School forging new paths
https://www.ecolechangerdecap.net/spip.php?article181
A lesson in Temple University College of Education
Thursday, 24 February 2011 / Charles Rojzman /

Charles Rojzman is a renowned French social psychologist, author, and international consultant to local, national and international groups and organizations in the public and non-profit sectors.

The goal of his work, which begins with group dialogues and leads to transformative action, is to foster the practice and theory of healthy multicultural and multi-ethnic democracies.  Termed in English “transformational social therapy” or TST (French: thérapie sociale), this work aims to transform institutions by helping people address the hatred and violence that separate them and prevent them from working together.  Both symbolic and physical, this violence inhibits democracy and lends support to fear-based, authoritarian regimes.  Rojzman has worked toward institutional and social change in the fields of education, social work, criminal justice, and conflict resolution.

This work has taken him to most European countries, the United States, North Africa, Rwanda, Central and Latin America.  He has directed projects to stem inter-ethnic violence in Israel, France, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere.  He worked with parents and others in Beslan, North Ossetia, dealing with the aftermath of the horrific school hostage act there in September 2004. In another recent project, he facilitated meetings of key Chechen civil society groups. Rojzman is founder and director of an organization that provides training in social therapy, the Institut Charles Rojzman, working in France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Russia, and the United States.

TST focuses on societal problems that often become visible in poor and ethnically conflicted neighborhoods.  He brings together antagonistic groups (youth and police; parents, teachers and students; immigrant and marginalized residents and local authorities) and, based on the understanding that they all have partial knowledge relevant to the problem, helps them create a “collective intelligence.” Through this process group members move from blaming others to taking collective responsibility for the problems they face. The facilitator then helps create bridges between different segments of the community and institutional change agents who can act on the group’s proposals.

Rojzman is a prolific writer, author and co-author of eight published books, plus chapters in several edited books, and some 40 articles.  Several of the books have been reissued as paperbacks; one (La peur, la haine et la démocratie — Fear, Hatred, and Democracy) has been translated into Spanish, German, and Russian and two have been translated into English:

  • Savoir vivre ensemble (How to Live Together) and Sigmund Freud: L’humanisme de l’avenir (Freud the Humanist).  The first is being updated on the editor’s request (Living Together; But How?”), and will appear in September 2007. 

His last  book, C’est pas moi, C’est lui. Ne pas être victime des autres (It’s not me, it’s him; How to stop being a victim), co-authored with Théa Rojzman, was published by J.C. Lattès in 2006.  A book on TST has been published  by the leading publisher of French encyclopedias and reference books, Editions Larousse.  A “comic strip” about TST, also co-authored with Théa Rojzman,  and a book about conflict resolution  “Sortir de la violence par le conflit” published by La Decouverte.

Rojzman’s work has received extensive public attention.  Two documentaries feature his work, a 23-minute video titled “Charles Rojzman, thérapeute social” and a 72-minute video, “A l’écoute de la police” (Listening to the police).  Listening to the Police takes viewers inside a workshop with French national police trainers.  Both documentaries have been shown on French national TV and the second has been translated into German.  A foundation to support Rojzman’s work has been created in Poland, the Franco-Polish Foundation for New Democratic Practices (http://www.nowademokracja.pl .  Rojzman’s work has also been the topic of some 50 media appearance and numerous articles and interviews in major French and German magazines and newspapers, including the major French newspaper, Le Monde.  A frequent guest on TV debates and talk shows, he is also an op-ed contributor to the major French newspaper, Le Figaro.  He is scheduled for an hour long interview (end of 2007) on the renowned Belgian program, “Noms de dieux," by Edmond Blattchen (a European equivalent of Bill Moyers’ Journal).

, / Novella Keith

Urban Education program and Office of multicultural Affaires

Urban Education 5630, Fall 2010 (CRN070241): Special Topics Seminar Facilitating Dialogue and Action with Diverse Groups

Instructors: Professors Novella Keith & Charles Rojzman

Rationale

We live in a time of increasing social diversity, when groups that have been excluded from the social mainstream clamor to be recognized and included. Reactions to these claims are complex: our times are marked by both increased openness to diversity and increased intolerance, hatred and violence, which threaten the social fabric and democratic life. In a seeming paradox, in order to preserve our democratic traditions and ways of life, we need to change, as people, organizations, and as a whole society. This course and the three additional certificate courses (see below) will help participants learn how to live and work together in diverse organizations and societies and how to facilitate this same ability in others.

Diversity Facilitation Graduate Certificate

This course is part of a four-course graduate certificate that is jointly sponsored by Temple University’s College of Education, Urban Education Program, and Temple University’s Office of Multicultural Affairs. Both the course and certificate are open to holders of a Bachelor’s degree who are Temple students and employees, as well as non-Temple professionals interested in advancing their knowledge and skills in diversity facilitation. The certificate is available for graduate credit or professional continuing education units. You do not need to be matriculated in a graduate program in order to take certificate courses. If taken for graduate credit, up to three certificate courses may be transferred into a graduate degree program at Temple University.

Courses take students through the unique TST approach to working with groups with a history of conflict based on such factors as race, gender, class, sexual orientation, religion and national origin. TST offers an action-oriented model for intergroup relations. The theory and practice of TST bring together social and depth psychology, group dynamics, and organizational development. The course will take students through the unique TST approach to working with groups with a history of inter-group conflict.

- Course 1: The Emotional Life of Groups:

  1. Social and professional masks people wear;
  2. Fears, hatreds, and prejudices; and
  3. Psychoanalytical dynamics, including projection and transference.

- Course 2: Violence and Conflict:

  1. Differentiating violence from constructive conflict; and
  2. Transforming intergroup and intra-group violence into constructive conflict.

- Course 3: Personal and Societal Transformation:

  1. Identifying the differences between personal and institutional/collective blocks and obstacles to cooperation; and
  2. Analyzing the particular constraints to collective group action in a given social network, neighborhood, organization or other social setting.

- Course 4: Process and Stages in Facilitating Inter-Group Collaboration:

  1. Facilitating group process through the phases of group formation, including accepting and engaging with necessary conflicts;
  2. Allowing authentic information to circulate in the group, thus creating a “collective intelligence”, and
  3. Applying the group’s collective intelligence toward the resolution of common problems.

Course description

This course uses experiential learning pedagogy, which means a significant focus is on learning by reflecting on your experience while also bringing academic knowledge to bear on deepening your learning. There are three course segments: (a) a week-long intensive; (b) a day-long seminar/presentation (Saturday); (c) one or two individual or team consultations. The intensive week-long seminar will focused primarily on learning through participating in the class as a group and gaining insights from this experience. The goal is for you to discover course concepts by reflecting on your own experience and relationships in the group. For this reason, we ask you to limit your readings prior to beginning the course to those that are termed “introductory” (see below and Blackboard course site). Following the week-long intensive, you will deepen your experiential understanding through course readings. The Saturday seminar and subsequent consultations will help you identify particular aspects of the course to explore further as you move toward writing a final paper that is due on 12/13.

Course learning goals: Participants will develop an essential skill for intergroup facilitation: understanding and working with the emotional life of groups. The relevant knowledge includes (a) the social and professional masks people wear; (b) fears, hatreds, and prejudices; and (c) psychoanalytical dynamics, including projection and transference.