Preface
These papers report a series of research activities that were enacted over a three-year period at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Initially, a group of four colleagues working, studying and teaching across the fields of the arts, counselling, teaching and learning, came together to explore and research their own experiencing of personal learning. The context in which personal learning was explored had several defining qualities. It was not therapy; it was not an encounter group, but it was small group process learning. The explorations were multimodal, that is, used as many modes of inquiry into inner experiencing as seemed apt. There was an attempt to engage in a search for personal meanings in a socially interactive matrix; and there was a search for procedures of inquiry that could be seen as facilitative of knowing about lived experience.
Carrying forward what emerged from the first study, we moved into a larger group to implement and develop further the inquiry into personal meanings found in life experiences. Over a two-year period, a group of colleagues met regularly, committed to the exploration of a variety of approaches, techniques and variations of forms of inquiry into personal experiencing, still set in social interactions.
The data reported here in Part II relate to the development of the procedures of inquiry that emerged from Part I. The data was so extensive, that of fifteen completed and researched self-inquiry protocols, only five are presented fully. The major import of these studies lies in the development of procedures of inquiry into personal knowing. It is not a theory of personal experiencing, but makes potential contributions to the procedures that may be used in the exploration of experiencing, and to an epistemological conception of ways of knowing, incorporating the various modes of knowing into an integrative connectedness.
While the research was not directed at therapeutic one to one learning contexts, it has implications for therapies concerned with the procedures for understanding the meaningfulness of lived experiences. There is also a strong emphasis from the data on the role of social reconstructions in the making of personal meanings. The nature and functions of intersubjectivity in personal learning were also identified, as we experienced them, and were thought to be central elements in any activity, whether therapy or education, which engages a personal epistemology.
The participants in the studies were always naive to the procedures of experiencing which were offered. In doing so, they took the risks associated with self-exploration and placing trust in others. What has been created from these interactions has relied heavily on their generosity of spirit and honesty of search, conditions that facilitate personal learning greatly. Our thanks go to them all, and to Patricia Broberg, who conducted the interviews and presented us with that data. A number of the research participants have become so committed to this form of inquiry, they, with me, have now formed the Melbourne Institute for Experiential and Creative Arts Therapy (MIECAT), which provides counsellor training and personal learning programmes in this way of knowing.
We are aware that there are multiple influences of the ideas and procedures developed in this research. The history of ideas and practice in humanistic education, phenomenological, existential, gestalt and person-centred therapies, together with conceptions of the arts as modes of knowing, are all patently flowing throughout. In recent writings, the work of Clark Moustakas has been a source of inspiration, and a general acknowledgment of indebtedness is made, of the spirit and content of his ideas. It was, at times, difficult to separate our own emerging ideas from potential sources in others, but his work was certainly influential.
Although our participants have all contributed aspects of the writing, the responsibility for this text remains with me. I express my deep appreciation to all these co-researchers and colleagues for their energy, commitment to and belief in the ‘worthwhileness’ of these dialogues of significance.
Warren R Lett
October 1998.
A collection of research media reporting on Forms of Inquiry into the Arts in Therapy. This research presents the founding research of MIECAT’s form of Inquiry.
Please note, that following a name change to the Institute we are now The MIECAT Institute. Our former and founding name was as written in the Preface.