Systemic Barriers to Change: an example
The Report of the 21st Century Literacy SummitThe report notes a number of barriers to change, two of which can be either enablers or firm barriers. Those two are:
* Intellectual property & Business practices
* Tools, standards, Licensing & pricing
But let’s look at some systemic barriers and I will speak to the world I know best: a faculty support unit in a major research institution:
- 21st century literacy is not well understood
- most institutions have no incentive to change
- tenure process does not acknowledge or reward innovative change in the learning environment initiated by passionate instructors
- current research on these issues hasn’t reached a mainstream audience, where many traditional faculty fall
In the past, my unit has offered many fine workshops, ranging from ubiquitous technologies such as email and discussion board to emerging technologies, and on to pure pedagogy, focused on engaging the students. Great. What’s the problem?
The faculty won’t come to the workshops. Why? No incentive. Pressure of publish or perish. No time. No departmental support. They are a hard market to reach.
So we switched to offering just a few basic workshops and moved into a service model, where we offer our expert assistance in four areas. Take a look:
http://itc.utk.edu/apply/1. Online syllabus design and development
2. Instructional design and content organization
3. Education elements (formerly known as “learning objects”)
4. Communication and collaboration
So now, instead of reaching 15 faculty with powerful two-hour workshops on issues critical to 21st century literacy, we upload documents for faculty, sneaking in pedagogy when we can. My unit hosts some of the finest and most creative staff on campus but we have trouble reaching the faculty with our gifts.
The leaders and power brokers in higher education administration need to become better informed on these issues and this report provides a great starting point. One issue that can be addressed, at the enterprise level, might be an evaluation of the faculty development model currently operating on the campus. How can that faculty development model be shifted to incorporate the absolutely essential task of “empowering teachers with 21st century literacy skills” (see page 15 of the report).
If we don’t reach the instructors, we are simply talking well but not bringing about change.
It’s imperative.
