Dear Alan and all,

I believe that language is one of the *huge* elephants in the human living room. We're so used to it that we overlook how powerful it is! 



Just one for instance: why do we so universally use the term pedagogy about post secondary educational theory? (Wikipedia) "The word comes from the Greek παιδαγωγέω (paidagōgeō); in which παῖς (país, genitive παιδός, paidos) means "child" and άγω (ágō) means "lead"; so it literally means "to lead the child". "  But we don't teach *children* in college or university. Adults require an androgogy - which means a very different starting point indeed for the instructor/educator. Just a word that everyone really understands? No; there's no such thing as 'just a word'. We create the world with words and the adoption of an adult 'pedagogy' does indeed step over the truth that in far too many post secondary classrooms and labs adult learners are viewed - and treated and taught - as if they were still high school students. (Explain your lateness/absence, even though the explanation does not affect your attendance record; ask before you leave the class to go to the bathroom. Really??!!!) I was told by a Cherokee grandmother, once, to pay attention to the simple and the obvious because they contain the answers to all the mysteries of the universe. These, she said, would become clear to me if I could just learn to see what was right in front of me. So, as you may have observed, I struggle to do just that - to master what I call the Art of the Simple and the Obvious!



Thank you for the incredibly kind offer re. my paper- and I'd be very happy to send it to you but I should clarify two things. 



First, I don't know if it would be of general interest. I'd only intended to send it to Alan R. because he is frustrated by a phenomenon in the classroom that I specifically address in that document. Second, it *can't* be reviewed because it will not be published. It was written as a kind of love-offering to my college Department. The senior faculty here spend much time and energy defending against the attacks, personal, professional and departmental, of those who dislike and resent both the methods and approach of the Department. Most of this hostility is based upon a chasm of ignorance. The situation is compounded by the department's dependence on a huge part time faculty (of which I am one). The majority of these have come from grade school to college teaching and many resent the approach of the department, with its unfamiliar emphasis on group work, multiple learning styles, technology and various kinds of relatedness in the English syllabus to psychology, biology, philosophy et alia.  So we have an often reluctant faculty teaching a syllabus that a significant number in the traditionally based Math and English Departments *hate*! My aims were: to articulate and contextualize what the department has actually been doing; to help to educate our own faculty; to provide the Dean and Department Heads with a simple 'guide' to the program (and move us beyond the constant reiteration of evidence and argument required because of the 'opposition's' unwillingness to read any of the research), and to design an AR based dynamic such that we can both unite our faculty and enable the TS department to use its trials and errors for its own/the students' benefit. (Instead of having its newness, teething problems and hiccups exploited as ammunition with which to attack the Dept.)



I modeled this proposed dynamic on the flocking mechanism of birds. "Watching a flock of dozens or even hundreds of birds can be amazing because the separate birds often move as if they possess a single mind. What's more amazing, bird flocks often move harmoniously without any sort of leader or external cue, especially when they are traveling over short distances. Studying bird flocks may seem to be the exclusive domain of ornithologists. But physicists too have become captivated by the remarkable ability of birds - and many other living creatures - to move flawlessly as an organized group..Studying the incredible feat of how hundreds of birds can move as a single unit, physicists have devised a detailed theory of the flocking process. Their theory can potentially be extended to... any collection of independently moving animals, including humans, which rely on each other's cues to move as a group. (Birds Of A Feather: The Physics Of Flocks, from the American Institute of Physics)." You can see the phenomenon here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vhE8ScWe7w It's much more easily grasped when seen than described.



It took me ten months to distill all that into one document. :) Anyway, I'll go ahead and send it (unproofed with layout that still needs polishing) just for your interest.

love

Sara



P.S. Have started looking at the site at greenleaf.org. I have some questions but will come back with those when I'm done. (And when I've caught up with work!)



________________________________________

From: Practitioner-Researcher [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alan Markowitz [[log in to unmask]]

Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 6:12 PM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: Re: Is what I am doing a good idea?



Dear Sara,

I truly appreciated your last comments. Langiuage is a powerful force for allowing true understanding. I do believe that, globally, we will have to communicate better in terms of meeting educatinoal needs that extend beyond our national borders. That is why I was so impressed by the work of David Hargreaves who has managed to change the paradigm in some schools in the U.K. as well as in Australia.. Leadership in the model I now aspire to requires a greater capacity for the organizatino to lead itself (having a synergistic impact). The "leader" really no longer dictates but becomes a part of the capacity so that members are provided with opportunities (AR), time and data in order to allow them to meet their perceived needs (not others mandating them)  The test for proper servant leadership is found on the greenleaf.org<http://greenleaf.org> site and I believce it would be difficult to argue the value of that measure.



I would love to review your paper. You can sends it directly to me at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> . I look forward to hearing form you,

Warmly,

Alan

Dr. Alan Markowitz

Director, Graduate Programs in Education

(973) 290-4328