mental meanderings and self-organization

[Julie Smith]

Greetings  ~

In my quest for a learning/education theory that resonates with my sense
of the world, I came across a book titled Education on the Edge of
Possibility by Renate Nummela Caine and Geoffrey Caine.  There's a lot
to like about their learning theory.  They talk about the implications
of chaos theory for educators, community-building, creating safe spaces,
and the like.

One of the authors' focal points is recognition of the existence of and
power of self-organization and some thoughts about how to create the
conditions that support it.  Unfortunately, they don't appear to know
anything about OST.  I think their theory would be stronger with OST.
(But then, what wouldn't be? :))

The Caines make an argument about self-organization that is new to me.
After talking a bit about that BOIDS program (yes, the very same one
Chris invited us to take a look at many moons ago), they quote another
researcher who made this simple observation:

        Complex behavior, like flocking, need not have complex rules.
        Simple rules will yield profoundly complex results.

They go on to talk about how our basic beliefs create that web of simple
rules that will yield profoundly complex results.  For example, they
identify three simple beliefs/rules that are imbedded in our educational
system:

        Only experts create knowledge.
        Teachers deliver knowledge in the form of information.
        Children are graded on how much of the information they have
stored.

They hypothesize that the reason most educational reforms don't foster
much real change is because the underlying beliefs/rules aren't
changing.  They posit the idea that self-organization is happening all
the time, AND that we naturally self-organize around those beliefs/rules
that we hold to be true. (This last part is new to me.  Can't quite get
my mind completely around it.  Don't know if I agree with it.  Is that
what we mean by self-organization as we use the term here?)  One example
is hierarchical beliefs self-organizing into hierarchical social
structures.  Hence, they say, to deeply change the educational system,
we must begin by changing the basic underlying beliefs of educators: we
must change those simple rules/beliefs that educators self-organize
around.

Aye, there's the rub.  I'm wondering if people here agree with that.  Do
we initiate the kind of change we desire by challenging another's model
of the world and attempting to replace it with our own, or do we simply
start with self-organization itself?  Arghhh.....  scratch that
question.  Faulty on too many levels.

So let me go here..... is it self-evident that self-organization itself
(as we know it through OST) frequently expands people's beliefs and
understandings and the rules they operate by?  That by providing
open/safe/voluntary/equal space we're implicitly offering a new set of
rules and beliefs that can be approached and understood at the level and
pace each participant is prepared to comprehend?  That the process
itself is the answer to the problems we pose?  Or how about this: That
what matters is how we relate to each other, how we treat each other,
how we think of each other.  That everything else, every problem we
think we have, is a vehicle for testing THESE questions.

I keep asking questions I know the answer to..... so what is it?  Just
some mental meanderings on a malingering Monday morning?  Don't know.
There's still that unexpressed idea lingering at the edge of thought....
how to participate politely and lightly in the bettering of it all.....
finding new layers of comfort in the process we're in..... easing into
and resting in the goodness and fullness of what we already know.

Julie

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