A Heartening Evaluation

I have recently completed a rich and rewarding time of sabbatical in the Pacific Northwest, where I attended a series of conferences, retreats and workshops, and conducted research with several organizations. The focus of my sabbatical was on educational conversations about teacher professional development and renewal in schools and higher education, and on developing pedagogy of the soul. During this time, I was fortunate to spend some of my time working with the Center for Courage & Renewal.

I am a lecturer and researcher in teacher education at the University of Canberra in Australia, and prior to this, was a public high school social science teacher. I came across Parker J. Palmer’s writings some years ago, and warmly resonated with them as they were so inspiring and applicable, both personally and professionally. Since this time, I have used Parker’s work with my graduate and undergraduate university students, to give them a language about the vocation of teaching and provide them with companionship on their journey towards becoming teachers. In Australia, most of the people training to become high school teachers now are mature-aged, and have already experienced several other jobs and many of the vicissitudes of life. Their decision to enter teaching is therefore a deliberate and often altruistic choice, frequently taken at a significant life juncture. The final assignment that I set for them before their graduation is a critical reflection of their journey towards becoming a teacher, and an examination of their ‘self’ as a teacher. As a means of documenting their journey and preparing for their final assignment, we examine various text forms such as literature, poetry and film, and engage in a series of reflective practices throughout the year. Their favorite and most quoted article in their final essay is always Parker J. Palmer’s "The Heart of a Teacher." The students frequently report that reading this article represented an epiphany moment in their teacher training, as it spoke directly to their heart about why they had chosen to teach. Many have also commented that since first reading the article, the words and ideas have continued to sustain and accompany them on their journey.

Parker’s writings have also been very significant for me personally, and I find his understandings about the soul and the inner journey unique and enriching as I seek to find deeper congruence between the inner and outer life. As C. S. Lewis has said, “we read to know we are not alone," and reading Parker’s books about the inner journey, and attending courage retreats has wondrously connected me with others who value and wish to engage in reflection and intentionality about the inner journey. I am most grateful for the three superb courage retreats that I have attended over recent years, skillfully facilitated by Marianne Houston and Michael Saver in Australia; Sally Hare and Caryl Hurtig Casbon in Oregon; and Parker J. Palmer in Washington State.

My sabbatical time with the Center for Courage & Renewal was spent assisting them with an evaluation of their ‘circle of trust’ retreat programs. The evaluation consisted of an on-line questionnaire and follow-up interviews with a small number of retreat participants and staff involved in the development and delivery of retreats. Working on the evaluation was an extremely gratifying experience, as it is very rare for an evaluator to receive such overwhelmingly positive feedback about a program. The evaluation had a 93% participant response rate, and people entrusted us with rich and profound stories about their circle of trust experiences. I was greatly impressed by the myriad ways respondents have applied their circle of trust learnings in their personal and professional lives. I am most grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in such soulful and rewarding research, and to have the privilege of listening to people speak about the impact of courage retreats in their lives.

My overall sabbatical program has been a powerful and life-changing experience, as it has exposed me to new learnings and ideas, and has also confirmed many of the values that I previously held dear. In particular, I am more convinced than ever of the importance of alignment between soul and role, and the power of reflective practice. Reflective practice is a vital component in my life as it allows me to stay still and listen, hold important questions, see the patterns and bigger picture of life, make sense of things, gain perspective and be more fully present.

I am most grateful to the staff at the Center for Courage & Renewal for their hospitality to me during my sabbatical, and I greatly appreciated their warmth, openness and trust. I look forward to remaining connected with all the wonderful folks in the courage community that I have met in the USA, and to meeting more in Australia in the future.