Hi Dianne and Everyone,
Sorry it has to be a quick email from me - almost 11.00pm and away from tomorrow so I wanted to write to you before I set off. First - I saw you modelling as you emailed Fatma about looking for answers on GOOGLE and that led me to thinking you were not expecting Fatma to find 'all the answers inside her'. Karen has helped me understand that when in coaching someone claims they simply ask questions and 'the client comes up with all of the answers from inside them' it means that answers they have are unique to them rather than a claim I didn't understand that clients know everything they need to - coaches just need to ask the right questions. Second - thank you SO much for sharing your dialogue script. I hadn't thought of using WORD insert for my own comments in discourse analysis and you helped me 'be there' as you spoke with Jeff because of your notes on this text.
Just a thought - how about videoing jut you as you stalk with a mentee so you can see how your react by your body language and tone of voice (more than e.g. 'Dianne nods').
Thanks for writing in - I AM enjoying this discussion - because I can see I am learning!
Subject: Re: 'Questions in the practice of mentoring' - exploring our assumptions
Date: Saturday, May 29, 2010, 1:01 AM
Hi Sarah, Brian, Kerry Karen and all,
I have appreciated Sarah's questions and others' responses that take off from where the formal seminar time finished and continue into the joint study of what it is we do, and how we understand that practice.
I thought that Sarah was probably putting her finger on an example, from me, of incongruent practice (a most likely event!)
I would be interested to know Sarah, what you were discerning in my exchange with Fatma that alerted you to this, and that you flag in your comment "I was reminded of this Dianne when I read your reply to Fatma this morning - you are asking (as I understand it) for clarification of what Fatma wishes to develop but not expecting her to come up with all of the answers all be herself?"
I am also attaching a transcript of a couple of exchanges with peers, not yet formally in any 'mentoring' relationship, but exchanging in a forum that is supposed to be about professional development. I wanted to offer the transcript earlier, to honour what Kerry had offered, and to demonstrate that by examining my own practice, I can see possible incongruence and problems there, and that will benefit from my closer attention to the 'clean language/feedback' spoken of in the papers referenced.
I am wondering too, whether I am understanding Karen, or reading something else into Karen's comments. I have modelled (something) in my exchanges here at the M-C list. Especially, I have modelled sharing content, my content, and sharing possibly new conceptual content to Fatma, ... and I left space for Fatma to come back with questions for further clarification, if what I was saying was not clear enough. I was also recognising, in some of the learning-from-experience process that I was expounding, that any practitioner can only do what they are 'comfortable' in doing. That comfort comes, in part, from knowledge and confidence in knowledge. Some of that knowledge may well be implicit, and needs to be 'brought out into the open' by the kind of questioning that we engage in. Where it is implicit knowledge, part of the questioning, and bringing it out into the open, involves showing the mentee where their thinking and practice is similar to/matches what may well be reported in the literature as 'good practice'. Part of bringing it out into the open, and openness in company, brings the thinking to more open evaluation by mentee and mentor alike. The questions that help a mentee examine the values implicit in the action and thinking then work to make clearer to the mentee some of why they might reasonably have confidence in that thinking and acting, since it is consistent with their more deeply held beliefs and even less explicit understanding of those. It certainly gives them something of themselves to work with and work on, rather than being 'only' the advice of an experienced other.
I would also like to note that the shift in this conversation, which I think is marvellous and important, seems to me to be about both peer-mentoring and self-mentoring and Kerry's first paragraph was, for me, a marvellous example of what can happen when we can operate reflexively - becoming the object of our examination as well as the subject undertaking the examination
["Thinking about Sarah's last post; "how far do I believe that the mentee
has the answer inside them?" is a very good question - sometimes we are
not sure of the "answers" we have inside, and the learning process might
help us to come up with answers that are in part only coming together,
these are answers in development. That is the exciting bit; when the
mentee begins to construct an answer and the further refinement and
construction of the answer is supported by our gentle questioning? (I
think - I am now myself going through that experience of uncertainty
about the "answer" (to Sarah's question) but because of her question
beginning to find an "answer"?)]
Dianne
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 5:59 PM
Subject: Re: 'Questions in the practice of mentoring'
Hello Sarah and everyone,
Sarah, I'm sorry not to have replied to your email sooner - and that this will be only a brief response. I also am sorry that I shan't be able to come to Milton Keynes on 5 June due to family obligations.
RE your sense that when we demonstrate / model behaviours, practices, embody values and so on, we are denying that mentees have the answers inside them. I don't believe these are contradictory positions. Rather, I would suggest that mentees / clients inevitably - as part of their fundamental psychological human need to be self-determining - have their own unique answers inside them, which is the only way they can become the most authentic (best) person / practitioner they can be. Due to time constraints, I am unable to say more than this right now. I think the Clean Coaching article you / Kerry suggested implicitly and sometimes explicitly addresses a number of these issues and other that have come up during Dianne's e-seminar.
With thanks and wishing you all well,
Karen
On 25 May 2010, at 11:37, Sarah Fletcher wrote:
Hello Everyone,
I want to focus on what I see as an assumption in mentoring practice in our discussions;
How far DO I/you believe that a mentee 'has the answers inside them' and we have to wait patiently (and presumably ask the 'right' kinds of questions) so our mentee might see this?
Let's think about mentoring in initial teacher education, if we may? As a school based mentor and as a university based mentor to school based mentors and their mentees I have used modelling (both demonstrating teaching techniques and embodying values I believe are crucial in the self-development of not only teachers' actions but also in the development of teaching as a profession). If modelling is an essential part of learning to teach then I/we are specifically NOT saying that mentees have the answers inside them - we are introducing new practices and by our questions encouraging mentees (and us) to reflect reflexively and embody new ways of practice and evolve new values systems as practice develops. I think that coaching with its psychotherapeutic roots differs from a mentoring relationship and firmly believe that coaching is involved in mentoring practice.
Karen - I would be grateful for your assistance in developing my learning about this too.
Then there's the practice of 'clean questionning' that our list may find useful to discuss?
I have found this link to what seems to be a useful article http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/articles/articles/47/1/Emergent-Knowledge-and-Clean-Coaching/Page1.html Thoughts?
Where mentoring involves assessment of practice as it increasingly does in initial teacher education (when I began working as a school based mentor being an assessor was THE principal bone of contention) then we are judging whether a mentee does evolve answers when exposed to new practices rather than looking for answers to emerge from questions posed by the mentor to the mentee? I was reminded of this Dianne when I read your reply to Fatma this morning - you are asking (as I understand it) for clarification of what Fatma wishes to develop but not expecting her to come up with all of the answers all be herself?
Fatma, I feel profoundly honoured by your suggestion of a visit to the Oman - and it has spurred me to reflect on how we (as a list and as a BERA SIG) can learn alongside you. Would it be possible in the shorter term for you to visit England and meet some of us to assist you in developing entrepreneurial practice for teachers embedded in a research mentoring framework (I like Dianne's use of the word scaffolding - is it the same thing?)
When I read your email Fatma, I was SO excited as avenues for e-mentoring opened up - exchanging comments on-line about how we see teachers developing their entrepreneurial practice, maybe? Using web-based platforms (thanks Brian - very, very useful suggestion).
Because I have been ill I haven't confirmed our programme but there is a booking at the Holiday Inn in Milton Keynes as a conference venue - could we meet you on 5th June?
Jean Rath and I will be there - can others on list come - Brian? Bridget? Karen? Kerry?
Warmest regards,
Sarah
Sarah Fletcher
Consultant Research Mentor
http://www.TeacherResearch.net
Convenor for BERA Mentoring and Coaching SIG
Details at http://www.bera.ac.uk
--- On Mon, 5/24/10, Dianne Allen <[log in to unmask]" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Dianne Allen <[log in to unmask]" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: 'Questions in the practice of mentoring'
To: [log in to unmask]" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[log in to unmask]
Date: Monday, May 24, 2010, 9:53 PM
Sarah,
Thank you for sharing your reflections and indications of practice, and change in practice.
As I read that, and attend to it, I recognise two important aspects of the process: (1) the frame of real inquiry [and seen also in Karen's remark about 'genuine curiosity'] as mentor you recognise you really do need, and want, to know where your mentee is coming from (a first step in 'scaffolding'; and respecting that the mentee has real knowledge that needs to be respected and worked with; and the current and following work involves developing mutual understanding; and that as mentor you are humble enough to recognise that in the process you will be learning too); (2) the focus on appreciation - getting out, into the open, important information between you, of what the mentee does well and how they themselves recognise that (what criteria constitute their in-practice evaluative processes), and then being able to work with these to help the mentee work with themselves into other currently less successful territory. As Karen says "I know the person sitting across from me has the answers, and the resources, they need, and that my role is to trust them - and to help them to trust themselves when their confidence is swamped by 'stuff'" and when Janet finds herself "amazed at how knowledgeable some students are regarding their own subject"; and Kerry has given us a good working example of what this looks like by sharing "That was a great activity; how can you tell that the pupils liked it so much? Why do you think the pupils liked it so much? ..... Can you explain to me what you were trying to get from the learners from the activity? How did your planned activity enable the pupils to demonstrate their understanding and ability to write in the desired style?"
I also like your comment "a position that any taxonomy of questioning differs (perhaps not too surprisingly?) according to the context in which mentoring/coaching will be taking place" as it reinforces my suspicion that Bateson's claim that context, and recognising its importance, is the key to operating with another level of learning, and the level of learning that is most relevant to dealing with issues that may require the exercise of creativity, and so where the leverage for real change/ transformation, and by dealing with the clash of values, and perhaps instrumental values compared to deeper ('spiritual'?) values, comes into play. This may well relate to what Karen says when she remarks about questions "generating energy and suggesting that there might be possibilities and truths as yet unexplored"
Thank you all, for your inputs, and for opening and offering your practice to the scrutiny of thinking about questioning.
Dianne
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