Patrick M. Jenlink

Case stories of facilitating professional development

Abstract This article reports on an 18-month study of teacher study group facilitation in a 25 district consortium. The teacher study group was viewed as an alternative form of professional development within the context of a funded project. Case story, as a form of narrative inquiry, was used to work with participants to construct their own stories of personal experiences as members and facilitators of teacher study groups. The stories shared in this study indicate that facilitation of and participation in a study group as an alternative form of professional development affords an opportunity for transformation through personal growth and professional learning.

GUIDELINES FOR FACILITATING SYSTEMIC CHANGE IN SCHOOL DISTRICTS

This paper opens by addressing the emerging need for systemic change in K-12 school systems, with consideration given to requirements for new mindsets on educational change. Given the history of less than successful attempts at educational change, the need exists for a guidance system which helps change facilitators to guide school districts and communities through a systemic change process. The paper describes the characteristics and elements of a systemic change guidance system which builds on the principles of process facilitation and systems design. It examines in detail the integral values or beliefs related to facilitation and systemic change, the types of events (sets of activities) typically needed, and the processes which form the guidance system. Also discussed is the process used to create the guidance system.

CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT TEACHING AND LEARNING: THREE CASE STUDIES IN CONSTRUCTIVIST PEDAGOGY

Abstract This article examines three case studies of educators who came together initially during a summer professional development experience. During a two-week immersion, the educators and facilitators of this experience engaged in challenging their assumptions and practice through the lens of constructivist pedagogy. The two-week immersion evolved into an on-going professional learning community. The stories that are shared offer a context within which we enhanced our understanding about constructivism as pedagogy as well as the power of professional development through a learning community.

Dialogue as a collective means of design conversation

Design Conversation: Future Building and Consciousness Evolving.- Design Conversation.- The Conversation Movement.- Design Communication: Systems, Service, Conspiracy, and Leaderships.- The Power Of Dialogue In Social Systems.- Perspectives of Desgin Conversation.- Searching Together: Approaches, Methods, and Tools.- Conversation: Creating a Living Metaphor.- Appreciative Inquiry as Conversation.- Rights and Responsibilities in Conversation Practice.- Transcultural Communications: Theory and Practice.- The Critical Role of Dialogue in Emancipatory Systems Design.- Modalities of Design Conversation.- Dialogue and Designing Our Future: Conversation as Culture Creating and Consciousness Evolving.- The Making of a New Culture Learning Conversations and Design Conversations in Social Evolution.- The Cogniscope(t) Lessons Learned in the Arena.- Narrative Story as Discourse in Systems Design.- Conversation as an Activity System: The Mediational Role of Discourse in Systems Design.- Practical Applications of Design Conversation.- The North End Agora: Design Conversation at the Neighborhood Level.- Conversation as the Communication Method of Choice: Designing New Agoras for the 21st Century.- A Post-Formal Intervention Strategy: The Case of the Texas Educational Model.- The Experiences of Long-Term Practitioners of Bohms Dialogue.- Reflections on Creating the Future.- Creating our Shared Future Reflections on Conscious Evolution of Society.

Creating Democratic Learning Communities: Transformative Work as Spatial Practice

The focus of this article revolves around democratic learning communities and the work of P–12 teachers and educational leaders as spatialized practice. Through a critical pragmatic lens, we explore what is necessary to transform the social space of contemporary schools into democratically practiced places of learning for teachers: democratic learning communities. The importance of democratizing social space for learning is examined in relation to developing faculty learning communities. The transformation occurs when learning communities of inquiry and practice are engaged in social discourse concerned with generating new knowledge while critically examining existing knowledge in relation to existing social practices. Extending how educators think about faculty learning communities in schools as a form of spatialized practice, Deweys ideas of democratic education are accepted as a basis for reconceptualizing the social space within the school as a democratically practiced place.

EDUCATION, SOCIAL CREATIVITY, AND THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIETY

The evolution of society, the transcendence of existing social structures, and how society creates itself rests in a function of education. In this article the author examines educations work as that of social creativity. The need for pedagogies of “educate hope” and “imaginative possibilities” is explored. Social epistemology and social imaginary are discussed as dimensions of social creativity within the postmodern society. The aesthetic imperative in education is argued as important to developing the capacities and capabilities in youth to imagine alternative future possibilities of democratic society. The author concludes by examining the role of education in the evolution of society.

BANATHY'S INFLUENCE ON THE GUIDANCE SYSTEM FOR TRANSFORMING EDUCATION

INTRODUCTIONThis article is a tribute to the work of Bela H. Banathy. We identify how Banathyhas influenced our work on systemic change in education. For Banathy (1996) thecrux of systemic change is found in systems design, which is a process that engagesstakeholders in conversations on their visions, ideals, values, and aspirations with

Democracy Distracted in an Era of Accountability Teacher Education Against Neoliberalism

Democracy’s distraction by the politics of accountability and the public’s disaffection in an ideologically bound culture of accountability further defines the work ahead for teacher educators in an era of neoliberalism. The author discusses the hegemony of neoliberalism and its political and economic threat to education and, more importantly, to the function of education in a democratic society. The author argues the need for teacher educators to advance a culture of democratic accountability in preparing future teachers. Further argued is that the current culture of technical-managerial accountability is counter intuitive to a democratic society and its educational system. The author examines the meaning of technical-managerial standards of accountability as a neoliberal agenda, presenting a counter narrative of standards of complexity as return to a culture of professional and democratic accountability.

Globalization and the Evolution of Democratic Civil Society: Democracy as Spatial Discourse

At its core, the evolution of democratic civil society is a process of transcending existing, historical social space, a process that desires to dissolve “political society” into “civil society” and with it to reformulate space as more democratic, participatory public space, and global spheres of interaction. In this article, the author examines the implications of globalization and the evolution of democratic civil society. Drawing on the work of French theorists de Certeau and Lefebvre, the author examines the nature of space as a social construct and the importance of understanding space as a practiced place in relation to the evolution of democratic civil society that makes transnational space a practiced place for global civil society. The author argues that as globalization spreads across nation-states, spatial forces produced by economic, cultural, and political discourses and practices give way to the potential for the evolution of democratic civil society.

Education for Civil Society: Evolutionary Guidance and the Democratic Ideal

This article honors Bela H. Banathys work in social systems design and acknowledges his intellectual, professional, and humanitarian gifts to the system sciences community. The author examines Banathys epistemology of conscious self-guided evolution and how it has influenced the authors thinking and research in design of educational systems, and in particular the study of educations role as an evolutionary guidance system for civil society. Specifically, the author examines Banathys notions of evolutionary guidance systems (EGSs) and the design inquiry process. Design conversation is elaborated as a communication method for systems design and as a medium for communicative democracy. The concepts of civil society and democracy are examined in depth, providing an etymological analysis of each as a foundation for civil society as an ideal image. Consideration is given to Banathys ideas of democracy and the New Agoras as ethical systems for the pursuit of conscious evolution. The author presents his considerations for education as an EGS for conscious evolution of civil society.