Thinking for Change
A resource center for critical and creative thinking and reflective
practice (Home page)
"working to develop people's capacity to make a difference in schools,
workplaces, communities, and organizations for social change"
Prospectus, April '00, updated September '00
Comments and suggestions welcome
For more than twenty years the Program in Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT)
at UMass Boston has introduced educators and other mid-career professionals to
tools and perspectives for innovative teaching, leadership, collaboration, and,
most importantly, for continuing to learn. The CCT experience has helped its
graduates and associates to contribute to constructive change in their various
educational, professional, and social settings and to move their own lives in
new directions. To extend CCT's impact beyond its formal programs of study, an
outreach organization, Thinking for Change (TfC) (provisionally named),
has now been established.
TfC aims to catalyze, facilitate, and support the efforts of people in
all kinds of organizations to take initiative and generate constructive change.
Participation in TfC projects will allow such "change-agents" to develop
their ability to reflect deeply and bring insights to the surface, address
ill-defined problems and make tensions constructive, articulate their vision in
practical terms and collaborate in bringing it to fruition.
TfC projects are expected to range from consulting on "strategies and
solutions" for organizational and individual problems to facilitating
longer-term "change collaborations." Such projects will build on the diverse
skills and experience of TfC associates in critical and creative
thinking and problem-solving, in facilitating dialogue, listening, and
participatory planning, in adult and continuing education, and in social
justice education and activism.
To establish a distinct niche in the arena of
personal and organizational change, TfC needs to operate as an effective
change collaboration itself--growing and adapting in response to opportunities
and challenges, and enabling TfC associates to foster each others'
learning. In this spirit, TfC is evolving a facilitated planning and
problem-solving process.
The initial planning premises that have emerged are
that TfC "should seek to:
- activate a network of practitioners in which the CCT Program becomes one node
among many
- move into some risky, unfamiliar areas
- exemplify in its organization and operation the methods it promotes
- solicit advice to fashion realizable goals
- support reflection, writing, and dissemination about its processes
- develop methods that produce outcomes, keeping its projects at the cutting
edge
- attract clients and funds, becoming viable without the support of CCT and
UMass Boston
- develop a distinctive identity, recognized in New England region and further
afield."
TfC 's projects for the first year include the following (more details):
- Facilitated planning and problem-solving to establish TfC 's mode of
operation (Spring '00-Fall'00);
- A faculty development workshop (co-hosted with CCT) on fostering critical
thinking about biology in its social context (led by Peter Taylor) (July '00);
- A think-tank of community-college critical thinking teachers (convened by
Nina Greenwald and Arthur Millman) (Fall '00-Spring '01);
- A consultation process to identify and articulate opportunities to promote
critical and creative thinking in the corporate world and government agencies
(led by Nina Greenwald) (Fall '00);
- A working group to advise CCT in its new graduate certificate in "Dialogue
and Collaboration for Organizational Change" (convened by Bradford &
Taylor) (Fall '00-);
- Soliciting entries for a web-based "Thinking for Change Fieldbook" (edited by
Arthur Millman and Peter Taylor) (Fall '00-);
- Website for documentation of activities and fieldbook entries (supervised by
Peter Taylor) (Fall '00-);
- A dialogue process around ongoing and changing demands on special education
(initiated and led by Allyn Bradford) (Spring '01).
To sustain the energy for such endeavors, TfC project leaders will be
assisted by another associate; together we will support each others' ongoing
reflection and development as teachers, facilitators, and consultants.
Other specifics that arise from the mission and planning premises described
above include:
1. Resources and Funding: TfC will plan each activity to be
self-sufficient. From time to time, CCT may contribute seed money from its
Continuing Education Academic Unit fund dividend. The CCT office and graduate
assistants will also maintain a database for e/mailing, provide assistance in
e/mailing publicity material, and handle phone messages. Funds will be
processed through Graduate College of Education (GCOE) account 2-50634 with the
normal 7% overhead on payments made. Other than providing space for some
TfC events, no other demands will be made on the resources of UMass
Boston. As the activities and income of TfC grow, a separate account,
phone number, and accomodation may be requested, with appropriate financial
contributions made from TfC income.
From the other side, TfC should bring attention to the CCT Program and
generate some resources for the GCOE through increased enrollments in the MA
and Certificate Programs, in CCT courses and institutes, and in the Ed. Admin.
Concentration in Facilitating Reflective Practice (once formally approved).
2. Governance, Planning and Ongoing Development: TfC will be
co-convened by the CCT Program Director and another associate of TfC who
is not a regular salaried CCT faculty member. The co-convenor will be
appointed on a year-by-year basis by the CCT Advisory Board. The Advisory
Board will meet twice a year to help TfC keep abreast of new
developments, and to monitor the support and resources CCT and TfC
provide each other. The co-convenors will convene regular meetings of active
TfC associates and arrange the facilitation method/leader for those
meetings. The ideal is that TfC will grow--probably slowly at first--by
innovating, then evaluating and amplifying or redirecting its efforts
accordingly.
3. TfC network: People who support TfC's
mission and can commit the time to participate in its growth and development
will be invited to join TfC as new associates. Others who participate
in the specific activities will make up the TfC network, the starting
point for which will be the CCT community database, which includes over 350
graduates and other CCT associates.
4. Student involvement and benefits: CCT students and graduates will
benefit directly from participation in TfC activities. Some students
may volunteer as assistants or apprentices to the leaders of the diferent
activities. When sufficient income is secured, these apprenticeships may take
the form of Graduate Assistantships with the usual tuition waiver and
stipend.
5. Integration with the CCT Program, GCOE, and the University:
TfC addresses one of the major goals of the CCT Program's June 2000 plan
for the AQUAD process, namely, "to undertake outreach that builds on the
professional strengths of the part-time faculty and growing network of
graduates, as well as the regular faculty." This goal, in turn, addresses the
1994-95 review committee's recommendations that the CCT Program presents a
higher profile, within the university and in the wider community, for what is
distinctive about CCT's work. Items 2 & 3 above indicate other ways that
TfC is integrated with the CCT Program.
In addition, the TfC convenors and project leaders will co-ordinate with
other parties in CCT and other units, centers, and projects in GCOE and UMass
around hosting TfC activities. Particularly helpful will be NERCHE's
experience in hosting think tanks and promoting change in Higher Education.