Hack:
Futuring Educational Management and Philosophy

By Timothy Stafford - Director of Image Building, Graphic, Media, and Instructional Design. I also am a consultant in education. at Liberty Building Forensics Group

December 16, 2010 at 11:36am

education

educational leadership

futuring education

Leadership

paradigm shifts

leading through change

educational innovation

Moonshots

Make direction setting bottom-up and outside-in

Disaggregate the organization

Redefine the work of leadership

Summary

For all of the talk about the future, the loss of the great minds of futurism, and the significance that the future may or may not bring; the past can be a great predictor of the future in that there has been, is currently, and always will be a set of paradigms that is in a state of flux and shift. Those that recognize these shifts in paradigms can have one of two reactions; run away, or press forward.

Problem

For all of the talk about the future, the loss of the great minds of futurism (Rejeski & Olson R. L, 2006), and the significance that the future may or may not bring; the past can be a great predictor of the future in that there has been, is currently, and always will be a set of paradigms that is in a state of flux and shift. Those that recognize these shifts in paradigms can have one of two reactions; run away, or press forward. Education has had a long history of these types of paradigms shifts and has always seemed to be resistant to such change. The ideas that there may not be a need for a principal in the same capacity as before, or that the classroom may be more of a student led venture in the future or that teaching itself may become more mechanized are just examples of the types of fear that has evoked a standstill in shifting the paradigm within education for decades if not the last century as a whole (Lundt, 2006, p. 19). However, with the escalating costs of education as an institution and the rising failure of educational institutions on the rise, it is becoming glaringly clear to everyone involved outside of the educational machine itself that something is seriously broken and needs to be repaired. So has futurism failed? One could easily see that it is not that looking into the future has been the failure, the paradigms that are currently shifting within education are certainly not new ideas; they have been issues on the horizon for a long time, the issue that faces education now is that those scenarios are here and, for the most part we are not ready and we are trying to desperately hang onto the traditions of the past, but try as they might, those traditions are going to disappear. The real question is, will they die of old age leaving an exhausted system that must be rejuvenated, or will they be a cancer that when gone, will leave the institution so badly damaged that there will be no saving. A good argument can be made that the answer is already present and the latter has come to pass. It is time to now move on and embrace the fact that education will radically change in the next 25 years and that it will look nothing like it does now, and that this is not necessarily a bad thing. This being said, it would behoove us to look at a few of the paradigm shifts that are presenting themselves currently and reevaluate how to view these shifts in light of the inevitable future of yesterday which is now today.

Solution

School Leadership
School leadership is a paradigm that is under great paradigm shift. No longer can the principal or school supervisor be the only expert on campus, but in fact, the leaders of the future will be those that can connect the dots, seek common ground, benefit from a cohort, and empower curiosity, persistence and genuine interest to help people gain enlightenment without isolation which are becoming the new opposites in the present culture (Marx, 2006, p. 14). Bringing out the best in others is becoming a basic skill for the new generation of leaders and those who wish to make an impact will begin to use synergy and collaborative opportunities to redefine best practices in education. Knowledge will be the new capital that will intensify the competitive market and become the new economic drivers (Marx, 2006, p. 65).

Another vital issue in the future of school governance is in working with the instructional staff. With the increased growth of online instruction, a large burden is put in the instructor to deal with a growing number of ethical issues that are surfacing as a part of the e-learning environment. However, this burden is exacerbated by the fact that much of the time the institution itself refuses to take a defined role in the solvency of these issues and so an ethical dilemma is quickly mounted that significantly affects the role of the instructor and can have ramifications in regards to their personal rights, especially in the area of privacy (Storey & Tebes, 2008). Story and Tebes go on to outline a model that will help to address these issues by extrapolating principles from the heart and core of the New DEEL (Democratic Ethical Educational Leadership) ideology which is quickly becoming a catalyst to dismantling the philosophies that have driven the traditional face to face classroom and forcing the educational institution to adopt new ideologies and philosophies that will provide support for program sustenance and longevity (Storey & Tebes, 2008, p. 2). This is especially true in the realm of the online instructor.

Demographics
Family, parent, and student demographics are radically and rapidly changing and there is no better place to see these shifts than in education. Even among the smallest children and youngest families, social and intellectual capital are becoming large economic drivers and intensifying competition in the highest most academic arenas, and the accelerant of this drive as well as most everything else that is shifting the paradigm of global culture is technology (Marx, 2006, p. 6). This ultimately will prove that the new education will be to release human creativity, ingenuity and invention to prepare for jobs that are currently non –existent and may not even exist while one is being educated, to maintain a sense of social equality and equilibrium that is not currently felt within the global society as a whole, and to empower the students of the future to embrace improvement over the tawdry ideals that have entangled themselves to the ideology that has rendered itself the status quo but that is rigorously pleading to be redefined (Marx, 2006, p. 69-70). It is quite possible that the new status quo will be a constant state of improvement and not static at all (Marx, 2006, p. 7). In education this is already seen in the more assertive roles that parents are taking in school matters and the redefining of student –centered education to actually include the desires of the students and families and not to be a marketing slogan that is quite deceptive at its core (Buchen, 2003, p. 48, 50). The model that Story and Tebes present is four-fold and is crafted into quadrants by separating ethics. Quadrant 1 presents an understanding of the Ethic of Justice. This ethic is supported by a paradigm that suggests that focus is given to the incremental procedures that have helped to establish laws in other areas that have helped to establish the sovereign equity that defines an American’s civil rights and liberties. It is here that one can see the need for hearing and reviews of policies to counteract however incrementally the injustices that are occurring in the distance educational arena. The fact of the matter remains that there are virtually no online activities that guarantee an absolute right of privacy (Storey & Tebes, 2008, p. 3). This type of demographical shift in the virtualized educational world is a great example of needs that currently exist and will continue to exist on a personal and professional level with in the context of studying and analyzing the future of the classroom in respect to the Internet.

Practical Impact

The Culture of Self
Within the boundaries and established morays and norms of every culture is the individual sense of self – who he/she is and how he/she views him/herself within that culture. This view of self helps to define the persons overall worldview and within the context of that worldview there are sets of beliefs about everything within the world to be quite literal – this is known as a person’s noetic structure, what he/she believes about anything and everything, and it is here that the greatest paradigm shifts of all are occurring. As one looks at any level of future predictions for future generations, especially within the context of education, there is a very real sense of a cultural change of self that can not be ignored any longer if success is to be achieved in making a difference locally and globally in the lives of people (Marx, 2006, p. 119-120). Inclusiveness and connectedness are the newest tolls that are primary to the new leader. Being collegial and having excellent people skills will demand that the ideas of many are considered and that there is a genuine desire to hear the voices of many and connect with those ideas in some way (Marx, 2006, p. 16). A new trend of thinking in scenarios will force strategic conversation in a way that will employ a more collaborative approach to problem solving and stimulate new visionary thinking by redefining the “whys” of what is being done and focus on the “who’s, what’s and how’s” as well. In business this is standard practice, unfortunately in education this is often not the case because the status quo and tradition have dominated reasoning for so long (Think Scenarios., 2006, p. 22-23). The individual will be the new vehicle and knowledge the new currency and the absence of self within the context of any organization will be the death of that organization, for the future organization will be made up of individuals who have equal standing and management will be a part of the improvement process that will finally award meritorious commitment and work in order protect academic freedom by fairly evaluating performance and not the nepotistic pork barreling of the early twentieth century corporate culture.

First Steps

Ultimately, the question is, will education finally make a move towards the future and lead society like it did with the forefathers, or will it furiously grip onto the traditions of the past and finally fall prey to the inevitable, agonizing death of progress? Probably a little bit of both, but as individual educators and leaders in society, we must purpose ourselves for the future, but taking on a simple mantra that is not only true in every culture on the most global of scales, but it will continue to be the wind beneath our wings as we press forward long into the twenty-first century, “One person can make a difference.”

Credits

References

Buchen, I. H. (2003). Education in America: The next 25 years. The Futurist, 37(1), 44-50.
Cashman, K. (1998). Leadership from the inside out: Becoming a leader for life. Minneapolis, MN: TCLC, llc LeaderSource.
Gamoran, A. (2001). American schooling and educational inequality: A forecast for the 21st century. Retrieved July 24, 2008, from Sociology of Education: Currents of Thought: Sociology of Education at the Dawn Web site: http://proquest.umi.com.library.capella.edu/
Lundt, J. C. (2006). Learning for ourselves: A new paradigm for education. The Futurist, 38(6), 18-22.
Marx, G. (2006). Future-focused leadership: preparing schools, students, and communities for tomorrow's realities. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Marx, G. (2006). Sixteen trends, their profound inpact on our future: Implications for students, education, communities, countries, and the whole of society. Alexandria, VA: Gary Marx and Educational Research Service.
Rejeski, D., & Olson R. L. (2006). Has futurism failed? Wilson Quarterly, 30(1), 14-21.
Storey, V. A., & Tebes, M. L. (2008). Instructor’s privacy in distance (online) teaching: Where do you draw the line? The Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 11(2), 1-10. Retrieved July 24, 2008, from The Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration Web site: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer112/storey112.html
Think scenarios. rethink education. (2006). Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development.