Navigating from Devaluing our insider perspective to Embracing our collective expertise
The first mindshift in being a curator is Navigating from Devaluing our insider perspective to Embracing our collective expertise. You are embracing our collective expertise when you acknowledge your unique perspective as a practitioner and leverage this insider perspective. Curators who embrace our collective expertise leverage their practitioner and insider knowledge to have impact. This does not mean that they do not consider other perspectives or value feedback from those whom exist outside their context, but it does mean that they embrace the uniqueness of their own experiences as a critical component of the impact they are trying to have. Embracing our collective expertise means that we are in the arena, doing the work, and using those experiences to inform our next steps.
Examples:
Educator as researcher relying on evidence
Awareness of what evidence one uniquely has access to
Curating with others and valuing the unique insider experience of others, including learners
Objecting to the narrative that academic research is the only research of value
Non Examples:
Educator relying on intuition
Unaware of evidence sources already embedded in practice
Curating alone or in a silo
Believing the narrative that academic research is the only research of value
Questions I might ask myself:
What practices makes someone an "insider"? What are the connotations around the word?
Why might we devalue our "insider" perspective? How might those around us devalue our "insider" perspective?
What structures currently exist that support developing a collective expertise? What structures are needed to better support developing a collective expertise?
What practices currently exist that support developing a collective expertise? What practices are needed to better support developing a collective expertise?
What messages do we send ourselves about our position as an "insider"? What messages do we send ourselves about our ability to be part of the "collective expertise"?
What blocks might we have to participating in collective expertise? What thoughts or ideas might get in our way?
To embrace our collective expertise asks us to gain wisdom through combining our practitioner based experiences with new knowledge. Measuring that wisdom with and against other practitioners builds a collective expertise in which only those who exist in the field deeply understand. This does not mean that we are not open to ideas or feedback from outside the field, but it does mean that we value our collective expertise more.
