Why attend this workshop?

This workshop is an essential opportunity for professionals in research contexts, data, and open science communities to reflect on their professional identity, reconnect with their values and skills, and develop a sense of community support to help resist workplace difficulties. Participants will be able to acknowledge and challenge the broader societal context of their workplace problems. Benefits and outcomes include exploration of alternative stories of self, generation of hope, connection with others, self-reflection and group cohesion.

This workshop is a part of the research study (see below. By attending this workshop, you will help add more evidence on the methodology in supporting professionals in different contexts.

Methodology

This workshop employs a psychosocial support tool “Tree of Life” grounded in collective narrative practice.

“Tree of Life” was co-developed by narrative practitioners Ncazelo Ncube and David Denborough in 2006 while working with vulnerable children in South Africa. Since then, this tool has been used in a variety of contexts in the UK and worldwide. You can read more about it on the website of the Dulwich Centre.

In a supportive environment, we will use the Tree and Forest metaphors as a framework for conversations, in which each participant will draw their tree of professional identity. Parts of the tree represent different elements of our lives. Joining the trees into a Forest in a group will help us discuss Storms and Fires in our work lives and how we respond and protect ourselves and others. Using the metaphor and carefully formulated narrative questions will help acknowledge and challenge the broader societal context of our workplace problems.

The workshop will culminate in a one-hour celebratory ceremony on 15th March at 11 UTC (the link will be sent to you) to honour and recognise the participants’ efforts through reading out the collective document of resistance to difficulties. Facilitators will take charge of drafting this document from the remarks of the participants (made anonymous). This closing session is an important part of the narrative collective practice, as the document becomes a way of circulating the knowledge of one group or community to others who might be experiencing similar problems.

Research

This workshop is a part of the study “Using the narrative principles and resources to widen the participation of researchers in data science” run by principal investigator Mayya Sundukova, under the supervision of Carlos Chimpen at the University of Extremadura, Spain (both will be facilitating the workshop). OLS acknowledges The Turing Skills Policy Award.

You will be asked to fill in a survey before and after the workshop and provide feedback after the session about your experience.

The information concerning your participation will be kept confidential. Your responses will be anonymised, where possible, and given a pseudonym for further study.

You will be given the chance to review and redact anonymous quotes before publication

This workshop is offered to the participants for free, and participants will not receive any payment or monetary compensation.

Please read the and contact Mayya Sundukova mayya@we-are-ols.org if you have any questions. If you decide to participate, you will be asked to sign the consent form and send it to mayya@we-are-ols.org.

Important information

• Code of conduct and community participation guidelines

  If you experience or witness unacceptable behaviour, or have any other concerns, please report it by contacting one of the directors of OLS - Yo Yehudi (yo@we-are-ols.org) or Malvika Sharan (malvika@we-are-ols.org)

• Interactivity and Duration.

  This workshop is supposed to be experiential and interactive. Turn on your webcam if you don’t mind sharing your face (or off if you do!). The program lasts 5 (five) hours, with a 30-minute break in the middle, and regular “bio breaks” as needed. You will get the maximum benefit from the workshop, if you organise yourself time and space to be comfortable.

• Necessary materials.

  Prepare your favourite drawing materials - e.g. art supplies and a big sheet of paper. Art skills are not requested. Also if you prefer digital drawing, or no drawing all is fine. Just writing down your answers on a laptop private document or notebook might work.

• Language and captions.

  The workshop will run in English. Facilitators also speak Spanish, if it matters. Otter.ai will be used to generate automatic captions. This means that the call will be audio recorded and transcribed for research purposes. Only authorised OLS members will have access to the transcript. All identifying information will be deleted.

Workshop facilitators

• Dr Mayya Sundukova is a neurobiologist, narrative coach and advocate for researcher well-being. Mayya has been active in the COST Action Researcher Mental Health Observatory and Dragonfly Mental Health Ambassadorship program. As a Resident Fellow at OLS, Mayya aims to bring well-being education and interventions into the context of research teams and organisations. While at the Master program in Narrative Therapy and Community Work (2022/2023) at the University of Extremadura in Spain, Mayya proposed this project to Carlos Alexis Chimpén López.

• Dr Carlos Alexis Chimpén López is an experienced psychologist, therapist, and trainer in narrative therapy, which he studied at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Carlos splits his time between private practice, training, academic research, and book writing. After living on various continents, Carlos founded and has been leading the Spanish Association of Narrative Therapy and the Master’s program in Narrative Therapy and Community Work at the University of Extremadura in Spain.

Workshop helper

• Dr Yo Yehudi is the Executive Director and co-founder of OLS, a Software Sustainability Institute Fellow, and NASA TOPS Training module lead. Yo has been in the open source software field in various roles - as a software developer, coding instructor, editor, instructor and technology lead. Recently Yo has defended a doctoral thesis studying human factors in research software and open communities.

Any questions?

If you would like further information or would like to discuss any details personally, please get in touch with the principal researcher, Dr. Mayya Sundukova, by email: mayya@openlifesci.org or mayya@we-are-ols.org