Subject: Epistemology using Systems Concepts

Posted by Kathy Arizmendi on 10/2/2008
In Reply To:Epistemology using Systems Concepts Posted by Richard Turnock on 10/2/2008

Message:

Hello - I am new to this forum, and come to it by way of Bohm dialogue and Senge's Fifth Discipline. I'm a veteran bilingual educator NYC public schools - 40 years of teaching - retired. I also taught in Puerto Rico, and volunteered to assist in a Navajo language classroom in the Navajo Nation during sabbatical study at Navajo Community College. My grandmother taught in a one room schoolhouse, and the rest of my family were all educators. My aunt was elected to her school's Hall of Fame. My son is studying now to be a teacher. This is the background from which I speak.

Changes have occurred in the system. It might help to look at not only those changes, but the web that constitutes the 'system', and try to figure out whats, whys and hows. See if that gives up any clues.

For instance, Gardener's theory of multiple intelligences wasn't in vogue for most of my career. He hadn't even come up with it then! How and why did that catch on? I saw Cuisinaire rods and attributes games come in and out of style, as well as refusal by some, not all of the rank and file, to teach set theory i.e. 'new math'. Their stated reasons, it didn't make sense, and the parents couldn't help with homework. I heard veteran colleagues deny the existence of dyslexia in the face of scientific studies. Then there's the change from bilingual ed to ESL, immersion, etc, etc. Critical thinking and reading skills books tossed in the garbage because of some administrator's mandate.. Grammar and spelling out the window. Music and PE classes that weren't cut were lumped together into a single group of around 70, so those classes become baby sitting jobs while you hope you have no major fights between students. Oh yes. We didn't have metal detectors when I taught, either. My last years of teaching saw the introduction of conflict resolution training programs. The tab was picked up by the Board of Ed because of need - violence in the schools. Once upon a time, there were no Columbines. I have also personally tried to implement new ideas and approaches and been the target of administrators who didn't have a clue about what I was trying to do, and didn't follow up on the material I gave them. Forgot to mention I had an assistant principal responsible for evaluating teachers who had never taught a class in her life. She got the job because the principal was so difficult to get along with, only she would put up with him. The parents association eventually got him out, but the new principal kept the AP for her own reasons I won't go into here. Oh yes, new is Learning and The Brain Conferences at Harvard. Why were only private schools (in NYC only?) represented, at least at the one I attended after retirement?

Maybe several good Bohm-style Dialogues between you and teachers might yield some insights. Be sure to include some who have been in the system long enough to have seen changes. Then follow it up with dialogue between you and administrators, then a third dialogue among all of you. How about mixing in the students? And not just high achievers and 'good kids'. Oh yes, and don't forget the government officials who try to design 'accountability''.

Part of the problem, I believe, is the insistence in our culture on what Bohm calls 'fragmentation', plus the kind of thinking that is not only uncomfortable with change, but fearful of it. Plus ego identification with povs and ranks in hierarchies of power; reluctance to examine the assumptions one lives and teaches by. And what about the kind of educational system a particular social system values? Do the results fit the aims? Are the aims good aims? How does systems thinking mesh with those aims?

Another thing, if public schools have to spend money on special equipment to use systems thinking, I think you have another problem. Here are some of the changes I saw: Teachers' Choice funding was cut. Federal taxes have greatly diminished the amount of money a teacher can deduct from her taxes for supplies out of pocket. And don't even mention tuition. That was then. What will happen now remains to be seen. All this impacts on your desire to promote systems thinking.

Epistemology? Check out Bohm's "Knowledge As Endarkenment".

I think your real question is what will generate the kind of change you feel is beneficial. Change happens. But is it going in the right direction.

And much good luck. ka

Follow Ups:

Epistemology using Systems Concepts - Richard Turnock 10/6/2008 
Epistemology using Systems Concepts - Kathy Arizmendi 10/6/2008
Epistemology using Systems Concepts - Karl North 10/3/2008 
Epistemology using Systems Concepts - Richard Turnock 10/6/2008
Epistemology using Systems Concepts - Kathy Arizmendi 10/6/2008
Epistemology using Systems Concepts - Karl North 10/7/2008
Epistemology using Systems Concepts - Ed Johnson 10/7/2008