{"id":1398,"date":"2015-12-31T05:17:36","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T13:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/?p=1398"},"modified":"2017-01-25T15:01:24","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T23:01:24","slug":"helping-what-it-means-in-educational-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/2015\/12\/31\/helping-what-it-means-in-educational-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping: What it means in educational development"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1399\" style=\"width: 635px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/files\/2015\/12\/IMG_1841.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1399\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1399\" class=\"wp-image-1399 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/files\/2015\/12\/IMG_1841-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_1841\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/files\/2015\/12\/IMG_1841-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/files\/2015\/12\/IMG_1841-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/files\/2015\/12\/IMG_1841-624x468.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1399\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This table is taken from Schein, 2009 (p.7).<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Educational development: \u201cThe profession dedicated to helping colleges and universities function effectively as teaching and learning communities\u201d (from Felten, Kalish, Pingree, &amp; Plank, 2007, p.93)<\/p>\n<p>As an educational developer, helping is important. \u00a0Whether I am program planning, consulting, or facilitating, my ultimate aim is to help (to enhance teaching and learning in some way). Schein (2009) notes that there is helpful help and unhelpful help. I know I have done both.<\/p>\n<p>In order to better understand what it means to help, I am reading Schein\u2019s book \u00a0\u201cHelping: How to offer, give and receive help\u201d. \u00a0Below are some sense-making notes I have taken and quotes I find particularly useful from the first three chapters (future blog posts will explore the other chapters).<\/p>\n<p>Schein begins by describing two cultural principles that are fundamental to understanding the helping relationship:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201c&#8230;.all communication between two parties is a reciprocal process that must be, or at least must seem to be, fair and equitable\u201d (p.11)<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c&#8230; all relationships in human cultures are to a large degree based on scripted roles that we learn to play early in life and which become so automatic that we are often not even conscious of them\u201d (p.11-12) <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He applies the notions of \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reply-mc.com\/2011\/12\/11\/unraveling-social-interaction-part-1\/\">social theatrics\u201d and \u201csocial economics<\/a>\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0to describe communication within a cultural context.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Schein, \u201cevery helping relationship is in a state of imbalance\u201d in the beginning (p.35). That imbalance exists largely because of the unequal power dynamics; the client (the term he uses for anyone seeking or being offered help) is \u201cdown\u201d and the helper is \u201cup\u201d. \u201cBeing thrust into the role of help is immediately a gain in status and power\u2026\u201d (p.33), \u00a0Schein notes. The helping process is often impeded because the people involved fail to recognize the initial imbalance. Consequently, neither the helper or client initially knows what to expect and what to give the relationship. \u00a0So that our help may be helpful, we must address and deal with the imbalance. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Doing so, however, can be difficult because the helper and client may fall into traps.<\/p>\n<table style=\"border-color: #000000;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Traps the helper may fall into<\/td>\n<td>Traps the client may fall into<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<ul>\n<li>dispensing wisdom prematurely<\/li>\n<li>meeting defensiveness with more pressure<\/li>\n<li>accepting the problem and over-reacting to the dependence<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<ul>\n<li>initial mistrust<\/li>\n<li>relief<\/li>\n<li>looking for attention, reassurance and\/or validation instead of help<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A successful helping relationship requires that the helper intervene in ways that \u201cbuild up the client\u2019s status\u201d (p.47). By addressing the imbalance of power, the helping relationship may further develop and become productive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Reference:\u00a0Schein, E. (2009). Helping: How to offer, give and receive help. \u00a0San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Educational development: \u201cThe profession dedicated to helping colleges and universities function effectively as teaching and learning communities\u201d (from Felten, Kalish, Pingree, &amp; Plank, 2007, p.93) As an educational developer, helping is important. \u00a0Whether I am program planning, consulting, or facilitating, my ultimate aim is to help (to enhance teaching and learning in some way). Schein [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":792,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,1484100],"tags":[1484100,349,757514,1484096],"class_list":["post-1398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-educational-development","tag-educational-development","tag-help","tag-helping","tag-process-consultation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/792"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1398"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1401,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions\/1401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/iiqbal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}