Ep. #181: The Right Questions for Legal Empowerment, with Naomi Campbell
Nov 3, 2022
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Naomi Campbell, Director of RQI's Legal Empowerment program, discusses the role of curiosity in legal empowerment, the importance of teaching the skill of question formulation, and the transformative effects it can have. The podcast also explores the significance of reflection in learning and delves into the complexity of curiosity through analogies.
Asking questions that individuals formulate themselves leads to curiosity, enhancing problem-solving skills and broadening their practice in different contexts.
The Right Question Institute (RQI) empowers individuals by teaching them how to ask their own questions, fostering critical thinking, empowerment, and engagement in decision-making processes.
Deep dives
Importance of Formulating Questions to Foster Curiosity
The podcast highlights the idea that curiosity comes as a result of people formulating their own questions. Contrary to popular belief, asking questions does not necessarily arise from curiosity, but rather when individuals come up with their own inquiries, they become curious about the topic. The ability to ask questions leads to a new sense of agency, confidence, and power. Research shows that generating questions not only enhances problem-solving skills but also helps in broadening the practice of problem-solving in different contexts. However, it is important to recognize that trauma, fear, and anxiety can inhibit curiosity. Despite these challenges, cultivating curiosity even in small amounts can help reduce anxiety and fear.
The Right Question Institute's Role in Building Curiosity Skills
The Right Question Institute (RQI) focuses on developing tools and processes that empower individuals to ask their own questions and engage in decision-making. RQI aims to strengthen people's ability to advocate for themselves, participate in decision making, and build a sense of agency, control, and voice. By providing simple question-formulation techniques, RQI helps people uncover decisions made in various domains, from education to welfare and healthcare. The strategy employed by RQI not only fosters cognitive skills such as formulating appropriate questions but also creates affective and behavioral changes, including increased confidence, motivation, and the ability to take action.
The Transformative Impact of Right Question Strategy
The podcast discusses the Right Question Strategy, which includes teaching individuals how to ask their own questions and effectively focus on decision-making. Through a structured process, people learn to generate questions, differentiate between open-ended and closed-ended questions, prioritize inquiries, and reflect on the learning experience. This strategy enhances critical thinking skills, feelings of empowerment, and the ability to navigate different systems. The Right Question Strategy has demonstrated its efficacy in various contexts, such as assisting parents in advocating for their children's education, helping individuals facing homelessness engage with legal services, and enabling citizens to participate in democratic processes. By fostering engagement, motivation, and a sense of entitlement, the strategy promotes curiosity and facilitates change at both the individual and systemic levels.
The Right Question Institute (RQI), works to build a more just and equitable democracy by strengthening people’s ability to ask questions and participate in decisions that affect them. As RQI puts it, “When people of all ages learn to ask the right questions, it leads to feeling a new sense of agency, confidence & power.”
Naomi Campbell directs RQI's Legal Empowerment program, leading RQI’s efforts to promote the adoption of the Right Question Strategy in legal practice settings serving low-income communities.
The work is aimed at offering a simple way to integrate capacity-building into practice at the micro-level, as part of a systemic change strategy at the macro-level. That sounded to me like a serious curiosity practice in service of community transformation and I wanted to know more.
Learn more about about The Right Question Institute: https://rightquestion.org
Read Jamie Jirout's research on children's questions and problem solving: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15248372.2020.1832492
Take a look at this excellent coverage from The Guardian of work by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir on scarcity. Their work is not focused on curiosity specifically, but it certainly resonates! https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/23/scarcity-sendhil-mullainathan-eldar-shafir
Our theme music is by Sean Balick. “Faster Faster Brighter" by Ray Catcher, via Blue Dot Sessions.
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