At the confluence of Sava and Danube rivers ... A reflection on the 10th EPCA Conference

The 10th EPCA Conference was held in Belgrade – Serbia, from 9th to 12th April 2010; as the organizing committee said, a special event in a special place, on the crossroads between East and West. 

It was my first time at an EPCA Conference. My previous experience at an international constructivist congress was a short attendance at the XVIII International Congress on Personal Construct Psychology, which took place in Venice, in July 2009. I had never lived the experience of a 4-day full immersion in the constructivist world, and thus the ECPA Conference was a very strange and stimulating event. 

The Belgrade Conference was an important and exciting occasion for exchanging experiences, for listening to papers, studies and thoughts coming from several European countries: Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Serbia, Spain, Turkey and UK.

A lot of thoughts were running through my head: theoretical dissertations as well as practical demonstrations, case reports, innovative and experimental “tools” in clinical practice.

From a professional point of view, I had the chance to see how many different ways and opportunities there are of working with constructivism, and also to appreciate how active and vibrant – sometimes extravagant, I would say! – is the constructivist community in Europe. 

So, Belgrade hosted several projects, clinical improvements and expansions, epistemological dissertations; in a few words, it was a continuous and vibrating exchange of ideas.

Moreover, the Belgrade Conference was also a curious exchange among people, a meeting of personal ways in construing experiences and lives.

By talking with academics, researchers, practitioners, students, I realized that Kelly was right when he said that persons are “meanings in movement”, in a continuing changing and defining process.

In this context, I clearly felt that there is no distinction between a person and their meanings; that seems to be redundant and obvious, but it may not be so! ... This feeling leads me to the main consideration about the Belgrade Congress.

By discussing with so many different people coming from all over Europe, by listening to a multitude of papers and thoughts, I appreciated the difference between ‘discussing about constructivism’ and ‘being a constructivist’, the difference between who plays with constructivist words and who embodies a constructivist inquirer, even if the inquirer does not use appropriate or bright words sometimes. I felt deeply the distinction between those who try to understand constructivism with a traveller’s courage, and those who sometimes presume to have reached it. I had an incredible opportunity to see in many of my young and old colleagues the embodied enthusiasm and fervour of an inquiring man.

In my small and restricted experience, I noticed that I used to link constructivism with books, papers, clinical reports, patients sometimes, but I never linked constructivism – just in one word – with life. I think that it is the most important lesson learnt at the EPCA Conference ...

I also remember the “crazy” evenings, simply wandering in Belgrade midtown, or singing and dancing on a ship at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, or laughing at the Hotel hall. It was illuminating to me to see teachers, well-known “masters of constructivism” and students staying together like long-time cheerful classmates. Furthermore, it was a great life lesson for me to see some “fathers of constructivism” asking young students: “What do you think about that? What do you think Kelly meant with this sentence?”, staying in this continuous and ever-starting stream which is the process of understanding and knowledge.

Finally, what I think I will take away from the Belgrade Congress, in my thoughts and in my hands, are the probing eyes of many of the young and old colleagues: I think that they show me that being a constructivist means being a curious child and a brave traveller; it means continuing to be a simple student, an inquiring learner, in the journey of understanding.

Thanks to all its conversation, papers, discussions, laughs, the Belgrade Congress reminded me again what Paulo Freire said about knowledge, education and human development: “Nobody educates anybody else. Nobody educates himself. People educate each other through their interactions”. 

Lorenzo Gios

Notizia inserita il 18/05/2010 alle ore 15:41.