5 Mapping the Terrain: Respecting Different Ways of Knowing
5 Mapping the Terrain: Respecting Different Ways of Knowing
“Diversity in society is a universal fact; how societies respond to diversity is a choice. Pluralism is a positive response to diversity. Pluralism involves taking decisions and actions, as individuals and societies, which are grounded in respect for diversity.
The goal of pluralism is belonging. Building inclusive societies requires both institutional responses (“hardware”) and behavioural change (“software”) to ensure that every person is recognized and feels they belong.”
Purpose
“Mapping the Terrain” is informed by narrative therapy’s deep respect for viewing reality through multiple lenses. It explores the values, voices and power structures that underpin the culture of the learning community. This activity provides a way to dive into understanding the perspectives and cultures in the group and it sends a clear message that everyone, including the facilitators, will be learning from one another.
“Grounded in practice-based evidence, our approach privileges people’s local knowledge with an emphasis on abilities rather than deficits, possibilities rather than limitations and what is strong rather than what is wrong in people.”
– Journal of Systemic Therapies/Narrative and Brief
Learning Objectives
Participants will:
- Listen to different perspectives on the topic being discussed.
- Critically reflect on the way culture impacts communication and values.
Activity Directions
Set-Up: Chairs in a horseshoe with five chairs at the front of the horseshoe for a panel discussion.
- Identify and invite panel members: Before this activity starts, invite four people from diverse backgrounds to be on the panel. Tell them that you will be asking them questions about what support and helping look like in their culture. (Or, you may have a different question depending on the nature of your workshop).
- Design relevant questions: Facilitator designs questions ahead of time that will help the panelists to share their values and perceptions.
- Introduce purpose of panel: Facilitator opens the activity with genuine curiosity about the world views of the panelists. In the case-study below, the facilitators were both Canadian and the participants were from 7 different countries. The facilitator opened with the following statement:
“Over the next few days we are going to be exploring communication skills and different ways of supporting people in distress. However, both of the facilitators are Canadian and were trained in Western modalities. We do not want to impose our world view or make assumptions about what will work in your cultures and communities. We hope that approaches we explore might add something to your tool box of interpersonal skills, but in the end you need to decide if these approaches fit for you and your contexts.
Key Points
- We are your facilitators, but we don’t have all the answers.
- We want to learn from you too and need you to tell us when our approaches don’t work for you.
- Cult