Learning Histories: how a multi-perspective view on past events helps to re-author the future

In this workshop we will explore a special kind of story telling known as 'learning histories'. Developed in the 1990s in the wake of the theory of the learning organization at M.I.T. Boston, the theory and method of learning histories has found many applications worldwide. In this workshop we will focus on two different applications of the method as developed in Germany (Karin Thier, Christine Erlach) and Holland (Rik Peters). After a short exposition of the two applications (in organisations and in the scientific literature), we will lead the audience via a critical debate to two of the main techniques employed in the learning histories, focussing on the crucial art of questioning and listening. During our workshop, the participants will practise the method in an “in depth interview exercise” to be conducted in small groups. In the harvesting round, we focus on the function of questioning in learning histories.