Un- Learning and New Learning : What are the challenges for practitioners and researchers in co-constructing a new vocabulary for collaboration?

This discussion paper is informed by working with experienced practitioners and professionals  across the public and not for profit sector. The ways in which they interact - facilitated by my role as an external -... [ view full abstract ]

This discussion paper is informed by working with experienced practitioners and professionals  across the public and not for profit sector. The ways in which they interact - facilitated by my role as an external - illustrate a number of the recurring themes in the literature on collaboration : from how they engage with each other (negotiating their roles and relationships, developing trust or not in the  ways in which they listen and respond to each other, being open to developing a language of mutuality and thoughtfulness as well as enquiry and reflection ). What has been both fascinating and challenging (to me) is how they think about their 'un - learning'. As a whole they seem comfortable with the idea that they need 'to learn' but less relaxed with the idea of un-learning. Given that many of these encounters take place in the context of thinking about new ways of working, of making co-operation across the different boundaries of professional identities the 'norm' and being open to creating new structures or different approaches there still remains a commitment to their professional identity. Is this because the collaboration literature / thinking explores the points of intersection and potential co-operation rather than the creation of something different in which pre-existing identities are pooled and become redundant as new ones are created ? Is the language of collaboration itself too rigid for our understanding of these new spaces and, in particular, the spaces that exist in between the points of contact ? If we are moving 'beyond collaboration' what does that mean for how we frame and ask questions of ourselves and others ? Does it matter ?