Learning and Leadership for Social Sustainability: pedagogical challenges workshop
There is increasing international concern for social sustainability through the development of a range of competences on the part of individuals and communities which enable successful functioning in real world situations. Drawing on the DeSeCo Project in the OECD, (Rychen and Salganik, 2003) defined the term competence ‘as the ability to successfully meet complex demands in a particular context through the mobilisation of psychosocial prerequisites’ and as the ‘internal mental structures in the sense of abilities, dispositions or resources embedded in the individual’ in interaction with a ‘specific real world task or demand’. (2003:43) A competence refers to a complex combination of knowledge, skills, understanding, values, attitudes and desire which lead to effective, embodied human action in the world, in a particular domain. One’s achievement at work, in personal relationships or in civil society are not based simply on the accumulation of second hand knowledge stored as data, but as a combination of this knowledge with skills, values, attitudes, desires and motivation and its application in a particular human setting at a particular point in a trajectory in time. Competence implies a sense of agency, action and value. Competences for active citizenship and for learning how to learn are widely accepted as important educational outcomes – addressing the need for social sustainability through active and meaningful participation in public life and through the capacity to take responsibility for one’s own learning, change and growth throughout the life span.
Learning in the 21st century can be understood as a socially embedded and embodied journey over time, from personal desire and motivation to the achievement of ‘competence’ in a particular domain which is assessed and validated publicly by a particular community of practice. The pedagogical challenge is in the nature of the journey from the learning self, with its particular identity, story and desire to the achievement of publicly validated and useful learning outcomes. This challenges the traditional approach to the acquisition of knowledge as ‘top down’, provided in pre-packaged sets, then regurgitated for examination. Rather it requires a re-sequencing of the individual’s encounter with the content of what is being learned, such that experience, desire and place become a starting point, and the basis for the development of a narratable pathways towards the established knowledge base of the ‘set’ curriculum (Jaros and Deakin Crick, 2007).
This interdisciplinary pedagogical process facilitates the acquisition of personally meaningful, coherent knowledge(s) which can be publicly assessed and provide clues to particular employment niches. The self is re-cognised in its encounter with the complex knowledge systems, and spatial networks which ‘collide’ in a particular learning space. The process also facilitates the individual in acquiring dispositions, skills and attitudes for learning how to learn, and how to negotiate the values issues and dilemmas of the real world which forms the basis for active citizenship, and to do so in a way which is grounded in experience and identity. The learner becomes a leader in their own journey: the boundaries between the individual learner, and the organisation are troubled by subtle shifts in energy as the notion of ‘a learning eco system’ re-distributes and changes conceptions of leadership.
This is the rationale for this research workshop series, to be hosted at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Bristol. It builds on a seminar series which was funded by the RSA and associated with two research and development project (Deakin Crick, 2007, Millner et al., 2006, Deakin Crick et al., 2007). Each seminar will focus on a particular ‘station’ in the learning journey beginning with conceptions of the ‘learning self’ and its interaction with the condition of techno-scientific complexity dominating our civilisation; moving on to an exploration of the sequencing of the learner’s encounter with knowledge in the process of its acquisition – and the formation and utilisation of learning dispositions, values and attitudes; finally to the challenges of the validation of the learning process and outcomes, both through self evaluation and public examination.
Workshops
1. Identity and desire in learning: embodiment, place and hope
the relationship of the self to the material world
2. Narratable pathways to knowledge: from personal to public
learning dispositions, virtue and habitus; complex ecosystems of knowledge encounter, re-cognition and transformation.
3. Assessment and evaluation: purpose and process
Assessment as ‘mentored movement of selective attention between self and text’, trustworthiness and reliability?
4. Organisational Learning and Leadership
Distributed leadership, learning organisations, self evaluation in complex living systems.
Each workshop will last for one day, and will include:
· Two papers which will address the main theme of the workshop with particular reference to the underlying worldview assumptions, the demands of globalisation and the information society for lifelong learners and active citizens.
· One case study example from the several pilot projects which have utilised this methodology presented by a practitioner.
· Extended dialogue and co-generation of knowledge sessions responding to each paper
· Scribing of discussions, during and after each session to facilitate accumulation of new knowledge
Interdisciplinary and engaged:
The dialogue will be interdisciplinary in nature, including academics from philosophy, social psychology, medicine, theoretical physics; pedagogy; anthropology; human geography; narrative studies; leadership; assessment and psychotherapy.
It is engaged in nature because it serves the agenda of the RSA in policy formation and it includes within its process practitioners from schools, higher education and business.
Participants:
The seminars will be facilitated by Dr Ruth Deakin Crick, Senior Research Fellow, Graduate School of Education. The twenty five participants include key academic researchers from Universities across the UK, and abroad, leading practitioners from schools and universities and industry, policy makers, learners who have experienced these ideas and research students.
The outcomes of the series will include:
A special issue in an academic journal
Proposal for a book
A research proposal
Increased research and teaching capacity
Dates
Monday 28th April 10.00am to 17.00
Thursday 15th May 10.00am to 17.00
References
Deakin Crick, R. (2007) Enquiry based curricula and active citizenship: A democratic, archaeological pedagogy. in process
Deakin Crick, R., Small, T., Jaros, M., Pollard, K., Leo, E., Hearne, P., James, L. & Milner, N. (2007) Inquiring minds: Transforming potential through personalised learning. London, RSA.
Jaros, M. & Deakin Crick, R. (2007) Personalised learning in the post mechanical age. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 39,4, 423-440.
Millner, N., Small, T. & Deakin Crick, R. (2006) Learning by accident Research and Development Report Report No 1. Bristol, ViTaL Partnerships.
Rychen, S. & Salganik, L. (2003) A holistic model of competence, in Rychen, S. & Salganik, L. (Eds.) Key competencies for a successful life and a well-functioning society. Gottingen, Hogrefe & Huber.
Ruth Deakin Crick
January 2008
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