Subject: Root cause of the 'teaching systems' problem

Posted by Janice Hansel on 12/27/2010
In Reply To:Root cause of the 'teaching systems' problem Posted by Tim Joy on 12/27/2010

Message:

Tim,

Thanks for your description of the situation. I believe that the way we characterize institutions is critical to our capacity to change them. Many people seem to think that understanding the institutional nature of an organization helps us see why we cannot change it. I believe that we must depict reality as best we can if we are to change it.

Schooling is a highly complex "institution" made up of many regulations (laws, policies), norms (values, guidelines), and mind-sets (beliefs, world-views, etc.). I have been looking at these issues from various viewpoints since the early 1970's and believe that a systems thinking approach is the best way to clearly describe what is truly happening in education today.

The foundation of institutions is, in my mind, essentially cultural.
It embodies what we value, the way we live, the way we think about things, and the solutions or approaches we find useful and valuable.
This is one of the biggest problems we face. Our world is made of varying cultures, languages, values, and so forth. When we disagree about how things are, we are often unconsciously or consciously defending our values.

This defensive attitude keeps us from hearing one another and discourages us from incorporating other viewpoints into a new understanding of the institution and the world. Lest this sound too abstract, it can be applied in very specific ways to specific parts of the whole. The challenge is to keep in mind the whole while thinking about the individual aspects or parts.

Janice Hansel

Follow Ups:

Root cause of the 'teaching systems' problem - Kathy Arizmendi 12/27/2010 
Root cause of the 'teaching systems' problem - Pedro D. Almaguer Prado 12/27/2010