety of cultures, and this variety refers to the view that our culture not only is the sole true, right and stabilizing one. The variety qualifies the own. The one culture provided security, the numerous cultures increase insecurity in all areas of society. For all of us recourse to delimitation is conscious and familiar, and in its effect as well problematic as irrelevant since the entire social development cannot be stopped by it. One of the problematic effect is that changes increasingly are seen as threats. Even wanted or planned changes slightly evoke this insecurity for it is necessary that people again have to orientate themselves, to re-arrange, to organize and to establish. Each new task for which we don’t have a suitable solution releases fear and reactions of stress. Changes with which we are socially confronted are not predominant and rarely clear, in its concrete effects not or little foreseeable and therefore even cannot be calculated. Certainly we watch well-defined phenomena, 2 we determine differences from between “former and now”, between “here and there”, but first of all we only have a more or less vague explanation for it instead of a clear and duplicated one. Orientation got lost – and not only that: even security of a reliable orientational frame is gone. Just make a small attempt and look spontaneously at your associations to “culture”. Within short time you will think about several “definitions” and ideas and thereby you can determine how you decide yourself for another orientational frame in each case. In order to show also the available variety here, I just want to mention some determinations or definitions of the meaning of culture. Culture is - the total of mental and artistical expression of people; the cultivation of ground; the mental and psychical education, refined modes of living, kind of living (Wahrig 21000); - a common system of consciousness and ideas of values, by which one group differs from the other (Gertz, cit. in Peer 2001); - the sample of sense making in which people interprete their experiences and guide their action (Geertz, cit. in: Per 2001); - what differs from other people. Or briefly said: culture is what makes uncomparable life-styles comparable (Baecker 2000); - a knowledge of differences, a knowledge about differences (Baecker 2000); - in a set up social system culture can be understood as a play of which the rules obviously can be expected and applied and which one just becomes aware if they are hurted (Simon 2004). - Therefore cultural rules not only care whether they become aware of deviation or neglection, moreover they care of a clear inner-outer differentation between those things which belong to the respective culture and those which don’t belong (Simon 2004). - Is all that what we are not willing to put into disposal (Baecker 2000). The variety of associations, representations und definitions shows that the range of importance of culture permanently increases. Something that seemed to be selfevident and fulfilled its function accordingly, i.e. what was not necesssary to think and to mention, now is no more self-evident and doesn’t seem to function without questioning. Now it becomes necessary to think about it, to speak about it and to put foregone conclusions into consideration. Here supervision could be that process, that bowl, that structure of culture which makes it possible to meet constructively these insecurities within in less frightened setting. As release for insecurity and shaken orientation it can be summarized: globalization, intensification of national and international competition, the ongoing differenciation of society, de-institutionalization, the opening of borders and thus the consequences – welcome or less welcome, the obviousness of countless different possibilities of culture. Here culture seemed to be threatened by two sides: as well from the outside as from the inside. From the outside it seems to be the fear to get put on another culture. From the inside we seem to be frightened that the present – or perhaps the mututal creational process of identity, understood as culture, doesn’t work any more. 3 If one looks at living environment and daily life one can see on the one side how many customs, rituals, traditions have changed, but one also can see how many have maintained or again got established and therewith one can state: our culture has changed .- our culture hasn’t changed and if one goes on asking what does culture mean actually, with large probability one again approaches a state of losing orientation. The idea culture unfolds an almost magic effect, in true sense: it is something which can be watched but cannot be explained (as already Luhmann watched). If here one includes the debate about culture of enterprise, culture became the central focus for each success or failure. Here another advantage can be seen besides satisfaction of curiosity: culture becomes “ a black hole” in which unevidence can disappear and in which as well the good as also the evil can appear. At first glance it seems to be possible to explain phenomena, problems, changes or obscurities with the “other culture” or the other cultural understanding or at laest to adjust them. However by exact consideration and reflection which is our task – we recognize how little we comprehend and know, yet how little we really can explain or can derive from what we call culture. But even when it causes more confusion and increases insecurity we cannot and don’t want to neglect to thematize and to explore it. And just here a certain culture emerges. Culture of supervision is one kind to designate and to inquire culture as such. Culture in its initial sense should help people to handle particular challenges of nature, the direct living environments – this means to find answers for strange differences such as being part of nature at the one hand and being thrown out at the other. This difference already appears in the history of creation, in the tree of realization, in the expulsion from paradise as the beginning of culture resp. the devine order: make earth subject to you. On the other side and this I will emphasize here, culture had and still has the function to put order into the improbability of an organized liv ing together. By that I want briefly refer to the problem of restriction which exists by the way that reality is a kind which also couldn’t exist because the world isn’t necessary and therefore with other words: it also couldn’t show up that way or even totally different. Therefore culture creates the basis for our social, economical and religious life, it also delivers us a perspective of interpretation of the world by refusing to mutual gained orientations. It is learned and developed within a process of socialization and therefore is result of an interactual history. Culture points out the process of reality construction and expresses the mutual consciousness of meaning, a mutual understanding and a mutual sense-making in the frame of which people point out their experiences and which creates the basis for an individual, sensible and significant behavior (Morgan 1997, 181 ff., Ch. Geertz, cit. in: Peer 2001, 48). In this mutual system of consciousness and ideas of values one group differs from the other (Peer 2001, 48). Before we have read at Dirk Baecker that culture is that “what makes incomparable kinds of living comparable”. Further Baecker mentions, that always then is spoken about culture, “when common values and symboles can be watchend which are treated likely they are beyond the particular situation and also are valid for other situations.” (Baecker 2000, 47, 59). 4 Besides others the challenges of our present direct living environment are located in mastering the ethnic, religious, professional biographic diversity and differences which not only bring us insecurity and loss of orientation but also offer us a spectrum of possibilities of decision. A Glance at the Organization Let us look at the field which we as supervisors are dealing with primarily: the field of organization. Institutions, organizations, various different settings exist within social cultures, they are formed by these cultures and they themselves have their own inner culture which again reacts upon the respective society. Here in this connection the focus is directed on those aspects or parts of culture which are especially interesting for the field of supervision and counselling, simply communication. The existing culture shapes acts of comunication and communication produces culture – therefore it is an autopoietic process. In supervision we try to explore this autopoietic process by reflection of events and contexts, by inquiry and observance of thinking processes including the repsective imaginations, estimations, emotions and feelings and the development of solutions, and at the same time this process isn’t possible and understandable without structured culture. We are just located within a circular act. Communication is the first essential in order to give transparency to subjective adventure and to make it reasonable, disposable and even communicative. This brings us to a point of consideration and consciousness in dealing with it to interpretation and respective conclusions. What we can watch at the other side, at the strange, these are outer forms of phenomena, the immediate noticeable features and products of the respetive culture: its visible reality like language, dressing, architecture, arts, food or forms of living together. Following Ed Stein and lateron also Trampenaars or Hofstede this is called the surface-culture. But the essential of culture not only is what we recognize and understand at the surface. Here just the more profound dimensions of a culture are expressed. Larger significance has the “deep culture” as well for recognition and understanding within a culture as for shaping of intercultural relations: the deep dimension of each culture. It is a hidden level which cannot be seen directly by sensitive organs. The core of a culture has developed itself from practical experiences of survival of each group. In the core of each human culture is important in order to survive, in order to master the challenges set up by nature. Therefore fundamental acceptances of a culture are closely connected with geographic and climatic conditions in the respective region (Trompenaars/HampdenTurner 1998, Schein 1995, Hofstede 1993). This very well is expressed in Ed Schein’s picture of a waterlily as model of culture: at the surface the blossom swims visible, beyond there are the stems – not visible at the first glance. They personify norms and values which create visibleness. At the bottom there are ramified roots, deeply digged. Here lie the fundamental acceptances, the core of a culture. And if one dives to the bottom all is turned up. Also in the “onion model” according Trompenaars or Hofstede one only reaches gradually the core layer by layer (Trompenaars/Hampden-Turner 998, 22). To this Argyris has worked out very clearly the model of abstraction steps on our realizing, thinking and acting (s. Argyris 1990, Harktemeyer/Harktemeyer/Dhority 1999). At the beginning of those 5 steps our – selective – perception is situationd which is characterized by our deep culture and therefore always produces again this culture (Peer 2001, 49). If one wants to perceive or to comprehend the core or the specific of a culture, this succeeds by intensive observation on the one side and direct experiencing of a culture or by comparison of two or more cultures. To this the authors Trampenaars and Hofstede have worked out different and similar dimensions with which different cultures can be observed and compared. For instance the approach to nature, to time and to fellows or facts like power, individualism vs. collectivism, male or female characters – for just to mention some (Hofstede 1993, Trompenaars/HampdenTurner 1998). Supervision and Interculturality Well, our theme is “Supervision as Culture of Interculturality”. What is meant by that? In our faculty we always are considered with border crossings so far – as supervisors we enter “strange” working links, we deal with new settings without knowing so far about the specific structures, specialities, rituals, traditions or tabus. For a long time we already work together with a multi-cultural team or we accompany supervisors in the reflection of their work with multi-cultural clients – yet there seems to have come a new movement and exposiveness in dealing with the theme culture and interculturality. On the one hand we can explain this by an increase of supervision inquiry coming - from institutions with international personal, f.i. in the care-taking field or youth work; - from projects which are settled in storm centers in foreign countries; - once in a while also from industries which coooperate binational; - from schools which are confronted with problems and conflicts due to multicultural pupils … and much more. On the other hand professinalization of supervion is proceeding at the European level as well as development and establishment of education in supervision, especially in East-European countries. At the professional and specialized level it always comes to vehement debates about the “right” and “most professional” form and definition of supervision. But for instance how shall we German honestly know which comprehensive kind of supervision is adequate and helpful for colleagues in Latvia or Slovenia? Besides that it would be arrogant to assume that our comprehension is “the only one” – which also isn’t uniform. Here much has to be experienced, to be explored and to find out by meeting and reflection. For sure here we can learn much from and about the other. The more often becoming specific inquiries and needs deriving from an intercultural context make clear that not only a small group of supervisors is sufficant for reflection and accompanying those professionals. (At the homepage of the DGSv appr. 250 from 3500 supervisors mention interculturality as their keyword in their profile.) The profession supervision just now has to qualify and develop itself further and even its know-how, its knowledge and experiences as bordercrossers in “strange” regions and “culture” and – in order to use it generalized and to bring it into action – to treat it emotional, cognitive and theory creating. How Could That Look Like? 6 One could start with dealing of themes concerning changes, fear, stress-reaction, encouragement and defense and thereby use experiences of neurology. In the meantime it is evident that thinking and feeling cannot be separated, that both are circular connected with each other and stand in steady interrelation (s. Ciompi 1999, 1997). Our feelings, affects and physical mood control our thinking and acting – and vice versa. They form a filter by which we select our observation and concentrate ourselves on the respective urgent and relevant appearing. Also here there probably is still much to discover and to make useful for our work. Furthermore one of course can work with the direct first hand experiences of intercultural meetings. By experiencing, learning and working together we can learn about different culture on the visible or getting perceptible points of fracture and seam. Here I want to refer to a sentence from Z. Baumann at the beginning, namely to the first essential to disentagle habits or in other words to forget the skills and want to complete it by citing a little story of Mulla Nasrudin: One day Nasrudin found an exhausted falcon sitting on his window. He never had seen such a bird. ‘You poor guy’, he said, ‘how could it happen that you have come in such a bad shape?’He shortened the clutches of the falcon, cut the beak and trimmed the wings. ‘Now you even look more like a bird,’ said Nasrudin (Shah 1984, 109). Resulting from a constructive systemic position and again from neurologic experiences we have to assume that there not only exists “one” truth, no objectivity, but in each case perspective truth of all participants. Accordingly there is no either-or, except one decides oneself consequently for a hierarchic structure of power (what by that way also has its release), but an as well as. This is easier said than done. In intercultural cooperation resp. in an intercultural intervision group (which is organized by ANSE) always the tendency can be watched that the others or the other are understood in a way one knows itself. Questions often have the tendency to get confirmed one’s own receptions and ideas. (That’s also the same at you … or?) or to compare with the own (do you also make a triangular contract at your tean supervision?). To find a similarity or an analogy would cause much release in a situation of permanent insecurity (lack of language, knowledge and so far) – at least this is the hope. More difficult because even more strenuous is it to ask open expectant questions and then to listen to the answers with frankness and curiosity. We all know comparable situations from supervision proceses in our own well-known professional field. We believe to know all about it. And just there a special attention is needed in the way of not knowing to express innocent, curious questions. Inquiring, wishing to know, to explore the strange is very exhausting. Habits and familiarity do have their good. One recognizes quickly the situation, the circumstances, one can orientate himself and in accordance contribute, one knows how to behave and to act. At least one believes that he knows it. We all know that this perception not always is correct. But we have set up orientation and by that we have achieved or kept a capability of acting. But we agitate in an old circle and this will not last for ever. Also here some has to be explored and to find out. Role, Attitude, Identity, Ethic and Professional Development Here another important theme is the one of identity which social sciences eagerly are concerned with. This discourse makes clear how vague meaning resp. understanding 7 of identity still are. Yet for all of us clearly noticeable is the increase of partial identy (manifold roles) which have to be recognized and managed. As supervisors we already bring along professional identity. But upon this basis we develop a further new identity and profile as supervisor. This again we find worth to discuss in nearness and limitations resp. coaching and organization counselling. Handling these manifold identities and their management – which also implies intercultural aspects, here ment at a level of professional origin and membership – requires dealing with the own mental models, values, the professional growth and the individual ideas and goals as well as working with the individual and specific professional attitude based on ethic levels, with values and goals, with the inner and the outer tasks. Here attitude, identity, ethic and professional development are important and this means a steady development of profession. Here culture of supervision and counselling, culture of supervision, education and its intercultural comparison are a profitable field of inquiry. At the end I want to refer to the keywords at the beginning: the way out from the apparent loss of way out and the focus on the noticed loss of orientation only can be overcome by a culture which reflection makes possible and improves it, i.e. the introduction of the observer of 2. order or like H.v. Foerster says, of the cybernetics of 2. order. It is our task to discover again culture in the respective social or organizational subsystem. Therefore concept, attitude and methodic of supervision offer an essential basis. Literature Argyris, C. 1990: Overcoming Organization Defenses, I n: (1996a), S. (ed.): Das Fieldbook zur Fünften Disziplin, Needham, Mass., Stuttgart, Allyn & Bacon, Klett-Cotta Baecker, D. 2000: Wozu Kultur?, 3rd Ed. 2003, Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos Baumann, Z. 2004: Flüchtige Moderne, in: Supervision Sonderausgabe Ciompi, I. 1999, 1997: Die emotionalen Grundlagen des Denkens, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Ehmer, S. 2004: Dialog in Organisationen. UniPress Kassel Harktemeyer, M./Harktemeyer, J/Dhority, F. 1999: Miteinander denken – das Geheimnis des Dialogs, Stuttgart: Klett-Cota Hofstede, G. 1993: Organisationsentwicklung in verschiedenen Kulturen, in: Fatzer, G. (ed.): Organisationsentwicklung für die Zukunft, Köln, Edition Humanistische Psychologie Morgan, G.1997: Bilder der Organisation, Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta Peer, C. 2001: Was kann die OE von der Kulturentwicklung lernen?, in: Organisationsentwicklung 2/2001, 48-57 Schein, E.H. 1995: Unternehmenskultur, Frankfurt/Main, New York: Campus Verlag Shah, I. 1984: Die fabelhaften Heldentaten des weisen Narren Mulla Nasrudin, Freiburg i. Brsg.: Herder Simon, F.B. 2004: Gemeinsam sind wir blod!? Die Intelligenz von Unternehmen, Mamagern und Märkten, Heidelberg: Carl-Auer-Systeme Verlag Trompenaars, F./Hampden-Turner, C. 1998: Riding the Waves of Culture, end Ed., New York: McGraw-Hill Wahrig, G. 2000: Deutsches Wörterbuch, Gütersloh/München: Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag GmbH 8 Dieter Goeschel INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION, INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE OR CULTURAL COMPETENCE? – EXEMPLARY POSITIONS TO THE QUESTION OF INTERCULTURAL DIFFERENCE The indicated problematic nature encloses several dimensions: it concerns the concept of culture, it operates in a way that it deals with some kind of exchange between two or more cultures and it deals with the competence thereto and the concept of communication, this means the attempt of reciprocal information or understanding. Culture and Intercultural Communication In general the concept of culture is vague. Usual culture is understood as all what the human being creates as species with his own energy and their possibilities. The concept normally is used in contrast to nature, which is facing it autonomously, has its own rules and energy, which threatens human being or bring him advantage. A common, in general acknowledged definition of culture is not availabe. Traced from the Latin “colere” – to cultivate, to care, to till - can be understood as some kind of culture how people shape their life with all products of their thinking and doing. One can comprehend this concept valued, can apply it more to all mental products which then can be understood as an expression of dinstinct thinking, values, views and creations. But as well it even is often understood in a material sense, where the results of productive human energy is seen more. One also likes to talk about civilization and means by that to be able to diagnose a progressive development of human kind, the more civilized the better. Also in scientific discussions about culture one desagrees on essentials about a precise definition of culture. Yet from the view-point of cultural anthropology there exists somewhat like conformity in the basic attitude which means that one understands a system of concepts, convictions, value orientation, attitudes by the phenomenon of culture, which as well can be seen in the behavior and action of people as well in their mental and material products. Brislin, an anthropologist himself, understands culture as “… an identified group with mutual conviction and experiences, with feelings for values which are connected with the experiences and with interest in a mutual historical background.”1 One can see that here Brislin emphazises the aspect that also culture always leads to participation and identification of human beings with a certain group resp is necessary. Apparently people have the requirement to belong to a certain culture. In this sense one can state that human beings , groups, nations not only have “one” culture, but that they themselves are a certain culture in particular. Richard H. Dana also sees in culture the essential which means to belong to a group, but yet he makes differences from what means to be a person, to have a personality. By that he gives culture 1 Maletzke, G., 1996, Interkulturelle Kommunikation. Zur Interaktion zwischen Menschen verschiedener Kulturen, Wiesbaden, Westdeutscher Verlag, p. 16 also an area in order to shape its own individuality. Besides that he recognizes the social entire influence on the process of cultural shaping (acculturation and inculturation).2 In order to face the difficulties which arise, if a complex formation like a society or a nation or another larger community shall be defined, the concept of such culture presents itself. It proceeds from the imagination that the part-group of a larger society or group show its own culture, even a subculture. Each subculture differs from other subcultures by specific characteristics, but combined they integrate the subcultures into an overlapping united formation which represents the entire culture. Each member of society can also belong to several subcultures at the same time. A larger number of scientists are concerned with the phenomenon of culture. Term culture anthropology social psychology psychology communication sciences linguistics Item ethnology, ethnography, social anthroplology, ethno-science, ethno-psychoanalysis and others relation between human beings, groups, peoples, nations connection of culture and personality; dependence of the human being in his consciousness, emotions, attitudes, behavior etc. concerning the cultural shaping information between cultures, personal, individual by media, by mass-communication language as cultural relevant phenomenon; symbol value of language “The human being” is a conceptual abstraction. Usually human beings only exist as individuals, they differ individually by means that each human being exists once in that specific kind. But obviously there are characteristics, kinds of behavior, capabilities or features which can be met at human beings in all cultures. They are specified as so-called “cultural universals”. F.i. Maletzke names here: marriage, phonems and morphems, counting; taboo of endogamy, respect to parents, moral values as basis of institutions; music and drawing; personal names; sports; worship of devine creatures; dream-interpretation; education; donation and many others.3 Of course statements about those phenomena are very different and unsystematic, that there cannot be given importance to them. Only as a hint that human beings cannot live without specific characteristics of culture due to their anthropological constitution (as a scarce being with lack of flair). The proportion between the individual to its culture can be understood as a complex system of reciprocal action. On the one hand the human individual gets acquainted with the special cultural particularities during his education (socialization) and is influenced by them fundamentally. This process, the so-called enculturation, besides others encloses learning of basic human capabilities in the social field, f.i. how to get social contacts, how to control the own behavior, how to handle emotions accordingly, how to satisfy basic needs, how to see the world, how to communicate verbal 2 s. Dana, R. H., 1998 (originally 1927), Understanding Cultural Identity in Intervention and Assessment,, London 3 s. Maletzke, G., 1996, Interkulturelle Kommunikation. Zur Interaktion zwischen Menschen verschiedner Kulturen, Wiesbaden, Westdeutscher Verlag, p. 22 or nonverbal with others, what one can expect from others, which roles are adequate for oneself and what can be estimated as positively or negatively. On the other hand the individual influences culture by his specific individual history and by the gained understandings and behavior.This means culture always depends on the so-called cultural change. Normally it is not conscious to the human being how his kinds of experiences and behavior are determined by his own culture. Most people live in a certain natural attitude and naïve reality. They proceed unreflected from the assumption that the world itself is how it appears them. Everything appears them naturally. This attitude then becomes a problem when the human being meets participants of another culture. Just now the ratio of the own cultural sphere, its system of reference and interpretation becomes conscious, just now unproblematical things of everyday life become a problem. In order to handle this problem, people have developed a pattern of mechanisms which shall help to decrease arising insecurity. In cases in which the own culture is interpreted as reflection .- then one talks about ethnocentrism – the particular other culture is degraded by devaluation, is qualified as inferior, as abnormal, as immoral. By that the own ego is maintained resp. is increased in a way that insecure instability is brought again into stability. Another variance of this ethnocentrism is nationalism. Here a strong national feeling is developed by overidentification with norms and values of the own nation, which again leads to a feeling of superiority about other nations. Nationalism becomes a glorification of the own and a devaluation of the other nation. Another variance of intercultural managing problems is the so-called culture relativism. Here in some kind of counter-movement it is referred to superiority of thinking – connected with the postulate of equality of the enlightement. Indeed cultures appear as differentiated from each other in this perspective, but in no way considered comparable. By neglection of a valued consideratoin here exists the danger that own reached standards will not be seen positively, indeed in some extent positive achievements of culture are devaluated, at least will be relativated as non-obligatory. Supporters of this concept do have the difficulty that they are bereaved of orientational function of culture, that means the belief in universal liability of own values. Also the idealistic concept of multicultural personality, the concept of multi-culti-society has to face this problem. The question arises if it might be possible that all or many people of a nation can remain in a limited district of looking for orientation and thus are able to make it to a normal item of their everyday life. Here the relief function of the own culture gets lost which normally is seen as positive. If it is not the case, f.i. in the U.S., the danger exists, that individual subcultures fall back into overacting nationalism with all its wild running and sometines even violent extremes. Or more global mindes transnational actors can evolve who develop by loss of national or cultural formed moral values and opinions into scrupulous power institutions (mafia, captalists, trusts) which believe in doing without cultural pudent borders or threshold of obstacle. When it is talked about culture, about meeting between cultures, about ethnocentrism and culture relativism, about obviousnesses and superiority consciousness – then a simple impression underlies these ideas and thoughts: namely the differentation from the inner (or at home) to the outer (or outdoor). Here inner means warmth, safety, security, it is the field of obviousnesses. This is faced with the outer, the “strange”, what in some sense is attractive and fascination but at the same time cold, threatening, dangerous, insecure. The stranger, the foreign country, the unfamiliar: all three are manifold meaningful names for this pheomenon of the other. F.i. one can interprete the strange as the foreign country outside territorial borders and define within the border as homeland; as unfamiliar, as abnormal, improper, unsuitable, the own as normal, worthy, reasonable; as the still unknown which is seen as explorable on principle, available to the own experiences, but which is not known yet; as the finally not visible which is staying outside for the own meaning sphere, as remaining transcendental, what remains excluded from the possibilities of getting acquainted with; as the unearthy which stands in opposite to confidence, which fears, which causes anxious emotions of getting mixed up with own strange interests. So the “going into foreign countries” always has also the significance to leave home, to get out of the circle of obviousnesses, to expose oneself to a fascinating but also threatening unknown, to be adventure but also temptation. Vice versa the stranger feels strange in a foreign country. That means also for participants of the respective visited culture that the stranger is seen as threatening, unknown, as obviousnesses putting in questions, as making insecure. A large field for intercultural misunderstandings! The vehemence or power with which this problem of strangeness, of the stranger appears depends on the so-called intercultural distance or cultural distance. With this conception it is tried to express particular nearness or distance which exists between two different cultures. If the particular part of mutual experienced cultural orientation is large then a certain cultural nearness can be seen and vice versa. Differences in climate, in geographical, topographical, economical circumstances and so on thereby can play an important role. Maletzke has put together some important categories in which culture differ from another and which form the specific profile of a culture in its structural whole, the so-called structural characteristics. As such he considers besides others: - National character, basic personality With the concept of national character sciences – especially psychology, cultural anthropology – have tried to gather differences of different cultures. This bases on the assumption that people of a nation correspond to basic patterns of experiencing and behavior as well as in their personalities or they might be rather similar and thus differ from people of other nations. The concept proved a failure, too many abstractions arise in order to get any valid statements. Nevertheless it is still used in literature, especially in the impressionistic – essayistic. - Observation Observation, today everybody knows it, is a complex process in which the human beein is involved actively, productively and creatively. It is socially and culturally molded. This means: people of different nations see the world under different aspects. Hereby all senses play an important role. As well in seeing (visual perception) as in listening, smelling, tasting, feeling, on colour symbolic, in addiction strategies and so forth human kind develops a culture of specific habits, mechanisms of selection and preferences which again differ enormously from people of other cultures. - Time experiences People of different cultures develop different concepts of dealing with time. Especially between Western and Far-Eastern cultures great differences exist. This not only refers to the handling of the own speed with regard to punctuality or similar things, but especially to different interpretations what time describes. - Space experiences Just like concerning time experiences great differences can be stated as well regarding space experiences like dealing with spaces. For instance definition concerning private and public space differs very much as well as spatial dealing with interpersonal distance or even only the spatial shaping of homes, gardens etc. - Thinking Mentality of people of different cultures differ in essential dimensions, that is whether they think logicalyl inductively abstractively alphabetically or or or or prelogically deductively concret illiterately Even with regard to the specific setting of thinking human being differs just like how they deal with possessions of imagination like superstition, witchcraft, magic, humbug. - Language Language serves to reduce complexity by connecting abstract similarities, categories, classes, types. It brings order into an endless variety of phenomenon. It is obvious, that language and universal sight of a certain group of human being largely depend from another. On the one hand the kind and mode how the world is seen highly influenced by language, on the other hand language forms itself differentiated due to cultural specific needs, expectations and motivations. Also subculture develop own language-codes. Language acquires a certain other meaning within a certain other reference setting. - Non-verbal communication Although still not thoroughly researched today one knows about the importance of non-verbal communication. People not only exchange words, but they inform themselves by kinesics, proxemics, orientational angular, outer appearance (symbolic of dressing), posture, gesture of the head, facial expression, gestic, focal contacts, paralinguistics and much more. These kinds of appearance of human communication are cultural highly over-formed. By circumstances the one and same form can mean the opposite in different cultures. So non-verbal communication becomes susceptible to a high degree for intercultural misunderstandings. Even the meaning of silence can vary specifically in the sense of culture. - Value orientation Values are yardsticks which with people regulate their values. They win acceptance for the total human living. As standard volume about cultural specific value orientation Maletzke cites Florence Kluckhohn and Fred Strodtbekc, 1961:Variations in value orientations: they proceed from three thesis: People from all centuries and nations had to find solutions for a limited number of named problems. For each basic problem of people there exists only a limited number of solving possibilities. For each problem all societies complete solving possibilities are available, but society gives solutions an own significance. So cultural specific ranking of values is created: each society presents its own profile in value orientation. Value change just is a change of ranking, not of the values themselves. Basing on these theses they develop a model of long-winded variety concerning principle orientations Orientatio Postulated Long-Winded Variety n human bad neutral nature mixture of good good and bad humanbeing time activity relation changeable unchangeabl changeabl unchangeabl changeable unchangeabl e e e e submission to nature harmony with nature domination of nature past being uniformity (tradition, family) present being in becoming reciprocity (social system) future doing, making Indivudality (autonomy) - Patterns of behavior, cumstons, norms and rules While value orientations are based on an almost general level, customs and norms cover the concrete level of daily life behavior. As samples can be seen rites of wedding, sexual behavior, acting behavior, patterns of education, shopping behavior etc. Of course also taboo behavior belongs to this category. Behavioral patterns which are set up to the individual by expectations of the group we call roles. Even expectations of roles can vary strongly with regard to cultural specific. - Social groups, social connections Each society structures its different participants according totally different groups. Here f.i. are understood family, relationship, classes, castes, elites. Hierarchy and status, prestige and authority of the particular members often depend on cultural handicaps. Hereby not only criteria differ which determine the status, but also the importance which is given to the particular status. Also the social patterns of relations underly strong cultural deviations. For instance the kind and manner of definition of personality varies highly. If this is seen as an individual process in Western countries as a result of individual development and socialization, this is defined as being a member of the group in Far-Eastern cultures and in African countries. F.i. China doesn’t know at all about conception of personality. These exemplary listed structural characteristics can be understood as components which just form the structure of a total in their totality and their reciprocal relativity which we call culture. From these structural characteristics – the so-called cultural objectivations – can be differentiated. This means the result of mental and material productions as far as they replace their originators or producers, enter into the cultural good of the specific culture by corresponding traditions or maintenance and then is met in objects. “The spectrum of those objectivations is large and colored: it encloses all what people think, produce, shape, beginning with philosophy over religion, arts, music, literature, fairy-tales, myths up to things of daily life like dressing, jewelry, house, home, househodf effects.” 4 2. Intercultural Competence Always there have been meetings between people from different cultures. But regularly these only lasted a short time and they were spatially limited. Just the increasing internationality and globalization produces situations in the more recent past in which members of different cultures have to deal more permanently with each other. This circumstance has encouraged several authors 4 Maletzke, 1996, p. 43 to deal with the question, how cultures can be compared and especially how cultural conflicts can be interpreted if people of different cultures meet in the working field. Edward and Mildre Hall developed a concept by which especially three dimensions play an important role.5 Time, context and space. They differentiated: dimension time monochrone culture polychrone culture context high-context-culture low-context-culture room nearness distance behavioral orientation tied planning, time schedule is preferred, interruptions are disturbances, time is expensive, also the private is scheduled etc. many things are donge simultaneously, human relations are more important, flexible time schedules, spontaneous modification of appointments, etc. tight information network, fast change of groups of persons, working with the most actual background informations, sociability, etc. less tight information, loose contacts, orientation on files, strong orientation on facts, etc. less distance to toher people, hogh social meaning of nearness, etc. large distance to ther people, high social meaning to distance, etc. A far reaching and to large fame achieved approach Geert Hofstede follows who has interviewed 117.000 IBM-employees in total within 66 countries concerning besides others the consciousness of working situation and their values. Hofstede understands by culture the collective programming of spirit, which decides members of a group or of category from people of another. Hofstede filterings out five dimensions of cultural specific differences: power distance collectivism vs. individualism male vs. female long-lasting vs. short term planning of life avoidance of insecurity.6 5 s. Hall, E., T. and M. Hall, 1985, Verborgene Signale, Studien zur internationalen Kommunikation. Über den Umgang mit Japanern, Hamburg; Hall, E., T. and M. Hall, 1990, Understanding Cultural Differences. German, French and Americans, Yarmouth, Maine The so-called dimensions of culture enclose the total of behavioral norms and value orientation and can serve as orientational matrix for recognizing the strange and the own quality. But they just can be considered as orientational points which by no means may lead to undue stereotypes. Alexander Thomas especially pointed out the aspect of intercultural competence at overlapping situations between cultures. Starting from the cultural conception which describes culture as emotion and action leading system of orientation, he designs the concept of so-called cultural standards as basis for trainings in order to gain intercultural competence of action. “By cultural standards are understood all kinds of consciousness, thinking, values and actions which are considered personally from a large majority of members of a certain culture or from others as normal, obvious, typical and binding. Own and strange behavior is estimated on the basis of these cultural standards.”7 Intercultural competence is reached when cooperation partners are successful in coordinating their particular orientational systems one by one. By that knowledge is asked about strange cultural standards and their action controlled effects as well as the capability to personal and situational consciousness, to behavioral rating and to situational experiences in the context of strange cultural orientation systems. All three desbribed concepts is in common that they investigate cultural differences on a national level and equate culture with national culture. Cultures appear more or less as homogeneous, on national territories limited units. Herewith a larger inner variety as well is neglected as the fact that many countries are sorrounded by arbitrary traced borders and societies exist off national borders. Cultural competence In order to avoid accusation and to develop a perspective for an increasing globalized society Dirk Baecker outlines another concept. Accordingly culture is not understood as the sum of present social values like traditional culture theory wants it, but is understood as ambiguous in the sense that it provides reasons which make possible that the same thing can be celebrated from one and criticized from the other. A culture disposes of interpretation margins. It gains its identiy from comparison with the other.Culture is a function of society – that is a steady watching the difference between the own and the other culture. So culture becomes a function for an open future in making commitments of cultural value decisions thematically. Category of the strange replaces the difference of the own. That means: Culture always is only the difference to other cultures. Before getting into contact with another culture, it doesn’t know about its existence. “Nothing defines the own more reliable than the strange from which it differentiates itself. Therefore culture is a kind of managing the problem that there also exist other cultures.”8 6 s. Hofstede, G., 1993, Interkulturelle Zusammenarbeit. Kulturen – Organisationen – Management, Wiesbaden 7 s. Thomas, 1996#1614, p. 112 8 Baecker, D., 2000, Wozu Kultur, Berlin, Kadmos Verlag, p. 17 Hence cultural contact is less getting in touch with two living types than more the production of behavioral manners which this contact makes possible at all. Cultural competence is the competence in order to identity a repertoire of marks and to handle them by which resulting communicational problems can be solved or intensified. In the globalized society cultural contacts are no more contacts at the (national) border of society but contacts within society. Culture gets a meta-culture which doesn’t fix living styles, customs and habits but on the contrary gives information how culture depends on social structures, individual behavior and collective patterns of thinking. (Situational culture, sensational culture) yet sentations unfold their cultural sense only distinction between other sensations. European culture traditionally is colonial, that means it is founded on violent differentiation. Global society withdraws normative expectations and prefers communication. Global society becomes (or has to become) more eager to learn. Baecker proposes the concept of “cultural competence” instead of “intercultural competence”. Culture – and also contact between two or more cultures – has to develop open hearted in the future. Following the phase of interculturality a new culture has to develop. Not the sight to the origin is asked but the “arising of the new”. Of course the new also can show up in delimitation. Therefore Baecker’s concept of culture is constructivistic since he presents a concept of second order. Culture is: observation of cultural differences and statements of the difference. No culture escapes the qualifying sight. “Who is asking for culture is already confronted with the excluded part.”9 In the globalized world the reference to culture oscillates between local horizons and global contexts. Function of culture is: to show (to protect) its threat to show (to vary) its changeabless The culture of the new can be recalled but has not to be recalled, i.e. the outcome remains insecure. This ambivalence already Adorno/Horckheimer had stated in “Dialectic of Enlightenment. Here it was concerning the danger of falling back into the myth as soon as enlightenment has reached (hegemonial, colonial) power. Also Ulrich Beck and Zygmunt Baumann stated an ambivalence of the modernism. So more culture renounces on power, the better it can handle learning processes in order to catch up with its possibilities. In the traditional understanding culture is concerned about the difference which oneself keeps under control and which is seen as fate, as circumstance, as requirements, God’s grace or gift. When Nietzsche says: “God is dead”, then he also means, that the human being has to take his fate into his own hand (as a purpose to power). Baecker: “In the human being the animal tempts; in the human being God tempts. But to be neither the one nor both, it makes him to the human being.”10 9 ibid, p. 35 10 ibid, p. 46 Baecker sees historically three stations: - antiquity - modernism culture of something culture as such (civilization); intellectual as cultural worker - post-modernism culture of irritation; network of codifications Culture is a specific operation of objection to excluded possibilities against noticed possibilities. This requires (sociologically seen) that the excluded is taking along the so-called latency. Therefore culture is contingent. But this also means: Culture must exclude. Baecker sees in using this cultural concept three advantages for society: Society can be watched as producer of definitions. Different societies can be compared within it (i.e. how they produce those definitions). A feedback of cultural theory can be undertaken into a general social theory. Culture is produced be cultivation, by adoration, by comparison and by performance, and that together also in one unit of all these moments. Baecker mentions the organization culture as an example. It is talked about it when order, coherence and sense establishment in organizations are concerned. It is produced horizontally and vertically along loose couplings. By that enterprise organizations answer to hectic gotten markets which not only have to be watched from the head of the enterprise but have to be observed from all levels and from all places which therefore makes informational treatment necessary crosswise through enterprises. This not always happens with pleasure or with enjoyment on self-presentation. But it is necessary in order to constitute culture. Culture is a constitutional experience. And in principle it always appears in two variants: celebration of the constituted, provision of security, confirmation, curtsey and sealing. Criticism of the constituted, violation, doubts, injury, discomfort, rejection. Therefore by cultural competence is meant that society or organizations have the capability to steadily go through this process, to watch themselves and looking to the background of possibilities to warrant even once made decisions but also to keep open their alteration. Literature: Baecker, D., 2000, Wozu Kultur, Berlin, Kadmos Verlag Dana, R. H., 1998 (orig. 1927), Understanding Cultural Identity in Intervention and Assessment, London Hall, E., T. and M. Hall, 1985, Verborgene Signale. Studien zur internationalen Kommunikation. Über den Umgang mit Japanern, Hamburg Hall, E., T. and M. Hall (1990), Understanding Cultural Differences. German, French and Americans, Yarmouth, Maine Hofstede, G., 1993, Interkulturelle Zusammenarbeit. Kulturen – Organisationen – Management, Wiesbaden Maletzke, G., 1996, Interkulturelle Kommunikation. Zur Interaktion zwischen Menschen verschiedener Kulturen, Wiesbaden, Westdeutscher Verlag Schmidt, S., J., 1987, Der Diskurs des Radikalen Konstruktivismus, Frankfurt, Stw Zuzana Havrdova, Charles University Prague, 2006 IS THERE ONE CULTURE IN SUPERVISION? In 2005 there started international cooperation between universities from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria and Germany that provide supervision programmes. During the same period an ANSE intervision group also developed, where supervisors from the same four countries participated. Both experiences provoked a vast amount of questions. One of these forms the focus of this paper. Is there one culture in supervision? Our aim is not to find a highly grounded scientific answer to the question , which would require extensive research, but to discuss ideas which could lead to clarification and further discusion of the topic. 1. The concept of culture The previous president of ANSE, Louis van Kessel, stated in his presentation at ANSE-Summer University 2003 (Louis van Kessel, 2003, p.7) on culture in supervision: „This concept is: - on one side represented in prescriptions how to behave in specific situations and role structures; - on the other side it implicates the specific customs, tastes, preferences, opinions, values, behaviour, way of experiencing, and expectations and perceptions – the so-called mind-set - we as members of a cultural group have in common.“ It is quite a difficult task to find out what features members of a cultural group have in common and it becomes more complicated as various aspects of culture are modified and influenced by membership in all kinds of subgroups. We all are members of many cultural subgroups “as these groups are formed also by ethnic backgrounds, gender, disability, class, age, profession, religious backgrounds and other.“ Let us focus now on supervisors in the middle Europe and Great Britain where we have the most experience and let us try to relate some bits of experience to theoretical assumptions on supervision. In the intervision group we have reflected that our mutual expectations and our pre-conception about each other are marked by the power position of our own country in Europe (historical, political, economic, stage of development in supervision, status of the academic field). However we have also observed that most differences in behavior and decision making among us seem to be dominantly related to our economic situation (also related to power, sense of freedom and autonomy, possibility to influence things, difficulties which must be overcomed etc.) and to our idiosyncratic choices (how we deal with stress and challenge, how openly we communicate, how far we seek safe and structured situations or challenging and non-structured situations, what preunderstanding of life situations we have). This corresponds to Coleman´s perspective (1999), that it is important to understand how normative assumptions about a group become reality through idiosyncratic choices made by individual members of the group. These choices are probably partly related to our family background and values, but we can also speculate that choices relate to stages of personal growth, to age, personality features etc. It is evident that nowadays the networks of „culturally similar“ people in Europe develop even across nations or religions, which are less and less bound to „big“ cultures as nations or religions, and more to idiosyncratic characteristics. When the important obstacle of different language is transcended, the differences between supervisors who come from various countries in central Europe seem to be rather bound to such subtle „subcultures“, which are expresssed in human interactions and ways of coping with various life and professional situations. As we see there are a lot of factors influencing perceived cultural differences, which are in reality often mixed together and make the communication about culture confused. The concepts of culture and subcultures in supervision suggest various levels of meaning. It seems to us necessary to make a distinction in these levels - otherwise it is becoming very unclear about what we speak when we say „culture in supervision“ What we try to do is to start with differentiation in the context of supervision. Supervision as a professional activity is always bound to the context in which it takes place. The features of the supervision cultural context might be interrelated with the culture of supervision itself. Hopefully if we can draw the line between various levels of distinction in the context, we can abstract the factors which are diversely influencing the culture of supervision as a professional activity in each level/aspect of the context. Next step would be to see if we can find some view which contains all the necessary and sought varieties in the culture of supervision as professional activity, and which characterises some common features/processes in the culture of supervision as a profession. We suppose there are some such features- otherwise we can hardly speak about one „ profession“. Are we able to track such common features/processes, which transcend all levels? 2. Levels of distinction in the “context of supervision“ levels of disctinction in context Examples of features influencing culture in supervision as a professional activity supervision as a profession ? topic of supervision aiming at: clarity of feelings, competence building, team building, and others stage in the development of Self-centered,client-centered,process-centered etc. supervisee norming, forming, learning basics vs. prevention of burn/out individual styles and preferences of supporting, prescribing, cathalytic, educational, warm supervisor and personal, informational etc. models and methods chosen cathartic, self/actualizing,conditioning, skill building, awarness building, consensus building,problem solving etc. theoretical approach of psychodynamic, systemic, TA, Gestalt, andragogic, OD supervisor/supervisee etc. organisational context of profit x nonprofit, leadership x management, learning supervision org. vs. conservative, starting vs. grown , goals etc. professional context of supervisee rich or poor supervision/coaching field, economic vs. health vs. social vs. educational etc. form of supervision external vs. internal, managerial vs. clinical, individual vs. group vs. team, project vs. case vs. developmental etc. streams in the helping profession from which supervision has historically developed (and professional background of supervisors) socio/cultural frameworks European space relationships between countries and relations to other countries outside Europe therapeutic, mentoring, groupwork, teamwork, personal management, OD power (authoritative/democratic leadership etc.), dominant values in the society like: individualisation vs. collectivity, secularity vs. spirituality, humanisation, antidiscriminative attitudes, level of corruption and trust, openess of communication, language, emotional expressiveness vs. restraint etc. Status of each country =historical, political, economic, knowledge base and educational tradition, tradition in the academic field,approach to various resources(bound also to language and economic power) In the left hand column of the table are some identified levels in the context, which we see as more or less distinctive- therefore we are able to name them. Each of these levels more or less influences the culture in supervision setting, which is created both by supervisor as well as supervisee. In the right hand column are specified some examples/ options/important alternatives, which are genereally known as related to the level of context (left), and have, as we think, direct or indirect impact on the culture in the supervision session. Most of these features we are however not able to name or describe- it would require a focused research. However from the matrix we can become aware how many diverse cultural features must be expected in supervision activity, as supervision is bound to the context and must sensitively react and cope with it. The questionmark in the first row expresses our basic question - are there any common crucial or core elements in supervision as a profession across all the mentioned levels and differences of context? Or - is there a view on supervision which contains all differences and characteries cultural uniqueness of supervision as a profession? 3. Tracking the common view Supervision is seen in Europe as a professional activity aiming at better quality of professional work. Often it is also seen as a form of further education and support of employees, while it has been explained by means of various models of learning (e.g.van Kessel and Hahn, 1993). As Killminster and Jolly 2000 stated in their review on supervision in various professional fields, most definitions of supervision emphasize the aim of promoting professional development and ensuring patient/client safety. Also important is the „experiential learning cycle“ (Schmidt et al 1990). Killminister and Jolly (2000) while summarizing various authors argue that reflection has a central place in supervision. They characterise the goal of reflection in supervision as to examine any experience to identify its essential features. Heath and Freshwater (2000) argue that reflection of supervisee is present in each existing model of supervision except that of a real novice who should learn the profession by more directive instruction. They suggest to differentiate supervision from the preceptorship for the real novice who might need a lot of direction and less reflection. This view would centre the core trait of supervision around the possibility and use of reflection. The central position of reflection can be found even in the definitions of supervision in the German speaking countries, where reflection is accompanied by the expression „counselling“ reflexive Beratung or reflexive Begleitung ( J.Sauer 2002, K.Buchinger, 2002, Hege 2002 etc). Elaboration of the concept of reflection has been effectively introduced into the literature on helping professions by Donald Schon in 1983 and 1985 and since that time it has been widely discussed in the relation to learning (Kolb,1984, Jarvis,1987, Mezirow 1990 etc.) and to supervision by many authors (CH.Jons,1998, D.Freshwater, 2000 and others). Although there are many different definitions of reflexion itself, what we consider as common is stopping at some confusing, conflicting or emotionally significant moment in the past, present or expected experience, focussing on it while at the same time stepping out of a usual flow of thinking, feeling and acting (letting go, attitude of „not knowing“), and opening for ( developing an attitude of expectation) emergence of „something“ new and unexpected. This process can be individual as well as social (in a group, team etc.). We think the above mentioned components together form what we call reflection. Reflection itself just creates space for emergence of new creative patterns and generating new meaning. It is however not clear from where comes the energy and bits of information which form the new meaning. There are also various opinions about the nature of it. Some authors stress the importance of tacit knowledge of practitioners, which they start to reflect when they focus on their practice. Other authors mention the significance of grasp of the wholeness of the situation including one self when the fragmented perception of „expertness“ (assesment, planning etc.) breaks down.Yet other authors mention the transformative aspect of such experience and consider emancipation from various pre-conceptions (from the feminist point of view) or even spiritual sources here ( e.g.glimpse of wisdom through Holy Spirit). Conditions supporting reflection has been studied in various settings. Havrdova summarises four such conditions : Four key conditions for reflextion (Havrdova, 2006) Personal dispositions (reflective abilities, containment, etc.) Safe atmosphere (including positive relationship, trust etc.) Experience with positive results of reflection ( trust into learning experience through reflection) Supporting stucture for induction of reflection (helping to externalize problems, guiding reflection) Also group support and organisational suport is considered to be important. Bond and Holland (1998) give five different tools which may be utilized to deepen reflections, including problem solving and emotional learning frameworks. Provision of supporting structures for reflection seems to be an important source of cultural diversity in supervision. We think it is also within the notion of deepened or provision of supporting structures for reflection when other authors mention the importance of externalizing problems, finding unique outcomes, and deconstructing problem-saturated systems in supervision (Jeffrey K. Edwards, Mei-Whei Chen 1999). The same authors express the idea that in regards to supervision, coconstruction or cocreation of a new reality may be the most important aspect. Edwards and Nejedlo (1988) used the expression advancing new meaning and knowledge, for which a collaboration in a significant professional relationship seems to be a condition. In this point, Johns’s ( Ch.Johns 2000, p.61) „framing perspectives“ (philosophical framing, role framing, theoretical framing, problem framing etc.) come into picture which are again a source of many cultural differences. So if we want to find some core traits in the culture of supervision we think they must be centred around the concept/process of reflection, externalizing problems and advancing new meaning in the framework of experiential learning in professional practice. We have to accept that all this cannot be only a spontaneous process (which we would not call supervision), but that the framework of supervision is an intentional organisation of the opportunity for reflection, externalization of problems and advancing new meaning. Common features of supervision- suggested summary Supervision as a profession means a professional field of activities which primarily intentionally organises opportunities for reflection as a social process, based on safe professional relationships. Supervision takes place in many different settings with the aim to improve quality of professional work. Each setting must however assure conditions, which enable reflection. The core focus of reflection in supervision is on job/service experience in a general sense. The way it is concretised in each setting is bound to the context and goals in supervision. The methods of supervision have common aims to externalize the individual, group or team job experience and its various aspects to enable reflection. Reflection is followed by generating or deepening meaning-this can be manifested as new knowledge, behavior, attitude, relationship, assesment or emotion or all of this.The way the meaning is generated or deepened is bound partially to the context in which supervision takes place and concrete goals.It can vary from externally (normatively- as in mentoring) directed to highly internally (autonomously, creatively- as in art therapy supervision) emerging meaning The whole process of setting conditions for reflection, reflection itself and generating meaning is taking place in a framework of experiential or action learning. Part of this framework is usually common goal(task) setting and evaluation of the process. From this formulation of what is typical for supervision we try to come to typical common features of culture in supervision as a profession. 4. Culture in supervision as a profession Each culture has its heros. Let us start to look for „supervision heros“ and their journey to win. To describe the journey we shall focus on the inner meaning of reflection in the life of the hero. We think the best expression can be found by O´Donohue,1997- „ reflection offers a sacred space for creativity each new day brings“. Reflection helps practitioners focus on things which matter to them and thus take responsibility for their new discoveries and for getting rid of old structures in their mind and in their context, which do not do anymore. This helps to maintain a vivid contact with the present situation in their jobs, to develop an actual situated contextual cognition and understanding of their practice in context and to act creatively. Who is the hero? We think that the characteristics of the hero in supervision stem from the aim and conditions for reflection in supervision.So our suggestion is as follows: Hero is a practitioner who is able to reflect on his practice and himself more deeply than others and generate new complex meanings of it in such a way that it helps to encourage himself and others and work better (transformative experience). She/he is able to share his/her understanding sensitively with others and unfolds creatively the situation in such a way that he/she in not disturbing the safe atmosphere and enables the reflection for others too. This behavior contributes to develop experience that reflection matters and brings results.He/she is open and sensitive to many kinds of interpersonal and situational stimuli and at the same time contains many differences - this enables him/her to integrate more contradictions than others into a new holistic meaning which has transformational potential. Cultural traits of supervision Hawkins ( in Hawkins, Shohet 2000) has developed a model of five levels of culture itself, which involves motivational roots , emotional ground, mind-set , behavior and artefacts (symbols, rituals), where each level is a ground for the other level.We suggest following elements of the culture in supervision according to these five levels. Cultural traits of supervision as a profession motivational roots emotional ground behavior mind-set wish/belief in change is stronger than fear commitment to good practice by supervisee: externalization of own experience and sharing it thinking positively curious about practice commitment to pay attention to experience focussing on practice reflection certain ability to generating meaningreflected conflict contain new attitude leading to between contradictory transformed action desirable emotions action/situation by supervisor: creating and real certain level of climate for selfaction/situation trust in disclosure (time, depth, relationships mutuality) seeking personal and negotiating focus and knowing by communication goal reflection of tacit managing supervision behavior in readiness to process context releasing the balancing challenge and energy tied up in support negative feelings framing giving feedback relating meaning to action seeking congruence between various levels of the context including self artefacts (symbols, rituals) rituals at the beginning of the session which help to set the climate giving positive/enco uraging feedback at the end of each session to see contradiction as fundamental learning opportunity looking for creative reaction to challenge Our suggestion of the common cultural traits is speculative and open for any other suggestions and discoveries.We hope some intercultural research in supervision might help to develop the line of thinking about culture in supervision. Summary We tried to find out if there are any common crucial or core elements in culture of supervision as a profession across many cultural differences which are bound to various levels of its context. We described the levels of the context and suggested some factors influencing the culture in each level of the context. We have argued that there is a view in which all differences in supervision as a professional activity might be contained and that it is the view attributing crucial importance of reflection and inference of new meaning of practice for all supervision activities. We have looked for the characteristics of the hero in supervision and constructed it on the bases of conditions enabling reflection. We also suggested some typical cultural traits of supervision which we think are present in each different supervision context. Literature: Coleman,H.L.K.:Training for multicultural supervision. In Holloway E.,Caroll,M.(eds.): Training counselling supervisors.London.Sage,1999 Bond,M., Holland,S.: Skills of Clinical Supervision for Nurses. Open University Press, Buckingham,1998 Edwards, J. K., & Nejedlo, R. J. : Excellence in supervision—Preparation for counseling excellence: About the issue. The Quarterly, 1988. 111, 2-4. Hawkins,P.,Shohet,R. Supervision in the helping professions. Second edition.Open University Press, Buckingham 2000. H. Heath and D. Freshwater: Clinical supervision as an emancipatoru process: avoiding inappropirate intent. 2000 Blackwell Science Ltd, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 32(5), 1298±1306 1299 Havrdova,Z.: Supervision in social and health organisations. Textbook FFUK, in press Freshwater, D.: The role of reflection in practice development. In Handbook of Practice development. Clark,A.,Dooher,J.Fowler,J.Eds.Quay,London, 2000, pp.70-76 Jeffrey K. Edwards, Mei-Whei Chen , Strength-Based Supervision: Frameworks,Current Practice, and Future Directions. The family journal:Counselling and therapy for couples and families, Vol. 7 No. 4, October 1999.pp. 349357 Johns,CH.: Illuminating the transformative Potential of Guided reflection.in Johns, Ch., Freshwater, D.:Transforming nursing through reflective practice.Blackwell Science Ltd.,Oxford 1998,pp.78-90 Jarvis,P.: Adult learning in the social context. New York:Croom Helm,1987 Johns,Ch.: Becoming a Reflective Practitioner. Blackwell Science Ltd. Oxford,2000 Kessel, Louis van: Culture in Supervision. ANSE-Summer University 18-10-2003, p. 7-8 Kessel, Louis van, and Dinie Haan: The Dutch concept of supervision. Its essential characteristics as a conceptual framework. The Clinical Supervisor, 11 (1993) 1, 5-27. Kilminister SM, Jolly BC: Effective supervision in clinical practice settings:a literature review. Medical Education 2000,34:827-840. Blackwell Science Ltd. Kolb,D.A.: Experiential learning.Englewood Cliffs,NJ:Prentice Hall,1984 Mezirow, J., Brookfield, S., Candy, P. C., Deshler, D., Dominicé, P. F.,Gould, R. L., et al. Fostering critical reflection in adulthood: A guide to transformative and emancipatory learning. San Francisco: JosseyBass, 1990 O´Donohue,J.: Anam Cara:Spiritual Wisdom from Celtic World. Bantam Press, London 1997 Schmidt H.G.,Norman,G.R.,Bostwitzen,H.P.A.: A cognitive perspective on medical expertise:theory and implications. Acad.Med.1990, 65 (10),611-21 Schön, D.A.:The reflective practitioner.Avebury Press, Aldershot,1983 Schön, D.A.:Educating the reflective practitioner.Jossey Bass, San Francisco,1985 SOKRATES Curriculum Developement “Supervision, Coaching und Organisationsberatung in interkultureller Perspektive” 2004 - 2006 About Analysis of Culture (following Edgar Schein) Edgar Schein’s concept of analysis of culture mainly is understood as guided self-analysis of organization. But with this attempt he keeps distance from usual investigations which alone cannot adequate realize the complexity of organizations. Especially phenomena which are not conscious to the staff or organizations at first sight cannot be achieved by reserved technique of inquiry but need a mutual research process in face-to-face settings. The analysis is set up in the way that one proceeds from the actual problems, inquiries or partial systems of an organization in order to get generalized statements. Facts which f.i. are gathered by interviews, by combination of outer facts of an organization (organization of structure and issue) and by observation have to be brought into connection with the official programs and conceptions. Following Schein analyses concerning the culture of enterprises have to be done by deepened, interactive researched connections and reasons of the collected phenomena from time to time. With this method of feedback of facts and its deepened research in interaction processes Schein stands in the tradition of action research as one of the essential basis of organizational development. Schein has developed his approach to analysis of culture from his double-bind identity as researcher and counsellor. The Levels of Culture and the Procedure of Analysis Schein approaches to the complexity of the theme culture from the concept of three cultural levels, which have to be outlined resp. investigated one after the other and by doing so to make a headway possible to a deeper understanding of cultural organizations. “Decisive for investigation of cultures is the finding that artefacts can easily be watched, but can hardly be decoded and thus the values possibly only point out rational explanations and idealistic efforts. For the understanding of culture of a group it is unalterable to recognize its mutual basic premises and the process of learning in which they are produced.” (Schein 1995, p. 34) “Levels of Culture: Artefacts: noticeable structures and processes in the enterprise (easily to watch but hardly to decode) Declared Values: strategies, goals, philosophy (declared justifications) Basic Premises: unconscious, obvious opinions, perceptions, ideas and emotions (starting point for values and actions.” (Schein 1995, p. 30) Schein proceeds on the assumption that one only can come to the gist of a culture if it is possible to find out some premises which give sense to the chosen artefacts and values and which can build up a Arbeitsmaterialien, verfasst von Mag. Angela Gotthardt-Lorenz, Universität Salzburg Projekt-Verantwortliche: Zsuzsanna Bán (HU), Prof.Dr.Susanne Ehmer (D), Dieter Goeschel (D), Mag. Angela Gotthardt-Lorenz (A), PhD Zuzana Havrdova (CZ), Prof. Dr..Joachim Sauer (A), Erzsébet Seborn-Wiesner (HU) 1 SOKRATES Curriculum Developement “Supervision, Coaching und Organisationsberatung in interkultureller Perspektive” 2004 - 2006 connection of the three levels. Tracing out some premises yet cannot bring up statements concerning gist of culture of enterprises but the investigation of interplay of different premises. Outgoing from the question whether the “declared values” can explain sufficiently the “artefacts” or whethter there are perversities resp. obscurities, the research for basic fundamental assumptions can begin. These can result in the special history of the organization, in the personality of the creator, in the mentality of profession, in the shaping of the product – like Schein shows it in different examples, and can show up reasons why obvious incompatible even fits together. The research process which Schein describes, doesn’t represent the demand that paradigms can consider the culture of an organization in its total. But cooperation of several remises can deliver explanations for the behavior within enterprises and for the way of mastering tasks. Attentation has to be paid that in organizations also subcultures can exist and organizational culture not only is understood in just one cultural design. Subcultures also can find their expression in different hierarchic levels of an enterprise which perhaps the dialogue makes necessary about the different subcultural assumptions. The Position of the “Researcher” Edgar Schein explains his attempt of culture analysis from the position of a counsellor who is called from enterprises because he shall assist at the treament of problems. When he discovers cultural relevant connections his research on cultural analysis starts. For this context he can gathter demographic data as far as the people to be consulted allow it. Besides possible single or group interviews he gets his data from observation during a counselling process. Data from different approaches can be combined by means of the procedure of cultural analysis. Schein calls this procedure the “clinical” attempt. It provides “that culture doesn’t manifest itself without further ceremony and that one has to interfere actively in order to determine the existing rituals, the declared values and the mutual basic premises.” (1995, p. 37) From this position as researcher he refers to the reserved position of a researcher who represents an “ethnographic” attempt whereupon culture has to be researched in a way that one “watches it long time enough and gets only little contact with it”. (Schein 1995, p. 37) In the “clinical” attempt the inquiry is directed to the “insiders”, who work on decoding the culture of their enterprise. “The most effective and perhaps the best founded method of decoding cultural premisis lies in direct cooperation of an outsider with a group of motivated insiders from which circulates a pattern of artefacts, values and basic concerns.” (Schein 1995, p. 140) Culture Analysis and Management Leaders Schein also describes the function which management leaders have in developing organizational culture. They provide culture in the pioneer stage, they contribute to its embodiment and have the task to bring a cultural change in the stage of maturity of the organizatin, in times of large outer and inner challenges and even in the stage of the threatening decline. Leaderships need the competence in order to decode cultures and subcultures. “A large part of the task of leaders exists in a continuous dialogue of special premises of culture and in producing a concept which uses constructively those premises or changes them in case of need.” (Schein, 1995, p. 315) Arbeitsmaterialien, verfasst von Mag. Angela Gotthardt-Lorenz, Universität Salzburg Projekt-Verantwortliche: Zsuzsanna Bán (HU), Prof.Dr.Susanne Ehmer (D), Dieter Goeschel (D), Mag. Angela Gotthardt-Lorenz (A), PhD Zuzana Havrdova (CZ), Prof. Dr..Joachim Sauer (A), Erzsébet Seborn-Wiesner (HU) 2 SOKRATES Curriculum Developement “Supervision, Coaching und Organisationsberatung in interkultureller Perspektive” 2004 - 2006 Schein starts from the assumption that “subculture of the head floor” represents an important starting point for a self-analysis. (Schein, p. 226) Typical Shapes of Enterprise Culture In the second part of his book “Organizationskultur” (2003) Edgar Schein points out that enterprises in different stages resp. situations show up specific expressions of enterprise culture, f.i. at start-up enterprises at change management at mature enterprises (in midlife-crisis) at associations of enterprises Total Estimation The culture analysis here pointed out doesn’t only include a description of phenomena but it advances to “structure of deepness” by analysing basic assumptions. Working with phenomena reflection however is not included in this attempt and not at all in the American features of organizational development. The pattern of cultural research even today is completely valid at all places where is worked with different sights and interventions concerning organizations. Here attempts of counselling can themselves“lean” upon when highly complex processes are managed. Explosiveness, rapidity and unpredictability of economic globalization which can be seen in organizations today, yet is less evident in this literature. But even that would be needed for a differentiated analysis of cultural processes in organizations which on the other hand hardly (can) take place. Literature: E. H. Schein (1995) Unternehmenskultur. Ein Handbuch für Führungskräfte, Campus, Frankfurt; Original Edition (1992): Organizational Culture and Leadership. 2nd. Ed., San Francisco, C.A.: Jossey-Bass E. H. Schein (1996) Über Dialog, Kultur und Organisationslernen, in: G. Fatzer, Organisationsentwicklung und Supervision, EHP Köln E. H. Schein (2003) Organisationskultur – The Ed Schein Corporate Culture Survival Guide, EHP Köln; Original Edition (1999): The Corporate Culture Survival Guide. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Arbeitsmaterialien, verfasst von Mag. Angela Gotthardt-Lorenz, Universität Salzburg Projekt-Verantwortliche: Zsuzsanna Bán (HU), Prof.Dr.Susanne Ehmer (D), Dieter Goeschel (D), Mag. Angela Gotthardt-Lorenz (A), PhD Zuzana Havrdova (CZ), Prof. Dr..Joachim Sauer (A), Erzsébet Seborn-Wiesner (HU) 3 Supervisie en Training Gerian Dijkhuizen Supervisor/teacher Supervision LVSC The Netherlands Dramatherapist/grouptherapist Kamer van Koophandel Gooi- en Eemland nr. 32088564 Kapelweg 72 3818 BR Amersfoort The Netherlands tel. 033 – 4613024/0031-647009986 ING 9121620 mail: Dijkhuizen100@zonnet.nl Methods/Techniques Diversity in supervision ʻDonʼt tell me, show me.....ʼ The exercises are based on the principles of psychodrama. This theory was developed by J.L. Moreno ( Bucharest 1889- New York 1974). His aim was to make people active and to let them see their situation through the eyes of other people. Important in Morenoʼs theories were the concepts of role taking, spontaneity, creativity, empathy and catharsis. In the process of acting out conflicts and problems in interpersonal relations, the actors gaines insight and is helped by the group process to remedy problem behavior patterns and improve coping skills. Psychodrama is essentially an existential encounter between a group of people. By employing a social network to facilitate deep change, Moreno invited people to live out the Golden Rule -- reversing roles and imagining what it may be like to be the other person, promoting empathy, compassion, and self-reflection (Blatner, 2000). Furthermore, psychodrama is unique in its attempts to go beyond the linear methods of talk therapy to promote deep self-awareness and integration. Moreno's methodology is a growth model emphasizing individual responsibility and the creating of one's destiny. Unique to psychodrama is the use of primarily role play in therapy to promote joy, enthusiasm, excitement, playfulness, vitality, deep feelings, sharing, and the integration of these emotions with the greater spiritual self. Techniques diverted from the Psychodrama principles that can be used for Diversity in Supervision: 1. The Representation I Make a representation as a supervisor of your supervisees by chosing objects that symbolises them in the differences you see. Reflect on this. 2. The Representation II Make your supervisee create a symbolic set to his own family. Let him/her reflect on differences or similarities. 3. Role reverse Imagine you are your supervisee/client. Change roles. You are being interviewed. The Director focusses at diversity themes. Reflect on this. 4. The Chairs Place different chairs for the diversity dimensions you chose to investigate. 5. The Double Place (in a group supervision) a person from the group next to the protagonist and let him mirror his/her bodylanguage. Let the double talk: what does he feel? Think? Protogonist and double can discuss this. 6. The Chorus Group supervision: place different groupmembers as a chorus behind the protogonist. Let them express different opinions of the protagonist. Protogonist reflects on them or discusses. Summary Psychodrama techniques are very suited to use in supervision on the subject of Diversity. They offer an ʻactionʼ beside the verbal parts in the sessions. In this way it can give endless opportunities of reflection on items concerning diversity (people, work, professional skills, socialisation etc). October 6th 2009 Amersfoort Supervisor/leersupervisor/supervsiedocent i.o. LVSC Vaktherapeut drama, lid FVB Lid NVGP LEVELS IN REFLECTION: TOWARDS TAILOR-MADE SUPERVISION OF TEACHING PRACTICE Fred Korthagen & Angelo Vasalos IVLOS Institute of Education Utrecht University P.O. Box 80127 3508 TC Utrecht The Netherlands Tel. *31-30-2531723 E-mail : F.Korthagen@ivlos.uu.nl Abstract Reflection is currently a key concept in teacher education. The ideal reflection process is often described in terms of a cyclical model. In the present article we explain how such a model can be used for supporting student teachersʼ reflection on practical situations they are confronted with and on their behaviour, skills and beliefs in such situations. In some cases, however, more fundamental issues appear to influence teachers functioning in practice. For example, the self-concept of a teacher can have a decisive influence on the way he or she functions, or teachers may do what is expected of them and yet not feel truly involved. In such cases a more fundamental form of reflection is needed, which in this article we refer to as core reflection. The focus on core reflection concurs with the recent attention in psychology for strengths in people. 1 LEVELS IN REFLECTION: TOWARDS TAILOR-MADE SUPERVISION OF TEACHING PRACTICE 1 Treasures are people who look into my eyes and see my heart. Rick Betz Introduction An example. A teacher educator complains to a colleague: “I must have had almost a dozen supervisory meetings with Steven about his lack of contact with the class. We've looked at all sorts of approaches, each time using the reflection circle, but we're still not getting anywhere. I have a feeling the problem goes deeper, that it has something to do with the way Steven relates to people in general. But I don't know whether I'm the right person to talk to him about the problem.” In the professional development courses on the promotion of reflection that we give to teacher educators and mentor teachers, situations regularly arise which resemble the one sketched here. Teacher educators have to deal with many cases in which the reflection process aimed at appears to be ineffective and something “deeper” seems to be involved. However, most teacher educators have neither the desire nor the ability to act as therapists .… In the present article we examine this problem, and demonstrate that often a form of reflection is needed which does go deeper and which we call core reflection. This form of reflection, however, does not entail delving into a person's private life, but it can lead to profound changes. Moreover, it is possible to train educators to reach these more deeply rooted aspects. This article is structured as follows. First we examine briefly the competence for reflection, which is now stressed in almost all documents describing teacher competences. The ability to reflect in a systematic manner is indeed of essential importance for teachers if they are to learn from their experiences (Calderhead, 1989; Schön, 1987). What we are referring to here is the ability to look back on an experience in a structured manner, and to draw conclusions for future actions. Supervisors or mentor teachers play an important role in promoting such reflection. The way in which they may fulfil that role is described elsewhere on the basis of a phase model of reflection (Korthagen, 1985; Korthagen et al., 2001). The next section contains a brief summary of this material, and focuses on the process of reflection. Then we look at the question of which aspects are the most relevant for the teacher to reflect upon, i.e. we focus on possible contents of reflection. It is important that the supervisory process is keyed to those aspects which are currently most relevant for the teacher (the concernbased approach), but often it is necessary to broaden the reflection. A model of levels of change has proved beneficial in tailoring the supervision to a particular individual. This model is described and theoretical support is presented. The concluding sections examine the consequences for the supervision of professional development processes in teacher education. 2 Theoretical framework: The reflection process This article is based on an approach to reflection that has been published in many previous publications. In this section we give a brief summary. The approach starts from the assumption that by nature people reflect on their experiences, but that systematic reflection often differs from what teachers are accustomed to doing. If we look closely at the way teachers generally reflect, often influenced by the specific school culture, we see that the pressure of work often encourages a focus on obtaining a 'quick fix' - a rapid solution for a practical problem rather than shedding light on the underlying issues. While this may be an effective short-term measure in a hectic situation, there is a danger that one's professional development may ultimately stagnate. In some cases teachers unconsciously develop standard solutions to what they experience as problems, so that the accompanying strategies become 'frozen' (Schön, 1987). The teacher is no longer in the habit of examining these strategies, let alone the analyses he or she once made of the problems they are intended to address. Thus, reflection is important in promoting sound professional development. Skemp (1979) developed a theory describing the role of reflection in human behaviour. His theory is an extension of the well-known TOTE-model of Miller, Galanter, and Pribram (1960). TOTE stands for Test-Operate-Test-Exit. Miller, Galanter and Pribram state that if a person experiences an incongruity between a present situation and his or her needs (this is the first ʻtestʼ), that person can use a plan for action. The term plan refers to all organised processes in the organism which direct behaviour. Such a plan is based on an internal representation of the outer world. Miller, Galanter and Pribram use the term image to refer to such a mental representation of parts of the world. With the aid of the plan the person operates, tests again the degree of incongruity, if necessary operates again, operates again until the test shows congruity and then the operation is ended (exit). mental structures In fact, we are talking about an elementary feedback loop, which makes it possible for human beings to direct their behaviour. The process involved is pictured in figure 1 (a slight adaptation of a scheme introduced by Skemp). effectors receptors action information E N V I R O N M E N T Figure 1: The delta-one level: The process of interaction between a person and the environment. The rectangle in figure 1 represents what Skemp calls a director system. Such a director system dealing with the interaction with the environment, is called a deltaone system (delta after the first letter of the term director system). 3 People can do more than just interact with the outside world. They can reflect on the way they interact with the world and try to improve this interaction. To put it in more theoretical terms, they then try to structure or restructure their internal representations of reality or the way they are using these representations for developing their plans or their actions. Skemp concludes that human beings have internal second-order director systems (called delta-two systems) which seek to improve the delta-one systems (figure 2). Skempʼs idea to distinguish between director systems at two levels is in line with a distinction between two levels of abstraction, made earlier by Piaget (1977). (mental) action 2 action 1 information information E N V I R O N M E N T Figure 2: The delta-one/delta-two system. For student teachers, who are still working out exactly how they want to function in the class, systematic reflection and thus development of the delta-two level, is of great importance. Otherwise, well known dangers are that they will reflect in a haphazard way (today this problem, tomorrow that), or will fail to devote sufficient attention to the way the pupils experience their lessons, reaching instead for instant solutions even before they have a proper grasp of the problem. Figure 3 shows a practical translation of the process described by the arrows in figure 2. It is called the ALACT model (after the first letters of the phases), and intended to help prevent such obstacles to effective learning from practice. It is now used in many countries as a basis for systematic reflection on practical experience. Creating alternative methods of action 4 Awareness of essential aspects 3 5 Trial 1 Action 2 Looking back on the action Figure 3. The ALACT model describing the ideal process of reflection 4 Ideally a teacher will be able to go through the various phases in the model independently. In practice, however, initial help of a supervisor or colleague is often necessary. The latter will need to employ certain interventions. Figure 4 shows the most important types of interventions, and the phase in which they are used. They are based on Carkhuff (1969), Egan (1975) and Rogers (1969). ALL THE PREVIOUS SKILLS + HELP IN FINDING AND CHOOSING SOLUTIONS ACCEPTANCE EMPATHY GENUINENESS CONCRETENESS CONFRONTATION GENERALIZING UTILIZING THE HERE-AND-NOW HELP IN MAKING THINGS EXPLICIT A SEPARATE LEARNING PROGRAM (IF NECESSARY) 4 creating alternative methods of action 3 awareness of essential aspects trial 5 action 1 HELP IN CONTINUING THE LEARNING PROCESS HELP IN FINDING USEFUL EXPERIENCES looking back on the action 2 ACCEPTANCE EMPATHY GENUINENESS CONCRETENESS Figure 4: Supervisor interventions related to the ALACT model For the purpose of professional development courses in teacher education, all interventions have been concretised for use in supervisory conferences with student teachers. (For more information about these training courses for teacher educators in Europe, see Korthagen et al., 2001, p. 239-253.) In the case of concreteness, for example, the supervisor will ask the teacher about various aspects of the situation, and will at least touch upon the dimensions of wanting, feeling, thinking and doing. Because these dimensions are of influence for both teacher and pupils, it is important for teachers to include all nine areas that appear in figure 5. By asking further questions related to these specific areas, the supervisor can help the teacher discover how to address them more systematically. Only then can we say that someone is truly learning how to reflect. 0. What was the context? 1. What did you want? 5. What did the pupils want? 2. What did you do? 6. What did the pupils do? 3. What were you thinking? 7. What were the pupils thinking? 4. How did you feel? 8. How did the pupils feel? Figure 5: Nine areas relevant when concretising in phase 2 One example of a concretising question is: “How do you think the pupils felt when you asked that question?” 5 Another important intervention in supervisory conferences is empathy, which has to do with explicit understanding how another person feels, what he or she is experiencing, and being able to put a name to what evoked those feelings (Egan, 1975; Carkhuff, 1969). An example of an empathic reaction could be: “I understand that you started feeling a little unsure of yourself when the pupils said that that wasn't part of the homework assignment?” This response also links two of the fields in figure 5 (namely 4 and 6), clarifying an essential aspect of how the person experiences the situation (leading to phase 3). Only the person being supervised is in a position to say whether such a reaction is truly empathic. This is the case when this other person has a sense of being understood, and the response is appropriate to the overall context of the conversation. The above are just a few examples of the theory behind the cyclical model of reflection (figure 3) and the accompanying interventions (figure 4). Readers who are interested in more detailed discussion of the reflection model and other interventions from figure 4 are referred to Korthagen et al. (2001, p. 106-128). The spiral model, together with the interventions, provides a framework for promoting reflection in teacher education. However, the model describes the ideal reflective process, but it doesn't tell us very much about the content of reflection: what does or should the teacher reflect about? The following section will examine the possible contents of reflection processes. The contents of reflection We will start with a case in which a student teacher, named Judith, goes through the various phases of the cyclical model with the help of a teacher educator. The ALACT process Judith is annoyed about a pupil named Peter. She has the feeling that Peter is trying to get away with as little work as possible. Today was a good example. In the previous lesson she had given the class an assignment for the next three lessons where they were to work in twos. The assignment would be rounded off in the third lesson with a report. Today was day 2. Judith expected all the pupils to be hard at work, and during this lesson she planned to answer questions from pupils about any problems they were experiencing. Then she noticed that Peter was working on a completely different subject. When Judith saw this, her response was 'Oh, so you're working on something else... looks like you're going to fail this assignment too!' (Phase 1: Action) During the supervisory meeting Judith becomes more aware of her irritation, and how that irritation influenced her actions. When the supervisor asks her what effect she thinks her reaction had on Peter, she realises that Peter may have been irritated too, and that this may have led him to be even less motivated to do well in her class, which is precisely what Judith is trying to prevent. (Phase 2: Looking back, making use of the dimensions wanting, feeling, thinking, doing) By means of this analysis she becomes aware of the escalation taking place between her and Peter, and the fact that this process is leading nowhere. (Phase 3: Awareness of essential aspects) 6 However, Judith sees no way out of the situation. Her supervisor shows that he feels empathy with her problems with Peter. He also introduces small theoretical elements concerned with escalating processes in the relationship between teachers and pupils, such as the pattern of 'more of the same' (Watzlawick, Weakland & Fisch, 1974) and the guideline that says in such a situation the best thing is to break the pattern, for example by means of an empathic reaction, or by consciously making a positive remark about Peter. This is the beginning of phase 4: Developing alternatives. Judith compares this theoretical guideline with her tendency to become even stricter and to put Peter in his place. In the end she decides to try out (phase 5) a more positive and empathic approach, which begins with asking Peter about his plans. She practices first during the supervisory meeting: the supervisor asks Judith to think of examples of sentences that she could use when talking to Peter. He then does a short exercise with Judith in the use of words that express feelings,thus making her better able to respond empathically. When Judith reflects on the results of the new approach to Peter, after trying this out in the next lesson, phase 5 becomes the first phase in the following cycle of reflection, creating a “spiral” of professional development. The case shows the five phases in the reflection process and also illustrates that reflection by teachers commonly focuses on the following aspects: 1. The environment: this refers to everything that Judith encounters outside herself. In the present example, that means Peter and the way he behaves. 2. Behaviour: both less effective behaviour, such as an irritated response, and other possibly more effective - behaviour. 3. Competencies: for example, the competency to respond in a more constructive way. 4. Beliefs: perhaps Judith believes that Peter is not motivated or even that he is trying to cause trouble. (Novice teachers often assume that pupils are trying them out.) However, things may be more complicated. Beliefs are often deep-rooted and persistent (Calderhead & Robson, 1991), in which case the supervisor cannot bring about a change as easily as in the instance above. For example, following the supervisory meeting, Judith tries to be more constructive in her contact with Peter, but both the supervisor and the teacher herself suspect that this approach does not really suit her. Perhaps there is more here than meets the eye. A significant underlying issue may be how Judith sees her own professional identity, i.e., what kind of teacher she wants to be. Or the problem may be even more complex: perhaps she is enthusiastic about her subject, mathematics, and finds her inspiration there rather than in building and maintaining a relationship with her pupils. And yet this does not necessarily mean that Judith would do better to consider a different profession. The problem may be an limiting self-concept which interferes with the development of a number of personal qualities. If she were more receptive to the possibility that these qualities can be 7 developed, then the result might be a renewed sense of inspiration and enthusiasm for the teaching profession. To get that process moving it is not enough to reflect on environment, behaviour and competencies. And even reflection on beliefs does not go to the core of the problem. Levels of change The model in figure 6 (a variant of the so-called Bateson model) provides a framework for the problem sketched above (Dilts, 1990). It shows various levels which can influence the way a teacher functions. The idea behind the model is that the inner levels determine the way an individual functions on the outer levels, but that there is also a reverse influence (from outside to inside). In this model of levels of change, the levels of environment, behaviour, competencies, and beliefs are expanded with two new levels: the level of identity and the level of mission (for the latter Dilts (1990) uses the term ˝level of spirituality˝). Reflection on the level of mission evokes such issues as 'why' the person decided to become a teacher, or even what he sees as his calling in the world. In essence, this levels is concerned with what inspires us and what gives meaning and significance to our work or our life. This is a transpersonal level, since it involves becoming aware of the meaning of our own existence in the world, and the role we see for ourselves in relation to our fellow man. Whereas the level of identity has to do with experiencing what makes us who we are, the level of mission is about “the experience of being part of meaningful wholes and in harmony with superindividual units such as family, social group, culture and cosmic order” (Boucouvalas, 1988). Getting in touch with the level of mission has a very practical significance. For example, on the level of identity a beginning teacher may be so focused on surviving in the classroom that he takes on the role of 'policeman'. This kind of teacher has quite a different influence on the class from one who is always conscious of the interests and needs of the pupils, and whose actions are sincerely rooted in a pedagogical ideal (on the level of mission). Where the first teacher may 'invite' a power struggle, the second often succeeds in creating an atmosphere of togetherness, so that the pupils also consider it important to work together in a pleasant and productive atmosphere. environment behaviour competencies beliefs identity mission Figure 6: The model of levels of change 8 Core reflection When reflection extends to the two deepest levels in figure 6 (the core of one's personality), we speak of core reflection. The ALACT model (figure 3) and the accompanying interventions (figure 4) are no longer sufficient to describe the entire process of core reflection and the role of the supervisor. However, the initial stages of the process are the same as described in figure 3: there is an experience within a concrete situation which gives rise to reflection. As a rule, reflection is triggered by something which is still on the teacher's mind. This could, for example, be a sense of dissatisfaction with what was accomplished during the lesson, or some incident that affected the relationship with the pupils. This leads to phase 2: looking back. Here the nine areas in figure 5 play an important role. In core reflection, the information brought to light during the second phase is used to answer the following questions: 1. What is the ideal situation - the state which the teacher wants to bring about? 2. What are the limiting factors which prevent the achievement of that state? The concept 'ideal situation' refers to an ideal the teacher is anxious to create. This means that it is closely bound up with the level of identity or mission. During the process of becoming aware of the ideal situation, it often emerges that the teacher's difficulties in achieving it are not restricted to the present, but rather that they often crop up other situations as well. In that case, it is important to address this extension of the problem, since it forms an extra stimulus to tackle the problem, and also to look more closely at possible limiting factors. Initially such a factor may be experienced as related to the environment (a troublesome class or the school management which has failed to take the necessary measures). However, what is important here, is to look at the ways in which the teacher in question may be limiting herself. This could have to do with: - limiting behaviour (for example, avoiding confrontations) - limiting feelings (for example, “I feel powerless”) - limiting images (for example, “the class is a mess”) - limiting beliefs (for example, “this is something I have no influence over”). The essential thing here is for the teacher to take a step backward, and to become aware of the fact that she has a choice whether or not to allow these limiting factors to determine her behaviour. By formulating the ideal situation - together with the factors which are experienced as limiting the realisation of that state - the person has become aware of an inner tension or discrepancy. As an example we can take a student teacher who is longing to feel secure as a teacher (ideal situation: inner self-confidence in the classroom) and the limiting belief that she - as a beginning teacher - does not have what it takes to exercise leadership. Another example is the problem faced by someone who is striving with all his might for appreciation and respect, but who constantly displays unsuitable - and thus limiting behaviour. 9 Actualisation of core qualities How can these core qualities be mobilised? 4 Awareness of core qualities What core quality is needed to realise the ideal situation and overcome the limitations? 5 1 3 Experimenting with new behaviour Experience / problematic situation What problems did you encounter (or are you still encountering)? 2 a. Awareness of ideal situation What do/did you want to achieve or create? b. Awareness of limitations (limiting behaviour, feelings, images, beliefs) How were/are you refraining yourself from achieving this? Figure 7: Phase model of core reflection There is an important difference between this process and a process of reflection which involves only the outer levels of figure 6: often the formulation of the discrepancy between the ideal situation and the limitations one is experiencing is enough to clarify the problem which is at the root of many other problems on the levels of behaviour, competencies or beliefs. One could say that this brings to light a core discrepancy, i.e., a tension that touches the very core of the individual. To follow up on the example we gave in the previous paragraph: the student teacher in this case was made aware of the area of tension lying between her ideal situation - feeling self-confident and relaxed in the classroom - and her limiting belief that this is something which is only achieved by very experienced teachers. By means of this process of awareness-raising, she gradually realised that her nervousness in the classroom, the minor conflict she had had the other day, as well as the uninspiring assignments she had devised for her pupils, all had to do with that underlying tension. Because on the one hand, she wanted to feel confident and relaxed, while on the other hand she was held back by the conviction that this is something reserved for 'later', her stronger side - her core qualities (Ofman, 2000) - could not be fully realised. Examples of core qualities are trust, courage, creativity, sensitivity, candour, decisiveness, spontaneity, and flexibility. By means of core reflection according to the model in figure 7, such core qualities can be activated. The process of core reflection begins with phase 2 (awareness of the area of tension and the choice of whether or not to identify oneself with the limiting factor), which leads to phase 3 (awareness of core qualities such as confidence, spontaneity, and autonomy). Often the student teacher involved in the process of core reflection is suddenly aware of such core qualities after phase 2. If that is not the case, there are several possible strategies for a supervisor. The first is to trace relevant past experiences in which the student teacher did succeed in achieving the desired situation. Thus the student in the example can try to recall situations in which she was indeed self-confident and relaxed. That might be a situation in a totally different context, for instance, an occasion when she presided over a meeting at a student house. 10 By immersing himself in this past experience, she will realise that on that occasion it required no effort to be spontaneous, at ease and autonomous. She realises - at least cognitively - that she does actually possess those core qualities, but what is even more important is that, by recalling the memory of that positive experience, she is able to access the will to mobilise those core qualities. This will enable her to address the question of how she could make use of those core qualities in a specific lesson the following day. That is phase 4. Another strategy is to challenge the student who is allowing her belief that she has no authority over the class to limit her, by asking her to take the lead in a concrete, less problematic situation. In this way the student teacher can come into contact with an inner potential - for example, the core quality of self-confidence. Often limiting beliefs or images have repressed important core qualities for so long that a stimulus from outside may be necessary to activate them again. Core reflection aims at more than just cognitive insight. Thinking, feeling, and wanting are all important in coming to new action on the basis of a core quality. Phases 3 and 4 of the model for core reflection ultimately result in a more fundamental solution than would be possible if reflection were confined to the levels of behaviour, competencies and beliefs. For one thing, the process leads to a redefinition on the level of professional identity or mission. For example, the student in the example did not initially see herself as a self-confident teacher but after the core reflection she did, or in any case much more than before. We will now look more closely at the actualisation of core qualities. The actualisation of core qualities The focus on core reflection is linked to a recent development in psychology, advocated by people such as past president of the American Psychological Association, Seligman, and called positive psychology. Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000, p. 7) state that this movement is a reaction to the fact that for too long psychology has focused on pathology, weakness and damage done to people, and hence on 'treatments'. They emphasise that "treatment is not just fixing what is broken; it is nurturing what is best". Hence, they point towards the importance of positive traits in individuals, which they call character strengths. They mention as examples: creativity, courage, kindness, and fairness (Peterson & Seligman, 2000). A central issue in positive psychology is how these strengths mediate between external events and the quality of experience, something that is directly relevant to teacher education. Peterson and Seligman (2000) emphasise that although character strengths can and do produce desirable outcomes, they are morally valued in their own right, even in the absence of obvious beneficial outcomes: "Although strengths and virtues no doubt determine how an individual copes with adversity, our focus is on how they fulfil an individual." This illustrates that we can locate strengths on the levels of identity and mission. Peterson and Seligman add that when people are referring to their strengths, this correlates with a feeling of "this is the real me", that they show "a feeling of excitement when displaying a strength", and - very important for our discussion - "a rapid learning curve”. 11 The way Seligman and other psychologists within this new field write about strengths, clarifies that they are synonymous to what we call core qualities. Ofman (2000) states that such a core quality is always potentially present. He maintains that the distinction between qualities and competencies lies primarily in the fact that qualities come from inside, while competencies are acquired from outside. This is in accordance with the model of levels of change: competencies such as the ability to take into account different learning styles or to reflect systematically, are located at the level of competencies, while core qualities are found on the deeper levels of change. Almaas (1986, p. 148) talks about 'essential aspects', which he considers absolute in the sense that they cannot be further reduced to something else or analysed into simpler constituents. 2 It should be stressed that when someone comes into touch with a core quality, it is important to help him or her take the step towards actualisation of that quality (the step from phase 3 to phase 4). In other words, the supervision of teachers is about facilitating the process whereby the inner levels of change influence the outer levels. In the previous section we noted that it is crucial that the teacher is not only cognitively aware of a core quality, but that he or she is emotionally in touch with that quality, and takes a conscious decision to mobilise it, and then carries out that decision. Example of a supervisory meeting focusing on core reflection, phases 3 and 4. Supervisor: “How does it feel to get in touch with this quality of spontaneity?” Student teacher: “Wonderful! It gives me a sense of freedom.” Supervisor: “Yes, I can tell by looking at you! Itʼs great that youʼre in touch with it ... ... What would it be like to build on that feeling when you go to your next class?” Student: “Yeah, if I could ... ...” Supervisor: “Just hang onto that great feeling.” Student: “I know, I feel much more free. I feel as if I have more potential than Iʼve called on up to now.” Supervisor: “Is there something concrete that you would now do in the class where you were having problems?” Student: “Iʼd be quicker to let the pupils know what Iʼll accept and what I wonʼt.” Supervisor: “Exactly! Can you give me an example?” Student: “Well, for one thing, Iʼd rein Sandra in sooner.” Supervisor: “Letʼs make that more concrete. Suppose Sandra started calling across the class again. Get in touch with the core quality spontaneity in yourself and that feeling of freedom ... .. What would you say or do, on the basis of that feeling?” Student: “That I want her to stop doing that.” Supervisor: “Yes, good. That sounds firm! Now suppose that Sandra was here in front of you, right this minute. Tell her that.” Student: “Sandra, I donʼt want you calling across the class like that.” 12 Supervisor:. “Good, I can tell that you have it in you to really mobilise that quality of spontaneity! How does it feel?” Student: “Itʼs a kind of relief.” Supervisor: “It was great to see how you responded. Next time, how about if we talk about how things worked out during the lesson? Student: “Okay.” In phase 4, an experienced supervisor who is accustomed to the process of core reflection will often be able to help actualise a core quality. It will be clear from the example that the necessary encouragement can be provided by a committed supervisor who is convinced that the teacher has it in him or her to change and who helps the teacher to realise that potential. The supervision of core reflection Among the most important skills of a supervisor wanting to promote core reflection are the ability to recognise and promote the development of core qualities. The supervisory interventions which appear in the outer circle in figure 4, remain important but acquire a somewhat different significance in core reflection. Thus in supervising the process of “looking back” (phase 2), it is important for the supervisor to focus on the ideal situation as well as the limiting factors as experienced by the teacher being supervised, and to show that empathy for both. Concretisation is another intervention which has a slightly different emphasis here: the supervisor may focus on the level of identity or mission, by asking questions like 'If you could make a wish, what would it be?', 'What do you hope to have achieved a year from now?', or 'What is there inside you that lets you down when you do that?' Another important point is the fact that the supervisor can make use of self-disclosure (Egan, 1975, p. 137). Here he or she puts himself or herself on the line by letting the teacher see who he or she is, or where the supervisor draws his or her own inspiration from. Confrontation also deserves special attention when it is used to promote core reflection. A supervisor can use this intervention type to help the teacher become aware of the tension between the ideal situation and limiting factor or factors. Any form of confrontation always needs some empathy, but this is even more important during the process of core reflection, in order to ensure that the supervisory setting is experienced as safe and supportive. 13 Is this something any supervisor can learn? The above 'theory' on supervision may lead some readers to wonder if all this isn't too difficult for the average teacher educator or supervisor. In our experience, this is not the case. For some time, we have been giving professional development courses for teacher educators, in which they learn to supervise reflection at various levels. During these courses, it has become clear to us that when teacher educators are introduced to core reflection, they have to make certain 'adjustments' to their mindset. This is because, over the years, they have often become accustomed to focusing on problems rather than possibilities; they have been more concerned about providing suitable behavioural alternatives than about capitalising on the core qualities present in the student teacher. But, we have also seen that the gradual, stepwise clarification of a new approach often helps the participants to break out of the old patterns, and that they are soon enthusiastic about the results they see in their student teachers. In the box below, we give an example of this phenomenon, a reflection recorded by a teacher educator after a day and a half of a course on 'supervising core reflection'. A teacher educator reflects 3 Resolution: In the time to come I will try to recognise core qualities in other people and will have them identify those qualities themselves, because they are so important when it comes to overcoming limitations. Experience: When talking with a student, he told me he was no longer enjoying the course. He explained that there were too many situations he experienced as negative. As a result, he was incapable of self-guidance, had a low sense of well-being, was lonely and lacked purpose and decisiveness. During this talk, I asked him what it was he wanted to achieve, and what he needed to make it happen. Eventually, he confided to me that he hardly ever shared his feelings with fellow students or his teachers, but that he now thought it might be good for him if he did. The core qualities of openness and vulnerability were mentioned. The student confessed that our talk had had a 'liberating' effect on him: he had found someone willing to listen to him, and to try to understand what was eating at him. And when I said that openness and vulnerability were clearly present in our conversation, he discovered he felt comfortable with that. In the end, we agreed he would regularly email me about his positive experiences at school. He said that perhaps he would now take other people into his confidence, and share his emotions with them. He was convinced that this was how a form of collaboration would ultimately take shape. 14 Core reflection on myself: The process followed the first three steps of the core reflection model. But since offering to lend a helping hand, I'm now wondering if this isn't going to make the student more dependent on me. What I really want is for him to take charge of his own motivation, well-being, self-guidance, purpose and decisiveness. My question now is: how to go on? I took this question along to the collegial support group [small groups had been formed during the professional development course in order to further facilitate the teacher educators' learning], and discussed the situation with my colleagues. We talked about how to tell whether a student is becoming dependent on you as a teacher educator. By the end of the session, I had distilled a number of questions and comments from the discussion to ask the student: - Is the contact by email producing the desired effect? Do you now enjoy going to class? - Can you think of other ways to get the same results? - Do you think you're on the right track now? - Let me know when you've had enough positive experiences. Maybe there's another question I might be able to help you with? - Which core qualities, or other qualities, are you using right now in your learning process? Which ones would you like to develop further? I think it's a good idea to go back and discuss with the student the behaviour he's been experimenting with. After that, we can 'go around the circle' again. And I was just thinking that it might be a good idea to bring along the list of core qualities [handed out in the professional development course], and go over them with him. That way, he can come up with his own ideas. Although learning paces of educators may differ, it is our experience that, after the first few days of a course, almost all of them have picked up the most important principles of promoting core reflection. In our courses, they not only see the approach demonstrated (which obviously is more effective than reading about it), but they also experience its effects, since core reflection is also practised on them, first by the trainers, then by other participants. This form of experiential learning has proved effective as a means of reinforcing the transfer to the teacher educators' own practice. 15 Participants discover that what we are presenting is actually a quite natural process: finding the right manner of adjusting one's own qualities to the environmental requirements is one of the most fundamental human processes. Unfortunately, in the educational world we have become alienated from this process, because of the emphasis on external behaviour norms (such as lists of teacher competencies….). Resurrecting that natural process is almost like rediscovering your own natural way of walking, after a period during which others have tried to subject the process to all sorts of norms. The difficulty of writing an article such as this is the fact that outcharting a natural process quickly starts to sound complicated, just as the process of walking would, if we tried to describe it in detail. For this reason, it may be more helpful to quote a number of evaluative statements made by those participating in a brief course in 'core reflection' (lasting no longer than one and a half days). Several evaluative statements at the end of a course on core reflection: - My skills have been honed, and I now have a clear framework for delving deeper'. - Excellent addition to the reflection model. - I've gone to a deeper level in my awareness of my own approach and the things I want to develop further. - A good working method for getting the core qualities out into the open. - More awareness of my own supervisory skills, awareness of new ways of providing good supervision, the confidence to make use of those qualities. - I am now able to supervise with less effort and more effect. Two conditions had to be met for taking part in this course: the educators were expected to be familiar with the ALACT model and to have had some experience as supervisors. We felt that otherwise the step leading to core reflection could prove to be a very big one indeed. We regard core reflection as the next stage in the professional development of those supervisors who are already experienced in promoting reflection. An additional - implicit - condition for participation was that supervisors had to be willing to look for people's strengths and for ways to help students use their inner potential to overcome limitations. In fact, we found that this is considered important by all those taking part in our courses; we believe that it is often for this reason that they find their work as supervisors enjoyable and satisfying. Core reflection reminds them of this fact and encourages them to bring their inspiration into line with their work and behaviour in concrete supervisory situations. This illustrates that the participants in such courses often learn a great deal about their own deeper levels (those of identity and mission). In fact, awareness of the role these levels play in how they themselves function, is a precondition for the ability to empathise with the quest many teachers undertake in the course of core reflection. It is also necessary, if supervisors are to offer that form of authenticity which is created when talking about their own learning process on the deeper levels, at present or in the past.4 16 Indications for the necessity of core reflection A fundamental principle underlying the notion of reflection is the promotion of awareness about the functioning of one's director systems. For example, the reflection model in figure 3 and the nine questions in figure 5 are means to promote such awareness. The additional significance of core reflection is that it broadens the person's awareness even further, i.e. it helps to include the levels of identity and mission. During supervision of reflection processes, supervisors regularly encounter problems that cannot easily be tackled by means of 'ordinary reflection', i.e. reflection that is limited to the outer levels. In such cases, core reflection seems necessary. This will be clear from several examples drawn from our teacher education programme: 1. Phase 5 in the circle of reflection (trying out a new alternative) has been reached, but the student teacher isn't happy with what has been achieved. It is as if the alternative behaviour is not experienced as personally appropriate. 2. A specific problem has been the object of repeated reflection, and each time a number of possible solutions were put forward, but the student teacher still hasn't succeeded in applying them. 3. One problem after the other presents itself, but it is as if the essence of the difficulties still hasn't been identified. One could go on forever, and still not find the solution. There seems to be something behind all the problems that is more fundamental. 4. The same type of problem presents itself in various contexts, i.e. independent of the other people who are part of the situation. (For example, someone is always unsure of himself or always dominant.) 5. A teacher feels the need to delve deeper into himself or herself. This may happen when the teacher is trying to attribute meaning to work, considering choice of profession, etc. (for example when addressing the question, 'Do I really want to be/remain a teacher?'). Cases like these are indications that processes of reflection that confine themselves to behaviour, competencies or beliefs, remain too superficial. Core reflection may help to go deeper. From core reflection to behaviour This article in effect makes a case for a tailor-made approach to supervising reflection: our statement is that a professional supervisor should be capable of assessing the level at which supervision is necessary or desirable. It may be confined to the level of the environment (for example, one particular pupil). Often, however, the reflection will proceed 'from outside to inside': something that is experienced in one's own contact with the 'environment' (such as a conflict situation) provides an opportunity to direct the process of reflection towards the more inner levels, even as far as those of identity and mission. 17 In such situations the supervisor must ensure that the way 'to the outside' also gets sufficient attention: in the case where a teacher has experienced a deeper contact with what inspires him or her in teaching (the teacher's 'calling'), it is still important for that calling to be translated into concrete behaviour in the environment in which the teacher has to function, so that 'inside' and 'outside' come together. It may thus be necessary to carefully look at the levels of beliefs and competencies. In short, in our view a good supervisor is capable of switching back and forth between the levels, in accordance with the needs of the individual being supervised. It is good to keep in mind that an apparently insoluble or persistent problem on a particular level is often an indication that it is time to examine a deeper level. This only works when the person being supervised is also prepared to look at those levels. One cannot force people to delve deeper: they have to feel the need to do so themselves. Conclusion In closing we can say the following. The ALACT model for reflection (figure 3) describes the ideal reflection process. For this reason the model of levels of change (figure 6) is an important addition, dealing as it does with the contents of the reflection process. The model helps to determine at which level or levels the teacher's problems are located, and by which level or levels the process can be deepened or broadened. The model of core reflection (figure 7) is a supplement to the reflection model, because it is directed towards promoting greater awareness on the levels of identity and mission. Following on this brief summary, we would like to stress that in general the process of core reflection is above all enjoyable: it is a rewarding experience to get in touch with one's core qualities and to use them as a basis for action. In contrast to various therapeutic approaches, core reflection does not require a deeper delving into a person's past, with all the pain that this may entail, and yet the process goes deep. In core reflection that depth is achieved when the teacher mines an inner potential for the benefit of professional development. This is also a great advantage for teacher educators who - quite rightly - draw a line between the students' private life and their professional development as teachers. Just as in ʻordinary reflectionʼ, the important thing is that teachers are finally able to make use of core reflection autonomously, i.e. to go through the process without the benefit of supervision. In ordinary reflection one of the main aims is to enable experienced teachers to do so while they are actually teaching (reflection-in-action; see Schön, 1987). The same is true of core reflection: ultimately teachers can learn to activate the process of core reflection during their teaching, and in this way to make contact with the core qualities which are of importance at that particular moment. The theme of core qualities brings us to an area which up until now has received very little attention from educators and researchers. Tickle (1999, p. 123) maintains: “In policy and practice the identification and development of personal qualities, at the interface between aspects of one's personal virtues and one's professional life, between personhood and teacherhood, if you will, has had scant attention.” Tickle mentions such qualities as empathy, compassion, love and flexibility. These are indeed essential qualities for teachers, qualities which seldom appear on official lists of important basic competencies. 18 Good teaching, in our view, is characterised by a proper balance between the various levels. We believe that ideally a teacher education programme will focus on all the levels of the model in figure 6, preferably keyed to the various phases in the programme and the developmental processes the student teachers are undergoing. Finally, directing attention to core reflection during their professional preparation can help prospective teachers to be more aware of the core qualities of their pupils, so that they will be better able to supervise these children, and help them mobilise their core qualities, in school and in their future life. This is of particular importance in view of the shifts which are currently taking place in the role of the teacher as a result of constructivist views of learning. World-wide teachers have to develop a more supervisory role, which means that they must be capable of developing the selfdirecting capacity of their pupils. To that end, such core qualities as curiosity, commitment to the aim of learning, and self-confidence must be stimulated. In sum, we feel that core reflection, like ordinary reflection, is of crucial importance for teacher educators, teachers and pupils. Notes 1. The authors would like to thank Bob Koster, Ellen Nuyten, Jeannette den Ouden, Anke Tigchelaar and Heleen Wientjes for their comments on a previous version of this article. 2. The approach described in the present article is to a large extent influenced by Almaas' so-called 'Diamond approach' (see, for example, Almaas, 1986). He places great emphasis on the importance of getting into touch with one's own 'essence', in order to transform one's personality from inside. 3. We thank Patrice Verstegen, teacher educator at a Dutch institution for primary teacher education for providing this text, which she wrote within the context of the professional development course for teacher educators. 4. Walsh (1992, p. 30) says: ”State-dependent communication may be particularly limited if the receiver of the communication has never experienced the state from which the communication is coming.” See also Tart (1983). References Almaas, A. H. (1986). 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