Beginning Conversations

Integral Leadership

2021-10-23T18:35:00.004-07:00

Integral Leadership

Integral leadership explores the nature of leadership and calls attention to not only "where and how" leadership approaches might be best applied but also to "reframe the very foundation of the perspectives we use to explore" (Forman & Ross, 2013, location 174, 3841). In other words, current leadership paradigms qualify practice with empirical efficacy and even describe the contexts within which such efficacy is experienced but do not adequately consider the limitations of perspective. Leadership, "needs a perspective with sufficient depth and breadth to allow a broader view of the complexity in which we now find ourselves" ( Forman & Ross, 2013, location 174, 3841) Perspective "informs what we see, what we pay attention to, and what interpretations we make of what we see...we are not as neutral as we sometimes imagine ourselves to be" (Forman & Ross, 2013, location 408 of 3841).

Forman, J. P., & Ross, L. A. (2013). Integral leadership: The next half-step. SUNY Press.

Conservation of resource caravans and engaged settings: A Commentary

2021-10-20T00:18:00.004-07:00

Conservation of Resources

Steven E. Hobfall

Individuals hold on to the things that are central to their perceived wellbeing and safety. Objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies when “threatened, lost,[or] believed to be unstable" are recognized as having value and are perceived to be of value. When "individuals and groups cannot set a path to the fostering and protection of [these] resources through their joint effort” stress is experienced (Hobfoll, 2001, p. 342); when such conditions persist, the "stress resistance" within the individual or the group is compromised. Furthermore, a persistent loss of resources contributes to further loss of resources, enabling a cyclical process referred to as a loss spiral, leaving individuals and groups even more vulnerable (Hobfoll, 1998). In such times of loss, individuals and groups take great effort to adapt in ways to conserve and utilize available resources. If such adaptation is successful, there is an opportunity to replenish their resource pool and offset acute and even chronic resource depletion.

COR theory posits that the encounter of self with stress is within a social context (Hobfoll, 2001). Stress is a condition, a common appraisal, held jointly by "people who share biology and culture, or in the case of work and organizational settings, who share a workplace” (Hobfoll, 2011, p. 116): an objective reality. Hobfoll contends that individuals and groups can protect and strengthen stress resistance by investing in particular social, emotional, and economic resources- the objective elements of threat and loss. Hobfoll also contends that resources are linked and have a tendency "to travel together over time" (p. 350). Hobfoll refers to this “retinue of resources” as a Resource Caravan. (Hobfoll, 2011, p. 349)(Hobfoll, 2001; 2011): "constellation of resources influenced by inner and outside forces."

Self-efficacy and COR:

Self-efficacy, optimism, and self-esteem serve as single and major stress resistance resources and contribute “to a maintenance of strong resource reservoirs" (Hobfoll, 2001, p. 350). Chan and Drasgow (2001) explored the motivational influence of self-efficacy and personal resources of leaders in a time of crisis to develop a measure of crisis leader self-efficacy.

Hobfoll, S. E. (2011). Conservation of resource caravans and engaged settings. Journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 84(1), 116-122.

Image: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/conservation-of-resources

Psychological Resource Theory

Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory is one of two leading frameworks for understanding stress.

Lazarus and Folkman (1984): Psychological Stress and Coping Theory

Trauma-Informed and Systems Aware Approach

2021-10-08T18:14:00.005-07:00

The article: Trauma-Informed Integral Leadership: Leading School Communities with a Systems-Aware Approach (Greig, Bailey, Abbot, & Brunzell, 2021).

Keywords: Trauma-informed leadership, school leadership, whole school change, systems-aware leadership, integral theory, school community

Trauma-Informed and Systems Aware Approach

Trauma-informed Leadership provides a framework for leaders to understand how their roles might support a community in a time of trauma. A systems-aware approach positions leaders within the systems to recognize how systems influence experience. In other words, trauma-informed leadership directs immediate attention towards immediate needs and a systems-aware approach directs attention towards sources of support through existing structural relationships. Greig, Bailey, Abbot, & Brunzell (2021) examined how the tenets of Trauma-informed leadership and Systems-theory leadership inform how leaders support individuals within the system during a time of crisis, or trauma, as it is currently understood within the literature. Four themes emerged: (1) View of Leadership; (2) Support and Safety; (3) Organizational Learning; (4) School Culture. These themes and their relationship suggest that the dynamic and unique nature of trauma and how it is or is not experienced invites an approach that is not an either-or by the leader but by an and: approaching a trauma-informed context as a set of existing and important polarities.

These polarities are situated within Yunkaporta's (2019) kinship-mind. A kinship-mind presents a worldview within Aboriginal knowledge systems where "relationships are paramount in knowledge transmission... Those things that are connected are less important than the forces of connection between them." The authors elaborate by describing how this diagram "helps the reader to envision the tension and balance between each polarity, arising from within the four themes. while also highlighting their interdependence in a network of pairs" (p. 78). The authors then sought to test the validity of such a claim by "unifying them into an integrated practice framework for school leadership using the four-quadrant in Wilbers (2001) Integral Theory" (p. 79). The significance of using of Integral Theory to validate a kinship-model is that the "things" of interest are not viewed as having greater or less value against other things, only described as they are existing and as they might be necessary, allowing the "polarities to be integrated, each serving a distinct purpose within the quadrant they inhabit while maintaining a complementary role from the vantage of the whole practice framework" (p. 80). They then name this framework, Trauma-Informed Integral Leadership (TIIL).

Notes:

p. 66

Systems research arises from a variety of streams of lineage and practice including systems think gin (Meadows, 2008; Senge, 2006), ecological and living systems theory (Capra & Luisi, 2018; Wheatley, 2011), and awareness-based systems change (Scharmer & Kaufer, 2014).

p. 70

Themes from the literature

Views of Leadership- Host and create conditions
Support and Safety- Building trust and shared responsibility, ‘shift the context together’
Organizational Learning- Knowledge creation , sense making and collective inquiry, ‘wisdom of the room’
School Culture- Culture as process

P. 71-72

Theme 1: View of Leadership

Theme 2: Support and Safety

Theme 3: Organizational Learning

Theme 4: School Culture

Wheatley, 2011: Leader as ‘host’ Systems-aware leadership qualities are described as creating the conditions to address school climate by forming networks to distribute leadership across a school community (Kershner & McQuillan, 2016; Sebastian et al., 2017). Harris (2011) describes a conceptual shift aware from traditional hierarch where leadership is a position to viewing leadership as interaction. The research consistently points to the complexity, ambiguity and adaptiveness of challenges that impact school climate. Leadership capacities to facilitate trusting relations and shared decision - making were supported across the literature (Jones et al., 2013; Ainscow, 2012). This is reflective of living systems research, which draws lessons from the natural world to make meaning of complex social systems (Barlow & Stone, 2011). Viewing schools-as-a-whole, constituted of interconnected and interdependent relationships, places attention on the leadership potential of the collective. A collective leadership approach can respond to greater complexity across a school system (Ainscow, 2012; Harris, 2011); Shaken & Schechter, 2013). In contrast, schools operating with a hierarchical and centralized point of authority create the illusion of control while causing a raft of unintended consequences, ranging from divisiveness to dysfunctional school climate (Ainscow & Sandill, 2010; Shaken & Schechter, 2013).

Kershner and McQiilllan (2026) provide a comparative example of two principals using systems-aware approaches (e.g., complexity theory) as a framework for whole-school change, one that created change and one that did not. The key finding from their study was that school outcomes cannot be attributed to individual leadership capacities or behaviors, rather they must co-evolve with the values, beliefs, visions and educational needs of their community.

Greig, J., Bailey, B., Abbott, L., & Brunzell, T. (2021). Trauma-Informed Integral Leadership: Leading School Communities With a Systems-Aware Approach. International Journal of Whole Schooling, 17(1).

Hobfall's Conservation of Resources (CoR)- SCT and Adaptive Leadership

2021-10-07T16:07:00.014-07:00

Conservation of Resources

An interesting title for a theory that I've come to learn is associated with crisis management.

Bajaba et al., (2021) interject Hobfoll's (1989) theory as a means to explain how particular managers recognize and are able to adjust resources that create conditions necessary in a time of crisis. These resources are not limited to physical assets. These resources include personality traits and skills of individuals within the organization that advantage opportunity and overcome challenges in times of crisis: traits and skills that become invaluable resources in times of stress.

"COR theory, a motivational theory introduced by Hobfoll (1989), defines resources as "those objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies that are valued by the individual or that serve as a means for the attainment of these objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies" (Bajaba et al., citing Hobfoll, 1989, 2021, p. 3);

The authors present this idea after describing the significance of Social Cognitive Theory (SRT) as an explanatory thread to describe adaptive leaders and present Adaptive Leaders as leaders who have characteristics and demonstrate behaviors associated with leaders who are able to lead in times of crisis.

At the outset of this introduction to an unfamiliar theory (COR) within a very familiar theory, SRT- I could not help but focus on the term Conservation. Conservation implies that resources currently exist. I wonder if this term is adequate. The conditions of COVID required resources that went beyond what was currently available and relevant and into resources that were insufficient and, at times, absent.

Tapping into the work of Hobfoll (1989), the authors describe a stressful situation as one that is characterized by "(1) perceived threat towards one's current resources, (2) loss of one's current resources, and/or (3) failure to gain additional resources following significant effort or investment" (p. 3).

I am curious about whether or not Hobfoll's COR theory's framing of a stressful situation applies to schools and applies to the current crisis.

The authors are curious about the degree to which the traits associated with adaptive Leadership and their relationship to SCT contribute to the capacity of a leader to respond to a crisis situation. In other words, the authors: "

...we argue that adaptive managers are more likely to believe in their capacity to accurately assess the available information at the time of the crisis and make/recommend the necessary adjustments. Thus, we hypothesize the following:
Hypothesis 1. Adaptive personality will be positively related to crisis leader self-efficacy.

References

Bajaba, A., Bajaba, S., Algarni, M., Basahal, A., & Basahel, S. (2021). Adaptive Managers as Emerging Leaders During the COVID-19 Crisis. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1062.

Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: a new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American psychologist, 44(3), 513.

Social Cognitive Theory: self-efficacy may constitute an important influence on their levels of stress / joy

2021-10-06T19:24:00.013-07:00

Over the years, I have entrenched myself in anything and everything that diverts attention towards the agency of the individual. Bandura's contribution of Social Cognitive Theory to theorists and practioners made immediate sense to me-- the ways in which this theory explain the origins of efficacy, self-efficacy, of explanation: mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasions, and physiological and affective states have been written, cited, and integrated into countless conversations and into countless papers.

But in all of my travels over the past twenty years- since my first attempt at a doctoral defense to this most recent attempt to which you are a witness- I had given so little attention to the final of origins: physiological and affective states. And, then, to be introduced to an additional source in a paper recently read to Maddux' (2009) additional source of self-efficacy, imaginal experiences, in "The power of believing you can," my current state was rocked off its axis.

So what made me open to seeing differently? In the above paper (Eliophotoou Menon & Lefteri, 2021) they state: "Teachers' self-efficacy beliefs...

"...may constitute an important influence on their levels of stress" (p. 45).

May constitute an important influence on their levels of stress. This conclusion struck a chord that embodies the experience of educators, teachers and leaders, around the world: stress. It is this connection across self-efficacy and collective-efficacy and stress that I would like to examine more carefully. And as a counterpoint of stress, I would like to explore joy. And explore the conditions that contribute to the experiences of a learning community in a time of crisis that result in stress and result in joy.

My blind spot-- the reality of the affective in experiencing and developing agency. I am attempting to hold back self-judgment; in my classroom twenty-five years ago and with every community member I encounter today, the physiological and affective states and imaginal experiences matter.

I am not sure if these two states are polarities- perhaps they are experienced as such.

References:

Eliophotou Menon, M., & Lefteri, A. (2021). The Link between Transformational Leadership and Teacher Self-Efficacy. Education, 142(1), 42-52.

Maddux, J. E. (2002). The power of believing you can. Handbook of positive psychology, 277-287.

Roache, D., Rowe-Holder, D., & Muschette, R. (2020). Transitioning to online distance learning in the COVID-19 era: A call for skilled leadership in higher education institutions (HEIs). In Proc. CCEAM (p. 103).

Otto Scharmer: Blind Spots of Leadership

2021-10-05T18:10:00.004-07:00

Below, I summarize Scharmer's theory as it relates to my area of interest. In my current thinking, I see a connection between Scharmer's Fields with the way in which Wilber's quadrants evolve and interact.

William Isaacs and Otto Scharmer speak to reframing our collective paradigm of leadership as a "generative dialogue" as a means to examine the beliefs and assumptions driving current mental models and how these mental models shape paradigms of leadership (Forman & Ross, 2013, location 173 of 3841).

Otto Scharmer (2008) describes successful leadership as dependent on two behaviors a leader brings to a situation: attention and intention. The origins of each, source dimension, is the 'inner place' from which "effective leadership and social action come into being" (p. 52). This dimension is further articulated through what Scharmer refers to as field structures of attention. Each field is characterized by different ways of operating: Thinking (individual); Conversing (group); Structuring (institutions); and Ecosystem coordination (global systems). The ways in which these behaviors are engaged, both individually and collectively, determine "the path the system takes and how it emerges" through levels: personal, group, institutional, and global. Scharmer contends that the first two fields reflect "reactive responses and quick fixes on a symptoms level (Fields 1 and 2) to generative responses that address systemic root issues (Fields 3 and 4)" (p. 55).

Figure 2: How the Structures of Attention (Field 1-4) Determines the Path of Social Emergence (p. 55)

Scharmer describes the process within which one engages in these behaviors that draws attention and is intentional as U Theory. U Theory is comprised of seven leadership capacities that are engaged as follows: Holding the space, Observing, Sensing, Presencing, Crystalizing, Prototyping, and Performing. Holding space invites others in.

References:

Scharmer, C. O. (2008). Uncovering the blind spot of leadership. Leader to Leader, 2008(47), 52-59.

Wilber, K. (2000). One taste: Daily reflections on integral spirituality. Shambhala Publications.

Images:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Ffigure%2FHOW-THE-STRUCTURE-OF-ATTENTION-FIELDS-1-4_fig2_246910035&psig=AOvVaw3xyQJwoWkAiBE4cxn-TY28&ust=1634516504768000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCMCMq9uW0PMCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAm

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fthesystemsthinker.com%2Fleading-from-the-future-a-new-social-technology-for-our-times%2F&psig=AOvVaw3xyQJwoWkAiBE4cxn-TY28&ust=1634516504768000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCMCMq9uW0PMCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAg

My Research interest revised

2021-10-01T17:33:00.028-07:00

Late October:

October 10, 2021:

Keywords

Crisis, School leadership, Self-efficacy, Collective efficacy, Collective leadership, Integral theory

My interest: exploring how the conditions of a community are optimized in times of crisis. My assumption is that collective efficacy mediates optimization. My interest is how leadership influences. My hope-in-contribution is exposing how Integral Theory might shape how come to understand the construct of Leadership in Praxis in times of crisis.

October 6, 2021:

This is the world of One Taste, with no inside and no outside, no subject and no object, no in here versus other there, without means, without path and without goal. And this, As Ramana said, is the Final Truth. - Ken Wilber

Wilber opens his book, One Taste: Daily Reflections on Integral Spirituality with,

You could not discover the limits of the soul, even if you traveled every path in order to do so; such is the depth of its meaning. - Heraclitus

I read this just before my run. I often read before a run. A read that is not necessarily included in my morning's stack-- a read that is more happenchance. A means to incite curiosity rather than to satisfy curiosity. A means to see what becomes. Ideas that nest themselves into my subconsciousness only to find their way forward and make their escape as muscle memory takes over with each step. It's a beautiful thing- that literal and figurative space. For me, it's space created intentionally.

I continue to want to explore the process of a Literature Review. The purpose of a literature review is to examine what others have learned about approaching ideas and the ideas themselves. In my reads, I came across U Theory by Otto Scharmer. This was a theory I applied to my own leadership quite a few years ago. Over time, it's influence slowly faded. I reread some of Scharmer's work as this theory continues to have relevance in practice in the field. Rereading it, I can't help but be reminded of Wilber's quadrants. It is for this reason that I believe Scharmer's work should be included in my literature review-- to draw attention to the relevance of Wilber's four quadrants to my upcoming study.

Late September 2021:

"Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world" - Arthur Schopenhauer

In spite of the current boundaries of our pandemic, the thinking is a line that I've drawn over years through repeated reflection and active participation; the focus familiar, the frame changed: the consequence of such transforms the context of the application. That is not to say that what I know now I knew then, only that at the root of my interest rests a point of keen and sincere interest of whole to parts and parts to whole.

The following is the initial opening to my very draft Literature Review.

“The Coronavirus pandemic has brought unprecedented change to our lives and educational landscape...161 countries around the world have closed educational facilities at all levels of their education system” (Roache, Rowe-Holder, & Muschette, 2020, p. 103).

Around the world, schools are compelled to rethink practice and invite innovation as they deal with the implications of a pandemic. Hybrid learning environments have become the new grammar of schooling, all while characteristics associated with high quality, highly effective learning organizations continue to be expected. Sustaining such characteristics within this new context requires full-fledged adaptation. Faculty assume instructional responsibilities that are unanticipated, unfamiliar, and, often, unscripted. Leaders assume leadership responsibilities that are equally unanticipated, unfamiliar, and, often, unscripted. Success of each is attributed to an institution’s capacity to adapt through its resources, systems, and structures. The degree of success is often dependent on the individuals of the system: the self-efficacy of each individual, faculty or leader, and the collective-efficacy of the teaching and learning community. Scholarly and practical interest exists in understanding how these institutional- and individual-level attributions are experienced within and influenced by a hybrid learning environment.

Three Developmental Theories: The parts to my current whole

2021-08-29T23:36:00.012-07:00

The beginnings of a reflection that I am posting and yet hoping no one actually reads. It is a sandbox of all sandboxes. In my head, I can feel connections that I cannot see: contours are a blur. I need time. I need time to deliberate.

This post is written from a place of a presuming state; that there is an assumption on the part of the writer of the reader to have confidence that the writer's understanding of what is shared is stronger than what is written. It is equally assumed by the writer that this is not so. This paradox, of sorts, makes for great grounding if one is willing to step and to equally misstep.

Graduate School: 1993-1995

I entered the world of education at a time of 'pure' constructivism. Or, as a professor once shared, a belief that learning is nothing more than throwing a pig in mud and asking it to learn by rolling. At the time I was less challenged by the idea of constructivism and more challenged by its interpretation of theory to practice. It seemed to me at an intuitive level that interruptions were required beyond the capacity of the self and such interruptions could be qualified by value of impact.

I was a science teacher. I saw an immediate need to intervene in the learning pathways of students by appealing to emotions and cognition, to adjust the experience with both tacit and explicit supports. I saw myself, as Vygotsky might argue- as a more knowledgeable other.

I sat in the space-of-attempt to manipulate the mediative between the agents of development in service of supporting the capacity of the student to sit in this same space.

Post Graduate School: 2001-2003

I am then compelled to consider how Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Niche Theory fits in and into seeing interacting directions of influence coursing through concentric circles-- from the micro to the macro to the meso and from the meso to the macro to the micro.

Post-post Graduate School: 2021-

Superimposed on Wilber's quadrants that retain distinction within each quadrant and create meaning of phenomenon by the whole of its parts.

And as I reflect on these three theories I can see the need to integrate and to differentiate. We seek patterns and crave order. Order, I see Wilber might argue, does not necessarily come in familiar patterns, and patterns are not necessarily evidenced across but from within.

Logos and Leadership

2021-08-26T18:20:00.004-07:00

Logos and Leadership

Logos develops a connotative sense of a recognition of reality for what reality truly is; deepened understanding of the rational principle underlying reality. LINK

Over the years, over the past 20 years, I have often thought of an overheard simple exchange that changed how I think about the world. This exchange came at the end of a communal sitting with the Dali Lama in Chennai, India.

After an hour of engaging with the audience, the Dali Lama opened the floor for questions. I recall none but one. A participant asked, “What frightens you the most about the potential for the next Dali Lama not to be identified prior to your death?” In the milliseconds between the question and his response, I anticipated his response. This, however, was not his response.

His response was immediate. He spoke with sincerity as he described what would be his greatest concern, the loss of the language of his faith. He went on to describe that it was a language that was precise in how it described the emotions of humans. He continued by sharing that if one is not able to name the emotion then one cannot adequately understand the emotion and if one cannot understand the emotion one does not know the man. I only later learned that there is not one language of the Buddhist faith. This challenged me and like my earlier post (E Pluribus Unum), I realized that out of many, one: Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan.

I think about this often as I navigate the world. The language I have. The language I use. The language others have. The language they use. The opportunities and limitations of language implicitly and explictly form. The language that is merely representative versus the language that is lived-- the former an aspiration; the latter a state. When I visualize this understanding, I see far-reaching depths without end and lines that form both interiors and exteriors both smooth and jagged. I want to see where I situate myself. I want to know where others are.

I can't help but think that this is at the heart of what is necessary to co-exist and to co-create as community: to lead within community-- the ability to hear and to understand; to speak and to be understood. And I can't help to think that to truly understand one must be present and to be present one must be evolved; evolved enough to recognize where and why and how communities function as they do-- what motivates, what inspires, what moves intention to progress through change. This awareness motivates me, inspires me, and moves me to sharpen my intention through my own personal journey.

To actively engage in experience to work towards what is currently beyond with what is currently available, I chose to write about what it is I was noticing that caused me to see differently. The journey began with reflections that became posts about the theories and ideas that underpin Integral Theory, from AQAL, to Developmental Lines, to Spiral Dynamics. They include weavings through Tweets, diving into references, and exploring recommendations. It has been a journey that I recall with continued interest. Yet there was something that was challenging me. I write to think and to think, I write. I love how the ideas slowly form through my fingertips, as I peck at keys and see how words create shape to ideas. It's deeply personal, yet this is who I am-- who I have always been.To transcend, one is challenged to experience differently. I wanted to share my learning visually as words for me have shape and create contours, but I did not have a way to do this on my own.

I asked a friend and colleague if he would consider listening and transforming my current understanding into a representation that presented itself through art. He is a friend that I enjoy sitting next to, knowing that our conversation will slowly rise and gently fall into areas of cerebral curiosity. Where thoughts and attempts at expression create a resonance that offers inertia to discrete ideas to travel forward with no destination in sight- a holon making its way into a holarachy.

__________________________

Over the course of an hour and a half, I shared the ideas and their meanings inside my head. The ideas and meanings I share in my most recent posts. He listens as he paints. There was no preparation. No discussion of color. No discussion of medium. He came to the experience present. This is was he created.

This is what he shared (in text) and what I shared (in italics):

There's a certain type of geography, that is emerging on the canvas as you paint, because of the surface layers. If you were to cut through them, you would see multiple layers or multiple paintings that have been built upon. And yet you still see some of them coming through in the back there, and it's, we use the analogy of geography because it's a lot like when you see something like the Grand Canyon or even on a smaller scale something like that where part of the land has broken away, and you see those layers of history. Coming through, yet here's the top layer of where you're at now. And the top layer can't be there without those lower layers, and the top layer has potential still for more movement more change. And that's still part of the unknown. This is where I see this painting being at, because we started it, and at the beginning I was just trying to work through some of the concepts that you were talking about with the four quadrants and the I and the we and being able to traverse through those things with different experiences that we have and trying to visualize that you know and not consciously not wanting to be representational and doing that, just trying to use movement, trying to use color trying to use shape to represent those things but then also unify them.

"...the inter- and intra- dependency of each, each independent, all necessary, but not enough."

I see this now, almost like a, like the way the paint strokes have been put in. And with the dripping and things that it's almost like been woven, I hate that. And for those, those spaces that, that the weeping leaves holes that there are, there there those drippy more liquidy. Parts of paint that fill those holes in order for it to all hold together.

"That's beautiful. I mean, It's beautiful. It's beautiful visually and how you described it is, is equally beautiful."

Thank you. Now this was a really interesting painting experiment for me too, so I appreciate you asking and having setting that up to happen. When I look at this kind of thing, I start to see things like this little window here. I really love those moments in the painting. Moments. This is probably my favorite one right now because it's got the most development, but I can see, I can actually see those layers that I was talking about in that little window. Whereas, they're less developed up here, but as the painting goes if I were to work on this I think for like six hours for example, there would be a lot more of those that emerge and disappear. And maybe these shapes change too. And ultimately you end up with something that at the moment I don't have a clear vision on what it would be. And so this as you work through it. You kind of follow the paint's lead and and being as decisive as I can to not let the paint become mud, because it's so easy for this to happen if you simply just mix colors together... I don't want that to happen.

"I am thinking differently. It's like, each piece has similar qualities and it is the distinction of those qualities that makes me think differently."

Yeah, I mean even as, like, like there was a lot of, sort of, not so conscious decisions and then some conscious ones like I remember putting yellow in each corner as you were talking about that at the beginning, and then losing the yellow to green and then the green sort of morphing into this blue. And then these red spaces in there now that I'm looking at it, are kind of like the four corners, they're not. They're not exactly in the corners but is what's perhaps that center of gravity.

____________________________________

And where shall these ideas go next? I believe I would like to re-examine the Hermeneutic Loop. It is here that I can see myself throwing off my center of gravity while holding on to my current reality. It is where I am. It is not where I will be. I will experience Developmental Growth.

The Hermeneutic Loop (or Circle)

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgpNXU-F49-GnFhTLGWMKCzNRFNWrDHSCNfELrgQd57fvWVF8tDqqPismXllIK-xMjIByTU-THsxLloQuCPGO_DtW89V1xNqvZhljj2fuzANAFruyCb5tpMH1k7LWhL2HmcCLEzAM-TJO730TnuU60DuyG0k0zy5G6vncaX7L4i1MnuA58gOJNe=

What does it mean? vs What does it do?

2021-08-25T02:16:00.015-07:00

What does it mean? vs What does it do?

The construct of a holarchy is new to me. A hierarchy without an absolute floor and ceiling, top or bottom. This idea invites visualization. In each quadrant a developmental progression with relationships of value assigned by need and contextualized among four territories. The spaces defined by source, internal or external and sense of self, individual or collective. Each important but relatively so. Each understood: interior by interpretation and exterior by observation. These juxtapositions are distanced by relative degree and call attention to the intentional, behavioral, cultural, and social-ized complexity this model represents. This seems awesome and without clear conclusion, yet when one removes its two dimensional nature and imposes on it three dimensional contours-- significance-as-experienced and -defined by the phenomena-- one can see how it offers value in making sense with judgment.

It is interesting to me that the progression of state and transcendence is described as waves and as a ladder. A wave is dependent on an energy source and environment. Its shape and energy a byproduct of both. Its experience dependent on positionality within a larger context and its impact equally so.  Each wave carrying with it the past and contributing to that just ahead. A ladder dependent on its rungs, distance, and height. Each quadrant has its own trajectory. No one quadrant independent of the other, and no one quadrant ever static. 

Quote from Wilber: “So my supposedly “individual thought” actually has at least these four facets, these four aspects intentional, behavioral, cultural, and social. And around the circle we go: the social system will have a strong influence on the cultural worldview, which will set limits to individual thoughts that I can have, which will register the brain physiology… these four seem to be the minimum that we need to understand any holon. And this especially holds for higher transformation, for higher states of consciousness, as I guess we’ll see. ..”[possible coming transformation] This transformation is already proceeding, and if we want to consciously find these evolutionary currents operating in our own being as well if we want to consciously join Spirit-in-action then the four quadrants can help us orient ourselves more effectively, can help us become more conscious of the evolutionary currents already flowing around us and through us and in us.”

The following post is a glimpse inside my head as to what it is I currently believe I understand about an approach to making sense of the world and an approach to taking on the world through ideas that integrate developmental theory across epochs and origins. I present my sensemaking to contribute to the reader’s sensemaking as I am equally aware of my undoubted illusion of learning and would offer caution to any and all who draw connections as truth. Perhaps, what is offered below can be considered merely a description of a personal journey that might shape a future journey, for me and for others.

AQAL: All quadrants, all levels, all lines, all types.

The individual draws space within a quadrant yet energies within a system.

“Four different perspectives looking at the same phenomenon” with an understanding that half of the holarchies were holarchies that “you can see with external senses” and the other half “interior realities that you couldn’t see in the external world” (Wilber, 2017, np).

A landscape from both a high altitude looking down on a map and within through territories: the presiding variable, its temperatures in the case of waves and its reach in the case of rungs seem to be determined by an individual, a science, a culture, and a system and calibrated by boundless variables across each threshold. Each has meaning-- collectively, greater understanding---yet together still insufficient, just necessary.

Quote from Wilber: One approaches the sociocultural holon from within, the other from without. One is how subjects fit together in cultural space, how you and I reach mutual understanding or intersubjectivity,; the other is how objects first come together in physical space, in the total objective system, in interobjectivity. The one uses hermeneutics, or interpretation of interior depth; the other uses empirical-analytic observation, or objective analysis of observable behavior: “What does it mean?” versus “What does it do?”

Quote from Jacques Derrida: “One could therefore identify deconstruction with twin principles of the contextual determination of meaning and infinite extendability of context.”

Inter- and intra-exchanges of energy- a phenomenon, where control is also inter- and intra-dependent. Transcendence requires knowing as much as understanding and requires judgement as much as motivation. Knowing what to influence and what is of influence. Knowing when to influence and how to influence.

Knowing is the map. Understanding is the territory. The territory isn’t the map. The map isn’t the territory. Transcendence is map and territory.

The Four Quadrants

The Upper Left Quadrant, Subjective: This is an individual place and space that meaning is explored through interpretation.

The Lower Left Quadrant, Relative: This is a subjective world place and space that meaning is shared through mutual interpretation.

The Upper Right Quadrant, Objective: A propositional truth-- a single fact that resides in the exterior of the Individual.

The Lower Right Quadrant, Absolute: A propositional truth within a social system composed of holons and their fit within the system.

Left to Right; Right to Left

Quote from Wilber: What is so remarkable about mutual understanding is not that I can take a simple word like “dog” and point to a real dog and say, “I mean that.” What is so remarkable is that you know what I mean by that! Forget the simple empirical pointing! Instead, look at the intersubjective understanding. It is utterly amazing. It means you and I can inhabit each other’s interior to some degree. You and I can share our depth. What we point to truth, and we are situated in truthfulness, we can reach mutual understanding. This is a miracle. If Spirit exists, you can begin to look for it here.”

Quote from David Long: Truth in the broadest sense, means being attuned with the real... Misinterpret my own depth, I might lie about my own interior... Spectrum of consciousness a spectrum of levels of developmental awareness

Quote from Wilber: All cultural events have social correlates. These concrete social components include types of technology…. The actual social system…. Are crucial in helping to determine the types of cultural worldview

Quote from Wilber: No wonder the human sciences have always divided these into two camps, Right Hand versus Left surfaces can be seen, but depth must be interpreted

From within and from without yet both are described through relative terms. Terms that have in some way a relation to what is experienced and understood by the individual, whether the influence of experience is first person (Quadrant 1), third-person (Quadrant 2); second person (Quadrant 3); or fourth person (Quadrant 4). The Objective reality (Right Side- Exterior) named and situated within Subjective experiences (Left Side- Interior).

When we have inadequate skills to interpret, be it of the self of the context, we lose sight of what is and what is potential, limiting our ability to understand and to transcend. When we have inadequate skills to recognize what is of influence outside of one's control, we lose sight of what is and what is present, limiting our ability to know and to transcend.

Wilber’s, A Brief History of Everything, ends with the Twenty Tenets. He clarifies these tenets as “tendencies of evolutionary systems.”. This distinction seems critical and offers life to these “Kosmic patterns.” I end this post with this list, not to elongate meaning but to ‘C” frame of reference; the reference that enables traversing through theories and seeing connections and recognizing connections as point or condition. The list ends with what seems like an addendum by Wilber:

Every holon issues an IOU to the Kosmos.

All IOUs are redeemed in Emptiness.

Reality as a whole is not composed of things or processes, but of holons (wholes that are parts of other wholes)
Holons display four fundamental capacities: (a) self-preservation (agency), (b) self-adaptation (communion), (c) self-transcendence (eros), and (d) self-dissolution (Thanatos).
Holons emerge.
Holons emerge holarchically.
Each emergent holon transcends but includes its predecessor/s.
The lower sets the possibilities of the higher; the higher sets the probability of the lower.
The number of levels that a holarchy comprises determines whether it is “shallow” or “deep”; and the number of holons on any given level we shall call its “span.”
Each successive level of evolution produces greater depth and less span. The greater the depth of the holon, the greater degree of consciousness.
Destroy any holon, and you will destroy all the holons abortive and none of the holons below it.
Holarchies co-evolve.
The micro is in relational exchange with the macro at all levels of depth.
Evolution has directionality, increasing complexity, increasing differentiation/integration, increasing organization/structuration, increasing relative autonomy, increasing telos.

Holarchy and Hierarchy: A Nation Represents

2021-08-25T02:06:00.001-07:00

“E Pluribus Unum” (out of many, one).

Barzun, Matthew. The Power of Giving Away Power (p. 4). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

I share the following synopsis to illustrate the power and reality of what a country held and likely continues to hold to be implicitly beholden, E Pluribus Unum, and to offer commentary that the awakening of our nation was followed by a period of growing up: an awakening that was presented as a holarchy and a growing up reflected in hierarchy.

---------------------------

I am reading, The Power of Giving Power Away, by Matthew Barzun (2021). The opening speaks to the formation of the United States by speaking not to the challenge of winning the war but to what came afterwards. The Founding Fathers realized that the Declaration of Independence (1777) was necessary but the words had more influence on what was experienced within and less on with-out: a nation needed to project its value internally and externally to be believed. A task at hand was to design a logo, or a Great Seal, that would “serve as a symbol of this new collection of now-independent colonies” (p. 1).

A narrative unfolded that involved many. First among those who are familiar: Franklin, then Jefferson, then Adams; then, less familiar: committees and consults. The only artifact of certainty: E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one). The visual logos developed and included what was referred to as a radical constellation: “a collection of stars not only represented the thirteen states but also their simultaneous independence and unity- their interdependence. Deliberately asymmetrical, the layout of darts expressed the essence of a new American way. Big states like Virginia and small ones like Rhode Island were each distinct but connected into a greater whole” (p. 4).

By breaking down traditional power, America was building up tremendous energy. This Constellation pattern of principles, habits, and sentiments achieved something big through many actions that were quite small. Each person gave them life and meaning. And this pattern didn’t just make democracy work. It made business and social and spiritual life flourish too. Barzun, Matthew. The Power of Giving Away Power (p. 13). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Tocqueville is known to have chronicled what this text describes as the American soul. It is shared that he witnessed and experienced this interdependence as depicted in this Constellation “at every scale” on his visit in 1825 and remarked on the remarkable distinction between Europe and the United States, that “the magic of the country wasn’t in material things at all but in things of the spirit- things that were hard to quantify but whose practical impact was powerful. The United States had energy” (p. 10).

The story of our Great Seal, however, continued. When the perceived and eventual experienced stability of the country was challenged and waned. Of particular importance was in the times of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was then that the holorarachy that singularly represented the country was questioned and a hierarchy was deliberated: “The Constellation culture continued to permeate American life, a different structure began to take shape alongside it. As mass production turned craftspeople into laborers, a new kind of hierarchy emerged, mirroring the efficiency of the machine” (p. 13). And resulted in the spirit of the country reflecting centralized power. FDR felt so strongly that this was the spirit that needed to be communicated that a new visual was required: a Pyramid. On the signing off on the one dollar bill, the Constellation relinquished its seat of hierarchy to the Pyramid.

This addition and position became more than a symbolic representation, “The differences between the Pyramid and the Constellation mindsets go far beyond organizational structure. They encompass different ways of relating to people and the world around us. And so when we reorganized ourselves, we changed ourselves too” (p. 17-18).

My lingering wondering is this tension between two polarities, holoarchy and hierarchy, and what it would take to break this attraction energized by competition to spin into the potential of our shared humanness.

Spiral Dynamics and Center of Gravity

2021-08-23T18:31:00.001-07:00

Center of Gravity

https://www.typepunchmatrix.com/pictures/39423_6.jpg?v=1592661697

Spiral Dynamics

It is an interesting exercise, identifying self in a real way- an honest way. So often, the self we present is a self or selves, not the Self. I suppose it is the Self that directs the selves, recognizing immediate need of others within context and pushing forward an identity that is truly just part of an unknown whole.

I think in systems: systems driven by need. Values, however, drive. It is at the value level that clarity comes.

The values of orange with sights on green appear to be and have been at my center of gravity. Orange is where I have lived for years, really decades. While I can see how and when I’ve progressed through each level, I can’t help but think that orange was a silent partner in progress. They say that animals that engage in great migrations pass on routes in their mitochondrial DNA to their young. Orange, for me, feels like such a vestigial relic. And just as I see orange as a biological characteristic of what defines me, it is also what socialized me.

Orange when I was Blue demanded that I buck systems biased towards white men of any kind and women dressed in power, with brooches as their badge. I played by Blue’s rules but thought with an Orange mind. Orange has served me well- knowing Blue, equally so. I see now, however, that I am revising the sequence of my routines. Routines that eek out the primacy of orange and create space for green. I don’t really see that I have the choice, nor want the choice.

Green is where I think the answers might be. The age-old questions asked again and again and answered in ways that failed again and again call into question the questions we are asking, not the answers we are giving. Green seems to be this next space. Space where perception demands interrogation. To step inside multiple shades of reality and to recognize value in what is presented to accommodate with a caveat: status quo is not the goal, it is an explanation. The better we understand the status quo the better we understand direction. The better we understand the direction, the better understand opportunity within our status quo.

I am reminded of a childhood story I read until it creased: “Harold and the Purple Crayon.” A little boy named Harold wanted to go for a walk in the moonlight. To do so, he drew a moon and a path to walk on. From there, the story continues as Harold draws what he needs and knows only to have what he had known about what he needed to be inadequate or wrong. The story concludes with him returning to the beginning space but having gone on the walk. He came back different because he saw where he was differently.

While Green is where I sit at times aside Orange, Yellow is on my horizon as a place of curiosity. I have a feeling that this space of Green will become too simplistic a reference. I suppose that this space of Yellow, this second tier, is the place of faithful curiosity. Where concrete is understood through abstractions and abstractions made more concrete by what might be understood, pulling in the merit of each color that preceded as a means to sharpen, rather than to dull: if one understands each color from a place within and without one can see distinctions; if one can see distinctions one can see purpose. In other words, each place is really a way and with each transcendence more way than place. With way, there is less need for place. Similar to what Webber spoke to when describing “human potential” as a composite that individuals experience in contours (Wilber, 2005, p. 3).

Developmental Lines

2021-08-23T18:28:00.000-07:00

Developmental Line

When walking the stage to receive my masters, my Myers Briggs profile was taped to my cap, just as it was taped to my cohort’s caps. For me, the tape read: INFP, with TJ just on the cusp (literally and figuratively). On the DISC assessment, I am an SC, relatively high and towards center. Strength’s Finder has me as leading towards Learning and Analysis. Each personality profile describes me. Over the years, I have used these strengths to my advantage. At the outset, however, I wished for different strengths. The worth of my traits not necessarily valued at an institutional and social level and my deep, needed call for change and to enact change characterized by traits I did not publicly express. It has only been recently that such a premise in leadership and in social change have called these assumptions into question. Who really gets to decide such things.

https://miro.medium.com/max/5100/1*gTti7FuA5ncdwXnoqb5Xmg.jpeg

I learned long ago that I alone could find rest on my pillow. For me rest requires responsibility and authenticity. This is, of course, an aspiration. Living a responsible life that is also authentic takes a kind of bravery and persistence that I don’t think I’ll ever fully have- I’m not sure anyone has; it is true that some have come closer than others. In the meantime, I walk a life that I believe leads me to better, and better for me is in tandem with better for those and space around me.

And when I refer to the extensive list of sub-lines, I can’t help but think that the first eight deserve all my attention and if I attend to these first eight, strengths, inclinations, and future contributions through the litany and availability of sublines will emerge. That it is less about attending to these areas with conscious intention and more about how attention to the whole might further the parts that are meant to develop. I think that this is what Wilber means when he speaks to being “integrally informed” and that comprehensive mastery is not the goal, awareness that has the potential to lead to fuller mastery is- in whatever shape the contours fold. For me, this brings in a beautiful element of humanity; the richness of diversity and need for others to contribute to one’s experience in ways one might not be able to contribute to oneself. To expose and to allow one to explore what is on the horizon, rather than that that is only underfoot- to see if there is the direction one is ready and wanting to take- to become better.

My strengths on the first five Developmental Lines are developed and, perhaps, for some- highly developed. I have worked hard to make this so. My life is as a student as much as it is a participant. I value connections- connections in perspective- in the way and sense of seeing, knowing, experiencing. My greatest strength is cognitive and, perhaps, might be my ethical and moral compass; I have demonstrated the latter since childhood and the former since I realized it made me feel most whole. My Intrapersonal self is highly critical yet this has allowed me to recognize the limitations of judgment. My spiritual self is an ongoing cause. My agnosticism reflects sincere respect for faith and even in its institutions. I myself, however, cannot ascribe to what amounts to social conventions. Buddhism I study and admire. The polytheistic nature of the Hindu faith intrigues me. My house a shrine to both, yet my heart and skin as I have lived are most closely akin to Christianity and Islam. Perhaps I am a pantheist, more than an agnostic. Regardless, this doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is that I continue to grow from studying and understanding faith as a construct and that others might exercise in ways that hold value.

And when I refer to the extensive list of sublines, I can’t help but think that the first eight deserve all my attention and if I attend to these first eight, strengths, inclinations, and future contributions through the litany and availability of sublines will emerge. That it is less about attending to these areas with conscious intention and more about how attention to the whole might further the parts that are meant to develop. I think that this is what Wilber means when he speaks to being “integrally informed” and that comprehensive mastery is not the goal, awareness that has the potential to lead to fuller mastery is- in whatever shape the contours fold. For me, this brings in a beautiful element of humanity; the richness of diversity and need for others to contribute to one’s experience in ways one might not be able to contribute to oneself. To expose and to allow one to explore what is on the horizon, rather than that that is only underfoot- to see if there is the direction one is ready and wanting to take- to become better.

Speaking metaphorically... ( DRAFT post written in August 2012)

2021-08-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

To open this series of posts that speak to ideas of Integral Theory and Practice, I share what was one of my last posts that was in DRAFT until I resurrected this blog for this course. I can help but see the thinking of was is the thinking that now and that this thinking did not stifle but expanded.

I can't help but think metaphorically. All brains are wired to see connections and make sense of the world by fitting round things in any shaped hole. It's a scary thing if ignored. My brain does this but does so as if always on steroids; I just hope that round is with round...most of the time. We learn through our mistakes.
This is an overwhelming task that requires commitment and respect. I won't go into this, as this is what I speak to in other posts. I want to talk about the what-we-SHOULD hold-on-to, in spite of dis-confirming 'evidence' or really, because of it.

The world we live in is a crazy place- let's think about the core values that are non-negotioable outcomes we strive for personally and plan for professionally- the transferable skills- critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation How tightly wound are these skills in our decision making- at every level of the institution? How tightly wound should they be?

2012-08-25T03:51:00.000-07:00

I'm disappointed that so many days have passed between my last posting. There certainly hasn't been a lack of thinking on this end, just carving out the time to write. Today I'd like to consider the role of teacher in instruction. It always boggles my mind when teaching is perceived as a spectator sport. The stance of teacher as one of observer and disseminator, rather than seeker and transformer. I realize this sounds a bit trite but, in a way, we should probably think about where we stand when it comes to teaching- literally and figuratively, every now and then.

I often describe good teaching as being the ability to target instruction that keeps the learning as close to home as possible. This means a number of things. One, that learning is a private endeavor, where the mechanisms supporting learning are completely child-dependent. Two, that learning requires relevance. Good teaching capitalizes on cognition, which means that instruction should require students to consider and call in what is cognitively accessible, whether they be experiences, skills, or interests. How well the teacher respects these realities helps qualify the outcome potential of the learning experience.

Experienced teachers must be able to identify the prerequististe skills required for successful, academic participation but must also be able to determine whether or not a child has such skills to begin with. This is a two-fold act: identifying skills inherent in the learning task and measuring a child's skills inherent in the learning behavior. Teachers are often very good at designing instruction, less skilled at making sure that the children are ready for instruction.

Common Core

2012-08-25T03:50:00.001-07:00

The Common Core is presently servicing education as a change agent. Standards-based reform encouraged a way of thinking that centered on what we teach. Educational research focused on how we teach. The Common Core presents itself as a means to fill the invisible gap answering the question, why teach what we teach.

2012-08-25T03:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2012/01/seven-online-classrooms-teachers-can-use-to-augment-their-own/

So often it's not knowing where to go to find an answer but having a place to go that makes you question. I love that about technology- that there is always something out there that might prompt an idea you never even knew you had, much less interested in. I think that's the beauty of digging in and investing time in scanning the digital world. I feel a sense of liberation that I can learn more easily. It excites me. What I find just as interesting is that this notion of going out into the virtual landscape is something that you can't preach, only experience. In other words, as excited as all you techies can get and all the sage advice you can give, until someone 'goes on' and 'gets connected' your words are just memories. You techies forget that we've lived many years fulfilled and invigorated without any digital investment. How do you get around this? I think it's about making technology more accessible to the user- getting them personally invested BEFORE they become professionally invested.

2012-01-30T09:26:00.000-08:00

Ignorance is surely the most insufferable of realities and the most simple to correct. Why, then, does one have to step in it before recognizing that one didn't know? I guess, it's because knowing was separated by experience.

The following Ted Talk inspired me to recognize the power of choice and my obligation to honor choice. Enjoy.

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What to keep, throw, and grow...

2012-01-28T22:18:00.000-08:00

"The Little House" vs Educational Institutions

It's difficult not to recognize similarities and differences between this movie and education- from the the pendulum swing and initiatives short lived, standing firm when others are pushing, the disconnect between between form and function, that 'progression' is inevitable, not progress...

How can we use what we 'see' to reflect on our own institutional choices? In other words, what is 'it' that we hold onto so dearly? What are we unwilling to let go even in the face of overwhelming evidence? What practices, issues, ideas are archaic in nature, ridden with 'experience as evidence' beliefs (see Jan 22 blog post), that permeate our school? What norms are simply vestigial organs of a time past and need to be removed, rather than just ignored? In the most simplest of terms: What do we keep? What do we throw? What do we grow?

What is our obligation as an institution to insist on learning-within-this-century? Schools don't run by a single stakeholder. We all bear responsibility to look at our work critically and to recognize when it's time to shed old practice based on sound evidence and to rebuild new practice based on sound understandings. This will take hard work and the commitment of many but the potential for such efforts are indescribable. How cool is that?

Looking past the 'what we do' and focusing on the 'why we do'

2012-01-27T23:11:00.008-08:00

I was watching a movie last night with my family- Inception. The storyline is very complex but it goes something like this... invading the dreams of others to learn more about what they know and why they do what they do in order to change or explain what has been and influence the actions of the dreamer (at the subconsciousness level) to change a future outcome. One scene has the character seeking out the sage advice from another character, attempting to dig deeper into the subconscious dreamworld of another. The advice was simple, one cannot assume that merely entering and influencing sufficiently changes the course of action. One must delve into the idea at a point of inception- the place in which the idea is reduced to its simplest form. If you enter anywhere higher up the perspective-evolutionary ladder, you risk obfuscating the idea and calling it something that it isn't holding the belief that this "is", which means that the change you incite does not change the outcome, you've simply disrupted the chain of events yet haven't changed the future outcome. In other words, same destination, a different path leads to the same place: perspectives are interminably unmalleable constructs.

Inception_Simple

As I listened to their conversation (forget the chase scene), I began thinking about how we in education operate on a similar assumption- that ideas in their purest form make for the most powerful learning platforms. For example, around the world schools continue to transform their curriculum based on essential understandings- the ideas that generate ideas and offer explanation to events. In science, the literature abounds with the need to uncover student assumptions regarding a scientific concept so that new learning is schematized appropriately and can be used later on as a reasonable lens for scientific thinking. Concepts are driving instruction rather than imposed organizers- we no longer focus solely on genre but consider purpose; we no longer teach in era but consider driving themes; we teacher mathematics with underlying critical skills, rather than by textbook units...My question isn't whether or not we're doing this, making complex ideas simple. We are. My question is whether or not we really know why we're doing this.

Do we truly know how our instruction is influencing a child at their concept-inception point? It makes me wonder about the significance of content education when concepts and misconceptions intersect.

2012-01-23T10:20:00.000-08:00

"It’s painful, expensive...stressful and ultimately pointless to work overtime to preserve your dying business model." -Seth Godin

As I make my way through my day, I often wonder how much energy I exert on keeping things as they are rather than wondering about the way things should be. In our profession, so much of what we do is a reflection of where we've been- if we've already been there, do we really want to go there again? Is it working? Do I ask myself this question enough? If I do, what resources am I using to answer this question and are the resources I choose the right vessel to tap?

“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” Albert Einstein

I just recently shared a blog posting from Dangerously Irrelevant outlining the learnings of another school invested in a 1:1 laptop program. Their conclusions (for now...) in headings:

Lessons learned

It's the pedagogy not the technology.

Support the pedagogy at all costs. A list of this year's sessions is here.

The plumbing and the plumbers.

Student ownership.

Principal leadership.

Biggest Struggles

Classroom management.

Assisting parents.

In conclusion, our journey is an ongoing one. Simply buying the machines and upgrading the network is not enough to be a 1:1 laptop school. The true work is in shifting the pedagogy to be more student-centered. As Gary Stager says, less "us" and more "them." The rewards to this point have been worth the risks.

We're moving forward...thank goodness! I am so glad to be along for the ride.

21st Century Learning

2012-01-22T11:01:00.000-08:00

So what is 21st Century Learning and what responsibilities do we share as educators if we are truly preparing our students for their future? Fortunately, the answer is not dichotomous. One is not for or against 21st Century Learning. It's not about taking sides and deciding what one 'believes'; it's about figuring out what we can do now to best support our students in their present that will lead to a brighter future.

I want untangle what it means to teach in and for the 21st Century. I hope what I learn is far more than everything-technology but includes efforts to build fundamental skills and enhance the character of our children. A friend once asked Madeline Albright what it was that we should teach our children so that they would be contributors to a better, global society. She responded quickly and said,

Three things: First, we need to teach our youth how to listen; second, we need to teach them how to gather information, and; third, we need them to be able to articulate the perspective of others.

I recognize, however, that to do so requires us to engage in the 21st Century- and that DOES require a level of technical proficiency that can only come from learning and using present day technologies. On a recent twitter, I came across a link to a Harvard general ed course that is open to the public entitled Introduction to Technology and Society. It's worth watching because it's worth thinking about.

Introduction to Technology and Society from Harvard Program in Gen Ed on Vimeo.

Introduction to Technology and Society from Harvard Program in Gen Ed on Vimeo.

Rule 1: It's not about finding out, it's about learning more.

2012-01-22T03:41:00.000-08:00

Educators have a nasty habit of equating experience with understanding, especially when it comes to 21st Century Learning. The assumption being that if this "has been my experience" then this is the "way that it is". Probably not the greatest learning stance to have as an educator, yet we come by it honestly: our brains seek confirmation. In fact, we literally have to defy natural tendencies when we redirect original intention. Socrates called this state of mind the “illusion of knowing” and the process directing this change-in-mind is now referred to as metacognition.

More recently, research refers to this absence of need when need is present as a “feeling of knowing” or “judgment of learning”. So, how can we shake this natural tendency to operate from a platform of positive presuppositions regarding assumptions? By recognizing that our profession is not about finding out but about learning more. Finding out is easy- a million answers could explain why something is the way that it is. Learning more is far less precise- a million reasons could describe why something is.

Introducing myself to selfish blogging

2008-11-02T02:15:00.000-08:00

Ah hah- My first blogging experience that won't always include mention of family or seemingly inconsequential events that are relevant only to me. Well, that last bit might happen quite often. I actually hope it does. It recently came to my attention that blogging need not be with an audience-of-others in mind. This, I hope, will liberate me from my conditioned approach towards writing, which requires each word, each sentence, each idea to be well thought out, reviewed, edited, and transformed before sharing it with an"other". To achieve this, however, I believe it's in my best interest to set up a few personal blogging rules. These rules are intended to encourage the disentanglement of years of self-imposed perfection. What shall they be? I think the first rule must be that I will not edit for audience-in-mind reasons. The second shall be that I am writing for me and me only. The third shall be that the focus of my blogs will be centered on what I find relevant and interesting, which will likely dissuade others from visiting my site. (I am currently fighting off the desire to go back an reread what I've written but because I am a rule follower, I won't.)

Today, I think I'd like to write about a research paper I just reread. I reread it because it reveals how reading and writing skills are intrinsically entwined and dependent on antecedent skills that are developed through implicit experiences and explicit events that take place at home and within school. Forgive me for typing out the citation- it's a must: Morris, D., Boodgood, J., Lomax, R., Perney, J. (2003), Developmental steps in learning to read: A longitudinal study in kindergarten and first grade., Reading Research Quarterly, 38 (3), 302-328.

One must realize that learning to read is not a 'natural' event. We don't have an area in our brain that is wired to read. We have one for speech, for sight, for movement, for emotions... we, teachers that is- myself included, often assume that there is a place in our brain that is specifically designed for reading. Now, some of you say might say that you were not 'taught' to read but, instead, learned to read naturally-without instruction or difficulties. Really, you were just lucky because you were blessed with a hardwired brain that allowed multiple processes to reconfigure and connect. To learn to read, children must have multiple experiences early on with text and be exposed to learning opportunities that require children to attend to the phonology (sound) of language and to our representation of sounds/language (text) so as to rewire our brain's natural system to behave, for lack of a better term, unnaturally. Without these two types of experiences, children will not learn to read. In other words, learning to read requires areas of your brain intended for other functions to work together to achieve an alternative, less natural, task: to see a semantic significance in text.

The development or sequence of events associated with formal reading have been established through years and years of research. This particular paper explored the relationship between phoneme segmentation and Concept of Word - whether one skill preceded the other or whether they developed in tandem. A phoneme refers to the individual sound units of our language. It's the phoneme that we represent with our alphabet. For example, cup is made up of three phonemes: /k/, /u/, and /p/. Initially, children attend to language for meaning. They have difficulty 'hearing' the individual sounds that make up a word. This is difficult because sounds are "fused" or "blended" together. It isn't until children can recognize individual phonemes in words (phoneme awareness) that they can transcribe the sounds they hear into writing or translate writing into sounds. Concept of Word refers to a child's ability to recognize a word for what it is, a group of letters representing sounds that represent an idea. I like how the authors refer to Henderson's reference to CoW as when the printed word begins to "stand still" for a child.

Using a model based on previous findings from alternative studies, these authors sought to determine the level to which identified events associated with literacy development influence a child's eventual ability to read. Their findings supported the notion that to learn to read well and along a continuum commensurate with their cognitive capabilities when children explore print through authentic writing tasks, participate in guided reading experiences, and experience explicit literacy events that bridge language and writing in school.

That's it for now. This is just the beginning... How nice.