Achieving Transnational Spaces through Collective Will Power

Abstract

It�s a matter of �wills�: cultural will, social will, organizational will, and political will. Dr. Ron Edmonds said, �We can, whenever and wherever we choose, teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than is necessary to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven�t so far.� To address Dr. Edmonds� question takes collective willpower, �How do we feel about not having addressed the needs of every child?� How can attention to transnational spaces ensure children interact globally, thereby building a collaborative world? How do we establish the cultural, social, organizational, and political will to serve every child, ensuring their global responsiveness? Thomas Friedman maintains that the world is flat. In a flat world, how do we establish cohesive collaborative structures. Conference attendees will hear the Clover Park School District (Lakewood, WA, USA) story, an intentional design to transform student experiences. The premise: Do you understand the population of students with whom you are working and are you committed to ensuring their progress (cultural will)? Do you believe that every child brings assets to school and our responsibility is to address instructional delivery from that belief system (social will)? Are you willing to redesign the organizational structure to ensure closing of the achievement gap (organizational will)? And, are you willing to commit to policy at the governance level and have the courage to stand in the face of racism and criticism.



Author Information
Doris McEwen Harris, McEwen Education Consulting and Curriculum Auditing, USA

Paper Information
Conference: IICE2015
Stream: Education: social justice and social change

This paper is part of the IICE2015 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon