There are two values that have been the guiding poles of my work and life for the last 15 years or so; fun and learning. If I wasn’t having fun working on something and if it wasn’t teaching me something new and helping me grow, then I’d find the nearest opportunity to stop doing it. As an adult learner, the basic educational theory I adopted was David Kolb’s Experiential Learning model (with variations, of course). In that model, in a very simplistic way, action or practice causes an experience that is followed by reflection and that reflection is what yields the learning that feeds back into the next time one is to take action, and so on. This is the bare skeleton of the model. In a later post, it would be interesting to dig deeper into the details of each phase.

In a similar fashion, I started bringing the concepts of experiential learning and reflective practice to my peacebuilding work. Reflection in peacebuilding helps us grow as individuals, but more importantly as institutions, as well as a field of practice. Unfortunately, it is still not common for organizations or funders to invest in reflection. Reflection requires resources; time and money (for people and supplies). Organizations either don’t have enough resources to put them in the service of reflection or they don’t see its value. Similarly, funders don’t think that the growth of organizations is within their top priorities when they are using taxpayers’ money for development. After all, reflection rarely provides numbers that look impressive in reports. 

Another concept I bring to the reflection process from the world of expressive arts therapy is the "third space" or "liminal space". With variations as well, the way I use it is by creating a third space; an alternate space to both the real and imaginative spaces, a space that's both real and imaginary at the same time and all the time. Yes, it can get complicated, but it's much easier in practice. Spaces like arts studios, rehearsals, games, dreams, works of art, simulations, role plays, and other similar places when used for the reflection process and with proper bridging back to the real world can have a great impact on growth, whether personal or institutional. This is also where arts-based interventions come in as not only a tool, but a necessity for the holistic, encapsulating learning experience. Such interventions, with their creation of a flow in the third space, touch upon the whole of our being as opposed to just focusing on the (sometimes overvalued) cognitive aspect of our existence.

If our whole is to grow, then our whole has to learn. If you’re interested in learning more about experiential learning, please, let me know. Or let us have a chat about how I use it as a cross-cutting learning tool in my work.