The Thursday night gala began with a social hour which provided an opportunity to meet new people and network. While I was not able to see Dr. Hammond’s talk in the morning, this did give me the opportunity to speak with him about his work at Resiliency Initiatives. He told me how he believes that in order to increase resiliency we need to move away from a one way model of communication to a two way model; a model encouraging collaboration between individuals. He said that in many cases where results are not being seen it might not be because the individual does not want to change, but because they may need a different way to achieve change. For example, this may mean that a teacher with some students who are continually underachieving may need to use a different way of teaching in order to see results from them.
Dr. Hammond stressed that there needs to be a paradigm shift in the way we work; away from an authoritarian standard and towards a collaborative one, changing the context of the relationships we have with those we are trying to help. I must say that I agree with him on this issue; in the Science Communication program I learnt about a similar paradigm shift. This was a movement away from a deficit model, in which the public is seen as lacking in knowledge and the scientists merely tell them what they need to know, and towards a two-way communication model between scientists and the public being encouraged. This has lead to more understanding and a better relationship between the two groups. I see no reason why similar results would not be seen in the case of resiliency building as well; the person who is being helped could have important information to share.
What do you think about this paradigm shift? Have you seen it already start to happen? Share your thoughts in the comments!
-Josh
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