Reflections on work - from the past
I originally authored this post in April 2020 not too long after the COVID-19 pandemic caused cities and nations to lockdown. I found this as a draft post that I hadn’t published perhaps due to all that was going on at the time.
What I wrote here in April 2020, still holds in September 2023.
An image of a person standing on still water, which causes a reflection of the mountains and sky. Source: Unsplash
“If we cannot recognize the truth, then it cannot liberate us from untruth. To know the truth is to prepare for it; for it is not mainly reflection and theory. Truth is divine action entering our lives and creating the human action of liberation.”
Reflections on work
I've worked as a 'digital education facilitator / senior teaching associate' for almost 3.5 years at the Lancaster University Management School. I arrived hopeful, looking ahead to entering a new phase of my career within higher education where I would be explicitly working with a range of colleagues - academics, administrators, subject librarians and students - to develop both blended and online learning experiences. My time in my current role is coming to an end as I plan to move on to a new challenge and to both undertake a doctorate. In many ways, it makes sense to do these in the same place. In this post, I share some thoughts, reflections and hopes.
Synergy is key, when enacted
My current role is based in a large management school - a business school - where you have a range of business subjects divided into departments ranging from Accounting and Finance; Economics; Organization, Work and Technology; Management Science; and Marketing. There is also the Undergraduate Office where consortial programmes are situated.
One of the best part of working in such a large school was getting to meet a range of people from all walks of life and experiences. There are a lot of colleagues who care about their students. Indeed, the Dean at the time of this writing has had a project that sought to develop a cross-departmental community for students which takes the form of a module called MNGT160: Future Global Leaders: Sustainability Across Business.
This module has often been a source of contention as it sought to create a community that cuts across departmental boundaries, and thus, requires both contribution from each department and some hours to be workloaded from each department. Since it is not 'owned' by any one department, this module has, at times, not received a welcoming view. However, the aim and ethos of the module are fairly sound: to create a community while developing some graduate attributes within students through getting them to work together across their subject silos. Idealistic? Perhaps. Doable? Definitely.
With the amount of expertise and experience across the management school, such a module has great potential to create a very collaborative, cross-departmental community of learning and teaching that could strengthen the identity of the school itself while creating networks of students (and staff) who could work closely together in order to grow, develop as students, people and future professionals and subject experts.
Synergy is key for such a module to happen. Working together and drawing upon the expertise of such a large school to create good curricula, well-structured systems and a positive, welcoming environment for learning can only be a good thing surely.
The pandemic and the move to digital
Covid19 has upended a lot of systems, processes and practices. Initially, there was a lot of uncertainty that allowed some leaders to emerge in order to mitigate some for the panic and anxiety that the sudden shift or pivot to digital education that the pandemic caused.
During these first weeks and months, a lot of educational technologists were doing their utmost to help staff however and wherever possible. In fact, this is still continuing. What has been at the back of our minds - some of us - has been those little fleeting thoughts of ah, if we only had more blended learning before, we'd be more prepared for this!
Of course, learning/educational technologists have been trying for years to get academic and teaching staff to integrate in the digital into learning and teaching. We do this because we understand that, on the whole, students require a full range of digital literacies in order to live and work within the 21st Century to the full. People can live without collaborative and smart technologies, sure, but the world is generally progressing in the direction of closer collaboration and working together through digital means. Sustainability, efficiency and richness of opportunities are just a few reasons that digital literacies and their development are so key for the future. We could not have predicted the pandemic, nor used this as part of a rationale for integrating digital education practices for sounding, at best, alarmist.
That all said, what the pandemic has caused for digital education is a few points:
a sudden, renewed interest in digital education, whether blended or fully online;
a deeper understanding of working and studying at home, and how this can work;
a better appreciation for educational technologists and those who have integrated digital education practices into their teaching;
the development of a range of solutions to address issues arising around learning and teaching both remotely and at a distance;
and many others.
The fourth point is particularly interesting for me within my current role because I have been able to observe developments locally, nationally and internationally through a mixture of professional networks sustained by email lists, social networks on Microsoft Teams and Facebook and looser networks on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Working in silos: missed opportunities
Initially, I observed the same questions arising from the different places. I frequently saw the same or very similar questions coming from a range of staff that mostly where 'how to?' questions. I helped wherever I could by providing advice, solution and consultations where appropriate.
I began observing with a bit of annoyance and sense of powerlessness a pattern that slowly began to develop: colleagues were working in their departmental silos to create solutions. These solutions were not always shared across the departments at a macro level. As far as I was concerned, given my role and position that allowed somewhat of an overseeing eye, if I did not hear about it, I believed that a potentially valuable idea was not being shared to colleagues whom might need or find value in such solutions.
To my mind, this type of working did not make sense for a few reasons:
the problems themselves are common across the faculties - the 'how to?' questions;
solutions/ideas created in silos and thus not shared is, in effect, a replication of effort;
those with the most experience within digital education were not always consulted first despite their expertise, and in effect, time and attention was misused;
MNGT160 - Leadership on a large module
Unique challenges
Given the size and scale of the module, there were bound to be challenges. The module in question cuts across the faculty as the audience in question are nearly all first year management school majors: this equates to well over 1200 students on one module, which is something innovative and different to what we had done prior.
First, a bit about the module itself: MNGT160 Future Global Leaders: Sustainability Across Business. The faculty I work for has 6 diverse academic departments that each bring their own unique perspectives, and I wanted these diverse perspectives to be reflected both the description and practice of the module in order to ensure stakeholders (the departments and their staff) would buy into the idea of the changes I was offering for the module. I won't go into the details of the changes, but below are the educational aims:
The module will use the lens of sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals to develop students' academic, personal and professional dimensions, and their understanding of different aspects of sustainability and leadership to encourage their involvement with student life and prepare them for future careers.
Students will engage with global issues within the overarching context of sustainability and sub-topics of resilience, diversity and geopolitics with a view to linking these ideas with what can be achieved at a local level in practice.
Throughout this module, students will use the lens of their own specific subject area(s) as a looking glass through which to examine and apply what they learn per sustainability and leadership.
Given that no one of our departments explicitly teaches about either sustainability or leadership in the first year (these topics come later), it made sense to cover these topics and sub-topics of resilience, diversity and geopolitics especially in light of the environmental, sociopolitical and economic upheaval of the last couple of years related to the issues raised by Brexit and new figures such as the environmental activist Greta Thunberg who are passionate about the evermore important issue of climate change and sustainability generally.
In this regard, this module would get all students (and staff) thinking about these topics in broad terms and through the perspective of each subject's lens in order get students to consider critically the issues and draw connections between their own subjects and the overarching and underpinning topics. My own goal was to get students inspired, thinking and questioning the issues... which is what university is all about!
This process, was at times, a tricky process to manage but equally rewarding in terms of what was experienced and learned along the way.
Practical day-to-day challenges
The day-to-day issues were perhaps some of the most frequently occurring issues that created little barriers, hurdles and obstacles for general progress on getting the module off the ground whether we're talking about module development, curriculum design and approval or agreeing actions and general courses of action.
One of the most frequent issues that came up was time and scheduling. Time is precious - for everyone - and everyone has their own availability, teaching and/or research load and pre-arranged commitments whether relating to time off, family, health and so on, especially in the time between August and October prior to the start of an academic year in England when academic and teaching staff may have other commitments that might include undertaking research and research related activities, planning ahead for the academic year or taking annual leave prior to the start of the new academic year and autumn term.
For me, what this means in practical terms for the initial meetings is that I was not always able to get everyone into a single room in order to discuss the general course of action for the module's development. I remember that at the initial meeting, not everyone was able to attend due to various commitments. Despite this, the first meeting was productive and we laid groundwork for development - there was a contagious sense of positivity and things were looking GOOD!
And then came the second meeting...
Apart from a couple of colleagues, the rest of the faces were 'new' in that they hadn't attended the first meeting, and so, in effect, this meant that we had to recap what went on in the first meeting in order to get everyone up to speed. However, this presented itself with an opportunity.
The learning from this was: yes, we can plan ahead and take notes and share these notes, though colleagues may not have time or a chance to read through these notes. That said, if a significant contingent to a subsequent meeting is new, a short recap can get everyone on the same page and win over potentially influential and/or powerful colleagues who may be doubtful of the direction and/or content of the programme in question. A recap may seem like time lost - but rather, on reflection, this is time well-spent getting everyone on the same page so that a project can proceed with a clear sense of direction that has received input from all colleagues.
From this process and experience, I feel that I've learned that when leading on a large, collaborative project, there is an increased likelihood that not all colleagues may be able to attend meetings all of the time, the best plans intended and/or planned must be flexible, and ensuring everyone is on the same page is more important than simply moving on to the next meeting or set of actions.
Hearing people out pays off
When collaborating with a large number of people, sometimes we have to just stop, be silent and allow others to voice their concerns, opinions and views. Though it may seem obvious to some, this process might feel (read this as definitely will feel) a little uncomfortable for the uninitiated leader especially if you're having to deal with one or more heads of departments whom you haven't yet won over!
When a colleague has a concern, hear them out and remain calm no matter what the message is, especially when leading a module or new project is something that you're new at.
It pays off to take the time demonstrate effective listening by hearing them out with an open mind, be 'in the moment' while listening, take note of their concerns and ideas and see how their ideas can complement and/or improve what is already on the table. What is more is that the colleagues who are providing some of the constructive criticisms might be deeply in support of your ideas and what you are trying to achieve - but - they are trying to push you to see a different perspective in order to improve your offering.
Although their initial message may sound direct, patience may well pay off, which in turn leads to new/different perspectives gained, colleagues feeling that their views are being heard and listened to and trust both built and gained.