jsteele1979

Education Aligning with Life.

Deborah Meier observes in “NCLB and Democracy” from Many Children Left Behind (2004), that public education has not been seen by communities as a public enterprise in quite some time. Communities of families which surround and empower schools are a collapsing ecosystems. As governmental mechanisms of control increase in education, as the measure of schools and teachers … Continue reading →

Why is this a dream?

The ecology of thought was sensitive to authenticity and we felt the weight of that consciousness pressing like gravity on our shoulders. In equal measure the ground pressed up supporting us and the eyes of a community held with gentle hands, the effort of meaning making from the collection of past and self. Continue reading →

Feedback Anyone?

The following slides describe the research I am proposing to conduct at different school sites.

In order to build a new perceptual lens, I am looking to the most fundamental principles possible and building my inquiry from there. The Web of Life (1997), by Fritjof Capra is a broad reaching work chronicling and discussing the work of scientists for nearly a century as they approach a deep perspective of living systems. Urie Bronfenbrenner in The Ecology of Human Development (1979), explores the nested and networked ecology of human development and offers insight on what qualities are present in healthy human systems. The Earth Charter represents a clear declaration of mutual responsibility toward one another and the greater community of life on Earth. Below I will briefly describe how I move from these larger principles to methods of inquiry in school communities. Continue reading →

Schools are Living Systems: A Thesis Project

How do we continually balance decisions between that which is good for the whole and that which is good for the individual? These answers come from wisdom, from a commitment to complexity and locality, these answers are not found within the context of hegemony, homogeny and broad ideologies. These answers are found in a deep understanding of one another and of systems that support that understanding. Continue reading →