{"id":35182,"date":"2024-01-24T08:50:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T16:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35182"},"modified":"2024-01-25T09:01:43","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T17:01:43","slug":"if-questions-are-more-important-than-answers-which-questions-are-you-willing-to-risk-asking-so-you-remain-skeptical-and-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/if-questions-are-more-important-than-answers-which-questions-are-you-willing-to-risk-asking-so-you-remain-skeptical-and-open\/","title":{"rendered":"If Questions Are More Important Than Answers, Which Questions Are You Willing to Risk Asking So You Remain Skeptical and Open?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Created in Canva by Nancy Blackman<\/p><\/div>\n

As soon as I began reading this book, my mind traveled back in time to elementary school\u00a0 where I excelled in some subjects and struggled miserably in others. Then, as I made my way through middle school, I still excelled in the same subjects and struggled with others, mainly the math and science classes.<\/p>\n

In preparation for a math exam, my father sat down with me and broke down my homework in an understandable way. It changed everything. It was most definitely a transformative and aha moment. Unfortunately, what became easier for me didn\u2019t suit the teacher because though I came up with the correct answer, I didn\u2019t use the formula she was teaching exactly the way she wanted. I would categorize that as \u201ctroublesome knowledge\u201d because I was assimilating and integrating but not the way the teacher wanted.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

A little background to the story: my father worked for the State Department, so my upbringing consisted of living on 3 continents and travelling to a multitude of countries before the age of 14, which was also the age I was when I came to the US to live permanently.<\/p>\n

Raised in a State Department culture (i.e., all members of the family MUST look, talk, and act a certain way or else the State Department employee will be called into question), which \u2014 ahem \u2014 happened once because I, the creative, outside-the-box thinker was suddenly clashing with my family and the environment I was in.<\/p>\n

Years later, when my family and I moved to the US, just before beginning high school, I found myself barely treading water on all levels.\u00a0Yes, there were enculturation challenges, which makes me wonder how much of what Meyer and Land refer to as \u201cotherness\u201d was a factor in my educational process.[2]<\/a> In other words, how much of being the \u201cother\u201d affected my educational process?<\/p>\n

I was suddenly met with people who spent more time belittling others\u2014me, in this case. And, as I am still ruminating on Camacho\u2019s principles, this funneled me into a shift. That painful stretch moved me into a space of \u201clearner transformation.\u201d[3]<\/a> I began to learn about myself through my pain by moving through and towards things that created safety\u2014reading books, looking at art\u2014and therapeutically allowing myself to get in touch with the artist within me. And this process became irreversible.<\/p>\n

The example Meyer and Land use is, of course, so appropriate to me as I am mixed race. \u201cBeing of mixed race myself I never really paid much mind to it but coming here I\u2019ve had to define where I belong. I always have to address that.\u2019\u201d[4]<\/a> That is the essence of my existence and educational process throughout my entire United States experience.<\/p>\n

When I attended American International Schools outside of the U.S., I was just one of the kids, but being the only mixed-race kid of a handful of other Asians in an American high school changed everything. The landscape, as Dr. Coven mentioned, became very blurry at first. Until I was able to get a better grasp of who I was within the context of my setting, I would continue to tread water.<\/p>\n

The question of belonging became and has become the one thing that drives the who, what, where, when, and how. As I have gotten older, the only question that burdens me is whether some of this is also how I perceive the world as an artist. Let\u2019s face it. If you know any artists, they tend not to think the same as mainstream society, yet, without artists, the world would not be nearly as beautiful. There would not be beautiful music and paintings on the ceilings of cathedrals, much less ways for those individuals to express themselves and \u201cbe\u201d who God created them to be.<\/p>\n

As someone recently said to me, \u201cArtists are the weirdos of the world.\u201d We don\u2019t fit neatly into society\u2019s construct, and as I connect this with my research of creating a safe, inclusive community for writers and artists, I wonder what that means and how I need to show up as a leader.<\/p>\n

What questions do I need to continue to ask so that I, as Coven mentions, remain skeptical AND open?<\/p>\n

I am reminded of the rubik\u2019s cube that forces a person to turn it around, constantly moving one part so that it touches another. And, if I may, the African Ubuntu philosophy of \u201cI am because we are\u201d seems appropriate because we can\u2019t see the bigger picture until we can understand that we \u2014 you and I \u2014 are because of each other.<\/p>\n

So, when I think of building a safe, inclusive community for artists and writers who are very often marginalized by society, what deep and meaningful questions do I need to keep asking so I don\u2019t become so narrow-minded and lose sight of the bigger picture?<\/p>\n

How about you? What questions do you need to keep asking to keep your focus on the bigger picture? What questions would help you (and others) remain skeptical and open in this doctorate journey?<\/p>\n

I will say that I have one question for Dr. Coven. At one point in the video, he says something about always remaining curious.[5]<\/a> That has never been my problem. I am curious to a fault. My question is, at what point does curiosity need to end, and answers need to suffice for what they are?<\/p>\n

Does anyone else have that burning question?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Meyer, Jan H.F., and Ray Land, eds., Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge<\/em> (London: Routledge, 2006), 137.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 134-135.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 135<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid., 136.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Dr. Robert Coven, \u201cBreaking Through: Threshold Concepts as a Key to Understanding,\u201d November 28, 2018, produced by TEDx Talks, video, 19:11, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GCPYSKSFky4<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As soon as I began reading this book, my mind traveled back in time to elementary school\u00a0 where I excelled in some subjects and struggled miserably in others. Then, as I made my way through middle school, I still excelled in the same subjects and struggled with others, mainly the math and science classes. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2589,3013,2539,2967,1429],"class_list":["post-35182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-artist","tag-learner_transformation","tag-threshold_concepts","tag-dlgp03","tag-meyer","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35182"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35226,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35182\/revisions\/35226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}