Vella.chap8 5/7/02 9:55 AM Page 124
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LEARNING TO LISTEN, LEARNING TO TEACH
him, and those on the beach joined in. Someone hooked an anchor into the boat, and pulled the boat using the anchor rope. The long haul around the island, through the shallow water, involved almost the entire group. A bright flag was raised (someone’s shirt) and the project continued with cheers and songs. At last the group reached the distant jetty and, in a final team effort, lifted the dinghy onto the beach. Everyone was laughing and talking excitedly as they fell, quite exhausted, onto the sand. I seized the moment to invite reflection on the learning. What did you see happen? Why do you think it happened this way? It was clear that haste was a self-imposed criterion for all the members of the group. Was this how they organized their community development work? Was the criterion: How soon can we get it done? Was that their measure of success as leaders? Clearly, there had been no design to their effort. Action people all, they set out to do the task as quickly as possible. Time had been lost and energy wasted as the strategy changed again and again. Not everyone helped, either, because people did not know their roles. It was a haphazard venture at best. This action needed reflection. This common practice needed to become praxis. What did we learn from this? As they reflected, participants considered that the task of leaders is to organize, set out shared tasks, clarify roles, name goals, and set time limits. Leadership is not always a question of sheer sweat. It can be a question of thought. Nothing in the workshop matched this experience for richness and the potential to perceive themselves in action. A video camera capturing that scene on the beach would have greatly enriched the learning potential. We could have played that tape over and over whenever they wanted to consider the responsibilities of leadership. A voice overlay in Divehi could have made it available to any leader on the islands who had a videocassette recorder. We missed that chance. We used this praxis to reflect on participants’ ideas of a development specialist at the opening of the ten-day workshop—a per-