Navigating the Mindsets and Minedfields An Extended Metaphor

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Navigating the Mindsets and Min(e)dfieldsAn
Extended Metaphor

• Dr Sally Hansen
• Dr Lone Jorgensen
• Dr Peter Rawlins

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The Premise

• Human behaviours - attitudes, anxieties, fears,
  jealousies, dispositions, assumptions and
  presumptions etc are powerful determinants in any
  change process.

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Negotiation and Compromise

• Academic programmes (in this case, Teacher
  Education) constructed through process of
  negotiation and compromise of individual and
  collective understandings and ideas.
• Not a linear process
• Shaped by personal and professional identities,
  assumptions, ideologies, histories
• External and internal forces and influences

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Navigation metaphor

• powerful metaphor
• the idea of an expert leader assisted by tools
  (maps, charts, experience,) and expert people
  guiding the group safely to a new place.

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The Background

• Review of initial teacher education programme -
  Graduate Diploma of Teaching (Secondary).
• Recommendations
• future-focused programme
• new knowledge and understandings about education
• community of learners
• use and recognition of on-line and adult
  pedagogies
• Increased recognition of innovations in Education
• THEREFORE, NEED FOR CHANGE

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Big Questions

• Common vision/understanding of the purpose of
  initial teacher education?
• Key elements of a teacher education programme?
• Characteristics of an emerging/graduating teacher
  have?
• Preparing teachers for the status quo of for
  future-focused classrooms?
• Emphasise knowledge or dispositions? Or both?
  How? Why?
• Professional capacity alongside personal
  identity?

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The Nature of Change

• Change, at its best, is the adoption of an
  innovation where the ultimate goal is to improve
  outcomes through an alteration of practices
  (Carlopio, 1998, 2).
• Both internal and external forces drive the need
  for change.
• Globalisation of society has produced an
  imperative for continual reappraisal of practices
  in order to maintain a competitive edge (Swenson,
  1997).
• SO WHATS THE EFFECT ON EDUCATION?

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Change in Education

• Future-Proofing
• Need to update practices with the findings of
  international research and national/international
  trends.
• Need to respond to national and global
  socio-cultural, political and economic
  imperatives.
• .

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The Process of Change
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Impediments to Change

• Introducing new ideas and innovations without
  letting go existing practices can be problematic.
• Many of the "best ideas" are not put into
  practice due to conflict with "deeply held
  internal images (Senge (1992, 5).
• Failure to critically review prevailing
  assumptions and philosophies when formulating new
  strategies can be one of the many causes of
  failure to implement innovative structures and
  practices (Whitely 1995, 48).

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Passion and Politics

• Passion and politics can be both catalysts and
  impediments in the change process.
• Mindsets become Min(e)fields when parameters and
  ownership of knowledge are challenged or
  threatened.
• Accentuated with people who define themselves
  through or by their work i.e. what they know and
  what they do with what they know.
• Occurs at both the individual level and at the
  group level

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Mindsets and Min(e)dfields

• Change in academic organisations is often impeded
  by the divergence of deeply held beliefs and
  assumptions and the unwillingness to let go of
  these.
• People can live out their academic lives within
  epistemological paradigms which can become very
  resistant to change.

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What is a Mindset?

• A mindset, in decision theory and general
  systems theory, refers to a set of assumptions,
  methods or notations held by one or more people
  or groups of people which is so established that
  it creates a powerful incentive within these
  people or groups to continue to adopt or accept
  prior behaviours, choices, or tools. This
  phenomenon of cognitive bias is also sometimes
  described as mental inertia, "groupthink", or a
  "paradigm", and it is often difficult to
  counteract its effects upon analysis and decision
  making processes.
• (Wikipedia)

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The My-Zone Syndrome

• Challenges to traditional paradigms and my
  zones - ownership of knowledge?
• Some individuals - Students need to know what I
  know.thereby reinforcing the dependency cycle.
• Such attitudes can be paralysing

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Dispositions

• Dispositional Affect, similar to mood, is a
  personality trait or overall tendency to respond
  to situations in stable, predictable ways. This
  trait is expressed by the tendency to see things
  in positive or negative way. People with high
  positive affectivity tend to perceive things
  through pink lens while people with high
  negative affectivity tend to perceive things
  through black lens
• (Wikipedia)

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Group Dynamics

• (1958) Schutzs theory of interpersonal
  relations Fundamental Interpersonal Relations
  Orientation (FIRO) 3 dimensions of
  interpersonal relations necessary and sufficient
  to explain most human interaction.
• The dimensions are
• Inclusion
• Control
• Affection.

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Self-efficacy

• High Self-efficacy (positive orientation)
• willingness to take risks, innovative, enjoy
  change. Positive orientation.
• Low Self-efficacy (negative orientation)
  unwilling to take risks, view innovations with
  scepticism, do not enjoy change. Negative
  orientation.

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Lead? Manage? Persuade? Dissuade? Dictate?

• Biggest challenge is getting right balance
  between managing and leading so that forward
  momentum occurs.
• Polarities between ideologies and personalities
  can be such that the forward movement is more
  circular or static.
• Formation of sub-groups that construct their own
  way forward!

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Team Work
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Baby Steps

• Lets start at the very beginninga very good
  place to start .
• Important to create a foundation or springboard
• Need for a common touch stone- the Graduate
  Profile
• An agreed outcome
• Process valuable for identifying whats important
  and whats not so important.

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Providing a Framework

• Leadership provided by proposing a framework for
  Teaching
• HOW? - Pedagogy and Practice
• WHAT? Content and Process
• WHERE?- Context
• WHEN?-Time and Place
• WHO? - Learners and Learners needs
• WHY? - Personal and Professional Identity

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Navigation and Negotiation

• Divergence and Convergence
• Leadership involved steering discussions towards
  positive convergence and deflecting or dealing
  with negative divergence.
• Important to allow the convergent voices to be
  heard and not to be sabotaged by a divergent or
  dissident voice.
• Important to not allow the divergent voice to
  dominate- often want to do so and can be a
  powerful force.

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Draft Graduate Profile 2008
WHERE THEY ARE TEACHING Demonstrate knowledge and
understanding that education and schooling are
influenced by a range of factors, such
as Political Economic Social Cultural,
especially in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Treaty of
Waitangi, and the unique contribution of tikanga
and te Reo Maori Global (GTS 3a,b, c)
WHAT TO TEACH Demonstrate understanding and
ability to select and use teaching and learning
approaches that promote, develop and challenge
learners knowledge, skills and key competencies.
(GTS 1a c, 4 d, e)
WHEN THEY ARE TEACHING Demonstrate historical
and contextual knowledge and understandings of
teaching and learning in schools related to
Curriculum, Pedagogy, Assessment. (GTS 3a, b)
Students graduating from Massey University
College of Education will have the emerging
knowledge, skills and dispositions to be
effective beginning teachers.
HOW TO TEACH Demonstrate and effectively apply
best practice in terms of Pedagogy Relevant
learning and assessment theories Professional
attitudes Promotion of positive teaching and
learning environments (GTS 1b, 2a, b, d, 4a, b,
5b, 6c, d)
WHO THEY ARE TEACHING Demonstrate knowledge and
understanding of learners and learners needs in
areas such as Adolescent development Diversity Pa
storal care Biculturalism Multiculturalism Equity
and Inclusion (GTS 2a, c, 3c, 4c, 5c, 6a, e, 4f,)
WHY THEY ARE TEACHERS Demonstrate an ability to
critically reflect on why and who they are as
teachers, and to articulate a set of professional
values and beliefs about teaching and
learning. (GTS 3a, 5a, c, 6b, 7a, b, c, d)
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What Now?

• Keep the momentum going