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to no. 10
Horary Astrology
to no. 12
Natal Mandala
to no. 7
Dynamic Organization
to no. 9
Firesign Theater
[08] Experiential/
Transgressive Learning
ABSAdomain no.: 8
[Primary] Knowledge type: Conventional
Role in ABSAprime's worldview: Very high
ABSAlink(s): TBA [via ABSAdomain interaction]
Degree of Difficulty: Both easy and difficult
Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. -- John Dewey
The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change. -- Carl Rogers
"Education is the practice of freedom, the means by which people deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. -- Paolo Freire
"The single biggest barrier to learning is the belief that you already know the answer. -- Chris Argyris
Making It Count: Cultivating Max Utility
If I’m known for anything in the world of teaching, folks would almost certainly point to my work with simulations. Beginning in Spring 2006, I taught a series of 14 courses which explored complex organizational communication problems by means of, first, leading students to become expert in a particular space and time in history (relying on scenarios both realistic, as with labor relations in outback Australia at the turn of the last century [Waltzing Matilda, Spring 2013], and fantastical, as with time-traveling Nazi hunters [Ratcatcher, Spring 2018]). For each simulation, that traditionally-taught knowledge was absorbed and tested, via 24 to 28 scholarly articles, in the first three weeks.
Following their immersion in some of the sociohistorical contexts of the simulation problem, the class would be responsible for constructing solutions to their respective, recreating worlds, based on the readings they'd done, and presented in the form of a multi-act, multi-scene (usually numbering 12 to 16 scenes) dramatic stage play, complete with costumes, makeup, props, and so on.
Throughout, students relied on themselves and (importantly) upon each other, working through numerous scenarios as they wrote the play that would detail their solution(s), act by act, interaction by interaction, choosing in the process numerous verbal and nonverbal encounters. It all built up to the last class session, which was the public presentation of the play, on a “legit” theatrical stage, with a “live” audience.
The Payoff
Unlike conventional teaching, where consequential work is usually shared only between teacher and student—the teacher tells, you write, then teachers read—in experiential learning accountability is to be found in what you do publicly (even more so for transgressive learning, which we'll take up). Public presentation is the “acid test” of learning: lacking understanding, how could one explain to someone unfamiliar with these conditions?
If you think this is just an exercise in free-form fantasy, guess again. The solution is based on how effectively students absorbed their “crash course” in scholarship on their subjects. In other words, their product was based not only on their imaginations, but upon being superbly well informed about the knowledge (from topical experts) that underpins and supports their creative process.
All this is intended to simulate a process to deal with “real-life” organizational challenges and thereby suggest a template for future application, consisting, essentially, of three stages: first, become (extremely) well-informed; second, give free rein to alternative imaginings of possible solutions (showing also why some should be rejected); and third, make the payoff something consequential.
What made it "consequential" was the public performance of a play comprising several acts (usually three), and numerous scenes (usually 12 to 14), performed just as a "real" play, with props, FX, makeup, costumes, etc. In the audience? Fellow students and parents (who, surprisingly, were nearly all wildly enthusiastic about my unusual style of teaching). One dad asked, "Why couldn't there be courses taught like this when I was a student?" Answer: this was when you were supposed to find out. That may sound evasive but is actually dead on. 😘
My experiential work has two stages: (1) experiential teaching/learning, and (2) transgressive teaching/learning. Of the two, experiential is prior and transgressive grows out of it (knowledge must first be assessed experientially, followed by praxis involving transgression [learn what needs to be fixed, then do it]).
Experiential learning concentrates on the role of experience in pedagogy; transgressive learning foregrounds the responsibility (by students and teachers), having perceived things experientially, to engage in activism by putting into practice what they have learned via experiential (and similar, let’s call them, “nonconventional”) approaches) in and about the classroom. Another way to put it: learning experientially wakes you up, but learning transgressively makes you want to do something about it.
The Trial of Saavedro
So, in the first simulation, The Trial of Saavedro, the question was, “is Saavedro [a character in the video game Myst Exile ] primarily a freedom fighter or a destructive anarchist?” Since the Myst “universe” is imaginary, my class had to focus its “fix-it” mechanisms (determining guilt or innocence) on treating the imaginary as real.
Experiential learning concentrates on the role of experience in pedagogy; transgressive learning foregrounds the responsibility (by students and teachers), having perceived things experientially, to engage in activism by putting into practice what they have learned via experiential (and similar practices, let’s call them, “nonconventional,” approaches) in and about the classroom. Another way to put it: learning experientially wakes you up, but learning transgressively makes you want to do something about it.
The ten students, as the final performance, put Saavedro, “wild man” of the interplay of scenarios, on trial for the harm he was rumored to have caused Atrus (inventor of the Age-spanning linking books, which, upon touching the pages, whisks you to a different time and place). Five students comprised the prosecution, the other five for the defense.
As Below, So Above
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