Once upon a time I read a student’s reflection on a global trip. It was a trip I had planned and she had taken. Her reflection was profound; it was not simply the epiphany that once upon a time does not end with happily ever after. Her reflection articulated the paralysis that often occurs when we are faced with cognitive dissonance: the shades of gray that make it impossible for us to imagine solutions based on clear evidence and a core set of guiding principles, many of which have guided our engagement with the world since childhood.
The question she was asked was simple: What did you bring home from your global trip?
India ingrained into me a sense of inability… My empathy and sense of dread come from the narrow line that separates me from others. I could be anyone. Life is a lottery… A couple thousand dollars in flights. Probably a couple more for food, lodging, and transportation. How many girls’ educations could we have supported with that money? How much energy was used by us traveling? How much waste was created? It’s impossible to hide from these questions once they have been explored. A pandora’s box of privilege that, once opened, can never be closed. My pandora’s box has been opened. It tore through my core, my values, and my heart. Now I face the long process of rebuilding and reevaluating something which feels impossibly overwhelming. I took home the chance to change.
Outcome goals are the guideposts that frame much of my curriculum development work, but despite 20+ years of work in the field of global education, it is only recently that I identified managing cognitive dissonance as a desired outcome goal for global leadership programming.
The price of privilege is often ignorance, yet the gift of knowledge too often leaves us incapacitated to engage in effecting change in the world. The problems seem too intractable, the forces at play too strong for one person or small group to counteract. Yet, through the words of my once upon a time student, I realized that taking home the chance to change is a powerful panacea to the paralysis sometimes generated by cognitive dissonance.
As the world suffers in the grip of “fear of the other” generated by instability and culture clash brought about by mass human migrations; I continue to appreciate the reminder that the chance to listen, learn, and change is always there for all of us, despite the fact that we understand that nothing will ever totally make sense to any of us.
Stacey's Thread 