At the beginning of 2009 I was awarded the 2009-2010 Weipking Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. It was a campus-wide endowment offered every three years which required me to compete with other candidates for the position. The proposal was lodged by the three Departments of Architecture, Psychology and Educational Leadership, by my colleagues Tom Dutton (Architecture), Bill Stiles (Psychology) and Richard Quantz (Educational Leadership) who put in much hard work
The offer came about because I received an email from Bill in late 2008, with an attached paper that he had just been accepted for publication in the Psychotherapy Research Journal (Vol. 19 (4-5) July Sept. 2009 pp. 558-565) Written by Bill Stiles and his colleagues Hugo J. Shielke, Jonathan Fishman and Katerine Osatuke on The Ward Method it was titled: Developing Creative Consensus on Interpretations of Qualitative Data: The Ward Method.
To say that this came as a surprise would be an understatement. I had had lunch with Bill fifteen years earlier in Auckland and had described to him the pedagogical process that I had developed over the preceding years since my time in Berkeley - by trial and error and problem-solving - of having a group of novice undergraduate students design one object (house, urban scheme, Marae development etc.) using a consensus method of decision-making that seemed to be fool-proof and conflict-free while at the same time allowing them to explore fully their own individual creativity. Bill had taken it all in and returned to Ohio to test it out for the next fifteen years. The article was a recounting of the effects and practicalities of the method - backed up by in-depth research from multiple sources that seemed to reinforce and affirm my assertions as well as the theoretical base. Even better, the article that he and his colleagues had jointly authored had been written using the so-called Ward Method. I was deeply touched by the acknowledgement to my work and impressed by the research that had gone into investigating the reasons for its apparent effectiveness. Others who knew about the method had told me that I should "write it up" over the years, butI had always been too busy with the practice of it. Now here was a group of psychologists who had outlined the theoretical base upon which the method was built, in the process affirming and legitimating the rationale behind the process.
I wrote to Bill thanking him and suggesting that I would enjoy the opportunity to work together to further explicate and advance the methodology. To my surprise, he replied with a suggestion that I apply for the Weipking and come to Oxford. And so, with the offer of the position, we packed our bags, rented our New Zealand house and set off for California.
Mato Paha Revisited
Leonie, Josephine (then 6) and I arrived in California in mid-July, and, after an obligatory five days in Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm, we arrived in San Francisco in time for the wedding of my eldest daughter Cheryl and visited in the Bay Area with friends and family for three weeks before taking off across country in our newly-purchased Ford Explorer, headed for Ohio, via Yosemite, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming (Jackson Hole, Yellowstone), Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota (Mt. Rushmore, Mato Paha), Illinois, Indiana and finally Ohio. It was a brief but eventful journey. In Jackson Hole we took a trip down the Snake River, seeing moose, eagles, deer, beaver etc) and in Yellowstone we saw two grizzlies - one small and young and one (fortunately distant) looking VERY large and scary. On the way, I stopped of at Mato Paha (Bear Butte) to give thanks for the adventures and blessings that had come to me since I last visited twenty years earlier, almost to the day. This time it was very different, very sad and not a little anger-provoking. The differences are captured in my updated version of the original story now available in separate PDF download from here.
Oxford was warm and leafy when we arrived, and we were excited to be in our new home. There wasn't much time to enjoy the moment. We arrived on Saturday. Classes started on Monday! So onto work!
My Year at Miami University
Psychology
In the fall of 2009 I taught a capstone course in Psychology - Voices of Native Americans - working with the staff and students of the Myaamia Tribe who were forcibly displaced and relocated from Ohio in 1846. As a consequence they lost their oral language and culture which they are now reconstructing from written records. Our capstone project aimed to build trust with the Tribe (which we successfully did). This resulted in a tentative proposal for an ongoing working relationship with the Department. Possible collaborations included the establishment of a joint internship or residency programme between the Department of Psychology and the Tribe’s Social Service Agency in Oklahoma – similar to that which operates in the Center for Community Engagement in Over the Rhine CCEOtR). In this, as in all of my projects the aim has to build long-term relationships between the University and communities of interest - notably those that operate on the margins. (Sadly, the proposal was shelved in June 2010, along with my application to extend my stay at Miami by a further two years). The project is detailed in a report on my website with an additional brief description below:
The Tunnel of Oppression
"The Tunnel of Oppression is a campus grassroots diversity programme that originated in 1993 at the Western Illinois University. Using the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles as a model, the tunnel strives to give people a way to experience oppression in a hands-on way. By engaging the emotions of the participants, it allows for the accounts expressed in the programme to be truly effective. People may have never been placed in these types of situations, and they obtain a sense of what it actually feels like to be oppressed or discriminated through the sights and sounds they experience. While the Tunnel may be disturbing, it is an effective tool used to teach people about how it really feels to be in the various situations." (Tunnel literature)
The Tunnel of Oppression has been rightly criticised for rendering a superficial experience of Oppression and promoting a "feel good" experience without real transformation. On the other hand, there is no doubt, reading some of the comments of peoples' experiences that it does have the capacity to inform and lift awareness. The Capstone students opted to design and build an installation in the Miami University Tunnel in early November, depicting the oppression of the Myaamia Tribe in their forced relocation and the abduction of their children who were then placed in white boarding schools. An account and description of the installation can be viewed here. Mindful of the need to support and protect the dignity of the Tribe, all aspects of the installation were passed by them for approval, and they were clear that they wanted the overall impression to be one of survival, success and optimism in the face of their 200 year story of dispossession and exploitation. It was very successful - not only in terms of its educational impact upon the visitors who went through the Tunnel experience, but in terms of the relationship that we were able to build with thr Tribe. At the end of the event a new spirit of cooperation came into being, and plans are afoot to extend the work of the course by establishing a Residency Program in Oklahoma where students can gain course credit by supporting and assisting the Social Services Office of the Myaamia to reach and help their tribal members who maybe in need of available Federal and State assistance. We never did get to the original research project, but I personally believe that once the Residency Program is in place, the long-term benefit to the Myaamia will be enormous. So well done to the Capstone students.
It's interesting for me to note here that during the course, it proved all but impossible to use the Ward Method of consensus building. What became clear as the semester wore on was that co-operative work and building consensus requires a timeframe that is not supported by the University's fragmented class scheduling system. Students enrolled in other classes found it impossible to meet together at any other time than the scheduled two seventy-five minute class meetings per week. The result was a continuing struggle to communicate (the University's Blackboard virtual classroom was useless!) and to make decisions. It is clear that for creative work to happen, particularly in a cross-disciplinary context - the present schedule is a disaster. It directly fosters individualism, competition and social dysfunction. Plans by the University to promote and extend its much-vaunted "Engaged University" image are doomed to failure unless it drastically reshapes its schedule.
Architecture
The Tarbell Mural
One of our projects involved contesting a 40' high mural that stands at the gateway to Over-the-Rhine. The mural had been commissioned by the City, and Artworks, a Community Arts Group shortlisted the subject down to three prominent individuals (one of whom was the famous Cincinnati boxer Ezzard Charles. In the event (and without any dialogue with the community) the final choice was a huge depiction of prominent (white) pro-gentrification Jim Tarbell, decked out in top hat and tails, inviting people into Over-the-Rhine.
The almost entirely black community was outraged. So we undertook to do a neat kind of survey. Reproducing the image in a poster, we included an empty speech bubble and asked the good citizens of OtR to fill them in with appropriate comments. The results were very informative. More than two hundred were received - the best published in the Cincinnati Beacon.. Two choice examples are shown below:
These and the other 200 responses were displayed and presented at the Ink Tank - an adult literacy venue in the OtR neighbourhood and were accompanied by poetry and autobiographical sketches from members of the Drop Inn Center's recovery programme. Then, in late May, they were also included in an exhibition of urban art at the Cincinnati Art Institute in Over-the-Rhine, and caused critical discussion around issues of art and politics.
Pissing on Poles
The Cincinnati Beacon Pissing on poles and criminalizing the poor
Friday, December 11, 2009
Posted by Justin Jeffre
Recently I went to Fountain Square with a group of students that wanted to raise awareness about the City of Cincinnati’s criminalization of homelessness. While I was there I had a funny encounter with a streetcar snob that got me thinking.
I was with a large group of Miami students that are living and studying in OTR. They were troubled that the City of Cincinnati is criminalizing the homeless and locking them up for petty “crimes”.
I was observing them interacting with the public and talking to a Professor that was visiting from New Zealand when a guy I recognized was walking towards us. (We recognized each other from the streetcar debate. He said he would ride a streetcar but not a bus.) The Professor turned and handed him a flyer and said we’re raising awareness about the criminalization of homelessness.
The streetcar snob was walking his dog and asked the Professor if they were with the group from OTR. The Professor said, “Yes we are with the Miami program on Vine St.”
The man with the dog said, “Yeah I know about the problems with the homeless-I live downtown-but my door step isn’t a toilet.” I nodded as he walked away and about ten feet away from us he stopped as his dog pissed on the sidewalk next to a pole.
The professor said, “It’s OK with him if his dog pisses on the sidewalk but if a homeless person did that they’d be going to jail.” He added, “Of course the real solution to the problem he referred to is to have public facilities for people to use.”
It seems to me that the Professor was correct. There’s a lack of public facilities. 3CDC took over our public square and now the public toilets are only open from 11AM-2PM and when 3CDC has money making events. They don’t even have the decency to provide maps showing people where they can go.
3CDC is violating the law by closing these facilities since Fountain Square is a public place, but nobody is willing to enforce the law. The City is willing to look the other way when some people break laws.
I can certainly understand why anyone wouldn’t want homeless people-or anyone for that matter-urinating near their door step. But instead of demonizing the poor as some do, we should look for solutions that help everyone.
The City of Cincinnati should stop wasting money cycling homeless people through the criminal justice system and instead fund a public toilet like international cities do. They should treat people with respect and provide basic services to meet people’s most basic needs.
A simple solution like adding public toilets would benefit us all and make our city more welcoming to all. Our city should spend less time pushing novelty items like streetcars and spend more time providing basic services."
Wonder who the mysterious professor was????
The Cynical Duplicity of 3CDC
The mural and other such acts of corporate deception and propaganda are symptomatic of the complete duplicity of the non-profit Development Agency, 3CDC which operates at the heart of all policy making and which advises the Council on all matters pertaining to planning and development. (Although 3CDC is itself a non-profit organisation, it is made up and supported financially by all major development players (banks, developers etc) who stand to profit from its policies and actions). In addition to the issue of the mural, other examples abound:
- The purchase of the residential Metropole Hotel and the eviction of 200 low-income tenants
- Proposals for the redevelopment of Washington Park - a local gathering place for homeless and rehab. residents
- The removal of the Washington park basketball courts (and this in the heart of a black community) and the turning of the Park into a white cultural enclave
- The closing of public restrooms in the vicinity of Washington Park and the increasing criminalization of the homeless
- The proposed removal of the 30 year old Drop Inn Center - a refuge for rehab patients and homeless citizens
And this is a very brief list. For a more complete list of the perfidy of 3CDC, see Tom Dutton's penetrating analysis of this corporate duplicity in his District 9, Over-the-Rhine. Go Tom! The struggle continues, and the folks of Over-the-Rhine need all of the help and support they can muster. Take a few moments, perhaps, to circulate Tom's piece to friends and colleagues and to broaden the network of support. The piece has just appeared in the Cincinnati Beacon. Check it out and add your voice to the outrage about what is happening in Cincinnati.
Design Studio
In the Spring (2010) semester, I was again co-teaching an Architecture Design Studio in Over the Rhine with Tom Dutton. Our aim was to find solutions to the problem of housing diverse cultural and economic groups in an environment that is conducive to harmonious social and environmental relationships into the 21st Century. The project involved design at both the urban scale as well as the design of individually sustainable building complexes including proposals for urban farming, sustainable housing, local and neighbourhood commercial facilities and community facilities. Final presentation to the Cincinnati community included representatives from urban development and policy stakeholders as well as design professionals. The intention was to influence future development policies and strategies.
Over the Rhine is emblematic (albeit writ large) of innumerable urban cores across America. Our hope and intention in the long term is to be able to provide development policy guidelines that will have an influence beyond the borders of Cincinnati and indeed, Ohio.
Educational Leadership
In addition to this Studio project, I simultaneously co-taught a PhD seminar course in Educational Leadership with Prof. Tammy Schwartz. Together we built an exciting and very diverse multidisciplinary team. The team included graduate students in:
- Educational Leadership
- Family Studies
- Architecture, Library Studies and
- Community Psychology
- Community Literacy graduate students fron Northern Kentucky University
- Library Studies (support from Miami Library staff)
Collectively, we were engaged in work at the Rothenberg Preparatory Academy in Over the Rhine within the Cincinnati School District. Rothenberg is the only remaining elementary school (K-8) in Over the Rhine. It is a beleaguered institution in a very beleaguered part of the city. There are very high levels of poverty and homelessness among its families and the school itself is located in a dilapidated building with significant functional problems. It is seriously under-resourced and lacking in many of the facilities that are taken for granted elsewhere. For the last eight years Rothenberg has failed to meet its mandated benchmarks in any of the areas of study.
Our team was engaged in the long-term goal of community-building. We were working with teachers, parents, children and community stakeholders to develop strong mutually supportive bonds of collaboration. Our work included:
- An ongoing assessment of the short and long term needs of the school
- the development of a system for (parent) GED tutoring for parents
- a system of professional study/development for teachers,
- an autobiographical (story-telling) system of literacy for the children
- the production of a Zine to make the childrens; stories public
- dialogue with teachers to elicit their exprience of teaching at Rothenberg
- dialogue with parents to elicit their own stories of education
- the creation, organisation and cataloguing of the school librar
- a paging system for staff to eliminate the disruptive tannoy system.
- forging stronger links between the school and community support groups
- the development of a proposal for a school/community garden and a corresponding change in the curriculum. Together, these will provide a laboratory and teaching/learning opportunity for Rothenberg across a range of subjects.
- the completion of Community Psychology surveys of:
§ Teachers
§ Parents
§ Chidren
to determine the practical resource needs of the school as a basis for funding and resource applications.
Our aim was to build a solid base of parent and community involvement through story-telling and relationship-building, and to facilitate the emergence of a strong and skilled learning community. All of the research shows that when parents become involved in the education of their children, these children start to succeed. So far we are being successful. It is fully anticipated that this year Rothenberg will meet all of its study area benchmarks.
The Incipient Racism of the Cincinnati School System
To put all of this in context and to convey one of my most significant learnings in the Rothenberg project is it necessary to detail exactly why there is such a wide disparity between the poor urban (black) schools and the white suburban affluent schools in Cincinnati. It doesn't happen by accident, but by intent. In Cincinnati school resources and budgets are funded out of property taxes. Rich parents who live in rich, leafy suburbs insist that all property taxes are pegged to the neighbourhood schools in which they live rather than being spread throughout the system (and therefore equalising the disparities between schools). In the inner city ghettos like OtR, property taxes are very low. Most people rent and often landlords have abandoned their empty buildings So there is a much (MUCH) smaller economic resource base to draw from for schools like Rothenberg. Hence the gap in the opportunities between rich and poor continues to widen - an inevitable trend towards increasing social conflict. The courts have found this system to be unconstitutional for the last12 years, but Cincinnati citizens continue to resist change. Apparently these same good (white) citizens of Ohio would rather spend their tax dollars on increased surveillance and law and order systems and upon more and larger (and more crowded) prisons in which to house the discontented members of the black community. Go figure!
Engaged University
In March I worked with a Fine Arts Faculty team to put together the second symposium on Engaged Learning – part of MiamiU’s mission to brand itself as an “Engaged University”. In this respect I helped to lead the discussion on different forms of pedagogy and evaluation, and on the problems of developing and practicing theories of engagement in a culturally diverse setting. This led to ongoing meetings with many colleagues in the University community who have a stake in Engaged Learning, Service Learning, Community Engagement, Social Entrepreneurship, and Community Partnership. These discussions ranged across several Departments - Architecture, Psychology, Education, Business, the Western Campus Inquiry Center and sparked a much broader dialogue about the meaning of the term "Engagement" - bringing into sharp focus the need for academics to move beyond an engagement with the subject and to extend their engagement into and with the community. My hope had been to stay at Miami longer than the one-year Wiepking contract so that I might have a truly more effective role and impact on the University and its pedagogical practices.
Public Lectures
In addition to my Departmental work, I was also able to offer six public lectures to the University community.
- Custodial Schools: The Hidden Curriculum and the Ethic of Social Control
- Colonialism and the Architecture Project (Architecture)
- Education as an Instrument of Social Pacification (Liberal Studies)
- Critical Indigeneity in the Academy (Psychology)
- Colonial Legacies: Indigeneity in a Multicultural World (Black Studies)
- Engagement and a New Professionalism (Western program)
I enjoyed all of these immensely and was able to develop much new material for my website.
End of Year Blues
The work that I have done at Miami is not complete. The Myaamia project, the Over the Rhine Development project and the Rothenberg Academy project are ongoing. Although much has been accomplished, much still needs to be done to build on the foundations that have been laid this year. It had been my hope to be able to extend my time at Miami to “bed in” and advance the gains that have been made. In the area of Engaged learning I had hoped to contribute much more to the University’s thinking and practice. Sadly, in the present economic climate, this was not to be. Perhaps when the economy improves there may be an opportunity to return to complete the work that I have started.
The Coming Year
So! We are off on another adventure. Five days ago, Leonie, Josephine and I left our temporary home in Ohio and traveled to Toronto to stay with friends for a few days. Tomorrow we set out for the UK - via Iceland - a return to my roots after a 30 year absence. The intention is to meet up with long-lost friends and relatives and to introduce Josephine to her cultural heritage. We will visit the South-West and the North, and will take a one-week trip down the Leeds-Liverpool Canal in a longboat, as well as a climb up Ingleborough and (later) Helvellyn via Striding Edge - something I last did fifty years ago almost to the day.
In August I have a workshop and keynote presentation to the European Architectural Students Assembly (EASA) in Manchester. The information I received noted that:
"The lectures are taking place in an old mill building on the bank of the River Irwell. ... the building itself will add to the atmosphere of an architecture assembly in Post-Industrial Manchester."
Talk about coming full circle! Bacup, my home town, is the first town on the Irwell, and my father worked for five years at the Irwell Springs Printing Works at the river's source high up on the Pennine moorland. I used to go night-fishing in the mill lodge (pond).
It is unclear where our journey will subsequently take us. Much depends on finding work that will allow the adventure to continue before we must return to New Zealand. Today we fly to Iceland on our way to my roots.
