Having Double-Vision as a Supervisor

Being a skilled and artful supervisor of a Divinity student requires the capacity to see more than one thing at a time.  It requires a kind of double vision: near-sighted as well as far-sighted.  That is, sometimes the work before us requires us to look very closely (together) at one task that is before us.  It might be word-smithing, word by theological word, a sermon, a prayer, a news release, a statement to board members.  This kind of work reminds me of the kind of sight Annie Dillard must have had when she wrote, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek based on her very close observations of one square foot of land over time.  It requires seeing detail, nuance, slight movement.

And then there are the times when we need to see as far down the path as we can.  A student might be encountering a difficulty in the internship that could have long-term ramifications.  What if I do not have this gift?  Should I change course?  At times like this it is helpful to have the vision (and navigational tools) of a sea captain.  Having a sense of where the currents change, where there might be something lurking beneath the surface,  and what might be the best timing for a course correction.

Where have you recently encountered the need for one or other of these kinds of vision?

What wisdom might you share?

Finding Voice in the Second Year

http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9812

"Community of Truth"

"A Community of Truth"

 

In Proverbs of Ashes:  Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us, Rebecca Parker, addressing her own journey of healing, writes:

       I also had to find a community of truth.   When friends sent me to a

       support group for people struggling with their response to the 

       effects of alcohol on those they loved, I found a place of unmasked

       human presence.

       Because that group was one in which people didn't hide, I   

       began to learn not to hide.  It took a long time, but I gradually

       began to tell the truth about my life.  It was like learning

       to speak all over again.  The habits of hiding and denying

      were so old, I didn't know how to speak except in a way that

      was a kind of a lie.  I didn't know how to say, "I hurt.  I am afraid." 

      I only knew how to say,  "I'm fine.  Nothing is wrong.  Everything is great."

      (Brock and Parker, p. 214)

 

What is a "community of truth"?    According to Merriam-Webster a "community" is "a unified body of individuals", and "interacting population" with "a common characteristic or interest." (Merriam-Webster)  What would a community whose stated common characteristic is truth telling look like?  This is not, I think, truth with a capital "T", connoting an absolute certainty beyond the capacities of human finiteness.  According to Parker it is a community that does not require hiding and denying.  It demands a new language – or perhaps the reclaiming of an old, old language forgotten in the pull and tumble of human existence, a language that can express what is real inside and among us, our truths with a more modest lower case "t."  A "community of truth" needs listeners, those able to hear the hard, tragic , sharp, brutish edges of life and hold fast in community.   A "community of truth" requires a kind of mutuality born of an awareness of sharing in the human condition.   A "community of truth", I think, is based in the ancient art of story telling, in this case, our own tattered volume, including chapters of hurt, fear, anger, and grief.  A "community of truth" holds one another accountable in love.  A cheap love can embrace the "fine and great" and even a measure of woundedness.   A "community of truth" needs an expensive, extravagant love to encompass the hard, tragic, sharp, brutish edges of life as well as its joys and to remain vulnerable to hope and possibility.

 

What does this have to do with theological supervision?  That hinges on the goal of theological supervision.   I am not sure what exactly is meant by "training the next generation of leaders", a phrase we hear often enough, but it strikes me as timid.  What if, rather than settling for "training", we decided to risk mutual forming –perhaps trans-forming - by gathering and "practicing" being "communities of truth"?

In some ways this is easier than being the expert with "answers."  However, vulnerability does seem to be requisite - not unfettered disclosure - but a willingness to at times forthrightly "not know", to listen, to be as authentic as we can be at any given moment, to do our own hard, necessary, continual practice of  inner assessment.   There just may be more authority in this practice of authenticity than in having answers.

 

Come to think of it, in the Christian faith tradition, a "community of truth" sounds a lot like some descriptions of the "the Body of Christ."

 

Trudy Hawkins Stringer

 

Brock, Rita Nakashima., and Rebecca Ann. Parker. Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us. Boston: Beacon, 2001. Print.

 

"Community - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community>.

 

 

--
Trudy Hawkins Stringer
Assistant Professor of the Practice
Associate Director of Field Education
Vanderbilt University Divinity School
615 343 3962

"Coaching" in Supervision

A recent article in The New Yorker (“Personal Best” by Atul Gawande) raised the very provocative question of whether or not all kinds of professionals might benefit from a personal coach.  The author, a very accomplished surgeon, described himself as being “at the top of his game” when he decided to experiment with this question.  Interestingly, it was a random encounter with a much younger tennis player who offered the author some tips on improving his serve, which prompted this vocational reflection.  

The entire article can be found here:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_gawande
I will go ahead and spoil the ending by telling you that even a seasoned surgeon found it useful to invite a trusted colleague to observe his work and offer feedback about becoming even better at what he does!

While the work of personal coaches is often geared toward a particular challenge such as weight loss, improved athletic skills, better public speaking, etc., there is some wisdom in the practice of coaching that might be of use to those of us who supervise Divinity students in the mysterious process of coming to confidence and competence in daily practice.  Religious leadership is difficult to teach partly because  “jobs that involved the complexities of people or nature seem to take the longest to master.”  (p. 44)

Often I think that I do too much of the talking when I am supervising a student.  This article offered some concrete techniques that help me quickly shift into listening mode, while still being attentive to important feedback that needs to be given.  After the student has engaged in some work of their own, instead of the supervisor immediately offering praise and possibly critique, experts from the world of coaching suggest a few simple and straightforward questions:

• what worked?
• what did not work as well as you would have liked?
• What might you do differently next time?
• What else did you notice?

What I like about these questions is that they ask the student to quickly get to the heart of the matter.  It gets them in the practice of reflecting on their own work, in the moment.  Part of the work of supervision is to be attentive to unhelpful dynamics, such as exaggerated self-criticism or self-praise, a tendency toward perfectionism, etc.  But the starting point for this work is what the student herself says about her work.

Sometimes a student’s reflection offers a natural segue for the supervisor to share practical wisdom.  “Others in this situation have done this or that.  Or: sometimes I have had success with this.  Saving this part of the conversation for later assures us hat we are offering advice that is needed and welcome, and speaks directly to the student’ situation.

I invite you to read the article for yourself and share your own comments and reflections about times you have coached or been coached.

--Viki Matson

EXPERIENTIAL PEDAGOGY

Experiential Pedagogy

 

In The Rule of Benedict Joan Chittister relates the story of a visitor to a contemporary monastery asking a monk,  "'What do you do in the monastery?'  And the monastic replies, 'Well, we fall and we get up and we fall and we get up and we fall and get up."[1]

 

Experiential pedagogy (or experiential education), the stuff of Field Education, is variously defined as "learning by doing"[2]; or "the process that occurs between a student and an educator that combines direct experience with the learning environment and subject matter"[3]; or "a philosophy and methodology in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills and clarify values."[4]

Recently I attended a workshop on "Habits of Creative Problem Solving."  The presenter pointed out that the words "experience" and "experiment" share the same root, the Latin experiri which means "to try."[5]  An experience is defined by Merriam Webster as  "a direct observation of or participation in events as a basis of knowledge" or "the fact or state of having been affected by or gained knowledge through direct observation or participation."[6]

 

Experiential pedagogy at its root invites – requires – experimentation.  Did you have a Young Scientist Club Science Kit Set or perhaps the Test Tube Adventures Lab?  If so, you may remember that not all experiments turn out as expected.  Some things work; some don't work; and some don't work as expected.  All three outcomes are expected in the learning process.  Similarly, experiential pedagogy requires that we risk finding out what works and what does not  and what does not work as we expected– that we risk being wrong – risk failure.

 

How can we best help our students to move beyond "getting it right" (whatever the current "it" may be), to move beyond a kind of ingrained academic perfectionism, and move toward experiri?  In "An Experiment in Feedback" Barbara Blogett challenges us to challenge ourselves as supervisors by differentiating between praise and feedback.  Blogett suggests that we help the student identify a specific learning event, specify learning goals for that event and request specific feedback on these learning goals.[7]  I suggest that praise can be understood as a generalized affirmation, while feedback ( Perhaps "constructive" would be a useful qualifier for feedback.) is particular to a discreet experience.  One obstacle to giving and receiving feedback, Blogett points out, may well be our own "intern inside" us, the one who likes " receiving praise for hard things as a substitute for analyzing what is hard about them."  And the one who uses "praise to cover our own anxiety about the hard things we are asking others to do."[8]

 

Do you remember in the 1970's and 1980's when  "continuous" or "continual" quality improvement programs were all the rage?  Some of us became worn out with the notion that nothing was ever "good enough."   I do not think this was the intention of these programs; however, the context, the organizational culture, can make all the difference in implementation.  And so, I suggest, it is with the use of feedback.  If we begin with a theological anthropology that acknowledges that "we fall and get up and we fall and get up", then perhaps we can risk admitting that we have fallen in the past and are likely to fall again in the future.  If we covenant to do this in community, to give and receive constructive feedback as a way of helping one another get up again, perhaps our "inner intern" can be stilled and the courage to risk trying can replace the fear of failure.

 

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[1] Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict:  A Spirituality for the 21^st Century (New York:   Crossroad, 2010) p.

[2] "Worldview Literacy Project, Experiential Pedagogy, Middle School, High School, Web Based, Self-aware, Qualitative, Classroom Observation."  Johns Hopkins School of Education.  Winter 2011.  Web. 26 Sept. 2011. http://education.jhu.edu/newhorizons/Journals/Winter2011/Schlitz

[3] Jesse Jewell, "Experiential Pedagogy",  Web. 26 Sept. 2011 http://yukonee.wikispaces.com/D.+Experiential+Pedagogy .

[4]"What is Experiential Education?" Association for Experiential Education:  a Community of Progressive Educators and Practioners, Web. 21 Sept. 2011.

http://www.aee.org/about/whatIsEE

[5] Eric Booth, "Creative Problem Solving", Creative Practice Boot Camp, Vanderbilt University Curb Center, Nashville, Tn. 2 Sept. 2011.

[6] "Experience – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary", Dictionary and Thesaurus – Merriam-Webster Online.  Web. 26 Sept. 2011.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/experience

[7] Barbara Blogett, "Experiment in Feedback", Alban – Building Up Congregations and Their Leaders. 19 Sept. 2011:

[8] Blodgett, http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9754 

Trudy Hawkins Stringer

Link to thoughtful article about giving feedback

http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9754

Walking Wounded or Wounded Healer?

"A good half of every treatment that probes at all deeply consists in the doctor's

 examining himself (sic)….it is his (sic) own hurt that gives a measure of his (sic)

 power to heal."

                                                                        Carl Jung[i]

 

Occasionally theological students are drawn to do ministry in a setting that is deeply personal to them, or because they have an intimate connection with the issues addressed in a particular context. For example, a mid-life woman who lived in an abusive marriage for years feels compelled to work in a shelter for victims of domestic violence.  Or a young man whose mother killed herself 4 years ago senses a call to invest his time in a Suicide Prevention Coalition.

 

When making decisions about placements, a wise Field Educator will take her time with such students, learning more about their personal story and their journey toward healing and restoration in order to discern where the student lands on the continuum of Wounded Healer ↔ Walking Wounded.  It's not that every student (or minister) must have every conflict resolved and be perfectly healed in order to be of use.  We all have vulnerable places and issues which need continued attention.  But it is entirely appropriate to expect that religious leaders have a high degree of self-awareness about their own emotional landscape, including triggers, unfinished business and lingering grief.

 

When a person lands more toward the "Walking Wounded" end of the continuum, their conversations and their reflections will largely be focused on themselves and their own healing process, almost as if they were a client.  They lead with their own needs, and their own unfinished business enters too heavily into the daily work.

 

In contrast, a person who is a "Wounded Healer"[1] is aware of their own wounds and griefs, and has travelled along the road of healing far enough that the wounds are not open and gaping for all to see.  A wounded healer is actively tending to their own emotional and spiritual work, so that they come to the placement or the client out of a sense of wholeness, rather than brokenness.  Sometimes these wounds can even be something of a gift, offering the minister a rich resource out of which to care for another in a similar circumstance.

Part of the art of supervising a divinity student is being attentive to where they might fall on the continuum, and bringing to self-consciousness the motives, memories and unresolved Powerfor another. 

 

The poet, Adrienne Rich, says it this way:

            Today I was reading about Marie Curie:

            she must have known she suffered from radiation sickness

            her body bombarded for years by the element

            she had purified

            It seems she denied to the end

            the source of the cataracts on her eyes

            the cracked and suppurating skin of her finger-ends

            till she could no longer hold a test-tube or a pencil

 

            She died a famous woman denying

            her wounds

            denying

            her wounds came from the same source as her power.[ii]

--Viki Matson

           

---

---

1 Jung quoted in Anthony Stevens, Jung (oxford 1994), p. 110.

2 Thanks to Carl Jung for identifying this archetype and to Henri Nouwen for reflecting on its place in ministry.

3 Power, a poem by Adrienne Rich

WHY QUESTIONS MATTER

WHY QUESTIONS MATTER

Each Field Education syllabus opens with this reminder from the poet, Rainer Maria Rilke (http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/295) :

Be patient with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.  Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them.  And the point is, to live everything.  Live the questions now.  Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

                                                                 Rainer Maria Rilke,

                                                                        Letters to a Young Poet

Field Education at Vanderbilt Divinity School engages the pedagogical model of experiential education, learning through combining theology and practice in  ongoing conversation. We find that well crafted questions are some of the most profound teaching tools in this work.  Below is a "working list" of provocative, engaging questions compiled from conversations with our colleagues, supervisors in "the field" without whom we could not do this work.   These are questions that we can utilize with students – and with ourselves – as we continue to "practice" ministry.

We invite you to add to the list, to help us think about what it means to "live" our questions. 

1. What assumptions could others make about your beliefs from experiencing your practice?  Are those assumptions safe?
2. Where do you experience the presence of God in this situation?  Do you experience it as cmfort, challenge, mystery, etc?
3. What would you pray for…what do you yearn for…in this situation?
4. In what ways was this situation an occasion for your own spiritual growth?
5. In what ways might this situation be a barrier to your own spiritual growth?
6. Does this situation call to mind any Biblical images, motifs or characters?
7. What kind of world view is operative in this event?
8. What in this event describes the human dilemma that cannot be avoided? 
9.  Where do we find alienation and discord?      
10. What would forgiveness look like in this situation?
11. What is there to give thanks for in this event?
12. Are there signs of healing/wholeness in this situation
13. What might it "cost" to be faithful?
14. In what areas have your beliefs and commitments changed?
15. What do you want to know more about?
16. What were you surprised by?

Trudy Hawkins Stringer

Welcome!

If you have found your way to this blog, it is because you are interested in the
INTERSECTIONS OF:

• theology and practice
• communities of faith and academy
• private self and public self of religious leaders
• action and reflection
• tradition and imagination

The work of theological Field Education inhabits these vibrant places of intersection. Field Education is an enterprise in integration, and this work is done in the places where various dimensions of our lives meet, or intersect. This blog is addressed primarily for folks who are engaged in the work of supervising, mentoring, teaching or companioning divinity students or seminarians.

Together we (Viki Matson and Trudy Stringer) have been doing this work for over 25 years, and along the way we have learned some things about best practices related to Field Ed supervision, which we will share in this space. We also hope to prompt some conversations which will mine our common wisdom about the less quantifiable dimensions of this work, the art of being a good supervisor or mentor. We hope that this space can be a forum where, in between our face to face visits with each other, we can muse, raise questions, ask for help, share insights with another about the common work of raising up the next generation of religious leaders. We will post something new in this blog each week, and we invite you to add comments, to suggest topics for reflection, to write a guest blog around a topic of interest to you.

We're glad you found us. Thanks for joining us at the intersections!