Week 3:The Pedagogy of Respect and the Wonderfulness Interview: Narrative Therapy and Educational Practice for Educators as Catalysts for Moral Character Transformation Agents

Origins and Philosophy of the Pedagogy of Respect

• Engagement in Education: The speaker, David Epston, frame his address not as a TED talk, but as an acknowledgment of those engaged in the education of young children. This acknowledgment is rooted in a history of over $40$ years of engaging with people who identify conversations with teachers as significant turning points in their lives.

• Teacher Appreciation Day (Wellington, New Zealand): Approximately $20$ years ago, the speaker and Carrie Jenner (a school counselor) organized a gala occasion at a central city high school.

  • The event included the entire student body and their families.

  • Teachers paraded into the assembly to the tune of "Gaudeamus Igitur," carrying gifts and flowers.

  • A student spokesperson proclaimed, "You respected us," highlighting the core value of the event.

• Theoretical Foundation - Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot: The concept of respect was inspired by Professor Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot’s book, Respect: An Exploration.

  • Traditional View of Respect: Typically seen as a debt owed due to position, age, gender, race, or professional status.

  • Lawrence-Lightfoot's View of Respect: Respect is a tool to create symmetry, empathy, and connection in relationships that are traditionally unequal (e.g., teacher/student, doctor/patient). It involves breaking routine and imagining new ways of giving and receiving trust to create relationships among equals. This is described as the "offering of respect."

The Wonderfulness Interview and Virtue Inquiries

• The Wonderfulness Interview: A practice developed by David Epston, David Marston, and Laurie Markham to facilitate the offering of respect. It is detailed in their $2016$ book, Narrative Therapy in Wonderland: Connecting with Children's Imaginative Know-how.

• Virtue Inquiries: A term used by Sacha Pilkington (palliative care professional) for almost identical inquiries when working with people at the end of their lives.

• Core Objective: To get to know "the person ahead of the problem."

Representation: Characterizing vs. Pathologizing

• The Funeral Thought Experiment: The speaker poses a hypothetical scenario where an individual is $80$ or $90$ years old and preparing for their funeral.

  • Choice of Representation: Would you prefer to be remembered by your moral character/moral virtues, or by a post-mortem psychiatric assessment read aloud?

  • Pathologizing: A mode of representation focused on psychiatric diagnosis and language of suffering, which has grown significantly in influence over the last $50$ or so years.

  • Characterizing: A mode of representation focused on moral character, virtues, and histories, referred to as the "language of unsuffering."

• Svend Brinkman (2017): The Danish scholar notes that human suffering is mediated through language. The psychiatric diagnosis has become a powerful, widespread tool that affects how we approach and think about human distress.

Case Study: Natalie and "Sneaky Poo" (1986)

• Background: Natalie ($10$ years old) suffered from an intractable problem declared "lifelong chronic" after $8$ failed interventions (including $4$ medical, $3$ psychiatric attempts, hospitalization, and family therapy).

• Impact: Natalie was in constant pain and despair. Her mother, Sally, had previously attempted suicide due to the strain. Natalie left notes asking, "Mom, what's wrong with me?"

• Externalizing the Problem: In a letter to the family, Epston renamed the problem "Sneaky Poo."

  • Effects of Sneaky Poo: Kept Natalie at a $5$ year old level; isolated her from friends; stopped her from swimming; caused her to "switch off" her parents $50.0\%$ of the time; made her sister Jane reluctant to invite friends over.

  • Natalie's Strategy: Natalie used her "maturity" to out-sneak the problem. She tracked her bowel movements and focused her mind on her stomach feelings to detect "clues."

• Outcome: Natalie stopped soiling immediately after the first session.

Review with Natalie: The Sullivan-Keller Influence

• Dialogue Extract (Natalie and David Epston):

  • Epston: "What made you… realize you have heaps of control?"

  • Natalie: "I was reading these books… There's one about Helen Keller… about determination… At first, she was a nasty, horrible person, and then Anne Sullivan started writing words on her hand…"

  • Epston: "Why now… did it have such an effect?"

  • Natalie: "When I came to you, I realized what was in the book, what it meant… Most of the people just thought I was another patient… You were like Anne Sullivan. You kept asking me questions."

  • Natalie explained that unlike others, the speaker treated her like a person, had "faith" in her, and used the name "Sneaky Poo," which helped her realize she was not the one in the wrong.

Historical Context: Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy

• Helen Keller ($1880$ - $1968$): Rendered blind and deaf by illness (likely scarlet fever) at the age of $19$ months.

• The Well-House (April 5, 1880):

  • Keller referred to her pre-language self as a "Phantom."

  • Anne Sullivan (Annie) pumped water over Keller's hand while spelling "W-A-T-E-R" into the other.

  • Keller described this as the moment her mind began to "flutter tiny wings of flame," leading to the birth of affection and identification of objects.

  • Annie’s perspective from a letter to Mrs. Hopkins: "She has learned that everything has a name… [she] flitted from object to object… kissing me for very gladness."

Case Study: Billy and the Reclamation of Character (1995)

• Background: Billy ($11$ years old) faced total social rejection.

  • Expelled from class; shunned by teacher (who turned his back on him).

  • His father, Jim, renounced him and sought to write him out of his will.

  • Auckland Regional Authority was taking legal action to ban him from buses.

  • His mother, Marie, was in despair, asking if Billy was a "hopeless case."

• The Interview Process:

  • At the start, Jim and Billy refused eye contact; Jim sat so Billy was concealed from his view.

  • Epston initiated a "Wonderfulness Interview" by asking to know Billy as he was before the trouble.

  • Kindness: Marie shared a story of Billy befriending a refugee classmate from the former Yugoslavia.

  • Creativity: Jim identified Billy's creativity, linking it to Billy's uncle in Yorkshire, England, who makes a living as a sculptor of ceramic "sheep shit" (pellets the size of olive pits).

  • Awakening: Billy interjected during the fun, saying, "Let's go home. This is over. I have just stopped all my trouble."

• Billy's Amends Letter to Mr. Smith:

  • Billy expressed a desire to build a "good reputation" rather than be a "class nuisance."

  • He set up a self-imposed accountability system: donating $50$ cents from his allowance to the class jar for every "slip up" (up to $10$ times).

  • If allowance ran out, he proposed running $2.0$ laps around the field per mistake.

• Outcome and Review (April 19, 1995):

  • Although Mr. Smith refused to read the letter, Billy flourished in Miss Jones's classroom.

  • Jim and Marie reported a $50.0\%$ improvement at home.

  • Jim and Billy reunited as father and son.

  • Billy’s quote: "Turning $12$ changed me… I was trying to fight my habit… when I was going to go off the deep end, I held myself back."

Final Reflections on Respect and Educators

• Richard Sennett (Respect in a World of Inequality): Respect is an "expressive performance." It requires finding specific words and gestures to make the respect feel convincing. Character is the aspect of self capable of moving others.

• The Influence of Teachers: Epston notes that after parents and extended family, teachers are cited as the third most frequent source of moral inspiration. He recalls his own influential teachers:

  • Red David: Principal at Peterborough Collegiate and High School.

  • Roger Green: Professor of Anthropology at the University of Auckland.