What began as a ‘provocation’ to the GSTILE community became a provocation to myself.
“GSIPM is rockin’ on that
‘social change’ band wagon.
C’mon y’all. Let’s do this.“
I began, as we often do, by asking of others: Continue reading
This week’s highlights within and around the Deans’ Seminar include:
a Monterey-based faculty convening, Sprintensive as Transformative Pedagogy: Breakthroughs and Challenges, a Fund for Innovation (FFI) curricular pilot, andMaris spoke on the topic of “Vermont, Silicon Valley, and the Future,” drawing attention in his conclusion to Continue reading
Our 
Thursday, April 7th Deans’ Seminar convening featured colleagues from the Sprintensive team. Their FFI-funded curricular experiment takes advantage of block scheduling to drive inter-faculty and cross-curricular integration and collaboration in a feedback-rich learning community for students.
Reflections from each of four faculty members on the challenges and breakthroughs they had personally experienced Continue reading
A driving force behind the launch of the Deans’ Seminar initiative at MIIS has been a provocation crafted by Kent and Alfredo around the role that action research can play in (a) helping international development practitioners live up to their ideals and (b) to likewise challenge those who educate such practitioners to reflect critically on their own work.
Their provocation is closely tied to Continue reading
Or, “how different are we, actually?” (hint: scroll to the end for concrete examples)
Picture an old-fashioned wagon wheel, resting flat in the grass or propped up on its side in a field.
photo: tuchodi
Now hunker down closer and perch your eyeballs just above the outer rim, scanning across to the other side of the wheel from various vantage points along its outer perimeter.
As we progress around the ring, Continue reading
… articles and resources from
the Action Research Journal (ARJ) Special Issue:
Development, Aid and Social Transformation (2016)
Download the Call for Papers (2014)
Six months into this eighteen month Deans’ Seminar process, I’ve had the opportunity to engage in a wide range of activities: workshops led by external experts, grassroots student-focused ‘happenings’, and facilitated discussions amongst faculty from across the Institute, to name just a few.
poster by mjennings
While each of these events has had its own unique character, one consistent theme that has emerged for me across them all is the role of the ‘soft’. Those elusive ‘you know it when you see it’ characteristics, sometimes perceived to be extra, ephemeral, ‘not our job’, even ‘weak’ attributes that — over and over — various groups have articulated to be at the core of something very, very important.
by Bonnie Benham, with Andrea Olsen and Sarah Springer
In the final hour of our workshop with Mary Brydon-Miller that explored systems of power and privilege our group formed around the concept of power as energy.
Question: How can we see power as energy moving through a system rather than a force that dominates a system?
We discussed the benefits to an organization when power might be seen Continue reading
President Laurie Patton at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies
In Laurie Patton’s Inaugural Symposium Keynote Address she includes a light nudge, a suggestion, a challenge perhaps, or simply a note sounded as way-finding signpost: pedagogy.
“If curriculum can be part of our creativity, then pedagogy cannot be far behind.”
Like many of her premises and provocations that evening, Continue reading
Led by Mary Brydon-Miller, a trailblazer in experiential learning, transformative pedagogy, and action research, this workshop/master class will explore how to generate empathetic relationships that allow for constructive co-inquiry in social change processes and in our classrooms.
Learn more:
Space limited to 20 faculty, students, staff, and alumni.
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One of the world’s foremost action research scholar-practitioners – Hilary Bradbury – will offer a Master Class to interested Middlebury Institute (MIIS) faculty on December 8. You can learn more about Hilary on the Action Research Plus site and via her OHSU faculty profile.
In this Master Class, Hilary will talk about Continue reading
Highlights reel from the December 4th, 2015 Deans’ Seminars event which brought faculty from across all degree programs into conversation with close peers, extended collegial circles and practitioner perspectives.
~ Produced by Sarah Springer
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Our Friday, November 13th convening engaged participants around the following questions:
click image to enlarge
Highlights reel, produced by Sarah Springer:
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Deans' Seminar: Ideal Practitioner 