Navigating possibilities together: Exploring the wonder of relationality
Date
2022-05-03
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Abstract
Inspired by the notion of relationality within Indigenous ways of knowing, and writing as a method of inquiry, we explore the value of the collaborative process in all its wonder. Our presentation highlights the experiences of four students in a doctoral seminar, embracing the interconnectedness of human relationships to find a rich and rewarding pathway into inquiry and understanding. We contend that the process of engaging in group work, where all participants contribute to a continuum of learning moments, can add value to learning. Throughout the inquiry, we found our work to be situated within the ambiguity apparent in both the process and the literature. It was in navigating these complexities together that meaning emerged. In this presentation we describe the formation of a generative and productive space as we wrote together, listened, debated words and sentences, and built on each other's ideas. We tell of a shared experience where we found ourselves not just writing together but also thinking together. Accordingly, we collectively recognized our collaborative work as facilitating an opening of possibilities. Here, our collaborative efforts became a shared avenue for cultivating relational accountability and a conduit for moving our work forward in a good way. In this context, the presenters consider the potential utility of adopting a framework for collaboration that can attend to the multiple dimensions of relationality. Poster viewers are invited to consider how their engagement in postsecondary group work has contributed, and might contribute, to the shared building of meaning.