Professor in the School of Leadership Studies at Royal Roads University focused on values based leadership and research paradigms in applied social science.
We live in a time of great possibilities and also of grave dangers; both arising from the same ca... more We live in a time of great possibilities and also of grave dangers; both arising from the same capability of our species to pursue effectively, single-mindedly its goals. Three hundred years of technological advance and extension of our basic physical abilities has resulted in our ability to reach most parts of the planet within 24 hours, communicate instantly through cyberspace to anywhere on the globe, visually apprehend events as they occur around the world within minutes, launch disaster relief in one part of the world from any other part of the world within a day, walk on the moon and maneuver in space, provide every child on earth with vaccines and other medicine that eliminate most life-threatening and debilitating childhood diseases, and produce food on a scale that can now eliminate starvation. And the list of benefits goes on.
Learning Toward an Ecological Consciousness: Selected Transformative Practices, 2004
We live in a time of great possibilities and also of grave dangers; both arising from the same ca... more We live in a time of great possibilities and also of grave dangers; both arising from the same capability of our species to pursue effectively, single-mindedly, its goals. Three hundred years of technological advance and extension of our basic physical abilities has resulted in our ability to reach most parts of the planet within 24 hours, communicate instantly through cyberspace to anywhere on the globe, visually apprehend events as they occur around the world within minutes, launch disaster relief in one part of the world from any other part of the world within a day, walk on the moon and maneuver in space, provide every child on earth with vaccines and other medicine that eliminate most life-threatening and debilitating childhood diseases, and produce food on a scale that can now eliminate starvation. And the list of benefits goes on.
Learning Toward an Ecological Consciousness: Selected Transformative Practices, 2004
Recognition of the role of consciousness in shaping our experience, our perceptions, our expectat... more Recognition of the role of consciousness in shaping our experience, our perceptions, our expectations, and, ultimately, our actions is one of the most powerful themes to emerge in Western societies during the twentieth century, another Copernican revolution according to Willis Harman (1988). He notes Nobel neurological scientist, Roger Sperry’s observation: “Current concepts of the mind-brain relation involve a direct break with long-established materialist and behaviorist doctrine that has dominated neuroscience for many decades. Instead of renouncing or ignoring consciousness, the new interpretation gives full recognition to the primacy of inner conscious awareness as a causal reality” (Harman, 1988, p. 11). How we think, how we interpret what we see, indeed, what we see and experience is recognized as critical in the unfolding of our history and our lives. Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela (1987), Chilean biologists of cognition and consciousness, assert that we “bring forth a world.” Fritjof Capra (2002) has summarized their cognitive theory another way, “The process of knowing is the process of life…. The organizing activity of living systems, at all levels of life, is mental activity” (p. 34).
ABSTRACT A study of learners" weekly reports of experience in a course which promoted self-d... more ABSTRACT A study of learners" weekly reports of experience in a course which promoted self-direction in their own course work revealed a considerable personal transition, something of a cultural journey. This contrasts with existing popular conceptions of what learning for ...
Learning Toward an Ecological Consciousness: Selected Transformative Practices, 2004
Global turbulence impacts all aspects of our lives including our workplaces where we derive our l... more Global turbulence impacts all aspects of our lives including our workplaces where we derive our livelihoods and most of us spend half of our waking hours. As economic conditions fluctuate radically, as instant worldwide communication and rapid travel bring diverse cultural impacts and accelerating innovation, reliable planning horizons are shortened abruptly. Command and control structures are increasingly under pressure. In search of the change that will reduce organizational vulnerability, we see unending cycles of mergers and acquisitions, downsizing, right-sizing, and other forms of restructuring while both material and human costs mount.
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of philosophy in ... more A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of philosophy in the University of Toronto
“Learning” has gained significance over the past four decades and it is all about living in a wor... more “Learning” has gained significance over the past four decades and it is all about living in a world of swirling novelty and surprise. Our unpredictable global environment is forcing us to reposition learning to the center of daily life—to shift the balance from being knowledge focused to being learning focused. The world demands thoughtful action globally and locally, based on current knowledge of ever-changing conditions. Shifting gears to generate knowledge with a radically decreased “time to use” requirement means reconceiving learning itself from something we do once and for all at one time in our lives to something that is continuous. The phrase “lifelong learning” may have appeared first in the lexicon of adult educator Eduard Lindeman (1926) in the 1920s, but in the past 30 years it has become a part of our everyday discourse.
Each time we are confronted with the unfamiliar, we make a profound choice. We either engage in e... more Each time we are confronted with the unfamiliar, we make a profound choice. We either engage in exploring and learning from what we have encountered, or try to secure ourselves inside familiar territory. The option we choose at one point in time tends to predispose us to repeat it the next time. As we accumulate a preponderance of one of these choices over the other, we define our lives and who we become in essential ways. Our actions are shaped by how we understand ourselves and our world, so how we learn, or not, very significantly shapes our own and others’ lives. These choices and actions also ultimately contribute to the texture of our world, which, in turn, presents us with further challenges.
We now recognize not only that we are in an age of continuous change, but also that change, itsel... more We now recognize not only that we are in an age of continuous change, but also that change, itself, is continually accelerating. Fred Emery and Eric Trist (1965) were among the first to recognize this as the defining quality of a fundamentally new age. They observed more than 40 years ago that we were moving out of an age in which, as organizational and community leaders, we could predict successful results from wise strategies and the power to compete effectively, and we were entering an age that is inherently unpredictable. Emery and Trist called this a “turbulent field” created by a growing multiplicity of competitors for resources, buyers, and the like; their simultaneous and intensifying interactions were generating a qualitatively different environment. Few would have regarded these observations as critical then, but most of us now would recognize this theme as a defining feature of nearly every aspect of our human experience today. In fact, many of us would recognize features of what Emery and Trist speculated as a subsequent type of environment, a vortical environment, which would rise in the absence of effective adaptations to turbulence. Without a thoughtfully formulated desirable direction for change, guided by explicit values and engaging those who have a stake in the outcome, turbulent environments turn to a vortical pattern that draws more into it as it accelerates.
Our focus to this point has been on navigating ourselves adaptively through an environment of acc... more Our focus to this point has been on navigating ourselves adaptively through an environment of accelerating and unpredictable change in the face of critical demands. Anticipating continual turbulence and uncertainty, we have considered what it is to take an emergent learning process perspective. We examined this pattern in detail and considered its relevance across different contexts as reflected in multiple second- and third-order learning process configurations that have been articulated over the past 40 years. This emergent learning perspective holds promise as a means of navigating through unfamiliar territory, as a way to interpret the significance of particular events in the experience, and as a means of evolving an unwelcome surprise into a more expansive perspective. Finally, as an aspect of leading ourselves, we considered some of the practices we could undertake to improve our abilities to engage and benefit from emergent learning.
Coincident with increasing global turbulence over the past three or four decades, the accumulatio... more Coincident with increasing global turbulence over the past three or four decades, the accumulation of a rich source of scholarship and practice related to second- and third-order learning in diverse contexts and theoretical domains has occurred. The existence of multiple models enables us to conduct an abductive phase of inquiry—“comparison of configurations”—that Bateson and Bateson (1987) suggested is “the glue that holds all science together”; it is where “we look for contrasts that develop and differentiate as sophistication increases” (p. 175).
Page 1. RNING TOWARD ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS SELECTED TRANSFORMATIVE PRACTICES EDITED BY EDMUND ... more Page 1. RNING TOWARD ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS SELECTED TRANSFORMATIVE PRACTICES EDITED BY EDMUND O SULLIVAN & MARILYN TAYLOR Page 2. Page 3. Learning Toward an Ecological Consciousness " This One RJGC-BNK-OSBY Page 4. Page 5. ...
A Twenty-first Century Learning Agenda: Challenges and Possibilities Learning in the Twenty-first... more A Twenty-first Century Learning Agenda: Challenges and Possibilities Learning in the Twenty-first Century: Embedded, Emergent, and Embodied Emergent Learning from an Inside-Out Perspective Converging Perspectives on Emergent Learning Leading Ourselves: Cultivating Personal Practices for Emergent Learning Global Imperatives, Emergent Learning, and Leadership
As global flux reshapes organizational life, demands on organizational leadership are shifting ra... more As global flux reshapes organizational life, demands on organizational leadership are shifting radically. This article reviews the trends in recent calls for revision of management education and presents a fundamentally different perspective with related design principles that hold promise for addressing the new leadership challenges in turbulent environments. This systemic approach to leadership education for organizational change leaders and consultants fosters attunement to social processes in the collaborative development of productive organizational contexts, the effective use of theory-in-practice, expertise for learning-in-action, and requisite self-knowledge. Educational programmes evolving with dynamic postmodern organizational realities are, by definition, incongruous with the underlying traditional operating assumptions of the university. The challenge of negotiating this paradigmatic interface is also discussed.
Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation, 1992
Although admission of women to higher education has increased, equitable inclusion of women in th... more Although admission of women to higher education has increased, equitable inclusion of women in the academy has not kept pace. Women often experience marginality in the classroom because they may have different styles of learning and because women's experiences are not represented in mainstream knowledge. We suggest a narrative, inductive teaching strategy that deliberately acknowledges women's differences and that will contribute to knowledge. This strategy requires teaching practices aimed at (1) establishing an affirming student/teacher relationship, (2) facilitating relationships among students, (3) enabling students to articulate their knowledge and experience, and (4) helping students to engage meaningfully with course content. This approach raises new difficulties for teachers, difficulties to be overcome in pursuing the equitable inclusion of women in higher education. Bien que de plus en plus de femmes poursuivent des études supérieures, l'inclusion équitable des femmes dans les corps professoraux laisse à désirer. La marginalité dont font l'expérience les femmes dans les salles de cours tient peutêtre au fait qu'elles ont des styles d'apprentissage différents et que les expériences des femmes ne sont pas représentées dans les connaissances courantes. Nous proposons une stratégie pédagogique narrative et inductive qui reconnaît délibérément les différences des femmes et qui contribuera à l'évolution des connaissances. Cette stratégie exige des méthodes d'enseignement qui visent (1) à établir une relation manifeste entre l'étudiant et le professeur, (2) à faciliter les relations entre les étudiants, (3) à permettre aux étudiants d'articuler leurs connaissances et leurs expériences et (4) à aider les étudiants à s'engager d'une manière féconde vis-à-vis de la matière du cours. Cette approche pose de nouvelles difficultés aux professeurs, difficultés qui seront surmontées par l'inclusion équitable des femmes dans l'enseignement supérieur.
... In order for this learning process to be facilitated, institutions should make changes in pol... more ... In order for this learning process to be facilitated, institutions should make changes in policies for admissions processes, required courses, emphasis on performance, fixed objectives and deadlines, and lack of ... Education Level: Adult Education; Postsecondary Education. ...
We live in a time of great possibilities and also of grave dangers; both arising from the same ca... more We live in a time of great possibilities and also of grave dangers; both arising from the same capability of our species to pursue effectively, single-mindedly its goals. Three hundred years of technological advance and extension of our basic physical abilities has resulted in our ability to reach most parts of the planet within 24 hours, communicate instantly through cyberspace to anywhere on the globe, visually apprehend events as they occur around the world within minutes, launch disaster relief in one part of the world from any other part of the world within a day, walk on the moon and maneuver in space, provide every child on earth with vaccines and other medicine that eliminate most life-threatening and debilitating childhood diseases, and produce food on a scale that can now eliminate starvation. And the list of benefits goes on.
Learning Toward an Ecological Consciousness: Selected Transformative Practices, 2004
We live in a time of great possibilities and also of grave dangers; both arising from the same ca... more We live in a time of great possibilities and also of grave dangers; both arising from the same capability of our species to pursue effectively, single-mindedly, its goals. Three hundred years of technological advance and extension of our basic physical abilities has resulted in our ability to reach most parts of the planet within 24 hours, communicate instantly through cyberspace to anywhere on the globe, visually apprehend events as they occur around the world within minutes, launch disaster relief in one part of the world from any other part of the world within a day, walk on the moon and maneuver in space, provide every child on earth with vaccines and other medicine that eliminate most life-threatening and debilitating childhood diseases, and produce food on a scale that can now eliminate starvation. And the list of benefits goes on.
Learning Toward an Ecological Consciousness: Selected Transformative Practices, 2004
Recognition of the role of consciousness in shaping our experience, our perceptions, our expectat... more Recognition of the role of consciousness in shaping our experience, our perceptions, our expectations, and, ultimately, our actions is one of the most powerful themes to emerge in Western societies during the twentieth century, another Copernican revolution according to Willis Harman (1988). He notes Nobel neurological scientist, Roger Sperry’s observation: “Current concepts of the mind-brain relation involve a direct break with long-established materialist and behaviorist doctrine that has dominated neuroscience for many decades. Instead of renouncing or ignoring consciousness, the new interpretation gives full recognition to the primacy of inner conscious awareness as a causal reality” (Harman, 1988, p. 11). How we think, how we interpret what we see, indeed, what we see and experience is recognized as critical in the unfolding of our history and our lives. Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela (1987), Chilean biologists of cognition and consciousness, assert that we “bring forth a world.” Fritjof Capra (2002) has summarized their cognitive theory another way, “The process of knowing is the process of life…. The organizing activity of living systems, at all levels of life, is mental activity” (p. 34).
ABSTRACT A study of learners" weekly reports of experience in a course which promoted self-d... more ABSTRACT A study of learners" weekly reports of experience in a course which promoted self-direction in their own course work revealed a considerable personal transition, something of a cultural journey. This contrasts with existing popular conceptions of what learning for ...
Learning Toward an Ecological Consciousness: Selected Transformative Practices, 2004
Global turbulence impacts all aspects of our lives including our workplaces where we derive our l... more Global turbulence impacts all aspects of our lives including our workplaces where we derive our livelihoods and most of us spend half of our waking hours. As economic conditions fluctuate radically, as instant worldwide communication and rapid travel bring diverse cultural impacts and accelerating innovation, reliable planning horizons are shortened abruptly. Command and control structures are increasingly under pressure. In search of the change that will reduce organizational vulnerability, we see unending cycles of mergers and acquisitions, downsizing, right-sizing, and other forms of restructuring while both material and human costs mount.
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of philosophy in ... more A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of philosophy in the University of Toronto
“Learning” has gained significance over the past four decades and it is all about living in a wor... more “Learning” has gained significance over the past four decades and it is all about living in a world of swirling novelty and surprise. Our unpredictable global environment is forcing us to reposition learning to the center of daily life—to shift the balance from being knowledge focused to being learning focused. The world demands thoughtful action globally and locally, based on current knowledge of ever-changing conditions. Shifting gears to generate knowledge with a radically decreased “time to use” requirement means reconceiving learning itself from something we do once and for all at one time in our lives to something that is continuous. The phrase “lifelong learning” may have appeared first in the lexicon of adult educator Eduard Lindeman (1926) in the 1920s, but in the past 30 years it has become a part of our everyday discourse.
Each time we are confronted with the unfamiliar, we make a profound choice. We either engage in e... more Each time we are confronted with the unfamiliar, we make a profound choice. We either engage in exploring and learning from what we have encountered, or try to secure ourselves inside familiar territory. The option we choose at one point in time tends to predispose us to repeat it the next time. As we accumulate a preponderance of one of these choices over the other, we define our lives and who we become in essential ways. Our actions are shaped by how we understand ourselves and our world, so how we learn, or not, very significantly shapes our own and others’ lives. These choices and actions also ultimately contribute to the texture of our world, which, in turn, presents us with further challenges.
We now recognize not only that we are in an age of continuous change, but also that change, itsel... more We now recognize not only that we are in an age of continuous change, but also that change, itself, is continually accelerating. Fred Emery and Eric Trist (1965) were among the first to recognize this as the defining quality of a fundamentally new age. They observed more than 40 years ago that we were moving out of an age in which, as organizational and community leaders, we could predict successful results from wise strategies and the power to compete effectively, and we were entering an age that is inherently unpredictable. Emery and Trist called this a “turbulent field” created by a growing multiplicity of competitors for resources, buyers, and the like; their simultaneous and intensifying interactions were generating a qualitatively different environment. Few would have regarded these observations as critical then, but most of us now would recognize this theme as a defining feature of nearly every aspect of our human experience today. In fact, many of us would recognize features of what Emery and Trist speculated as a subsequent type of environment, a vortical environment, which would rise in the absence of effective adaptations to turbulence. Without a thoughtfully formulated desirable direction for change, guided by explicit values and engaging those who have a stake in the outcome, turbulent environments turn to a vortical pattern that draws more into it as it accelerates.
Our focus to this point has been on navigating ourselves adaptively through an environment of acc... more Our focus to this point has been on navigating ourselves adaptively through an environment of accelerating and unpredictable change in the face of critical demands. Anticipating continual turbulence and uncertainty, we have considered what it is to take an emergent learning process perspective. We examined this pattern in detail and considered its relevance across different contexts as reflected in multiple second- and third-order learning process configurations that have been articulated over the past 40 years. This emergent learning perspective holds promise as a means of navigating through unfamiliar territory, as a way to interpret the significance of particular events in the experience, and as a means of evolving an unwelcome surprise into a more expansive perspective. Finally, as an aspect of leading ourselves, we considered some of the practices we could undertake to improve our abilities to engage and benefit from emergent learning.
Coincident with increasing global turbulence over the past three or four decades, the accumulatio... more Coincident with increasing global turbulence over the past three or four decades, the accumulation of a rich source of scholarship and practice related to second- and third-order learning in diverse contexts and theoretical domains has occurred. The existence of multiple models enables us to conduct an abductive phase of inquiry—“comparison of configurations”—that Bateson and Bateson (1987) suggested is “the glue that holds all science together”; it is where “we look for contrasts that develop and differentiate as sophistication increases” (p. 175).
Page 1. RNING TOWARD ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS SELECTED TRANSFORMATIVE PRACTICES EDITED BY EDMUND ... more Page 1. RNING TOWARD ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS SELECTED TRANSFORMATIVE PRACTICES EDITED BY EDMUND O SULLIVAN & MARILYN TAYLOR Page 2. Page 3. Learning Toward an Ecological Consciousness " This One RJGC-BNK-OSBY Page 4. Page 5. ...
A Twenty-first Century Learning Agenda: Challenges and Possibilities Learning in the Twenty-first... more A Twenty-first Century Learning Agenda: Challenges and Possibilities Learning in the Twenty-first Century: Embedded, Emergent, and Embodied Emergent Learning from an Inside-Out Perspective Converging Perspectives on Emergent Learning Leading Ourselves: Cultivating Personal Practices for Emergent Learning Global Imperatives, Emergent Learning, and Leadership
As global flux reshapes organizational life, demands on organizational leadership are shifting ra... more As global flux reshapes organizational life, demands on organizational leadership are shifting radically. This article reviews the trends in recent calls for revision of management education and presents a fundamentally different perspective with related design principles that hold promise for addressing the new leadership challenges in turbulent environments. This systemic approach to leadership education for organizational change leaders and consultants fosters attunement to social processes in the collaborative development of productive organizational contexts, the effective use of theory-in-practice, expertise for learning-in-action, and requisite self-knowledge. Educational programmes evolving with dynamic postmodern organizational realities are, by definition, incongruous with the underlying traditional operating assumptions of the university. The challenge of negotiating this paradigmatic interface is also discussed.
Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation, 1992
Although admission of women to higher education has increased, equitable inclusion of women in th... more Although admission of women to higher education has increased, equitable inclusion of women in the academy has not kept pace. Women often experience marginality in the classroom because they may have different styles of learning and because women's experiences are not represented in mainstream knowledge. We suggest a narrative, inductive teaching strategy that deliberately acknowledges women's differences and that will contribute to knowledge. This strategy requires teaching practices aimed at (1) establishing an affirming student/teacher relationship, (2) facilitating relationships among students, (3) enabling students to articulate their knowledge and experience, and (4) helping students to engage meaningfully with course content. This approach raises new difficulties for teachers, difficulties to be overcome in pursuing the equitable inclusion of women in higher education. Bien que de plus en plus de femmes poursuivent des études supérieures, l'inclusion équitable des femmes dans les corps professoraux laisse à désirer. La marginalité dont font l'expérience les femmes dans les salles de cours tient peutêtre au fait qu'elles ont des styles d'apprentissage différents et que les expériences des femmes ne sont pas représentées dans les connaissances courantes. Nous proposons une stratégie pédagogique narrative et inductive qui reconnaît délibérément les différences des femmes et qui contribuera à l'évolution des connaissances. Cette stratégie exige des méthodes d'enseignement qui visent (1) à établir une relation manifeste entre l'étudiant et le professeur, (2) à faciliter les relations entre les étudiants, (3) à permettre aux étudiants d'articuler leurs connaissances et leurs expériences et (4) à aider les étudiants à s'engager d'une manière féconde vis-à-vis de la matière du cours. Cette approche pose de nouvelles difficultés aux professeurs, difficultés qui seront surmontées par l'inclusion équitable des femmes dans l'enseignement supérieur.
... In order for this learning process to be facilitated, institutions should make changes in pol... more ... In order for this learning process to be facilitated, institutions should make changes in policies for admissions processes, required courses, emphasis on performance, fixed objectives and deadlines, and lack of ... Education Level: Adult Education; Postsecondary Education. ...
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Papers by Marilyn Taylor