Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
HIGH IMPACT PEDAGOGY:
NEGATIVE CAPABILITY AND PRAXIS -
REFLECTIONS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN
UNDERGRADUATE OD CONSULTANCY
PROJECT
Dr Jennifer Wilkinson
Department of Organisation Studies,
Bristol Business School, University of the West of England
OUTLINE
What we are doing
Why we are doing it
Process
How we are starting to make sense of the pedagogic
process
Behaviour
How students tell us they are understanding the learning
process re employability skills
Structure
How we scaffold the pedagogic process
WHAT WE ARE DOING BA (hons)Business Management and Leadership Organisation development and consultancy module 40-60 students Double weighted final year module (30 credits)
Designed to allow undergraduate students to take a step
toward gaining management and/or leadership roles by
undertaking a 'Organisation Development Student
Consultancy Project'
directly relevant to an organisation, which focuses on a real
issue facing the business, leading to recommendations for
action. Students can make a difference in real organisations
with real needs.
group project focused on working with local organisations
whether they are large or small, public, private, or not-for-
profit; charities, community organisations, social enterprises
and campaign groups.
WHY WE ARE DOING IT
Developing employability skills Practice –led learning Undergraduate teaching is being encouraged
to draw more explicit links with practice, there becomes increased use of a variety of practice-orientated approaches towards bringing students, communities and organisations together.
HOW WE ARE STARTING TO UNDERSTAND THE
PEDAGOGIC PROCESS
Management development literature identifies negative capability as salient to enhancing the learning process and our pedagogic understanding of such process (Simpson and French, 2006; French, Simpson, and Harvey, 2009).
The use of practice-led learning sees Freire’s (1970) problem-posing education enjoying something of a renaissance in undergraduate education
Whilst negative capability is discussed in relation to post-experience teaching, executive education, management and leadership development, it is not apparent as a concept that is embedded in undergraduate teaching.
INTERPRETATIONS OF LABELS……
Negative Capability
As a term originally coined by Keats (1899) to describe the
capacity of an individual to accept uncertainties,
reinterpreted in management development literature to
understand the ability of individuals to “live with and tolerate
ambiguity and paradox” whilst remaining in anxiety provoking
contexts (French, Simpson and Harvey, 2009, p.2).
Learning happens when we work at the edge of knowing and
not-knowing (French anad Simpson, 1999)
Praxis
The notion of students being engaged in meaningful action
encourages us to revisit the process of praxis which, with an
end goal of action (Krancberg, 1994),
AIMS
to understand:
the links between theoretical notions of negative
capability and the process of praxis, reflecting
how embedding these might be achieved in an
undergraduate teaching context which uses
practice-led teaching approaches with non-
practicing managers.
understand how students see this type of high
impact learning experience relating to future
employability
RESEARCH DESIGN
What we did
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Limitations
Formal assessment submission
power relationships
INITIAL FINDINGS – WHAT STUDENTS SAY
Being connective
Developing networking and communications skills
Resilience
Self confidence
Self-reliance
Enterprising
Team working skills
Leadership skills
Confronting problems
Self awareness
FOLLOW UP SENSE MAKING
High Impact pedagogy: Anecdotal feedback from
students interpreted as suggesting that a high
impact pedagogy (Evans, Muijs, Tomlinson, 2015)
is created through combining negative capability
within a learning environment which utilises the
process of praxis.
Employability: This type of high impact pedagogy
enables learners to develop both theoretical and
practice based skills within a short period of time,
enhancing employability skills.
HOW WE SCAFFOLD THE PEDAGOGY
Containment: vital to teaching approaches utilising
this type of high-impact pedagogy is the skill of the
tutor/ supervisor/ coach in being able to
successfully ‘hold’ the safety of the environment so
that students can work with their uncertainty and
potential anxiety (French, 1997; Waller and Muir,
2015).
Praxis +negative capability = high anxiety=High
impact pedagogy
Hold the anxiety – support, reflexivity (Action
learning sets) and reflection
Lack: is it container of anxiety or object of desire
KEY REFS
Evans, C., Muijs, D. and Tomlinson, M. (2015)Engaged student learning: High-impact
strategies to enhance student achievement. York: Higher Education Academy.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed, (3rd ed. Translated by Myra Bergman
Ramos). London: Penguin
French, R. (1997). The Teacher as Container of Anxiety: Psychoanalysis and the Role of
Teacher Journal of Management Education November 21: 483-495,
French, R., Simpson, P. and Harvey, C. (2009) Negative capability: A contribution to the
understanding of creative leadership. In: Sievers, B., Brunning, H., De Gooijer, J. and
Gould, L., eds. (2009) Psychoanalytic Studies of Organizations: Contributions from the
International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations. London: Karnac
Books.
Keats, John (1899). The Complete Poetical Works and Letters of John Keats, Cambridge
Edition. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. p. 277
Krancberg, Sigmund (1994), A Soviet Postmortem: Philosophical Roots of the "Grand
Failure" Rowman & Littlefield.
Simpson, P and French, R. (2006) Negative Capability and the Capacity to Think in the
Present Moment: Some Implications for Leadership Practice. Leadership May 2006 vol. 2
no. 2 245-255
Waller, L. and Muir, A. (2015). Experiential learning as preparation for leadership:
understanding the physiology. York: ABS conference paper.
