MUSCAT, 15 April 2008 — A leading anthropologist challenged world governmental, educational and business leaders to reconsider their concepts of learning yesterday at the SOL Global Forum in Muscat.
“We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn,” Mary Catherine Bateson told participants at “Bridging the Gulf: Learning Across Organizations, Sectors and Cultures,” sponsored by the Society for Organizational Learning and its regional affiliate, GulfSoL.
Dr. Bateson, professor emeritus of George Mason University, engaged the audience in an exercise in which they were asked to list four people who taught them the most and four people who they had taught the most. Bateson then asked them to list what they had learned from their students and what their mentors had learned from them.
“Teaching and learning go hand in hand,” she said. “The best teachers are learning from their students all the time.”
She said that understanding the learning process was essential to overcoming the increasing cultural divide between East and West.
“There is a difference between memorizing information and assimilating information,” Bateson said. “Learning from others depends both on similarities and differences. Similarity is the foundation for trust. Difference is the basis for new information. There needs to be a difference in order for learning to happen.”
The daughter of famous anthropology pioneers Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead said her experiences as an anthropologist emphasized her point, and researchers exploring new cultures sometimes begin without awareness of the value systems in place.
“A lot of conflicts arise simply out of misunderstanding and a lack of familiarity with other cultures, she said, noting that respect was a keystone of the learning process. “You have something to learn from everyone you meet. The more you learn about others, the more you learn about yourself.”
She said that reflection is the process by which people can educate themselves, and that when people considered ideas that created some personal discomfort, it was a sign that learning was taking place.
“You can respect your culture, your religion and your family and learn to respect views other than your own, which in itself is change,” Bateson said. “To learn is to change — to become just a little different than you were before. The ability to adapt is essential.”
The true benefit of understanding others might not be apparent at first sight.
“By learning about other cultures,” Bateson said, “you gain a better understanding of yourself — not only knowing ‘who I am,’ but ‘why I am.’”
More than 400 regional and international leaders from 45 countries are attending the forum, which combines presentations and café-style discussions in which participants share views with hopes of better understanding of competing issues and concerns.
Several Saudi business leaders are taking part in the event, including Saleh Al-Turki of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce, industrialist Khalid Al-Zamil, Dar Al Hekma College board member Hussain Fayez, IT executive Khalid Al-Abdulkarim and Saudi Aramco senior vice president Salim Al-Aydh.
The event continues today with a presentation by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.
GulfSoL organized the event in cooperation with the Oman Ministry of Higher Education with support from Nesma Holdings, Saudi Aramco, Saudi Binladin Group, Caledonian College of Engineering, Oman Mobile, Bank Muscat and Petroleum Development Oman.