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Transforming Questions
The use of Circular Questioning in the classroom is in its developing stages. In a classroom where potentially volatile material is discussed, the attention can quickly shift from the topic to the individuals arguing about the topic. Using CQ to facilitate classroom discussions about culture, conflict, and communication allows me to maintain the focus on the material while guiding the students toward a systemic understanding of such issues. I have had some measure of success, especially when I make the goals and the method explicit to students. While some students may need quite a few examples to understand that CQ does not mean going around in circles, usually by the end of the fifth week of the semester many students begin to understand the liberating potential of seeing issues through a systemic lens and of using CQ as transformative intervention. I ask questions such as,
- "Imagine that you live with the threat of violence: what is a typical day like for you?"
- "What do you think are parts of your neighborhood/city that you absolutely could not function without if they were bombed?"
- "What do you think is the most difficult thing immigrants have to deal with when they come to the U.S.?"
- "If you had to abandon this country, what would you miss the most?"
These questions prompt students not just to walk the proverbial mile in someone else's shoes but also to examine potentially disruptive tangents--such as what they perceive to be "chips on the shoulders" of other students--under a systemic lens.
Some students are relieved to know that through the use of CQ we can keep the discussion focused on the material. Questions I might ask that bring about such relief include, "How can the discussions we're having in this class help us in the 'real' world?" or "When you are no longer students, how will these questions and the way you've grappled with them help you interact in an intercultural setting?" Some students are so adept that they even joke in CQ: "Suppose we didn't have a quiz next week, what other ways would we have to calculate grades?" or "When did you [addressing me] first get the idea that we didn't need a quiz review?"
Circular questioning is not just another method of consulting, teaching, or doing therapy; it is a way of challenging assumptions in a system of knowledge. Engaging in this type of conversation requires a firm conviction that the social world is made in conversation and that instructors have a de facto position of power that we can use to encourage the transformation of accounts and to create new conversations. Learning from how family therapists, mediators, and facilitators use Circular Questions, I focus on existing conversational resources and remain aware that multiple cultural and organizational discourses grant me authority and position me within layers of hierarchies. However, I also have the responsibility to set the example by taking a collaborative position and by believing that different ways of talking indeed create different realities. Using CQ in the classroom, this difference lies in how we go about creating these new realities, for the potential to improve human life exists within the system of knowledge.
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