Final Reflection

Love is an action: never simply a feeling 

(bell hooks) 

I am grateful for this deep learning experience, and grateful to everyone who took part in it and supported it.

The Learning Pathway was intentionally designed as an emergent learning journey that would evolve as it unfolded. We hoped it could be an in-person journey so that we could centre relationship building and seize opportunities for serendipity and innovation. Unfortunately, pandemic restrictions made gathering in person impossible. All of our gatherings and the work between gatherings took place over Zoom, except for the last gathering.

Working and studying virtually over the past few years has provided an opportunity (and a necessity) to learn techniques for engaging people and building community via Zoom. The most important community-building strands woven through the Learning Pathway are described in Blog 3: Coming to see evaluation as sacred: the presence and teachings of respected and loved community elders and leaders, sharing cultural practices and framing the work with cultural artifacts, bringing African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw cultures together, incorporating music into each gathering, and exploring Africentric and Indigenous worldviews of evaluation.

In some ways meeting virtually was helpful; people didn’t have to travel, which saved time and money that we didn’t have; and we didn’t have to deal with winter storm cancellations. On the other hand, there’s no way of knowing the toll having to participate in another Zoom meeting at the end of long work days took on people, and no way to to fully appreciate what was lost or what didn’t happen by not being together in person or having those informal conversations before and after meetings and on breaks. 

Another important part of the story is that the facilitation team and Wisdom Circle roles were also emergent and evolving. For most people, supporting and leading the Learning Pathway was not part of their job descriptions. I was mindful of not asking too much from them, while wanting them to participate as fully as they wished and were able. With an ever-changing role and uncertainty about what else would be needed, and a growing understanding of the massive scope of this undertaking, facilitation team members took a leap of faith and gave very generously of themselves to support this journey and to learn together.

This has not been stated explicitly: we had two hours together each month as a group, and a half day together at our final gathering. That means we were all together for a total of about 16 hours. There were many conversations and check-ins with individuals, plus the monthly evaluation thought partnership meetings where participants met with a member of the facilitation team for 1–2 hours to talk about their evaluation projects in the community. But the full group was together for the equivalent of two days. From my perspective it is actually kind of astonishing what we were able to accomplish together, and that the Learning Pathway offered so many teachings.

I’d like to share a couple of personal reflections. The first is that the process of thinking and reflecting and synthesizing and writing has been a very embodied experience for me. I have felt the thoughts percolating and swirling (too often in the middle of the night!), sometimes steeping, then reaching for each other and coming together loosely, sometimes unraveling a bit, then coming together more tightly, and gradually starting to make sense. I felt myself holding these formulating ideas and questions as I tried to sort out how to articulate them and how to answer the questions I was asking. Then gradually the thoughts started to settle together, and one day as I was walking in the woods with my dogs (where this kind of thing often happens for me), I felt a movement and everything shifted into place. I knew what I was going to say and how I wanted to say it. I love this process.

Finally, throughout this process I have been taking classes and working on my PhD. I have always felt at home in Community Psychology, which includes evaluation as one of its tools, and I have never actually felt comfortable referring to myself as an evaluator. Over the past few years stepping back and reflecting on the big picture, and specifically in the context of the Learning Pathway, stepping back and seeing that decolonizing evaluation is part of much larger work to transform systems, I am finding my home in calling myself a Community Psychologist. It feels like a reclaiming of myself. I am curious to see what lies ahead with this identity, and already thinking about how it will look in my existing work.

My key takeaways from the Learning Pathway experience are summarized in the video below. You can also access them in PDF.

Key Takeaways from the Learning Pathway

Key Takeaways Summary