( T O S T R E N G T H E N I N S T R U C T I O N P R A C T I C E )
Courageous Conversations Worth Having:
Innovative Library Classroom Conference
Radford University
May 13, 2014
Carroll Wetzel Wilkinson
WVU, Director of Instruction and Information Literacy
West Virginia University Libraries
Learning outcomes for this session
See courageous conversations in a new way.
Use the technique of starting conversations about instructional subjects that matter to you.
Contribute to your organization's workplace climate for instruction in a positive manner.
Enrich your own teaching practice.
What’s the Context?
“ Any form of organizational change redesign is
planning that begins with a comprehensive inquiry,
analysis and dialogue of an organization’s positive
core, that involves multiple stakeholders and then
links this knowledge to the organization’s strategic
change agenda and priorities.”
-definition of positive change from Cooperrider’s Appreciative
Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change, 2005.
Why Talk about Conversations at a Library Instruction Innovation Conference?
You
Another instruction librarian
Getting Views in Balance
Your perspectives
Another perspective
Definitions of a courageous conversation
Heifetz et al. 2009, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership
“a dialogue that is designed to resolve competing priorities and beliefs while preserving relationships”
Courage has a relationship to vulnerability
Brean Brown takes on the myths of vulnerability in her book entitled: Daring Greatly.
Another important perspective
Chapter VI “Learning in Community: The
Conversation of Colleagues” in The Courage to
Teach, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, California, 1998.
“If we want to grow in our practice, we have two
primary places to go: the inner ground from which
good teaching comes and to the community of
fellow teachers from whom we can learn more
about ourselves and our craft.” (p.141.)
A few of Palmer’s questions
Does this person take teaching seriously as signified
by his or her involvement in conversations about it?
What kind of process does this person go through in
designing a course [or lesson]?
Does this person attempt to help colleagues with
issues in their teaching?
How does this person handle critical moments
(learning moments that open up or shut down
depending on how they are handled) in the
classroom?
Another relevant definition
“Courage is a pattern of constructive opposition, in
which in an individual stands against social forces in
order to remedy duress in the organization.”
Worline, Monica. C. “ Courage in Organizations: an Integrative Review of the Difficult Virtue.” Chapter 23 of The Oxford handbook of positive organizational scholarship /Kim S Cameron; Gretchen M Spreitzer. New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press. P304-315.
Understanding courageous conversations
More about Worline
David Whyte
Quick work environment assessment questions
Do the instruction librarians in your library get together to talk about instruction periodically?
What is the climate for those talks? Welcoming, respectful, encouraging, or other?
When someone needs help in teaching, what happens?
In your library, what’s the norm for expressions of emotions about teaching?
Examples of conversation topics (stuff we’d like to talk about, but we hesitate)
Real reactions to the assessment of instruction by
librarians, both positive and negative.
Frustration with the lack of impact on student
learning through one shots.
Frustration with some librarians’ attitudes toward
instruction.
Giving up one shots and substituting a new
instructional model
Our reactions to the new framework for
information literacy……
The challenge of authenticity: the link between authentic conversations and change
BRAINSTORM
Practice with others
Great obstacles, small victories
Conclusions
Each of us can start change by talking authentically to another teaching librarian about something that really matters to us in teaching.
Courageous conversations are the connective tissue of growth and change in any context.
Innovation needs to be nurtured and encouraged so we don’t box ourselves into habit and repetition.
The new Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education calls for teaching with ideas…it’s a great time to start talking holistically, and bravely, about library instruction innovation!
References
Brown, Breann. Daring greatly: how the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent, and lead. Gotham Books/Penguin, New York, 2012.
Heifetz, Ronald et al. The practice of adaptive leadership: tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Cambridge Leadership Associates, 2009.
Palmer, Parker. The courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape of a teachers’ life. Jossey-Bass Inc. San Francisco, California, 1998.
Whyte, David David Whyte on courageous conversation. http://www.hr.com/en/articles/thought-leaders-david-whyte-on-courageous-conversa_eaj1hqw2.html
Worline, Monica C. Courage in Organizations: An integrative review of the “difficult virtue.”In The Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship (Oxford Library of Psychology) by Kim S. Cameron and Gretchen M. Spreitzer, 2011. (Chapter 23, p304-315.)
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