[NLA] building policy vision

[Catherine B. King]

Hello Eileen:

Your three themes, and the related learning theories you refer
to, are all directly congruous with western democracies.  They
all imply an ongoing openness to understanding and to
creative orders, openness to knowing anything we want to
know, and an openness to discernment of the good however
we may develop and define it.  Education in every culture
"sits" in a context of a specified political order (one kind of
"bigger picture").

Whereas education in more "top-down" political orders seek
control and to develop not openness, but passivity and closure
around either a political and/or religious ideology--resulting
in the kind of "receivers" you speak of in your note.  In these
cultures, the theories you speak of do not speak of "how things
are and should be," but rather are seditious and incongruent
with the political-religious order.  A view of them in this light
should also begin to answer the question "why they hate us so
much" at least in part.

But the definition of Education is determined by the political
order we live in.  We tend to forget that in western democracies.

Of course, for some human spirits in any culture, no amount of
fear and ignorance will make puppets and receivers out of us.
But putting up with a few hidden poets is not the same thing as
developing an open, vibrant, messy, loud and irreverent
democracy where everyone has something to say and the
problem is not silence, but one of developing self-reflection,
good listeners, and an identity with community concerns over
individual self-aggrandizement.

The point of recognizing the "deep" connection of what we mean
by education (and various learning theories) with democracy is to
try to move adult education away from the whole idea of "welfare"
(defined as giveaway or merely connected with work) and into its
<<essential>> relationship to a civilized and civilizing democracy
based not on following the leader, but on transparency and
dialogue where we are all developed to be capable of discernment,
and of being both leaders and followers--at the right time and place.

If our policy makers (and our teachers) (1) have any vision of the
long term at all and (2) understood this deeper connection of
education to our political ground, it would be the last thing they would
cut from funding--unless they are covertly involved with
anti-democratic orders.

But everything else falls under this bigger picture of the relationship
of education and what it means to the political order.

I have enjoyed this thread, Eileen.

Regards,

Catherine King

----- Original Message -----
From: Eileen Eckert <eileeneckert at hotmail.com>
To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 7:38 AM
Subject: [NLA] building policy vision


> Last week, I asked, "When you advocate for literacy policy, or make policy
> decisions yourself, is there a big picture? Are there some unifying themes
> or underlying principles that make specific policies complement each
other?
> What are they, and how do they work?"
>
> A few people wrote about how to develop a policy vision for the field, or
> about the content of their individual vision. I hope we can pursue this
> further, focusing on the principles or themes involved in each
individual's
> picture of what policy as a whole should do, and how it should work.
>
> To that end, I'm going to try to articulate my own "big picture" and the
> themes involved.
>
> Theme 1: Learners, teachers, classes, and programs are "complex systems"
> whose integrity should be respected and whose learning should be nurtured.
> Policies that recognize the uniqueness and support the further growth and
> development of such self-organized complex systems will be more effective
> than policies that prescribe specific actions.
>
> (A note about complex systems: Syvantek & Brown (2000) explain that
complex
> systems are "those systems whose behaviors cannot be explained by breaking
> down the system into its component parts" (p. 69). Davis & Sumara (2001)
> differentiate between complicated and complex. "Complicated objects or
> events are mechanical...In the case of a complicated object, a detailed
> knowledge of its components is all that is needed to predict what it will
> do...A complex system does not comprise simple discrete parts. Rather, it
is
> itself a collective of dynamic and similarly complex systems...Unlike
> complicated objects, which are the sum of their parts, complex systems
> transcend their components" (p. 88).)
>
> Theme 2: People are self-determining learners and actors (from Deci &
> colleagues' Self-Determination Theory). Policy that respects autonomy and
> self-determination and builds on it as a strength will be more effective
in
> promoting learning than policy that mandates specific actions or
processes,
> even in the name of disseminating "best practices". Policy that dictates
or
> mandates specific actions takes control from the people who are
responsible
> for implementing the action, negating the strength of autonomy and setting
> up a power struggle between the actor (learner, teacher, etc) and the
> policy-dictator.
>
> Theme 3: People learn by reflecting, alone and with others, on their
> experience (from Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory). Policy that directs
> resources and support to learners, teachers, and programs, and that allows
> and encourages them to learn from each other in ways that make sense to
> them, will be more effective than policy that attempts to distill and
> disseminate the results of learning done by others. I think this is
related
> to Women's Ways of Knowing as well, in that "silent" or "received" knowers
> will have a hard time constructing meaning from their own experience, and
> policy that promulgates a culture of received knowing will be
disempowering,
> emphasizing acceptance of knowledge from external sources.
>
> It is useful to me to attempt to articulate my own "mental model" of
policy
> and practice, surfacing assumptions and connecting them to theory and to
> policy. Most of my reflections haven't made it to this message. I'm
> interested in hearing what themes and principles others use to decide what
> policies (and what kinds of policies) to support.
>
> Thanks,
> Eileen
>
>
>
>
>
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