Customer Reviews

Re-authoring Teaching: Creating a Collaboratory

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a practicing pediatrician, I found Peggy Sax's new book RE-AUTHORING TEACHING: CREATING A COLLABORATORY, spellbinding, in a very specific way. Consider Chapters 8 and 9. Here are two of the most personal, poignant and profound expressions of what deep depression feels like to Kate (Chap. 8) and Nicole's perplexing world of self-harming behavior and eating disorders (Chap. 9). I will be giving copies of these chapters to my partners and to medical students and residents with whom I work. No textbook can capture the essence of these painful disorders as powerfully as Ms. Sax's presentation. If you deal with mental health issues, from any perspective, please read at least, these chapters.
Jack Mayer, MD, MPH
Rainbow Pediatrics
Middlebury, Vermont 05753

Peggy Sax invites you into a house of learning in this book. She provides a warm welcome and walks you through the house, introducing you to many other guests, who are engaged in rich and invigorating conversation about postmodern, and particularly narrative, therapeutic practice. The atmosphere in the house, called a "collaboratory," envelopes you and draws you in.

This book is a substantial piece of scholarship that adds considerably to existing literature on teaching postmodern and particularly narrative therapy. Most of the material in this domain so far has been published in article and book chapter form and I know of no other book devoted specifically to the teaching of narrative therapy.

Another aspect of this manuscript is that it approaches the teaching task from the perspective of the systematic and rigorous learning that takes place usually (but not exclusively) in a university context. Many of those who practice in a narrative way have learned their craft more in workshops and through reading. This is changing as narrative practice becomes more established and this book is nicely timed to fit into the next context of development. In my judgment there is a need for narrative practitioners to learn these practices systematically and this book maps out a process for this to happen.

The book is both a report on the author's and her students' experiences of learning in an online learning format and a guide for those who might pursue such learning in future. The author is clearly experienced in teaching through an online platform and the teaching and learning ideas are based on sophisticated use of current technology. I mean sophisticated in the sense of how learning possibilities relate to the medium rather than in relation to the technology itself. I found myself thinking, as I read, of online teaching I am myself engaged in and was stimulated to rethink various practices and to develop a stronger rationale for others. The liberal inclusion of students' voices was well handled and added a strong dialogical quality to the text. It felt like listening into a conversation and being shown how the conversation worked, rather than being told about it in an abstract way. In this way the author handled the communication of a practice in an inviting and engaging way that leads a reader into an experience of what the learning she reports on must be like.

The author's tone was deceptively simple and descriptive and yet conveyed a rich and passionate enthusiasm that was palpable and powerful. It was also personal and established a relationally authentic voice and stimulated an ongoing dialogue inside the reader's head (mine at least). The use of the neologism "collaboratory" is clever and convincingly carried off. It is fleshed out strongly in the practice outlined.

I see value in this book for those engaged in the process of learning, both from the position of teacher and from the position of learner. It could serve as an excellent introductory text for an online learning program or course, particularly one that is focused on narrative therapy.

I found myself imagining assigning the text to be read by students entering an online class and also using it later in the class. Early on, reading this text might enrich the reflections that happen in many classes because students get to read models of what can be achieved. In my own online teaching I have experienced some situations where students have taken a while to get the hang of what is possible in an online learning community. This book could help make the development of a learning community happen much more quickly. It also contains much material that is worth revisiting later in the same kind of class. So it is also a worthwhile supplement to learning narrative practice in an online course. These combined values make it suitable as a class text. I would add too that there are an increasing number of courses converting to at least partial online learning platforms. This book will I expect encourage others to develop effective learning opportunities in this context.

I really liked several particular aspects of the book. The exercise on professional identity development is an excellent one. The discussion about power relations and therapy was a strength too. It engaged in these issues in detailed and practical ways and raised dilemmas that readers will no doubt find useful to think about. The chapter on letter-writing was also strong as an exemplary teaching tool as well. One could actually learn to write narrative letters just from reading this chapter.

Reading this text was a different experience from reading some of the other introductory texts that are around. And it was an additive experience. This book overtly serves a different purpose but can also complement such introductory texts very nicely, especially for those engaged in a systematic learning program.

The reading of "Re-authoring Teaching" by Peggy Sax is, no doubt, a refreshing inspiration to anyone that works both with teaching and therapy. The book takes the reader beyond the frontiers of the dominant linear thought and puts into practice the principles of post-structuralism in the realms of the education. In fact to put such principles to work in the educational field seems a greater challenge than to do the same in the therapy field.
Particularly interesting to someone who, like me, has been teaching for the last twenty five years, is the discussion about evaluation, power and learning that Peggy brings about on the chapter called "reckoning with power".
Although the book describes an experience in which the actors were seeing each other every week, it magnifies ideas and possibilities to design courses where the actors will see each other with less frequency. In fact the book wins a space as setting premises and examples of new possibilities. That expands the opportunity for psychologist and teachers that live in the country side or in places with difficult access to complete an up-grading program of education and clinical practices in psychology.

Teachers and clinicians that want to improve their practice in the direction of the future will take great value of this reading.