Shaping my perspective

The detention center where I have taught has made me aware of the disenfranchisement of people in a very real way. I have understood that power and oppression are some of the forces at work within the various structures of our society, but I have never been exposed to the stories of people in that situation in such a personal way. A lot of the women in the detention center aren’t consciously aware that they are victims of the misuse of power and how it has shaped their lives and choices.

Education is one of the more obvious areas in these women’s lives where there were lasting effects of the circumstances of their lives before I met them. Much of the injustices of the educational system seemed to be related overall to socioeconomic class; at least, this seemed to be the most common thread. There seemed to be a common thread of their being devalued as women as well.  Many of the women lacked a complete formal education, never having graduated from high school, with many leaving by 9^th grade. The choices available to them after leaving school were very limited and the way they have been treated poorly, first by the school system that expected and offered so little, and then by employers who took advantage of the fact that they had been left with so few options. This contributed to their own poor sense of self worth which then led to many poor personal choices and ultimately to the detention center.

Their early experiences and failures at school, and the lack of support at home, affect their ability to be successful adult learners today. They have not learned to be critical thinkers; they accept others’ opinions and negative evaluations of their competency as fact and continually look outside of themselves for the right answer. They have not learned that they can control the direction their lives take because from very early on they have had authority figures explaining how things will go.

I am hopeful that when I return to the detention center we can incorporate more reflective practice in our classroom environment. In general the women have been very supportive of each other and I think more time reflecting and discussing their ideas and questions will help some of them understand the underlying influences in their lives to this point and recognize that the power to make changes really is theirs.

The results of the TPI come as no surprise to me. I have always considered that my role as educator was to develop an environment that was conducive to learning for the individuals who were there. Nurturing is my dominant perspective, with Developmental and Apprenticeship being my back-ups.

Before taking the test, when thinking about my work at the Detention Center, which has been my primary experience as an educator, I would have described my role primarily as providing a safe environment as well as helping learners to identify where they were at the time and help them build their knowledge and widen their perspective by challenging their current ways of thinking about things. I also always considered myself  a role model while working with those classes, practicing what I was preaching so to speak, demonstrating through my own example how the skills and ideas being taught can be put into practice. When I read the descriptions of the 3 perspectives that I tested highly and most consistently on, they provide words for  what I have intuitively felt I was doing and trying to accomplish. For me, the three perspectives are related and intertwined in the way I approach teaching.

These perspectives have developed over time through different experiences. First, I love learning and would like to help develop that in others. I feel exceptionally lucky and appreciative of all of the opportunities I have had  that have allowed me to grow and learn.  I recognize that part of this is due to the supportive environment I grew up in and have had throughout my learning experiences, and partly because of being taught to seek out, recognize and take advantage of opportunities. I have approached my responsibilities as educator recognizing the importance of those factors.

Because of my experiences in Africa and at the Detention Center in particular, I have a strong desire to help adults who perhaps have not been encouraged the same way I have to learn to love learning.  An extremely important part of the Detnetion Center classes was creating an atmosphere of trust. A significant number of the women did not “feel smart” or that they could learn. Many of them never attended school beyond junior high school and were uncomfortable when they felt they were supposed to provide answers for class. I felt that we accomplished the objectives of the class if the at the end of the session people were comfortable sharing experiences and observations with each other, and also comfortable asking questions even when they thought they were “dumb”. It was incredibly rewarding to see growth in confidence over such a short period of time. It allowed the women space to make connections with the new information that hopefully they will be able to apply when they are released.

After ‘taking the test’ for Kolb’s learning cycle, I was a little confused at first. My  learning style grid put me in the accommodating sector. This made sense for the particular task I had used to answer the questions; however, when I started thinking about other learning situations, I thought some of the other styles made more sense in explaining my approach. I wondered if the task I had chosen influenced my answers to the questions, or if my strengths had led me to choosing a particular task.

In looking at the “kite” which represents my learning style however, it makes more sense to me why I didn’t feel well represented by the accommodating title. It is a pretty balanced picture with a little more weight in the accommodating/converging sector, followed by diverging, then assimilating.

When I think about tasks, as opposed to learning situations that involve interacting with others, I am definitely an accomodator. I am always open to opportunities and I tend to not pass them up.  A lot of the tasks/ concrete skills I mentioned in my educational bio started because I tried something first and then moved on to more structured, formal ways to increase my learning.

With learning that involves interacting with people, I am more diverging. I tend to observe first to see how others are processing something and I love to discuss other people’s perspectives and try to understand how they see things. This then shapes my own ideas as I fit the new picture together with my old one. I am an action person; if I see a problem I like to come up with a solution, any solution that makes sense right then, and make the decision to start there. My weakness in assimilating definitely shows up here. I am not patient. I don’t take forever to sort through millions of possible solutions, analysizing the possible outcomes for every one. I can think of a few specific examples where this has caused me to relive problems instead of learn from them! If I had taken more time to consider more options and plan carefully, I might have learned the first time around how to be more effective in certain situations. Food for thought.

This has been an interesting and useful exercise. I recognize the value of using different learning styles. The struggle for me will be to stop long enough to take the time to organize and analyze. This applies to those opportunities that always seem to be presenting themselves as well. I sometimes wonder why I seem to have so much happening all the time. I hate to not take advantage of an opportunity, but perhaps occassionally I should evaluate how it fits in with everything else!

Technology and the shift in workforce demands has had an impact on another group that I have worked with. Last academic year, I  helped facilitate a class in a local correctional facility. The class was taught to women who would be released over the subsequent 6 months or so. It was designed to help them be productive in the workforce. We used a program that had been developed for this purpose and it included career skills and interest tests as well as lecture topics.

All of the groups had women that varied in age, from about 20-60 years old, and they came from and different educational backgrounds, from 8th grade drop-outs to college grads. It particularly struck me with the women who had so little formal schooling how far behind they are with technology. While more and more jobs require computer skills for even basic tasks, these women are falling further and further behind. Computer skills was beyond the scope of our class, and the facility did not offer any to the women in other classes.

Another way in which they are disadvantaged is that nowadays, most of us use the computer for job searches and information. Many companies are now only dealing with hiring through the internet. We were frustrated by the fact that we couldn’t get a computer into the class to at least demonstrate the kinds of information available online.

I would think any underserved, undereducated segment of the population is disadvantaged in these ways. It creates a cycle where they can only have access to the most menial, lower level jobs where there is less training and opportunity.

It was a difficult but rewarding experience, and I miss it. I can relate everything I read in class to what we did in class, or didn’t do and how the program could be improved, which is great since that’s what started me in this program!

I  have worked at XYZ*’s corporate headquarters  as a college relations/ recruiter coordinator for the past 8 months. XYZ is  a multinational paper and  packaging company that strives for innovation in customer packaging solutions. I am, at this point, only familiar with my own small corner of the company, but it is informative because globalization and technology influence college recruiting.

XYZ believes that in order to stay ahead in this competitive industry, it needs talented,educated, innovative employees. The company recognizes that diversity in the workforce is key to finding these people and this diversity initiative is being incorporated into all levels of the organization. In college recruiting, we are specifically tapping into and developing relationships with organizations and institutions that can provide educated, diverse candidates. In the mills, technology influences the needs of management.  As manufacturing processes become more and more computerized, the workforce needs to be more skilled. As the industry becomes more competitive, this workforce needs to become  more innovative. We are constantly searching for new talent that is skilled, adaptive, and innovative in its thinking. This also leads to a need for “old talent” to keep up and reinvent themselves, especially as the economy has forced XYZ to become leaner.

XYZ considers itself a learning organization. We work in teams and spend a lot of time of time convening meetings to get feedback and updates on projects we share. These meetings involve different levels of management and workers, and we often refer to the overall goals and objectives of the company and how the decisions we are making support these. We are encouraged to work together to solve problems and improve processes in our work. There are training and development opportunities available to us at corporate headquarters. There are online courses for basic information-computer program use, for example. People in management have leadership development opportunities, everything from seminars to job rotation assignments. The OD specialist has been spending lots of time recently on 360 feedback and coaching. My boss has encouraged me to  meet regularly with the Learning and Ddevelopment team and the OD specialist to learn all I can from them  to develop my skills, even though this is not part of my job responsibilities. This reaching out to others and improving skills that will help the company as well as the individual seems to be encouraged by the company in general. Although I am not at the manufacturing mills, because of the highly computerized and automatized nature of the business, and in keeping with the push for innovation, I am sure there are ongoing training opportunities for workers to be able to keep up with the changes. XYZ recognizes the importance of retention of good employees.

As we move forward in this difficult economy, XYZ is searching for an educated, diverse workforce that can deal with the demands and changes inherent in working overseas and in diverse markets, and doing what it can to develop the workers already on board to be the best they can be.

*XYZ is not the real name of my workplace. At this time, they are a little hesitant about blogging. I will refrain from using the company’s real name since this blog is publicly available, until there is an established policy expressly allowing blogs.