Project brief | Who we are | Terminology

Project Information

Project Brief

The methodology we have been developing is called OSDE Open Space for Dialogue and Enquiry . This methodology has been further developed from a previous project and over the last 2 years in Learning about Others for educational practitioners.

The resources have been written by project partners over this developmental period and have been trialled with groups. They have a variety of styles and generally follow the procedural steps outlined in the Methodology section. The academic research hub for the methodology is based at www.osdemethodology.org.uk where you will also find resources.

OSDE is a participatory method for use with groups that in this case for LAO has focussed on looking at controversial global issues with teachers, secondary pupils and student groups. Its aim is to engage participants in a facilitated discussion in a 'safe' space where participants feel comfortable to express themselves and ask any question without feeling embarrassed or unintelligent. In order to create such a space, we propose:

1. The adoption of a basic set of principles
    
2. A set of procedures for structuring an enquiry
    
3. Facilitation guidelines for creating an appropriate ethos for the relationships and exchanges within the group

The project has adopted a critical literacy approach to explore global issues, this encourages us to question:

• How do we and others construct our knowledge?
• Participants are encouraged to consider how we filter and make sense of information through our sets of lenses, be it ethnicity, gender, culture, life experience, job, age etc.
• Having considered this we look to the future to question how this understanding might transform our thoughts, our understanding of others, and our actions in the future.

The development of critical literacy and independent thinking skills are the central aims of this methodology - these are transferable skills that can help learners in every subject in school and beyond.

This approach can support the delivery of the National Curriculum in the UK in a number of ways:

• Embedding the global dimension
• PSHE
• Citizenship Education
• Thinking skills
• Children and young people 'Making a Positive Contribution' (one of the 5 ourcomes of Every Child Matters)
• Fostering skills for Pupil Voice that may contribute to a schools' Self Evaluation Form SEF in enabling stakeholder's views to be heard.).

The following table summarises the questioning that can lead to the difference between the traditional competitive debate style to the 'open space' approach we are proposing.

Traditional Reading	Critical Reading	Critical Literacy
Types of questions: Does the text represent the truth? Is it fact or opinion? Is it biased or neutral? Is it well written/clear? Who is the author and what level of authority/legitimacy does he/she represent? What does the author say?	Types of questions: What is the context? To whom is the text addressed? What is the intention of the author? What is the position of the author (his/her political agenda)? What is the author trying to say and how is he/she trying to convince/manipulate the reader? What claims are not substantiated? Why has the text been written in this way)	Types of questions: What could be the assumptions behind the statements? How do you think the author understands reality? What could be shaping his/her understanding? Who decides (what is real, can be known or needs to be done) in whose name and for whose benefit? What could be the implications of his/her claims (past/present/future: social, environmental, economic, etc...)? How could these statements be interpreted differently in different contexts? What are the sanctioned ignorances (blind spots) and contradictions?

Adapted and expanded from: Gina CERVETTI, Michael J. PARDALES, James S. DAMICO, A Tale of Differences: Comparing the Traditions, Perspectives, and Educational Goals of Critical Reading and Critical Literacy, www.readingonline.com, 2001

In summary the project aims to promote the development of:

• Independent and informed thinking
• Critical literacy
• Skills of enquiry and systems thinking
• Facilitation skills
• Responsible and accountable reasoning and action

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Who we are

In the UK this project is delivered through a collaboration between four organisations in the East Midlands are that are engaged with education for global citizenship to address issues of poverty and injustice and delivered in a partnership from the Educational Charity and HE sectors.

	MUNDI Global Education Centre, an educational charity based at The School of Education, Jubilee Campus at the University of Nottingham. www.mundi.org.uk
	The Centre for Citizenship Studies in Education based at The School of Education at the University of Leicester. www.le.ac.uk
	Global Education Derby, a development education centre based in the City of Derby. www.globaleducationderby.org.uk
	The Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, School of Politics and International Relations, University Park main campus, University of Nottingham. www.nottingham.ac.uk

Terminology

An OPEN SPACE is a safe space where everyone is welcome and different perspectives can be explored. No one establishes the boundaries of what one should think or do in their lives. In an open space for dialogue and enquiry, participants are not committed to an identity, to an ideology or to achieving consensus, but to a process of self-transformation through the encounter with difference.

An ENQUIRY is a questioning process where we ask ourselves what our assumptions are, how they have been constructed and what are the implications of our ways of seeing and being. We also ask these questions in relation to the perspectives of others - as all perspectives (and knowledges) are partial and incomplete. This is done in order to open our hearts and minds to difference and to train our imagination in other (un)imaginable ways of relating, seeing and being.

CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT with perspectives is the opposite of critical disengagement (where perspectives are silenced) and uncritical engagement (where 'anything goes'). Engaging critically with perspectives is a respectful attitude that promotes attentive and serious listening and tracing of assumptions and implications.

CRITICAL LITERACY is the capacity to trace assumptions and implications. It is knowledge about knowledge construction, the connection between knowledge and power and the implications of this connection to the ways people see and act in the world and relate to others.

TRANSNATIONAL LITERACY is a concept developed by the Indian researcher Gayatri Spivak which describes the set of knowledge and critical/analytical skills that are the basis for understanding how globalisation works, how it affects local contexts and how it can be negotiated. According to Canadian researcher Diana Brydon, it involves "thinking against the grain of what we think we know and do not know; it demands alertness to the changing function of what it means to take certain positions within local and global contexts".

SELF-REFLEXIVITY is the capacity to see one's own lenses - to look at the image in the mirror and perceive how one's assumptions and identity are socially constructed (in order to re-construct it).

DIALOGUE is an encounter with those whose view of the world is significantly different from our own: an encounter of worlds. The primary purpose of this opening out is for each to gain a new insight into reality. Such a dialogical encounter enables each of us to view ourselves, others, and the world, as well as our understanding of it, from a new perspective, enriched through the eyes of others.