Lessons on Learning
The Humanistic Influence on Personal Development Modules in the Social Sciences: Future Proofing Humanistic Theories within Personal Development Modules
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Geraldine Maughan
Social care work practice involves planning and delivery of quality services and supports to work with individuals with discerned needs to empower and work in partnership with them to assist them further develop, integrate and function within society. The individuals’, whether students or clients, emotional, social, physical, cognitive, and behavioural needs must be understood and met in a person-centred approach similar to that outlined by Rogers. Humanistic practitioners constantly keep the individual and their needs at the forefront of all interactions. A case study approach was adopted to ascertain if humanistic theories within a personal development module were relevant to social care work students, social care workers and practice education supervisors. Overall, 41 interviews were convened and thematically analysed. The findings proclaim, humanistic approaches are effective, and they provide a good conceptual framework from which to work. The implication for social care work learning, social care work practice and practice education placements is that those participants value the insights residing in the unconscious and relying on non-directive, optimistic outlooks focusing on the individuals’ worked with ability to bring about positive changes in their own lives and that these individuals strive for self-actualisation. The humanistic philosophy upon which person-centred approaches reside allows for Personal Development groupwork and Social Care Work practice to develop a climate where the expression of attitudes and behaviours are encouraged. Individuals are assisted with developing their capacities for constructive changes and exchanges; individuals are empowered to achieve personal and social transformations.
Teaching the Humanities through Role Immersion - Past and Present View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Thomas Meacham
The use of role-immersive pedagogy is becoming more common as an effective means to teach history, communications, philosophy, and political science. Its prevalence is largely due to the success of Reacting to the Past curricula, in which students read, write, and debate about historical texts and/or key moments in history through active role-playing games. Yet, this form of pedagogy, as my research has uncovered, extends back to medieval pedagogical practices where students at English universities in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries would play various roles non in propria persona (or not in one’s own person). This form of pedagogy was used not only to teach the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric), but also moral philosophy and proper clerical behavior. Notably for the latter, students would inhabit royal and ecclesiastical personas from fictional kingdoms in distant lands to examine and critique ideas and operations of “good governance.” This kind of role immersion was as much about adhering to appropriate behavior in the colleges and halls as it was about preparing students for effective governance at royal and ecclesiastical institutions. This paper considers how these past pedagogies from the Middle Ages might serve to expand current pedagogies of role immersion across disciplines in the humanities.
The Impact of Violence on Learning: Pedagogy for a New Humanity
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Connie Guberman
This paper discusses findings of a two-year research project on the impact of violence in students’ lives and how it affects their learning, including their academic performance and sense of future potential. This is a critical issue that affects social studies in the humanities and has implications for the human condition more broadly. Based on North American data significant numbers of students in colleges and universities, particularly women, are experiencing violence and harm both on campus and in the home. These experiences of violence have been exacerbated in the past two years due to isolation as a result of the pandemic. The implications of these experiences have a profound effect on students. Those who live with, witness, or fear such violence in its many forms are living in what has been called “a dialectic of trauma”. It is this trauma, fear and silence that prevent students from fully engaging in their learning and in co-curricular campus life activities. Indeed, the experience of violence is an impediment to students’ equal access to education, a significant issue for pedagogical practice yet one rarely addressed. Effectively identifying and responding to the harm and violence in students’ lives is critical to the success of our increasingly diverse student populations. In addition to sharing research methods and findings, the author proposes recommendations for teaching practices to address such impacts – practices that will, in effect, address educating for a new humanity.
