Concluding Thoughts

In describing this time of transformation, Dee Hock, former CEO of Visa Corporation, said: “We are at the very point in time when a four-hundred-year-old is dying and another is struggling to be born, a shift in culture, science, society and institutions enormously greater than the world has ever experienced” (quoted in Waldrop, 1996, p. 75). His words are reminiscent of the famous lines by English poet Matthew Arnold describing the birth of the modern era: “Wandering between two worlds, one dead,/The other powerless to be born.” Both use the birth and death metaphor, a metaphor that is not only appropriate but helps to explain the emotional intensity of our situation.

The birth-and-death metaphor resonates because our institutions are organic artifacts. They live and grow and evolve as a result of the human interactions that take place within them. We use human metaphors to talk about institutions when we consider elements like growth or health of the institution. For this reason we cannot discount the human element in this enterprise, for education and leadership are all about people and relationships. As we examine the commonalities between good teaching and good leading, we will see that the core competencies for both involve human relationships, understanding people, caring about people, and developing the capacity to motivate and inspire them.

One element of the human condition is the fear of death. Even when we know that death is appropriate, a necessary condition, it’s hard to let go. We become comfortable and feel safe with what we know, with what is familiar to us, and giving that up is challenging because of the uncertainty involved. To use a mundane example, think of the uncertainty we feel when the IT people take away our computer and give us an upgrade or our institution changes e-mail software. How many of us have said, “Can’t I keep my old one? It works just fine.” The irony is that what we are resisting isn’t so much the idea of change as the need to learn something new. In order for us to thrive in the new paradigm, we must embrace change but even more important, we must embrace learning. The new paradigm is all about learning, about everyone increasing knowledge, skills, and abilities. The organization as a whole and all the members of the organizational community are learners in a perpetual state of transformation.

The anticipation and excitement of birth is also a key element of the human condition. The use of the birth metaphor for ushering in this new paradigm is apt not only because of the idea of bringing forth something new that is not completely developed, something that holds promise but is still in the progress of development, but also because one of the prevailing metaphors used in describing the role of teachers and leaders in the new paradigm is the midwife, one who attends, coaches, supports. The birth metaphor is also appropriate because birth is a transformative experience for new parents, and new parents reevaluate their priorities, become more intentional about their choices, and examine their fundamental beliefs. The birth metaphor lends a sense of continuation and evolution from the old to the new. Leaders will be challenged to allay the fears of those who will cling to the old paradigm, though it must die if we are to move forward. At the same time leaders will be challenged to inspire, to foster hope, anticipation, and excitement over the prospect of the birth of the new paradigm.

Learner-Centered Leadership

While the focus on student learning has come to the forefront of institutional planning, there has been very little discussion of the magnitude of this proposed systemic change. Instead the focus has been on classroom pedagogy with most of the effort and literature on the learner-centered paradigm and the scholarship of teaching focused on strategies for faculty. And although incremental change has occurred, the larger, systemic change that defines a paradigm shift has not. The first four chapters that constitute Part I are about systemic change.

Lee Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation, noted how change occurs through critical reinterpretation: “Scholars develop powerful skeptical and critical capacities to reexamine old truths using the lenses of new conceptual frameworks” (Shulman, 2008, p. 7). A reinterpretation of old truths using a new lens is what we offer in Part I. While others have documented the market influences affecting higher education, the shortfalls of the current system, and the impact of demographic changes and offered solutions for various facets of this multifaceted challenge, we offer a systemic and sustainable solution by examining our core values in relation to the current paradigm and extend a framework for moving to a new paradigm. The focus in Part I is on the role of leadership in bringing about a transformation to a new paradigm.

Transformative experiences trigger new ways of perceiving and defining one’s world. Often these experiences are life changes, for example, becoming a parent. Such a transformational experience leads individuals to redefine their roles and their purpose. The birth of a child often leads new parents to reevaluate their priorities, to become intentional about their choices, to examine their fundamental beliefs. Simply put, “When people critically examine their habitual expectations, revise them, and act on the revised point of view, transformative learning occurs. Transformative learning leads to perspectives that are more inclusive, discriminating and integrative of experience” (Cranton, 2006, p. 19). The process that we outline in the first part of this book is based upon transformative change, specifically examining our habitual practices in light of the instructional paradigm and critically examining them through the lens of the learner-centered paradigm in order to gain a new perspective.