courageous conversations worth having

( 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.)

Thank You! Carroll Wetzel Wilkinson

cwilkins@wvu.edu West Virginia University Libraries