concluding framing statement
Name: Matthew Smith
Date: April 13, 2018
Projected Graduation Date: May, 2018
Document: Concluding Framing Statement
Summary
My portfolio is best viewed as a collection of work which represents my development from a manager driven to improve outcomes for employees to a community organizer driven to expose oppression and work with learners on taking power back. The artifacts in my collection speak to this growth inasmuch as from the first to the last, you will experience a shift in tone from behaviorist tendencies to the theme of my portfolio, emancipatory dialogue.
Portfolio Story
As stated in my introductory framing statement, my initial intention with this graduate degree was to improve upon my ability to make my staff more marketable through professional development. I was consumed with imparting my success upon others. What you will find in the exploration of my portfolio, however, is a change from this dated vision of adult education to one which recognized the political nature of the profession. You will see the meaning I take from readings and reflections become decidedly radical until I arrive at a place which demands nothing short of emancipatory learning through dialogue.
Throughout my portfolio, my primary goal is to articulate how my knowledge structures changed. I attempt to tie each artifact to a new discovery in how I perceive my role as a member of various communities of practice. Two artifacts, in particular stand out. First is my personal reflection on power and voice. Completed in partnership with a classmate, I connect a personal recognition of how I self-oppress with how empathic dialogue increases my ability to form meaningful connections with family members, academic peers and professional colleagues. In essence, a critical understanding of oppressive forces radically impacted the manner in which I view and value understanding another’s point of view.
The second artifact which stands out as an example of how my meaning-making changed throughout the program is my paper outlining my personal philosophy of adult learning. When viewed with the contextual understanding I once believed in my unique ability to impart my perceived success, the selection of this artifact clearly demonstrates how radical my views became as I discuss the dialogic process in which students and teachers share responsibility in learning, how challenging authority is central to developing consciousness and how educators exert control even when attempting to be inclusive. Each of these are central to emancipatory dialogue and are decidedly political. Furthermore, each represents new foundations in my understanding of what my professional practice is capable of.
Surprises and Affirmations
The thing which stood out most is how long I held onto old ideas. To be sure, holding onto an entrenched belief system is not surprising given what I now know about the power of personal ideology. Simply, ideas being replaced upon first exposure to conflicting or new information is not a reasonable expectation, regardless of how open-minded I consider myself. That said, you can see manifestations of emancipatory learning early in the collection I put together for the portfolio, yet it isn’t until roughly halfway through my program when the information I am reflecting on tips the scales from an inward understanding of adult education to one which focuses on the other person. It is striking to see it presented in a sequence of documents spread out over three years.
Something else which bears mentioning is how my efforts in the program focused less and less on strictly professional application as time went on. In the final four semesters, my academic output focused more on my work as a community organizer than it did on my role in higher education as my understanding of what adult educators are capable of grew to the point I now see no distinction between the work I do in the office and the work I do in the community. They should be interchangeable. For example, qualitative workplace learnings should have clear ties to applications in an individual’s neighborhood. Conversely, educational activities in the public sphere should have outcomes which are applicable in professional settings.
Regarding affirmations, I can only say the portfolio proved I am now in a more-aware place than I was when I started the program. I assumed this to be the case based on the final projects in my last four semesters. The creation of eight caption statements and reflecting on what I’ve accomplished, however, allowed me to take a look at the breadth of my development.
Going Forward
As I move forward, two things are clear. First, I need to devote considerable time to the examination of how we fuse emancipatory dialogue in workplace learnings. This is a definite challenge as discussing oppression in the workplace is counterintuitive from an organizations standpoint. In other words, owners are unlikely to allow any trainings which call their authority into question. If we truly wish to progress as a society, however, we must have democratic participation in the workforce. I need to research the quantitative outcomes (productivity, profit, engagement, employee satisfaction) associated with a dialogue-based training model which has distinct and demonstrable learning outcomes related to the communities in which workers reside. As part of my continuing work in this area, I will be pursuing a Ed.D. in Adult and Higher Education at Northern Illinois University. The second thing I must do as I continue on is to remain aware of bias as it relates to my person and my practice. Reflective practices (seeking out feedback, maintaining awareness of research in the field and journaling on my experiences, among other things) in all my affairs is something I cannot stop doing. If I do, I lose my connection to other people, and without that connection, there is no emancipation. There is only isolation.
Date: April 13, 2018
Projected Graduation Date: May, 2018
Document: Concluding Framing Statement
Summary
My portfolio is best viewed as a collection of work which represents my development from a manager driven to improve outcomes for employees to a community organizer driven to expose oppression and work with learners on taking power back. The artifacts in my collection speak to this growth inasmuch as from the first to the last, you will experience a shift in tone from behaviorist tendencies to the theme of my portfolio, emancipatory dialogue.
Portfolio Story
As stated in my introductory framing statement, my initial intention with this graduate degree was to improve upon my ability to make my staff more marketable through professional development. I was consumed with imparting my success upon others. What you will find in the exploration of my portfolio, however, is a change from this dated vision of adult education to one which recognized the political nature of the profession. You will see the meaning I take from readings and reflections become decidedly radical until I arrive at a place which demands nothing short of emancipatory learning through dialogue.
Throughout my portfolio, my primary goal is to articulate how my knowledge structures changed. I attempt to tie each artifact to a new discovery in how I perceive my role as a member of various communities of practice. Two artifacts, in particular stand out. First is my personal reflection on power and voice. Completed in partnership with a classmate, I connect a personal recognition of how I self-oppress with how empathic dialogue increases my ability to form meaningful connections with family members, academic peers and professional colleagues. In essence, a critical understanding of oppressive forces radically impacted the manner in which I view and value understanding another’s point of view.
The second artifact which stands out as an example of how my meaning-making changed throughout the program is my paper outlining my personal philosophy of adult learning. When viewed with the contextual understanding I once believed in my unique ability to impart my perceived success, the selection of this artifact clearly demonstrates how radical my views became as I discuss the dialogic process in which students and teachers share responsibility in learning, how challenging authority is central to developing consciousness and how educators exert control even when attempting to be inclusive. Each of these are central to emancipatory dialogue and are decidedly political. Furthermore, each represents new foundations in my understanding of what my professional practice is capable of.
Surprises and Affirmations
The thing which stood out most is how long I held onto old ideas. To be sure, holding onto an entrenched belief system is not surprising given what I now know about the power of personal ideology. Simply, ideas being replaced upon first exposure to conflicting or new information is not a reasonable expectation, regardless of how open-minded I consider myself. That said, you can see manifestations of emancipatory learning early in the collection I put together for the portfolio, yet it isn’t until roughly halfway through my program when the information I am reflecting on tips the scales from an inward understanding of adult education to one which focuses on the other person. It is striking to see it presented in a sequence of documents spread out over three years.
Something else which bears mentioning is how my efforts in the program focused less and less on strictly professional application as time went on. In the final four semesters, my academic output focused more on my work as a community organizer than it did on my role in higher education as my understanding of what adult educators are capable of grew to the point I now see no distinction between the work I do in the office and the work I do in the community. They should be interchangeable. For example, qualitative workplace learnings should have clear ties to applications in an individual’s neighborhood. Conversely, educational activities in the public sphere should have outcomes which are applicable in professional settings.
Regarding affirmations, I can only say the portfolio proved I am now in a more-aware place than I was when I started the program. I assumed this to be the case based on the final projects in my last four semesters. The creation of eight caption statements and reflecting on what I’ve accomplished, however, allowed me to take a look at the breadth of my development.
Going Forward
As I move forward, two things are clear. First, I need to devote considerable time to the examination of how we fuse emancipatory dialogue in workplace learnings. This is a definite challenge as discussing oppression in the workplace is counterintuitive from an organizations standpoint. In other words, owners are unlikely to allow any trainings which call their authority into question. If we truly wish to progress as a society, however, we must have democratic participation in the workforce. I need to research the quantitative outcomes (productivity, profit, engagement, employee satisfaction) associated with a dialogue-based training model which has distinct and demonstrable learning outcomes related to the communities in which workers reside. As part of my continuing work in this area, I will be pursuing a Ed.D. in Adult and Higher Education at Northern Illinois University. The second thing I must do as I continue on is to remain aware of bias as it relates to my person and my practice. Reflective practices (seeking out feedback, maintaining awareness of research in the field and journaling on my experiences, among other things) in all my affairs is something I cannot stop doing. If I do, I lose my connection to other people, and without that connection, there is no emancipation. There is only isolation.