Barra and the rest,
I am new to this whole issue of servant leadership, but let me share four issues:
i) Depending on where you are coming from or which point of view one adopts, it may be impossible or possible to value the issue of service. If I am going to adopt a purely utilitarian perspective, then the needs of others may be defined by how useful others are. If I base myself on such a premise it will lead not to servant leadership but to Master (utilitarian autocratic) leadership.
If one adopts a socialist perspective, then the needs of others may be defined by how well their needs serve society. In this case, if I base myself purely on this foundation, then it will lead to servant leadership with a socialistic tendency.
In some situations some may say that it is impossible to purely serve the interest of others [looking at issues in a purely Machiavellian way]. I tend to differ with this way of looking at everyone since it will automatically exclude people who carry out service for the sake of service.
ii) Who identifies the needs of others? This is related with a person's value base [as explained above]. In some situations, as Adam Smith [the father of Capitalism] rightly put it in the book the Wealth of Nations, when a butcher serves his/her own interest [that is giving the best service compared to other competitors] then he/she somehow ends up serving the common interest [giving the right quality of meat]. Hence, in some situations, the individual good (interest) is not incompatible with the common good (interest).
iii) Do you trust others to identify their own needs? I think trust is what builds or defines a leader. A leader who cannot trust his followers will also not be trusted. To get trust one needs to give it. Once again, like I mentioned earlier (point i), a person's value base defines the individual/leader. Indeed, in some situations there is the likelihood of some betraying that trust. In such situations one (this includes the followers) needs to find a way to repair/remedy the situation.
iv) What if their needs don't square with what you consider they should be, what your research priorities are, interests etc? I cannot give an exhaustive explanation here; the only issue I may say is, in some situations many of our needs are congruent to others' needs. The bone of contention might be to explain your own need(s) in a language others understand, appreciate and therefore value. Indeed, I doubt anyone will not consider something which is valuable as not useful. Last but not least, I think within one's field if someone comes with a better argument/valid argument which might imply changing the research interest/priority then out of intellectual humility, one should actually change his/her mind.
Thanks
________________________________________
From: Practitioner-Researcher [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barra Hallissey [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2010 4:43 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: A note from the 2009-10 e-seminar convenor
For me good intentions are not enough - every scoundrel claims at one time or other to be serving the needs of others as defined by the scoundrel him/herself.
So who identifies what the 'needs of others' are?
Do you trust others to identify their own needs?
What if their needs don't square with what you consider they should be, what you research priorities are, interests etc ... ?
PS - I'm not inferring that anyone here is a scoundrel or anything like that, so please don't take offence where none is intended.
________________________________
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:31:44 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: A note from the 2009-10 e-seminar convenor
To: [log in to unmask]
Hi,
We heartily agree. Our action research allows us to serve the needs of others whether they be students or educators.
Alan
Dr. Alan Markowitz
Director, Graduate Programs in Education
(973) 290-4328
On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 5:03 PM, Margaret Riel <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Hi all,
We also teach service or servant leadership in our program at Pepperdine as well. We think that it is important for action researchers to see that they can be lead from any seat, but that leading doesn't mean taking charge. We think that the real mark of leadership is to bring forward the best effort in those that make up any community-- to develop expertise in the people who are engaged in the work. Often, offering to help is a way to get people engaged in inquiry. And inquiry is the path toward expertise. So spreading the mindset of an action researcher with others (inviting your co-workers to be co-researchers) is a great act of leadership.
Warmly,
Margaret Riel
On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 8:23 AM, Charlie Naylor <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Hi, Alan, would be very glad to exchange information and will send you some more about the BCTFs work when I am back in the office currently I am on holiday on an island with dial-up access only so it takes a while to send any attachments/links etc.
All the best,
Charlie
From: Practitioner-Researcher [mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On Behalf Of Alan Markowitz
Sent: July 26, 2010 6:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: A note from the 2009-10 e-seminar convenor
Hi Charlie,
I am impressed with your work in teacher inquiry and teacher leadership. All of our graduate programs involvee action research and view all educational practitioners in a Servant Leadership model. We have over 200 Action Research projects in our files and would be interested in a collaboration, We are a small Catholic college in New Jersey..
Dr. Alan Markowitz
Director, Graduate Programs in Education
The College of St. Elizabeth
(973) 290-4328
On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 7:53 PM, Charlie Naylor <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Thanks, Jack. I am the Senior Researcher with the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) in Vancouver, Canada. The BCTF is the only teacher union in the province of BC and represents over 40,000 teachers in Kindergarten-Grade 12 public schools.
The BCTF has been involved in supporting teacher inquiry for some years, and this next year we are hoping to have at least ten projects across the province. Last year we had over 200 teachers participating in union-led teacher inquiry. We have a team of 18 facilitators who meet with Inquiry groups and these facilitators receive training in building and extending facilitation of teacher inquiry.
I completed my PhD at the University of British Columbia in 2007 which focused on teacher inquiry as professional development. Another research interest is in teacher leadership where I have partnered with other teacher union and academic researchers in a number of countries including Australia, England, Scotland, the Republic of Ireland and the USA. This work explores the nature of teacher leadership in professional development.
Cheers,
Charlie Naylor
-----Original Message-----
From: Practitioner-Researcher [mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On Behalf Of Jack Whitehead
Sent: July 23, 2010 4:04 AM
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: A note from the 2009-10 e-seminar convenor
Welcome to Naretha Pretorium, Rachel Perry and Charlie Naylor who have recently joined our e-seminar.
Dear Naretha, Rachel and Charlie - do please post a some details of your context and research interests.
Leo Chivers joined the e-seminar some time ago and here are some details of Leo's interests:
Leo is a Senior Lecturer in Early Years and Professional Development in the School of Education at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK. Leo writes:
"I have previously worked as a leader and manager in Childrens Centres, Sure Start, health services and disability fields. This in turn led me to be involved in the delivery of programmes about the Leadership of Integrated practice (e.g. the NPQICL National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre leadership). Much of my work has been about the leadership of reflective practice in inter-professional learning communities.
I am in my second year of an Ed.D. and my research is about contrasting the lived experience of inter-professional interactions with the outcomes driven policy framework for childrens services in the UK. I am using phenomenology as a way to explore this and to discover what types of learning helps develop awareness of these interactions.
I definitely feel I am operating at a "beginner's stage" but have indeed been fascinated by some of the contributions made in this community and am sorry that I have lurked on the periphery for so long ."
Love Jack.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Margaret Riel <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Sr. Researcher, Center for Technology in Learning SRI-International
Co-Chair M. A in Learning Technologies Pepperdine University
Phone: (760) 618-1314
http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/mriel/office
BLOG: http://mindmaps.typepad.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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