Among our many awesome though limited survival heuristics is the binary bias. We tend to want to discretely categorize information into binaries. This has shown up in our institutions of government and healing. Nature versus nurture, mental suffering framed as an internal problem or completely caused by external circumstances, male or female, etc. However it’s important to remember that categories were made BY people and not FOR people. The universe just IS, and any categories we perceive are projected onto the universe to help us survive as social primates.
Rather than get caught up on which category a perception falls into, or with which specific entity a problem may lie, I think it’s more useful to look at the border between those categories, because that’s where all the interesting stuff happens. See the fractal above, everywhere there appears to be a border is an infinitely complex subdivision of more pattern. I like this as visual poetry, for when we attempt to draw the line between categories, it becomes quickly obvious that any such delineation is mathematically impossible.
In listening to and reading Professor Isaac Prilleltensky, I was introduced the the concept of Contextualism. For example, in classical western psychology an individual’s emotional troubles were frequently assigned an internal source of suffering. However, postmodern critical theory might, in contrast, describe that the fault lies entirely in the circumstances within which an individual finds themselves. Professor Prilleltenksy, however, would recommend highlighting the context, both internal and external factors, and the relationships between them as a more nuanced means of addressing an issue.
He further uses the concept of contextualism to deepen the ways we can matter to others and show that other matter to us. in his book How People Matter, he elaborates on how mattering is ” the right and responsibility to feel valued and to add value to our community, to feel happiness and fairness.” The values we have or desire to add are at risk by being generated from rigid dogmatism or destroyed by foundationless relativism, but can be made consistent and robust with contextualism. And since responsibility must be developed, I find this a natural connection to education. For someone to become an agent responsible for the mattering of others, they will need help and guidance along the way.
As with so many of our biases and skills, once we are aware of them, we can honor, compensate for, and improve them. What if each learner’s situation was contextualized at an institution adequately resourced to do so? What if they were also given the tools to contextualize their and the world’s problems as part of basic education?