Dear Jette and all,
Merci Susan for you reflection on maïeutic. I find also that it is a
fascinating opportunity to renew some of the ways we are teaching midwifery.
Here is the text I prepared for the conference on Normal labour and birth
research last june in Grange-over-Sands, UK.
I must say that I have difficulty to send exemples of those situations
because all the texts are in french. I am tryong to find some that were
written in the Ontario formation.
MAIEUTIC.... A WAY TO KNOWLEDGE FOR MIDWIVES ?
Maieutic is a significant part of the curriculum of the "Baccalauréat en
pratique sage-femme" that started in Québec ( Canada) in 1999. At first, we
thought that it was similar to PBL but after realizing that if we want our
students to understand that pregnancy and birth were normal process, il
would be better not to talk about " Problem Based Learning".
Maieutic is not new. It was proposed by Socrates, whose mother was a
midwife, 2,500 years ago. His primary legacy was not a contribution to the
humanity's storehouse of knowledge, but a pedagogy: not a substance but a
process. Socrates was praised by thinkers as different as Freud, Kohlberg,
Gadamer, Rorty, Bloom, L.Nelson, for his epistemological humility and
maieutic was discussed also by Kant and Popper. Socrates understood that he
cannot attain truth and instead lead a life of perpetual openness to
dialogue and questioning.
Principles of maieutic:
· Knowing that you don't know. It is the first step to be able to ask
questions, to doubt, stay curious and open minded.
· Questions are far more important than answers
· Knowing yourself, not as a psychological introspection but as a
proclamation of human limits
· Teaching a process by using that process to teach.
· Using dialogue: it refers to intersubjectivity and participation
· Using dialectic as a tool for reasoning and the contradiction to
enter in the conscience
· Using questioning to get rid of false beliefs, uncritically held
opinions and experiment through the rigour of doubt, the construction of our
knowledge and the foundations of human's actions
· Seeking truth but staying sceptical of any claim to possess
absolute and eternal truths
· Educational model of how one inquires and learn. Not a technique
but a process.
Effects on the students:
· Learning critical thinking
· Being active participants, engaged towards questions and not
passive receptors of knowledge and doctrines
· Develop the ability to dialogue with others
· Develop analytical skill t to examine life, cope with diversity
and complexity and flourish amidst it.
· Cultivate autonomy by being able to go on with the process of
discovery beyond instructor's presence.
· Practice systemic thinking, Nor constructing knowledge in a pure
logical way
· Develop self knowledge and self consciousness.
· Giving birth to new ideas by examining our contradictions
· Being able to go beyond disciplinary perspectives
· Learn to deal with imperfection and uncertainties: human
condition.
Courses are exclusively related to clinical placements. MaieuticI and II are
related with normality, Maieutic III is related to non-normal situations and
Maieutic IV is related to pathology. Each course ( 3 hrs) involve 6-8
students and one teacher, a midwife. She gives a situation ( a true story)
and during the week students have to find questions, research related to
that situation , after letting themselves immersed and absorbed in the
scene. Each story can touch considerable amount of scientific " evidence",
ethic, role of the midwife, knowledges from different disciplines, concepts
and some issues like power, control, normal, choice, risk etc.
Maieutic is much more than PBL. It brings for student midwife the " birth"
of a lot of different knowledges and keep her open in the process and
complexity of life.
I am sorry for the presentation of the text. Impossible for me to modify it
in copying my Word document.
In our program, we find that some teachers are good with students to help
them to do real maieutic. Some others are more doing PBL. I think that
exploring maïeutic as a process in a midwifery course can help a midwifery
program to bring the students to acquire knowledge and mostly an attitude to
have when they will practice.
I will find some references for you if you want. Maïeutic can be a real
treasure in a midwifery program.
Céline Lemay
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan James" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2004 8:04 AM
Subject: Re: maieutike/maieutic
This word is used in french as well - perhaps not commonly - but my
francophone students sometimes do use it. From Le petit Robert (dictionary)
maïeuticique: (gr. maieutike = art de faire accoucher) méthode par laquelle
Socrate, fils de sage-femme, disait accoucher les esprits des pensées qu'ils
contiennent sans le savoir. Méthode pédagogique suscitant la réflexion
intellectuelle. And, from there is the word maïeuticien - homme qui exerce
la profession de sage-femme. I have also been fascinated by the connection
in some languages like french of birth and knowledge: naissance and
connaissance. I feel at times quite privileged by working in a two language
environment - the discussions that my students have are often triggered by
these kinds of reflections on etymology. I agree that this philosophy is
highly relevant to midwifery practice on many levels. For example, through
women-centred care approaches where principles like informed choice are
highly valued, midwives encourage women to discover self-knowledge. Midwives
themselves through their relations with women and reflective practice also
engage in a personal dialogue or dialectic and discover the fruits of this
in situations where "gut feelings" inform their actions. And many many other
examples...
This is one of the really fun parts of teaching - openning students eyes a
little to concepts like maïeuticique - how a discipline like philosophy
truly has much to contribute to an understanding of their work as midwives.
Some students make their elective course choices based on these kinds of
discussions in midwifery classes - students who would never have considered
a choice like philosophy begin to develop a curiosity for what else they
might learn...
Thanks Jette for posting this - I too enjoy engaging in this type of
dialogue!
Susan
***************************************************
Susan James
Directrice
Programme de formation des sages-femmes
Université Laurentienne
Sudbury, ON
>>> [log in to unmask] 9/16/2004 4:10:01 AM >>>
Hi everybody
In Philosophy the concept Maieutike refer to the way Socrates used
dialogue as a way of asking question in such a way that the dialoguepartner
became aware of knowledge within herself. The knowledge in the person could
be found and brought forward by the way the dialoguepartner asked
questions.
Maieutikos means in Greek "the art of midwifery", I have heard that German
midwifes use the concept to describe their work, and I would like to know
if this is right? and maybe the concept is used in midwifery education in
other countries? Is the concept is used in your country/education which
articles do you use and how do you understand the concept?
I will also like to know if you understand and use the concept as the way a
midwife should use dialogue or do you also see Maieutic as a concept that
can describe the way midwives work in a broader sense (being present,
touching ect.) in a way that brings the women's resource forward.
Looking forward hearing from you
Jette Aaroe Clausen
Midwifery teacher Denmark
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