Using book clubs with learners

1. Using book clubs with learners

2. aims There are two aims to this session: To give a clear rationale and argument for why non disciplinary and social science texts, and narratives ought to be more engaged with To provide a method for the use of book clubs.

3. “The practice of mental health care should not be a scientific exercise but an exercise in humanity, informed by ethical and moral choices”. (p56) From Laugharne (2002) “Today we tend to think that scientists have all the answers. But the great ones tell us, “No, we haven’t got all the answers. We’re telling you how it works but what is it?” You strike a match, what’s fire? You can tell me about oxidation, but that doesn’t tell me a thing”. (p31) Campbell & Moyers (1988) a framing….

4. “…rather than thinking of texts on one side and ‘the world’ on the other, we might reflect on the idea that everything human that happens in the world is mediated by language” (p30) Bennett & Royle (2004) The word ‘texts’ has increasing become synonymous with other cultural products such as theatre, film and performance.

5. “And the more I thought about my experience of loss, read other people’s accounts of loss, and reviewed the theoretical and research literature, the more I began to understand that the academic world was not in touch with the everyday world of experience, the ordinary world. The research literature offered me data, labels, categories, and theoretical explanations but it didn’t express how loss felt and it didn’t invite engagement with the particularities of the experience.” Bochner, AP., Ellis, C. & Tillman-Healy, L. (1997) Relationships as stories. In S. Duck (Ed) Handbook of personal relationships: theory, research and interventions (2nd Edition. 307-324) New York: John Wiley

6. And from a philosophical view Lacanian psychoanalysis suggests we work in Symbols, the inherent and unconscious basis of language in our unconscious, which allows us to be in contact with other humans, to construct an intersubjective account of the Real world. This however is an order that we impose, and is Imaginary, and reflects our tendency to think we are what we are, and that we can know that (gulp)

7. furthermore Bruno Latour suggests we have come to believe that there is an easy distinction between human and non-human, between the social world and the natural world. But the status of stories, the margins of humanity, the opportunities of new technologies and the post-human erode these easy categories… …as Foucault asks in the Archaeology of Knowledge; what is a text- where does it stop – if you look to the author for meaning is it the whole of the authors work, small quotes, abridged versions, interviews, autobiography, letters, post-hoc amendments, shopping lists…so what is the relationship of the human to all their work

8. The upshot seems to be: it’s all made up anyway, and we don’t even know it because we can’t step away from ourselves to point at it!

9. The impact of the hierarchy “…research evidence, and more particularly quantitative research evidence, tends to be more highly valued than other sources….The prominence ascribed to research evidence has meant the relative neglect of other forms of evidence in the delivery of healthcare…the potential interaction of research evidence with contextual, individual practitioner and patient variables has been disregarded.” (p83) Rycroft-Malone et al (2004)

10. Why look at narratives? 2 ‘Physicians & patients live in different ‘lifeworlds’ (Toombs, 1993) – medical voices tend to relegate ill people to patienthood & silence lay experience. Emphasis on ill people’s (rather than patients’) stories can help to bridge this gap & privilege the voice of the ill person as ‘insider’ or ‘expert’ Frank, AW (2001) Can we research suffering? Qualitative Health Research, 11 (3): 353-62

11. The place of personal stories? • Rycroft-Malone et al suggest 4 useful areas that stories as evidence can be considered for practice: • Research • Clinical experience • Patients, clients & carers • Local context & environment • “it is important to acknowledge individuals’ values and personal experiences as sources of knowledge that informs the evidence base of practice and subsequently to incorporate this into caring therapeutic actions” (p86)

12. Implication for practice “Can we listen to the client’s story philosophically? We can listen to our client’s life stories as if reading a book- a book with which we are intimately concerned. We are concerned about what sense their life makes to them and how they construct its narrative. Speed reading philosophy is a contradiction in terms. Equally, with our clients we need to give our attention and time, and give as long as it takes. This is a process that cannot be rushed.” From Moja-Strasser,2005, p.103

13. The onlooker….. Would your relationship to using narratives as evidence change with your role/interest? Parent? Friend? Historian? Psychotherapist? Anthropologist? Activist?

14. What is narrative? • Discourses with a clear sequential order that connect events in a meaningful way for a definite audience and thus offer insights about the world and/or people’s experiences of it. Hinchman, LP and Hinchman SK. (Eds.) (1997) Memory, Identity, Community: Idea of Narrative in the Human Sciences. SUNY: Series in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences • 3 key features: • chronological ie not merely a description of a state of affairs • meaningful – through inclusion of evaluative statements • social – created for a specific audience

15. Narratives as reflections of reality Narratives not seen as direct representations of reality Narratives are framed for an audience Narratives are shaped in order to persuade Narratives are constrained by the linguistic resources available to us

16. Why the growth in interest? • Growing dissatisfaction in research and clinical interest in fragments of people’s experiences rather than the whole • Interest in the narrative construction of identity in contrast to the modernist understanding of the self an enduring, immutable essence Elliot, J (2005) Using narrative in social research: qualitative and quantitative approaches. London: Sage • Post modern rejection of meta-narratives leads to an interest in micro-narratives against which to ‘test out’ our own world views (getting local)

17. Milestones in ‘The narrative turn’ Theodore Sarbin (Ed.) (1986) Narrative Psychology: the stories nature human conduct In giving accounts of ourselves or others, we are guided by narrative plots…. we do much more than catalogue events …….. rather we render the events into a story We actively construct the world through narratives Stories have ontological status – i.e. they give events meanings

18. Milestones in ‘The narrative turn’ Paul Ricoeur (1984) Time and Narrative Since we live in a temporal world, we need to create narratives to bring order and meaning to the constantly changing flux

19. Jerome Bruner (1990) Acts of Meaning PARADIGMATIC NARRATIVE The method of science. Based on classification, categorisation reduction Organises everyday interpretations of the world in a storied form

20. What's in a Narrative? • “Stories are everywhere” • Not only do we tell stories, but stories tell us: if stories are everywhere, we are also stories • The telling of a story is always bound up with power, with questions of authority, property and domination • Stories are multiple: there is always more than one story • Stories always have something to tell us about stories themselves: they always involve self-reflexive and meta-fictional dimensions” (p52) Bennett & Royle (2004)

21. Book clubs as a means to working with narratives Little has been written in the HE pedagogical literature about the use of book clubs with students, although there is literature about school age children, particularly in the US There is some overlap with the seminar method but there are some differences also… For instance, it has an intentional interdisciplinarity

22. The literature Rehberg & Sedho (2003) There are promising indications that book clubs can develop learners in a number of ways for instance; increasing a learner’s participation, enhancing their social experience of being face-to-face with others, and in developing discussion skills Hird & Penson(2007) some educators in higher learning view the book club format as useful in developing a learner’s sense of autonomy, their skills of analysis, their skills in selecting useful books, and their confidence in discussions Clark & Phythian-Sence (2008) Certainly enjoyment appears to be a factor for younger reader’s engagement with books alongside some degree of choice in selection and their degree of interest.

23. How to do it: the ‘I choose, we choose, you choose’ process (Campbell-Hill 2007).

24. Experience of the use Students really like it! However it’s a struggle for learners who are not habitual readers (and it isn’t helpful to get into ‘well you should’ kind of exchanges) It can be disconcerting to social science students if they are being asked to work with humanities based methods and theory It can be emotionally powerful because it has less invested in emotional neutrality. It can be hard to get the assessment right and to convince others of its place in the curriculum Not all academics feel equipped to run book clubs

25. sources Bennett, A. & Royle, N (2004) Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory. London. Pearson Longman. Bury, T (2002) ‘Evidence based health care explained’. In Bury, T. & Mead, J. (Eds). Evidence-based Healthcare: A Practical Guide for Therapists. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. Campbell Hill, B. (2007) Literature Circles and Response. NESA Conference Athens. //www.bonniecampbellhill.com/Handouts/CEESA/CEESA . Accessed 28.07.08. 12.46 Campbell, J & Moyers, B. (1988) The Power of Myth. New York. Broadway Books. Clark, C. & Phythian-Sence, C. (2008) Interesting choice: The (relative) importance of choice and interest in reader engagement. National Literacy Trust/ Reading is Fundamental. http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Research/book_choice_research.htm accessed 30.07.08. 14.35. Hird, M. & Penson, B (2007) ‘Book Clubs or Lectures? : Facilitating learning in higher education using stories told about mental health problems’. The Narrative Practitioner Conference Proceedings. Wrexham: School of Health, Social care, Sport & Exercise Sciences. Laugharne, R. (2002) Evidence- the post-modern perspective. In Priebe, S. & Slade, M.(Eds.) Evidence in Mental Health Care. Hove. Brunner-Routledge. Moja-Strasser, L. (2005) ‘Dialogue and Communication’. In van Deurzen, E. & Arnold-Baker, C. (Eds.). Existential perspectives on human issues; a handbook for therapeutic practice. Basingstoke. Palgrave Macmillan. Oyebode, F. (2004) ‘Fictional narrative and psychiatry’. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment. 10. 140-145. Penson, W. (2011) ‘Using book clubs in Higher Education’. Hektoen International Journal. Vol. 3. Issue 3. September. RehbergSedo, D. (2003) ‘Readers in Reading Groups: An online Survey of Face-to-Face and Virtual Book Clubs’. Convergence: the International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 9. 66. 66-90. Roberts, G.A. (2000) Narrative and severe mental illness: what place do stories have in an evidence based world? Advances in Psychiatric Treatment. 6. 432-441. Rycroft-Malone, J., Seers, K., Titchen, A., Harvey, G., Kitson, A. & McCormack, B. (2004) What counts as evidence in evidence-based practice? Journal of Advanced Nursing 47. (1), 81-90. Thornicroft, G. & Tansella, M. (2002) Mental health services research. In Priebe, S. & Slade, M.(Eds) Evidence in Mental Health Care. Hove. Brunner-Routledge.