Phil Wood

The book I'm referring to is actually in the photo in the message I first put out. You obviously have decided to antagonise and don't really want to discuss this rationally which is a shame. Hope you have a great weekend.

It's also interesting that 'my assumptions' are in part based on several lengthy discussions with my mum who is in her 80s are believed she sees this pattern regularly.

It's not old people bashing. I said an aging population, that isn't just the old per se. There are people 'my age', but plenty of older people as well who I engage with who do look back in this way (and many who don't). Perhaps read Gardini's work before disregarding the thesis out of hand.

It's great to come across a book where someone is exploring the idea of processual complexity - the very same idea I've been laying with for the past four years.

Boom cover for Zeitgeist Nostalgia by Gandini

The current wave of populism in the UK is in part about inequalities, but I think it is as much if not more due to the nostalgia of an aging population for a mythical time when everything was better. Populists sell them a picture of a time that never existed but which they identify with.

Are you UK based and either a student teacher, an early career teacher or a mentor? Want to take part in some research on student teacher well-being? We want your top tips, advice and wisdom… all info here: forms.office.com/e/RyaBnXyN89 kindly funded by @beranews.bsky.social

Thing is you can claim an exam is the best way of assessing children because they assess the quality and degree of retrieval - job done 🫤

Is it because the models of learning that have become popular are a simplistic input/output system, where retrieval becomes the sole measure of quality of output?

When you read about the process through which Finland created its current national curriculum, you realise what a poor, poor process we have in this country in comparison.

'being in the flow of time implies relentless interweaving of present, past, and future among flows of on-going processes.' Hernes (2022)

'The most fundamental problems in organizational research relate to various forms of continuity and change, both of which are inextricably linked to time.' Hernes (2022)

Looking at government decisions & policy it is apparent that we have a C19th structure using linear thinking which is wholly inadequate for a complex context which requires interdepartmental thinking. Our system of government and the political ecosystem which surrounds it is woefully out of date

An amazing book. Just finished a very close read and lots to really reflect on and embed in my work

This is particularly true where organizations try to do too much change - hyperchange, leading to a lack of energy and revisiting. Why normalisation process theory has real potential as we found out in a recent change project with local schools.

'attempts at organizational change tend to be unsuccessful, not because actors fail to see that they are needed or important, but because they tend to fizzle out as the energy and commitment around a course of action is not re-created at successive presents.' Hernes (2014:169)

In a world that will eventually need to choose between barbarian and ecological socialism, there are some days when I can't help but think that we're heading towards barbarism!!

Lovely sunset to finish the week

The more I listen to others talk about work, the more I'm convinced that a core problem is that if time - time linked to change, to workload, and to accountability. We need to fundamentally change our understanding of time in organisations or the problems we face will become evermore acute.

The English ITE review and accreditation kicked into action over two years ago, and I'm sure those involved in policy saw them as events. However, those events have triggered a whole tangle of ongoing processes which are still not wholly understood or complete - policy is processual.

Our book will very much grow out of this really crucial observation. Hence it's working title: 'Leadership, organisation and the sustainability of teacher work '.

@draimeequicks.bsky.social, Matt Barley and I have started writing our new book this week. A central jumping off pint is Ron Glatter's paper from 2006 where he argues that leadership interests need to be embedded in a consideration of organisation rather than being too self-referential.

Yep, possibly. I'm coming at it from a processual perspective, all actions emerge from past events. I think this was why I put the idea of the Formal Org being static - it's slow moving & change is hard (though nominally lots of it!) But would be worthwhile thinking how to make it more explicit

And the next step is to integrate humans more explicitly as @draimeequicks.bsky.social keeps pointing out my models often lack this 🤔

Huw Humphreys from University East London has helped me sharpen my thinking on organisations. Now thinking in terms of a Dissociative-Integrative Organisation spectrum model. The more dissociative end looks something like this

A first sketch out of a schematic of The Dissociative Organisation

Both organisations are needed, but their form, focus and relationships need to change if we are to develop more positive and sustainable organisations where change is sustainable, considered and positively normalised.

to operate. But there has been incremental encroachment, mainly due to New Public Managerialism leading to micromanagement and hence far less space for the Ghost Organisation to operate. This is why universities seem to be in crisis, and in schools, why there is a recruitment and retention crisis.

so as to make space for the real innovation required, but which would be blocked due to policies created in the Formal Organisation.

The balance between the two organisations has shifted. Twenty or so years ago the Formal Organisation was small and this gave the Ghost Organisation plenty of space