dialogue in data-driven organizations
Name: Matthew Smith
Course Department, Number & Title: D625 Topical Seminar on Dialogue in Adult Education
Semester & Year Enrolled: Summer 2015
Document: Caption Statement for Term Paper: Changing the Mindset of a Data-Driven Organization:
Using Dialogue Education and Active Listening
The selection of the term paper from my first course in the adult education program is fitting for two reasons. First, it illustrates my beliefs at the time on not only what adult education is but how it is applied in a professional context. Second, this paper represents the genesis of emancipatory dialogue in my thought processes.
Regarding the first point, I firmly believed upon entry into this graduate program that adult education strictly dealt with training and development within professional settings. This was not an opinion formed without research. Most every article I researched prior to applying to Indiana University discussed human resource development (HRD) and/or vocational takeaways using adult education theory. In my mind, this represented an opportunity to make the use of data in qualitative settings more palatable for learners. Learning how to effectively plan and execute programs for adult learners, I believed, would surely improve my ability to generate takeaways which would positively impact the organization’s productivity and provide a path for my staff’s professional growth.
The issue with the above is I believed these improved takeaways would come in the form of learners being able to hear me clearer. As in, I felt I held the answers to improved performance and higher levels of retention. It was a decidedly liberal approach to educating adults. It was also wrong. The course, which used Vella’s (2002) Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults as the primary text, brought to my attention ideas of empathic listening, needs assessment, immediacy and praxis, or action with reflection. Completing this paper (and program plan) also marked my first extended exposure to Paolo Freire. I also saw in the creation of this artifact the power in learners coming together and sharing ideas, interpretations and meaning. Most important, I came to believe teachers are not bequeathed with requisite knowledge meant to be statically transferred to learners. Rather, teachers and learners grow when a dialogue is created through which both are active learners. And through all of this, I came to understand learning as an exercise not of absorbing knowledge given to you but of creating your own meaning from materials within shared spaces and through dialogue. This, in my opinion, is the foundation of emancipatory dialogue.
As I look back on this paper, I do not feel I would have done anything different. Sure, I would not write the same paper today. I would likely focus on how dialogue can be used to unmask worker oppression and how a drive for profits supersedes individual voice. That said, my coming to a realization the processes I used were insufficient for the task at hand set the table for the rest of the program. I was able to begin considering things like critical thought in the workplace, the nature of oppression and my role in its furthering. To that end, I used this paper as the baseline for a new training program which took advantage of tools like the needs assessment to help learners take greater control of their learning. And, indeed, it did improve their receptiveness to data as a qualitative coaching tool. In the process, however, I realized I merely presented them the illusion they actually had a say in what was covered. Behind the scenes, I was still choosing what was covered from their suggestions, furthering a cycle of oppressive workplace tactics. This presented an opportunity I referred to often as the program progressed.
Course Department, Number & Title: D625 Topical Seminar on Dialogue in Adult Education
Semester & Year Enrolled: Summer 2015
Document: Caption Statement for Term Paper: Changing the Mindset of a Data-Driven Organization:
Using Dialogue Education and Active Listening
The selection of the term paper from my first course in the adult education program is fitting for two reasons. First, it illustrates my beliefs at the time on not only what adult education is but how it is applied in a professional context. Second, this paper represents the genesis of emancipatory dialogue in my thought processes.
Regarding the first point, I firmly believed upon entry into this graduate program that adult education strictly dealt with training and development within professional settings. This was not an opinion formed without research. Most every article I researched prior to applying to Indiana University discussed human resource development (HRD) and/or vocational takeaways using adult education theory. In my mind, this represented an opportunity to make the use of data in qualitative settings more palatable for learners. Learning how to effectively plan and execute programs for adult learners, I believed, would surely improve my ability to generate takeaways which would positively impact the organization’s productivity and provide a path for my staff’s professional growth.
The issue with the above is I believed these improved takeaways would come in the form of learners being able to hear me clearer. As in, I felt I held the answers to improved performance and higher levels of retention. It was a decidedly liberal approach to educating adults. It was also wrong. The course, which used Vella’s (2002) Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults as the primary text, brought to my attention ideas of empathic listening, needs assessment, immediacy and praxis, or action with reflection. Completing this paper (and program plan) also marked my first extended exposure to Paolo Freire. I also saw in the creation of this artifact the power in learners coming together and sharing ideas, interpretations and meaning. Most important, I came to believe teachers are not bequeathed with requisite knowledge meant to be statically transferred to learners. Rather, teachers and learners grow when a dialogue is created through which both are active learners. And through all of this, I came to understand learning as an exercise not of absorbing knowledge given to you but of creating your own meaning from materials within shared spaces and through dialogue. This, in my opinion, is the foundation of emancipatory dialogue.
As I look back on this paper, I do not feel I would have done anything different. Sure, I would not write the same paper today. I would likely focus on how dialogue can be used to unmask worker oppression and how a drive for profits supersedes individual voice. That said, my coming to a realization the processes I used were insufficient for the task at hand set the table for the rest of the program. I was able to begin considering things like critical thought in the workplace, the nature of oppression and my role in its furthering. To that end, I used this paper as the baseline for a new training program which took advantage of tools like the needs assessment to help learners take greater control of their learning. And, indeed, it did improve their receptiveness to data as a qualitative coaching tool. In the process, however, I realized I merely presented them the illusion they actually had a say in what was covered. Behind the scenes, I was still choosing what was covered from their suggestions, furthering a cycle of oppressive workplace tactics. This presented an opportunity I referred to often as the program progressed.
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