The VALTA Course and Workshops

We knew from numerous workshops that it is difficult to introduce quickly the topics of violence and learning in enough depth to acknowledge the extent of the issues, understand the impacts, and explore practical approaches to address the problems. It is also hard to focus on all these aspects in short workshops, and they can easily become overwhelming. In planning the Project, we dreamed of drawing educators together to take an intensive longer-term course. Knowing that people from around the province would not be able to meet face-to-face on a regular basis, we planned a 12-week online course. Given the topic, we also knew that it was vital to include some face-to-face meetings, so we began the course with a two-anda- half-day residential workshop. We also met in other workshops during the second cycle of the Project. With Jenny taking the lead in designing and facilitating the course, the three of us worked closely to develop and co-facilitate the workshops. (The course outline and description of activities are included in Appendix 1 and a sample course module is found in Appendix 2.)

Participants began the course with initial readings on the issue of violence and came together for the first workshop with some trepidation. Although some of us knew at least one or two other participants, many of us were meeting each other for the first time. During the workshop, we began to share and further our thinking about violence, prepare for the online course, and get to know each other. As facilitators we sought to set a supportive tone of curious questioning about every aspect of the experience and a sense of a shared journey of exploration and learning.

From October 2002 to the following January, we and the participants "talked" to each other online as we challenged ourselves to deepen our understandings of how violence affects learning. We looked at the hidden impacts of violence and the value of moving the issue into the light by acknowledging the presence of violence in many women's lives and its inevitable impact on learning in diverse situations. We considered ways to create conditions and content for learning by acknowledging spirit, emotions, body and mind and the role each can play to block or enhance learning. We explored the complexity of control, connection and meaning in the face of violence and the importance of each for learning. We looked at the importance of self-care in the face of the costs of bearing witness to violence or the effects of violence.