transformation-theory

Transformation Theory: A theory of adult learning

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transformation-theory

Image source: Suzanne D. Williams, CC0

I am often skeptical of some of the language we use in education, and that is common in other sectors too. This includes words such as: disruption, innovation, transformation. I wonder about the human impact using these words has. How does it feel to be ‘disrupted’, to be asked to ‘innovate’, or to ‘transform’ one’s self or one’s practice? This isn’t to say though that I don’t believe in challenge or provocation, nor that I don’t see the value in encouraging people to test their assumptions and question their underlying beliefs. Indeed, far from it.

So let’s think more about transformation for a moment.

Common metaphors for transformation include the butterfly, which evolves from its humble beginnings as a caterpillar into a beautiful, soaring creature. Another metaphor is a Biblical one: St Paul’s conversion to Christianity on the road to Damascus. Both of these metaphors encompass the idea of a sudden, dramatic, and profound change in direction or orientation or worldview. When we talk about transformative experiences, we might say something like: ‘the scales fall from your eyes’, or use what is a favourite quotation of mine (attributed both to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes): “The mind once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions”.

But there is another aspect to transformation I think it’s useful to know of: the adult learning theory – Transformation Theory. Transformation Theory is generally ascribed to American Jack Mezirow based on his study of women returning to university in the late 1970s. Mezirow (2009) offers this definition of transformative learning: “Transformative learning may be defined as learning that transforms problematic frames of reference to make them more inclusive, discriminating, reflective, open, and emotionally able to change” (p. 22, emphasis in original).

Transformation Theory focuses on critical reflection and dialogue to support people to adapt their worldview – to orient it towards being agentic, inclusive, open, seeking social justice and equity. Therefore we could say that transformative learning occurs when a person is able to change their their worldview, for example about what knowledge is; how society operates; or about their beliefs about themselves (Kitchenham, 2008).

In practice, Transformation Theory could look like CORE Education’s Dr Vince Ham eFellowship. The Dr Vince Ham eFellows are committed to exploring ways of doing education differently for their schools, kura, centres and communities. The purpose of the Dr Vince Ham eFellowship is to inspire transformational practice through inquiry. eFellows are mentored through their own deep inquiry journey that generally takes the form of an action research project. They experience workshops, field trips, critical reflection and dialogue – learning from and with one another.

Further, Transformation Theory can also support school and kura leaders to think about how they design professional learning and development opportunities for their colleagues. Some of the challenges include: nurturing robust professional learning conversations; creating safe environments where people feel comfortable in being vulnerable: admitting they don’t know, or made a mistake. It is important that leaders value and model critical reflection and dialogue with one another, and with colleagues.

To that end, leaders might consider the following questions:

  • How might we encourage teachers to understand their current worldview and assumptions about education, including their position within the education system?
  • How might we foster supportive, safe, and inclusive relationships that allow space for critical reflection and dialogue to unfold?
  • How might we respectfully challenge our assumptions and our assumptions of others so that we can learn other ways in which to view the world?

References and further reading:

Kitchenham, A. (2008). The evolution of John Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory. Journal of Transformative Education, 6(2), 104-123. Retrieved from doi:10.1177/1541344608322678

Meluish Spencer, K. (2016). Can we create conditions for transformation? Retrieved from http://blog.core-ed.org/blog/2016/04/can-we-create-conditions-for-transformation.html

Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Mezirow, J. (2000). Learning to think like an adult. Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress / Jack Mezirow and Associates (pp. 3-33). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Mezirow, J. (2009). Transformative learning theory. In J. Mezirow & E. W. Taylor (Eds.), Transformative learning in practice: Insights from community, workplace, and higher education (pp. 18-31). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Wellbeing: What’s it about?

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Image by CORE Education, all rights reserved.

Wellbeing everywhere

Wellbeing has permeated every facet of our social psyche. It’s in vogue, a fashionable word, possibly even overused. A bit like resilience, but that’s a word for another day. It’s even made CORE’s Ten Trends this year. Wellbeing is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “The state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy.” Internationally there is no agreement on a definition for wellbeing, however, those who research the area agree that wellbeing is more than the absence of disease, it is a construct with many parts. In order to flourish, people need to experience high levels of wellbeing.

Positive Psychology is the field of science that explores optimal human functioning and aims to discover the factors that enable individuals and communities to thrive. Where traditional psychology explores what’s wrong with us and is very much focused on a disease model, Positive Psychology asks what is right with us. This science is also about the permission to be human and being able to experience the full range of human experiences and emotions without getting stuck or hiding from emotions that are hard. As humans, we can become mentally unhealthy when we get stuck in anger, anxiety, depression, judgement or guilt. Positive Psychology offers us tools for coping with negative events, enhancing positive experiences and flexibly moving through the whole gamut of human emotions as we journey through life. It is this lens that I write with.

Focusing on the adults first

It makes sense that if we look after our teachers that they are going to look after our ākonga. I like psychology professor Felicia Huppert’s description of wellbeing: Feeling good and functioning well. So for the purposes of this post, this is the definition we will keep in mind

To operate at our best we need to be well. We all have personal stories about people who, by their own admission, contributed to the outcomes of challenging and difficult situations because they were not operating at or even near their full potential. I’ll never forget the highly stressed doctor (her very own words, and she looked it) repeatedly failing to insert a needle that would drip feed essential medication to our fragile premature son’s heart. Thankfully a mindful nurse intervened, took over and got the vein on her first attempt. We intuitively know it, and the evidence backs it up, when an organisation or individual’s wellbeing is high, performance is enhanced, people are happier, healthier and more connected.

As a profession here in New Zealand, educators are a generous bunch. At times it appears that working hard in education is like a badge of honour. How can you really care when you don’t put your life and soul into the vocation. Give, give, give until we’re spent! Let’s be realistic, this is not sustainable, certainly not if we expect the best outcomes for our ākonga. We instinctively know this is right. How could it not be true? Yet the conveyor belt that is modern life, and our education system, continues to rattle around at an ever faster pace.

We need to be mindful that giving everything for others and leaving nothing in the tank for ourselves can leave us utterly depleted. Again sustainability is the issue here, particularly given the critical teacher shortage that we are currently experiencing in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

We need to be more mindful about our lives, including our workspaces. We need to make the connection that our wellbeing impacts on our ability to be great at what we do. We need to tune in. We need to make wellbeing a part of daily routines.

Just one small step

We often talk about the idea of micro-steps when working with teachers around their wellbeing. There is a variety of wellbeing frameworks out there. However, one of the most widely used wellbeing frameworks referred to as PERMA, comes from the work of Professor Martin Seligman.

Seligman believes there are five foundational pillars to wellbeing:

  • Positive emotions (some describe this as happiness)
  • Engagement
  • Relationships
  • Meaning and purpose
  • Accomplishment.

perma

Graphic by Lauren Douglas, CORE Education. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Want to measure your own wellbeing?

Your responses to the 23 questions on the PERMA meter will give you an idea of how well you are doing in relation to the five pillars. Other researchers have since added an additional pillar of vitality or health which refers to our sleeping, eating, physical movement and our ability to cope with stress. I like the PERMAH (where the H stands for Health) survey created by McQuaid and Kern, leading researchers in the applications of positive interventions.

When considering being well from a Te Ao Māori stance, one of our well-known wellbeing frameworks is Te Whare Tapa Whā, developed by Professor Sir Mason Durie ,1995).

Te Whare Tapa Whā has four foundational walls:
Te Taha Hinengaro (psychological health)
Te Taha Wairua (spiritual health)
Te Taha Tinana (physical health)
Te Whānau (family health)

whare

Image by gerard on Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0.

We also have Te Wheke, which was developed by Dr Rangimarie Turuki Arikirangi Rose Pere. This model provides the additional dimensions of Mauri (life force in people and objects), Hā a koro mā, a kui mā (breath of life from forbearers), Mana ake (unique identity) Whatumanawa (the open and healthy expression of emotion).

The Fonofale model created by Fuimaono Karl Pulottu-Enderman considers the Pacific view on health. Here the idea of cultural values and beliefs as being the shelter of life are expressed.

faleImage by Michael Coghlan on Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0.

All these frameworks have much in common. Our head health, body health, our relationships, and meaning and purpose matters to our overall state of being well. Which framework you decide to use, and there are more than I have mentioned here, depends on your own needs in aligning with culture and or personal preference.

Formulating your wellbeing plan

There are a number of positive interventions that we can use to dial up our pillars of wellbeing.

If I had used Martin Seligman’s PERMA framework and completed the survey, a helpful next step for me to consider might be to focus on two of the pillars to keep it manageable. For argument’s sake, let’s say I chose the positive emotion and engagement pillars as my foci.

Positive emotion – To boost this pillar, I may want to engage in the jolts of joy activity. Here I would write down five things that bring a smile to my face and then reach for this list when I need a boost of positivity (such as after an excruciatingly long meeting).

Engagement – Create my play history – remember a time during my childhood where I did something that brought me great joy and excitement, and then think about ways I could recreate this in my work.

Other examples of activities can be found within the PERMAH survey.
When we talk about positive interventions, they are usually simple in nature and often have us referring back to something in our past, present or future. Very doable indeed.

Wellbeing as a collective endeavour

‘Wellbeing’ is very subjective and means different things to different individuals, so a nice place to start is to have a collective understanding of what wellbeing can mean for all those who have a role in supporting our ākonga and then growing your shared understanding from there.

If Positive Psychology were to be distilled into three words it would be that “other people matter”. These are not my words, but those of the late Professor Chris Peterson.

We know from the research that if we wish to impact the wellbeing of our ākonga, we must first impact the wellbeing of our educators. This is not just our teachers, but also any other adult who works directly or indirectly with our ākonga.

Embracing wellbeing: a few compelling reasons

  • We often mirror our teaching counterparts in the UK. In the 12 months leading up to April 2018, the Guardian reported that the number of teachers seeking mental health support had risen by 35% from a charity that specialises in supporting teachers in education.
  • A 2016 NZ teacher survey discovered that around 87% of teachers (mainly primary) used no strategies to respond to stress and just carried on regardless.

Strategies that enable staff wellbeing

Some effective strategies and practices include:

  • Regular conversations about wellbeing with staff
  • Leaders being approachable and open to discuss issues around workload and how to collectively manage this
  • Flexible spaces and places to work from when on release
  • Wellbeing as a regular agenda item on meetings
  • Individual/group coaching to support the wellbeing of teachers and leaders
  • Having a well-being team that is able to support a planned approach.

In a recent article from one principal who prioritised the wellbeing of their own staff found that they were able to positively impact stress levels and feelings of working in a much more supported environment. Ākonga achievement was also positively impacted.

As nation builders, I believe that our profession is a splendid torch and we want to make it burn as brightly as possible for our future generations. It is imperative that we can do this with our wellbeing intact. We all deserve to feel good and function well.

By being able to focus on wellbeing we are able to build on our emotional resources so that when we are faced with challenging times, either individually or collectively, we can draw on these bank of resources to support us through.

Find out more

  • Explore the Educators’ Wellbeing Toolkit
  • Talk to your PLD facilitators about how you can weave in wellbeing into your context when considering growing your leaders, staff wellbeing, inclusive practices.
  • Chat to Ara about wellbeing facilitation and the next steps in your own learning.

References

Ao Ako Global Learning. About Rose – Ao Ako Global Learning. Retrieved from https://aoakogloballearning.co.nz/about-rose/

Central PHO. (2017). Central PHO Pacific Cultural Guidelines (pp. 3-4). Central PHO.

CORE Education. (2019). Ten Trends 2019 – Wellbeing. Retrieved from http://www.core-ed.org/research-and-innovation/ten-trends/2019/wellbeing/

Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand. (2011). Te Whare Tapa Whā: Mason Durie – Hauora. Retrieved from https://hauora.co.nz/te-whare-tapa-wha-mason-durie/

Lang, D. (2018). Every school needs a staff wellbeing team – here’s how to start one. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2018/feb/01/staff-wellbeing-team-school-improved

McQuaid, M. Kern, P. (2017). Your Wellbeing Blueprint: Feeling good and doing well at work, Australia.Michelle McQuaid.

Profile: Christopher Peterson. (2013). Retrieved from https://www.livehappy.com/science/profiles/profile-christopher-peterson

Save Our Schools NZ. (2016). Teacher Stress & Anxiety in New Zealand Schools. Retrieved from https://saveourschoolsnz.com/2016/12/01/teacher-stress-anxiety-in-nz-schools/

Seligman, M. E. (2011). Flourish. North Sydney, N.S.W.: Random House Australia.

Stanley, J. (2018). Teachers are at breaking point. It’s time to push wellbeing up the agenda. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2018/apr/10/teachers-are-at-breaking-point-its-time-to-push-wellbeing-up-the-agenda

University of Pennsylvania. Profile of Dr. Martin Seligman | Authentic Happiness. Retrieved from https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/faculty-profile/profile-dr-martin-seligman

University of Pennsyvania. Professor Felicia A. Huppert, Ph.D. | Authentic Happiness. Retrieved from https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/faculty-profile/professor-felicia-huppert-phd

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Rocket science

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Game-based learning is a big subject, and you could go broad, or you could go deep. It means very different things to very different people. I’m thinking about just one facet of it, gaining an introduction to computer science and computational thinking through the design of games.

Before we go any further, we need to do some disambiguation.

This is not gamification. Gamification is the application of game techniques in non-game environments. It is used as an extrinsic motivator in regular courseware, and it usually takes the form of points, a leaderboard, and badges. It may be used in more subtle ways, like upvoting in forums and a reward for best post.

Nor am I talking about fully-worked strategy games like Civilization, or fast action multi-player games, not in this article. Creating games like these is at a level of human achievement second only to building a railway through the jungle.

What I am talking about is scrolling platform games, like Super Mario, and top-down adventures, explorations, and simulations. The emphasis is on storytelling, and there are strong links to the curriculum. Using a web application such as Gamefroot, which supports block coding, students can start from a young age exploring the wonderful sense of agency that happens when you tell computers what to do.

In this initial sketch the scoping exercise is done. It is easy, for example, to draw a robotic arm for manipulating rock samples, but to animate and code it would truly be a mission into deep space. Note that the learner is starting to consider the forces acting on the rocket: gravity, weight, and drag and the thrust that will be needed to overcome them. Graphic by Stephen Lowe, All Rights Reserved.
In this initial sketch the scoping exercise is done. It is easy, for example, to draw a robotic arm for manipulating rock samples, but to animate and code it would truly be a mission into deep space. Note that the learner is starting to consider the forces acting on the rocket: gravity, weight, and drag and the thrust that will be needed to overcome them. Graphic by Stephen Lowe, all rights reserved.

In the future everyone will not be a computer programmer. So what is the point of students learning coding at school?

Edsger Dijkstra, the revered matua of computer programming, is famous for saying, “Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” What he was trying to say is that Computer Science is a way of thinking, a lens through which to understand the world. Living in a world where even your wristwatch is a computer, where robots do factory jobs, and driverless taxis take us across town it has to be important to have this Computational Thinking lens in your kete. It’s the new literacy.

“Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes”
― Edsger Dijkstra

Isn’t Computational Thinking just a buzz word for mental arithmetic?

I’d be the first person to lament the passing of mental arithmetic. It’s a skill, a knack, that was distributed through all layers of our society in a time when we still carried notes and coins in our purses and calculators were heavy mechanical devices. Take the slide-rule, a more portable calculator of the recent past. For an engineer or a navigator to use a slide rule they had to know the order of the answer before they started, the slide rule merely filled in the detail. Shop assistants working the till could do mental gymnastics at light speed. Gone. Now the domain of eccentric hobbyists.

Computational thinking is a different animal altogether. It’s about decomposition, abstraction, algorithm design, and pattern recognition. When we do stuff like that, far from weakening our brains, we start to see the world in a whole different way. Seeing things in a different way is one of the most important things we as humans can learn, because it gives us what we need to adapt and survive.

Firm foundations

Game-based learning as it might be practiced in schools today stands on firm foundations. Surprisingly perhaps, it is neither new, nor is it experimental.

Seymour Papert’s book Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas was published in 1980. That’s forty years ago. In the foreword Papert refers to the transitional object. That’s what the sprites in the game become, objects that embody higher and more abstract concepts. Objects to think with.

Mitchell Resnick, who was a student of Papert, started Computer Clubhouse in 1993. This free after school club instantiated Papert’s thesis of social constructionism. Today it has matured into The Clubhouse Network “where young people from underserved communities work with adult mentors to explore their own ideas, develop new skills, and build confidence in themselves through the use of technology”. It is a worldwide network with nodes in eighteen countries.

Sugata Mitra is best known for his Hole in the Wall Project in 1999. It has come in for quite a bit of criticism, but personally I buy into it. The gist of it is that, left to get on with it, children learn naturally. The role of the teacher changes, providing the learners with a safe environment, resources, and encouragement. Game-based education has elements of MIE (Minimally Invasive Education) and SOLE (Self Organised Learning Environments). This is in keeping with modern trends in education where children are afforded greater agency.

Here the final artwork has been completed. Fully saturated colours have been chosen, and some of the finer detail dropped to create a pleasing cartoon representation of a rocket. Note that the learner has had to explore the genre and will have tested their colour scheme against intended backgrounds. Graphic by Stephen Lowe, all rights reserved.
Here the final artwork has been completed. Fully saturated colours have been chosen, and some of the finer detail dropped to create a pleasing cartoon representation of a rocket. Note that the learner has had to explore the genre and will have tested their colour scheme against intended backgrounds. Graphic by Stephen Lowe, all rights reserved.

Objects to think with

I’d like to quote Seymour Papert here, from the transcript of a speech he gave in 1998: “My goal in life, which has been my major activity over the last 10 years, has been to find ways children can use this technology as a constructive medium to do things that no child could do before, to do things at a level of complexity that was not previously accessible to children.”

So what are these transitional objects called sprites and where do you get them?

Sprites are the actors in a game. In a gaming world an object like a planet or a rock might be as much an actor as is a rocket or a cosmonaut. Learners drag objects from a library onto the stage, at which point they become sprites. Scripts are attached to them to cause them to do things like move, interact with other sprites, and interact with the scene. The scene is made up of tiles. Learners can use ready-made collections of objects, or they can draw their own according to the time they have available, their level of study, and their aptitude.

What are the powerful ideas, the higher and more abstract concepts?

So, it’s pretty easy to understand that you can attach scripts, and tell your rocket to move. But let’s extend this just a little bit and see where it goes. Assume in the first place you want to escape Earth’s gravity. How much thrust will you need, and for how long? The space shuttle needed 1.2 million pounds of thrust for 6 minutes to reach orbit at 17,000 miles per hour. Now do you see where this is going? How this meshes with STEM?

Let us now visit three planets, each with a different gravity to Earth. We want gentle landings and successful escape from their gravitational fields. This simulation, with some timely prompts from a game-savvy teacher, will cover Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths. It’s going to be fun. But it’s going to be “hard fun”, a term Papert himself used.

And the higher and more abstract concepts, what about them? Computational Thinking, as we explored earlier, is not just maths. Computational Thinking is about how to think and how to solve problems. It’s about Decomposition, Abstraction, Algorithm design, and Pattern recognition. The meat in tomorrow’s sandwich.

While Gamefroot comes with a good library of game objects there is something satisfying about drawing your own. Gamefroot is about learning coding, but it can be about creating game art too. Note that in the attached script values are assigned to the concepts of gravity, thrust, acceleration, and drag. Experimenting with the balance of these values will affect the behaviour of the rocket. Graphics by Stephen Lowe and Gamefroot, all rights reserved.
While Gamefroot comes with a good library of game objects there is something satisfying about drawing your own. Gamefroot is about learning coding, but it can be about creating game art too. Note that in the attached script values are assigned to the concepts of gravity, thrust, acceleration, and drag. Experimenting with the balance of these values will affect the behaviour of the rocket. Graphics by Stephen Lowe and Gamefroot, all rights reserved.

The challenges we face

I hope the argument I have presented here helps in the challenge to convince sceptical parents that games-based learning is not an ill-defined liberal whim, but a well-established pedagogy standing on solid foundations of research and practice.

Working with individual students to move them from fun to hard fun will sometimes be a challenge, but in many cases will be surprisingly easy. The joy of the games-based learning approach is that each learner will be able to perform to the best of their ability scaffolded by a framework that really knows no bounds.

Teachers will face challenges. It is important to remember that you do not have to keep one click ahead of the kids, you can happily let them overtake you in that respect. If this aspect of game-based learning is stressing you I suggest you follow the links I offered earlier to Sugata Mitra’s work.

Suggested resources

Kia Takatū ā-Matihiku CORE Education are partners in this valuable self review tool. Find out how ready you are to implement the new curriculum content and catch up with students. Completing the review takes five to ten minutes and all of the results are confidential to you.

Educational Games Design Fundamentals: A journey to creating intrinsically motivating learning experiences by George Kalmpourtz. (Expensive but comprehensive).

Algorithms to Live By The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths (Requires no maths to get the most from it).

The Art of Game Design A Deck of Lenses by Jesse Schell (Useful in the classroom).

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Kirirarautanga | Citizenship

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Citizenship is a term that will have very different personal meanings to all of us. From the whenua we come from, to the land we live in, one thing remains the same – we’re all part of a bigger networked, global ‘village’. With easily accessible, borderless spaces online, there has never been a more important time to reflect on what it means to be a responsible digital citizen, both in Aotearoa and the wider global community.

One of three overriding themes for CORE uLearn19 is Kirirarautanga | Citizenship.

He hapori e ngaruru ana i te ao kōtui, he wāhi, hei tāpaetanga, hei tūrangawaewae mō te katoa.
Thriving communities in a networked world, where everyone has a place, everyone contributes, and everyone belongs.

Derek Wenmoth (2019) writes in his blog about ‘Auahatanga | Innovation’, if we want our young people to be innovators and change agents, who can begin to mobilise in response to the growing concerns they have about the problems they see looming on the horizon, then we will need to empower them to be the change agents that make a positive difference in the world they live in – both in person and online. And Richard Culatta (CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, ISTE) also echoes these thoughts in relation to the use of digital technologies and the way they influence our participation as citizens in society:

Preparing a generation of effective digital citizens is the most important thing we can do to ensure a democracy for the future. (Rethinking Digital Citizenship, Youtube, 11.08)

Social networks and online communities break down barriers of geography, time, culture, and identity. Relationships are formed and boundaries overcome where people join together online through common interest (hobbies), circumstance (possibly not by choice), place (location), action (cause) and practice (job related). Most work for good, while some violate the rights and well-being of others.  Shortly after Twitter was launched, it gave millions a voice on a global stage. The platform didn’t differentiate between the social good or the defamatory, offensive content. Thirteen years on, and in light of recent events in Christchurch, many countries are now calling for social media controls where giants like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter are held to account for the management of offensive and harmful content online.

While algorithms do their best to ban illegal material, questionable and undesirable content remains readily available, regardless of the age, culture and gender of its consumers. As a society, we must critically reflect, not just on the technologies, but rather on how we’re choosing to use them. As educators, we need to nurture our young people into becoming discerning users of these spaces. In addition to teaching about online safety, we need to teach what safe, ethical and responsible use of digital technologies looks like.

Digital technologies provide us with ways of connecting and participating in society that we’ve not experienced in the past. Digital citizenship (underpinned by digital fluency) is defined as participation in civic, cultural, economic and environmental opportunities online. (A definition of digital citizenship, Netsafe, 2018, Enabling e-Learning: Digital Citizenship). In this Youtube video (11.08), Richard Culatta talks about digital citizenship not a set of rules for what not to do, but about using technology to:

  • make your community better
  • respectfully engage with people who have different beliefs from yours
  • be able to shape and change public policy
  • be able to recognise the validity of online sources of information.

Everyday we see social media and web platforms used for social good where social impact enhances the lives of others, champions a cause, or inspires a collective call to action. We witnessed this in 2011 when 10,000 young people mobilised a volunteer army during the Christchurch earthquakes. The impact of their social action lives on with founder Sam Johnson (28) who has started a company to connect younger community members with lonely elderly folk. As Sam says,

The student army was never really about shifting silt. It was about connecting people and helping people out. Christchurch Student Volunteer Army founder’s plan to combat elderly loneliness

On the flip side, social platforms have been used to incite hate, validate radical propaganda, sway public opinion, and interfere with political outcomes. Here six degrees of separation becomes a seamless, ubiquitous network of association where confirmation biases misinformation, and thousands (potentially millions) of people are presented with falsehoods they start to believe, adopt and share.

To make sure we are ingesting truth, and not propaganda with a strong political slant, it is important for everyone to independently verify information gathered through social media and many news sources with a known political persuasion before presenting it to others as fact. Unfortunately, few people do this research.Are You In A Social Media Echo Chamber? How To Take An Objective Look

If social media can shape our collective thinking, then a digitally-savvy person will need to be able to question the validity of information sources and distinguish fact from fiction. They will also need to be media literate. As educators, we can teach our students how to understand different types of media and the messages they’re sending. If we don’t, young people are left to navigate this on their own.

This is too important to leave to chance. After all, the obligations, rights and actions of citizenship permeate every part of our lives. If we all took a stance by respectfully engaging with others from different practices, cultures and world-views, social media platforms could become a space where trolling would be discouraged and hate commentary ignored. Collectively we could create a tipping point, and become part of the solution rather than perpetuating the problem. When we teach students about wellbeing, we need also to talk about the consequences of using technology in ways that impact negatively on the wellbeing of others. Discussing technology use “for good” will help them to see its potential as an influential channel where voices, including theirs, can have a positive impact on shaping public policy. When they understand this power, and mobilise it, then we will genuinely see change for the better.

Whether you see social media use as a problem or an incredible resource, there can be no denying that it is firmly entrenched in our society. Learners of today value their online interactions as highly as their offline conversations. Our role as teachers and educators has never been more crucial in helping them find the balance, behaviour, and beauty that exists in all their lives (James Hopkins, CORE blog, I am a citizen of Facebook).

As educators we want our young people to find that balance, to have a sense of belonging (whanaungatanga) and wellbeing, to be part of safe, respectful, thriving, networked community online, that reflects us as Kiwis on a global stage. As global citizens, we could help positively shape spaces online – where diverse language, culture and heritage would shine. This won’t happen if we don’t actively teach what digital citizenship means to us, both in Aotearoa and a global context.

In the broader sense of the CORE uLearn19 theme Kirirarautanga | Citizenship, we can also use the following focus questions to deepen our understandings, ignite new ways of thinking and inspire new ways of working.

  1. What does it mean to be a citizen in Aotearoa, in an inclusive modern society?
  2. What does collective responsibility for all learners look like?
  3. How do we teach our learners to be active, responsible ‘digital citizens’?
  4. Whose responsibility is student wellbeing? How might we create supportive systems and contextual wellbeing?
  5. What impact is globalisation having in our local context? How do we maintain our identity on a global stage?

How do you promote good digital citizenship in your classroom? Do you want to know how to promote better and safer practices? What is one deliberate act of teaching you pledge to help promote good digital citizenship in your classroom?

edSpace is CORE Education’s online network for educators to connect with others, discuss strategies, and share information – join edSpace. Once you’re there, head to our uLearn discussion forum, to discuss more about Citizenship.

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

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Whakatōhenehene | Disruption

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disruption

Reflective practice and lifelong learning, are fundamental dispositions for educators in Aotearoa. We are guided by a professional code which asks us to demonstrate a commitment to providing high-quality and effective teaching, to analyse and review our teaching practice, and to innovate through inquiry. While we proudly claim a world-class education system, in terms of educational equality, New Zealand ranks in the bottom third of all OECD countries (UNICEF Office of Research, 2018). It is increasingly evident that disruption is needed. Disruptive education calls for us to go further, moving beyond our pursuit of improved practice to creating entirely new ways of doing things which make the old methods obsolete.

People of Aotearoa have a whakapapa of disruption. Linked by the histories of our land, we all share a connection to Māui; well known for his stories of innovation and disruptive action.

Māui the disruptor: At one time, all the fire in the world needed continual tending as only the flames of another fire could be used to start a new one. Māui, the disruptor, wondered what would happen if all those fires went out, he leapt to action extinguishing every last spark. The disappearance of their vital fire threw the people into turmoil; Māui needed to find a new solution. So he sought out Mahuika, goddess of fire. Mahuika was open to hearing Māui’s plea and offered a new flame so that Māui could return fire to the world. However, Māui was not satisfied with the idea of reverting to the way things had been. He destroyed each flame Mahuika offered and challenged her to consider a new approach. Drained of all but her final spark she flung her last flame toward Māui, setting alight the forest behind him. Honoured by this gift the trees guarded the spark now within them. From then on, by rubbing two sticks together from these trees Mahuika’s flame would be released. Now people possessed a source of fire, disrupting the old practice of flame keeping, as a new and more efficient approach, became available to the people of the world. (Grace, 2019)

This story of how Māui brought fire to the world helps us to understand the potential for disruptive change, that displacing established practices can create a place for us to consider an entirely new way of reaching our goals. So how did Māui embrace disruption? His curious nature helped him to think beyond the comfortable norm. Māui’s bravery meant that he fearlessly acted on his hunch to explore beyond current circumstances. His steady tenacity enabled Māui to persevere in his pursuit of a new more effective solution.

The teaching and learning in many of our institutions undeniably looks, sounds and feels comparable to the systems of 100 years ago. We must acknowledge that many of these old approaches no longer serve the goals and visions of learners today. It seems that innovators in education have not yet disrupted the current state enough to force the shifts needed to reimagine an education system which equitably serves the needs of all stakeholders and their communities. So, how might we get there? What are we doing to enable disruption in our education settings? Moreover, are we going far enough?

One way for us to facilitate disruption is by embracing new technologies. Technology can act as a catalyst for disruptive change. Consider how the entertainment giant Netflix utilised the technology available to disrupt the entertainment industry. Providing a more efficient system, which met the developing needs and expectations of its users rendered the previous models insufficient and led to the demise of preceding giants who chose to retain the walk-in video store models which had served them well in the past.

It is the evolving needs of its users which drives disruptive change in any industry. As we are challenged to embrace disruption in education, we should reflect on who it is that our education system is working to serve. Learners placed at the heart of learning should be empowered to drive disruption. Those holding power to enable disruptive change in education will determine the future of our communities. Let us consider who has been empowered by our existing systems to affect change and how we might deconstruct these power structures to bring all stakeholders to the table. There is massive potential for these shifts to enhance our nation’s commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi in upholding Kāwanatanga, Tino Rangatiratanga and Ōritetanga. We should appreciate not just the impact that disruptive education might have on our communities but also the impact that our communities might have on disruption in education.

He whakatōhenehene te karawhiu! Kia mārama ki ngā karawhiunga o te whakatōhenehene i te ao ako me te wātea o ētahi tū āhuatanga ki te whakatōhenehene.

The new norm. Recognising the impact of disruptive forces in our educational context and harnessing the opportunities to disrupt the status quo.

Examining trends in education may be one way that we can predict where disruption is most likely to take place. Consider how these Ten Trends are causing disruption in current practice and how we might explore the potential for these trends to disrupt our teaching and learning contexts.

  • A focus on wellbeing
  • Cultural narratives
  • Social mapping
  • Real-time reporting
  • Schools as part of the community
  • Changing role of teachers
  • Micro-credentialing
  • Big data, small data
  • Human capital
  • Understanding success

The CORE uLearn19 conference themes of Kirirarautanga | Citizenship, Whakatōhenehene | Disruption and Auahatanga | Innovation intertwine to help us to recognise new ways to effect positive change. The following focus questions empower us to consider our role in influencing disruption:

  1. How do we build the capacity for continuous disruptive change in ourselves and our learners? What competencies are required
  2. How can we disrupt in mana enhancing and inclusive ways?
  3. Where disruptions are evident in your educational setting, how do we know that they are occurring for the better?
  4. How can we understand and respond to the disruptions that are happening in our society? What have we learned from past disruptions to take us into the future?
  5. What effect is digitisation having on the workplace and how can we best utilise the opportunities?

Imagine the impact of an education system, which genuinely reflects the needs of those it serves. When all learners, educators, whānau and community are empowered to be disruptors in our education system, we will witness disruptive changes which move beyond doing the same things in better ways, to being presented with new ways of reaching our evolving goals. As we embrace our innate Māuitanga and the qualities of curiosity, bravery and perseverance bestowed on us by our whakapapa as New Zealanders, we will discover new ways of teaching, new ways of learning, and new ways of being, to share with the world.

edSpace is CORE Education’s online network for educators to connect with others, discuss strategies, and share information – join edSpace here. Once you’re there, head to our uLearn discussion forum, and join the discussion about Disruption.

What actions might you take toward activating disruptive change?

References
CORE Education. (2019). Ten Trends. Retrieved March 19, 2019, from http://core-ed.org/research-and-innovation/ten-trends/

Grace, W. (2019). How Māui brought fire to the world / Māori Myths, Legends and Contemporary Stories / Te Reo Māori / Support materials / Home – Mātauranga Māori. Retrieved from http://eng.mataurangamaori.tki.org.nz/Support-materials/Te-Reo-Maori/Maori-Myths-Legends-and-Contemporary-Stories/How-Maui-brought-fire-to-the-world

Iny, D. (2018) Leveraged Learning: How the Disruption of Education Helps Lifelong Learners, and Experts with Something to Teach. Washington, Columbia Country: Influential Marketing Group.

Ministry of Education. (2019). Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko. Retrieved March 19, 2019, from https://kiatakatu.ac.nz

UNICEF Office of Research (2018). ‘An Unfair Start: Inequality in Children’s Education in Rich Countries’, Innocenti Report Card 15, UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, Florence.  Retrieved March 19, 2019, from https://innocenti.unicef.org.nz/

Photo by Yaoqi LAI on Unsplash

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