Saturday 15 March 2014

Jeff Armstrong - Working Inter-generationally Within Our Schools

Selected Text: 
Shaw, H. (2013). Sticking Points: How to get four generations working together in the 12 places they come apart. USA, :Tyndale.

Sticking Points: How to get 4 Generations Working Together in the 12 Places They Come Apart

Introduction:
           How to survive the classroom is an aspect of teaching which we must all decipher.  As new teachers, navigating classroom management, expectations and evaluations will be a challenging task.  Student interactions, teaching strategies and preparation, are all necessary facets of this profession, in which will grow over time through perseverance and experience.  One area of the educational landscape which may prove to be less straight forward is how to work together as a whole system of learning; students, parents, fellow teachers, and administration.  One of the most difficult tasks, through which we as new teachers must navigate, is the expectations of those around us.  Specifically, what does our administration expect us to be doing, balanced against, what the parents think we should be doing, what the students think, and last but not least, what we think we should be doing. As we have found out in the faculty of education, there is not one central way of teaching or learning.  There seems to be no magic bullet to the transference of knowledge, skill and critical thinking.  Everyone brings a different solution based on their experiences, background, or even generationally.  Understanding these generational differences is invaluable for teachers to understand.  Knowing how to work together across generational gaps is key to understanding one another in our schools, which leads to achieving our goals. That’s where Hayden Shaw’s book Sticking Points: How to get 4 Generations Working Together in the Twelve Places They Come Apart can be helpful. 
Summery:
           Working in a school means working with a very large number of people.  Expectations are as diverse as the setting.  Shaw focuses on one aspect of diversity we as future teachers must recognize; generational diversity.  Shaw’s book is not written for teacher/educators, rather it is for anyone working with and across generational divides.  It is important for teachers to recognize the necessity to take this in to account as, much of our practice, and expectations are shaped by our generational influences. 
                 Shaw begins his book up by giving an overview of the four major generations in the workplace.  There is a chapter dedicated to each of the four generations looking specifically at their characteristics, but perhaps most importantly, events which lead to the formation of their ideology and behavior.  They are not explicitly defined as I have attempted to do; rather, Shaw continually and gradually defines each generation by giving examples, mindsets and characteristics often found within each group.  I have attempted to take what I have gathered throughout the entire book in order to give a succinct, yet brief definition, which Shaw does not attempt to do.  This is a brief summary of some of the most notable aspects of each chapter about the specific generations, and what shaped their behaviors and worldviews.


 Traditionalists: Chapter 4. Keep Calm and Carry On

This generation includes anyone born before 1945.  Other names given to this generation include, Builders or the Great Generation.  The Great Depression played a major role in developing this group’s economic worldview.  There is a distinct focus on thriftiness, saving, and frugal spending.  Traditionalists tend to see spending on credit as threatening to security. Traditionalists were enormously influenced by periods of great global conflict (both World War I and II, as well as the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima).  Traditionalist can carry a strong sense of seriousness as well as duty and honor.
           Although there a very few traditionalists left in the work place, they are important to recognize because they are most often found in places of power (Shaw 2013, Pg. 51).  Within the field of education this means we encounter Traditionalists in our school boards and our administrations.  
 
Baby Boomers: Chapter 5. Do Your Own Thing

Baby Boomers are the generation born between 1946 and 1964.  The name Baby Boomer comes from the idea that this large influx of births was the result of the end of the Second World War, and the return to ‘normal’ life.  According to Shaw, Baby Boomers can be understood by being shaped by four major ideas/events in their lives.  These are what Shaw describes as “Ghost Stories.” These are what Shaw explains as “I remember where I was when...” type moments (2013, Pg. 43).  These are the types of things that shape generations.  They aren’t simply singular moments, but moments in history; ideologies of a time.
           For the Baby Boomers, Shaw says the four major ghost stories are The Boom of Babies, Affluence, Television, and the Generation Gap (Pg.65-69).  These moments shapes boomers to become a hard working, yet expectant generation.  There was enormous economic growth during this time period in which many Baby Boomers have found success through the rise of the middle class.  There is an understanding within this generation that success is directly linked to hard work.  The harder one works, the more successful one will be. 
           Once again, due to the age of this group, they are most often found in places of management and power.  They are our principles and our superintendents.  They still largely make the big decisions; do the hiring, do the placements, the observations, set policy, etc. They are still the bosses.  For now, Baby Boomers largely run our schools.  For this reason it is essential for us to understand who they are, and what they value.  Shaw does an excellent job of telling us that the Boomers are a group who searched for meaning throughout the 60’s and 70’ and largely found it, finally, when they settled and began setting the economy in motion as it was through the 80’s and the 90’s. 

Generation X: Chapter 6. Get Real

Generation X includes anyone born in 1965 and 1980.  This group has often been labelled, much to their chagrin, slackers.  This is the MTV and the Kurt Cobain generation.  Misunderstood would often be how these individuals describe themselves.  Shaw describes this group as one that grew up after the exciting times of the 60’s and 70’s and experienced, “Divorce, latch key kids, multiple recessions, global competition, missing children on milk cartons – Gen Xers learned to roll with the bad news and land on their feet (2013, Pg. 78).”  Shaw explains that Gen Xers are a “squished” generation, stuck between the two much larger groups – Boomers, and Millennial.  They have been waiting to take over from Boomers for a long time, but have yet to actually do so.
           This group is just waiting to take over, according to Shaw.  Which is important for us as Millennials to understand, in so much as we must recognize that the teachers working in schools already (the ones approaching middle age,) our co-workers, will soon be our bosses.  For Millennials, we must understand that Gen X feels as though it has been waiting a long time to get in to leadership roles, which means they will have opinions waiting to come out.  They may do things very differently than the Boomers have done.  Our school policies may change when the full scale turnover in administration begins.  Most importantly for future teachers from the Millennial generation, it may be wise to recognize our tendency to try and work past Xrs and find ways to work with them.     

Millennials: Chapter 7. Can We Fix It? Yes We Can!

           Millennials are the generation born between 1981 and 2001.  Most of the teacher candidates in the Faculty of Education are Millennials.  This is a group is large and emerging into adulthood quickly.  Millennials are categorized by their desire to be creative, imaginative, resourceful, tolerant and forward thinking.  It is no question that the eruption of technological development between the time Millennials where born, and the current day has given Millennials a sense of unending possibility.  Much like the Boomer generation was with economic development, Millennials view technology as central and unshakable to a fault.  Millennials can be characterized as eager, but also arrogant.  Shaw writes that Boomers have described their experience with Millennials as,  “...(they) come in expecting to be taken seriously even though they have no “real world” experience (2013, Pg. 94).”  This is not a glowing review of the generation according to Shaw.  This is the generation we must understand, because it is the one to which we belong.  It is the only one we can control because it is ours. 
           Shaw suggests that Millennials have been most significantly shaped by, Heavy parental involvement, Fear of low self esteem, The consumer age, September 11, 2001, Technology Everywhere, and what Shaw describes as Emerging Adulthood (2013, Pg. 94-103).  There is no sense of urgency in this group, but there is a deep sense of possibility.  There is a willingness to figure out what exactly one needs, and is able to do before committing oneself.  This can be difficult for older generations to understand.  As a Millennial, I think it is important to be aware of our youthfulness and lack of experience in the school system and, correspondingly, choose deliberately to take advice and remain quiet on certain issues at certain times.  But, I do believe Millennials have a lot to offer by way of imagination, and willingness to try new things which can be extremely valuable if harnessed. 

Critique:

           There are only a couple of issues worthy of critique within Hayden Shaw’s book.  The book can tend to be written in an overly anecdotal.  It is heavily based on stories, and loosely based in fact.  This is acceptable, in as far as generational tendencies are difficult to quantify, however, it may have been helpful to talk more directly about possible solutions to inter-generational conflict than simply about the fact that they exist.
           The second critique I have is very similar to the first, and that is that, although he caveats the fact that much of what goes on in the book may seem a lot like stereotyping, Shaw really does not try to avoid the issue.  Although the information is extremely relevant and helpful, it can, at times, feel as though he is painting the generations with such a wide brush as to miss some of the more mundane reasons for mis-communication within any organization. 
           Other than these to minor concerns, I found this book to be extremely helpful as a teacher candidate Millennial.  I found the information up to date, relevant and supportive of some of the struggles I feel I am already having within the institutions of education.  I would recommend this book to any teacher candidate, as I believe it will help them to understand the tendencies of those they work with, and for.   

Connections to the Field of Education: 

           Shaw’s basic thesis is that in order to work together well, the four major generations must recognize the differences between them, and do as well as they can to empathize with each other.  The most important thing we can do to work together cross-generationally is to communicate with one another.  This stems first, from having as much of an understanding of one another as possible.  To understand what shapes generation behavior is to understand what shapes generational ideology.  This is why Shaw spends so much time in his book discussing the differences between the generations, and where they come from.  Shaw goes in to depth on certain topics, such as ethics, communication, loyalty, etc. yet at the base of each anecdotal analysis is the need to learn about one another, to empathize with one another and to communicate with one another.  These central themes play repeatedly throughout the entirety of the book.
           As far as the field of education is concerned, we as teacher candidates (most of us Millennials) must learn to be willing to give our respect to the older generations for what they have done and are doing.  This means not going in to practicum and trying to change everything about the cooperating teachers classroom on the second practicum block.  We as Millennials need to be willing to listen to the wisdom of the educators who have gone before them before we give our opinions, and to ask for advice.  This does not, however, mean that we should remain silent.  We must continue to do what we find works best in our classrooms, even if it goes against what some of the prior generations believed about education, yet we must learn to do this is a less aggressive and arrogant fashion.  If we can find ways to do diplomatic in our approach to change, then we will gain the respect we so deeply desire from our predecessors and peers.  This is the most valuable thing one can take away from Shaw’s book; The knowledge of other generations and the knowledge of one’s own.  If we do that, perhaps we will be able to work together with our Baby Boomer principles and alongside our Gen X co-workers.        



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