Dear William:
I don't think there's a stiffer test of learning organization principles
than higher education institutions, as ironic as that seems. I am
currently working on my dissertation in Educational Leadership and Change
and my thesis is focused on how community colleges which have formally
committed to being "learning colleges" or "learning communities," or
"learning organizations" (they tend to think of these terms as
synonymous, which is problematic) are preparing their faculty and staff to
be members of such an organization. My assumption is that deciding to
become a learning "whatever" and putting it in your mission/vision/goals
statement means doing things differently and depending on what you mean by
that, how are you ensuring that your faculty and staff have the skills to
make that happen? (Obviously, I was heavily influenced by the two years
my district spent on crafting a vision statement that no one can remember
now.)
Colleges and universities for the most part do not tend to think of
themselves as learning organizations and faculty, who operate very
independently, think even less in terms of being employees or members of a
learning organization. Instead -- and this is hardly a bad thing -- they
focus on their relationship with students, or at least most of them do.
But faculty are professionals who work within a bureaucracy (there's a
good example of "creative tension!") and within a system that has changed
very little in hundreds of years and though it seems to be undergoing
substantial change now by virtue of technology, I'm still not sure that
the teaching/learning paradigm has really shifted all that much.
Back to your point, however, I think there are a couple of issues, one
that may involve professional skills on the part of the teacher or may be
partly the result of conflicting teaching and learning styles or may have
to do with the independent nature and expectations of graduate study -- or
more likely, a messy mixture of all of the above. My solution is hardly
innovative and not always easy in a power relationship as you describe,
but I think you have to begin with the instructor and using all the people
skills you possess, raise the issue with the instructor in as constructive
a way as possible. If, however, things have gotten beyond that stage,
then you can try the department chair or dean, but as you probably know,
they will usually tell you to begin with the instructor. Or maybe a group
of students can approach the program director and have a general
discussion about the disconnect you see between their espoused theories
and their theories-in-action. That kind of feedback can be powerful
assuming someone's really listening. Good luck. Harriett Robles.
In a message dated 3/20/99 8:42:16 AM Pacific Standard Time, Bosatsu@home.com
writes:
> My question is how does a person implement theorists such as Senge,
> Covey, Drucker, Blanchard, and many others, in a learning (espoused)
> environment that adheres only to the status quo?
--Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>