EdD-7-Ged-8504-Platform

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RUNNING HEAD: GED 8504 TRSL B Educational platform

TRSL B: Platform

GED 8504

Amy Hewett-Olatunde

The environment a learner is in has the potential of making significant life

changing impacts. The organizational theory that environment adopts influences the

learner’s quality of experience.

I have worked in a school that has changed tenfold over the years in order to keep

up with state and district mandates. I have seen initiatives introduced with vigor and

authority only to be swapped out every year with the newest research. Working in a

unique setting that is part of a district but operates differently based on the student

population allows my organization some flexibility. These two pulls make it difficult to

pinpoint one metaphor to describe the organizational theory in which I work. On one

hand, it is very mechanistic; on the other hand, it is organismic. There is a hierarchy, a

top-down approach from the superintendent to the teacher. However, in this machine,

there is room for flexibility to meet the needs of the learners we teach. Because of this

flexibility, I am able to develop my teaching practices based on who is sitting in front of

me, the level of English that they speak, and the modality of language that I am teaching.

So, for the purpose of choosing to remain optimistic, the pendulum will swing toward the

metaphor of organism.

The organismic open system of organization is evident in the “cycles of input,

internal transformation, throughput, output, and feedback exchange” (Morgan, p.41)

Within an open system, there is equifinality, and it is evident among our teaching staff

because “in an open system there may be many different ways of arriving at the same

RUNNING HEAD: GED 8504 TRSL B Educational platform

end” (Morgan, 1998). Although we need our curriculum to align to the Common Core

Standards set by the Minnesota Department of Education, we do not have to adhere to a

set curriculum like the other high schools in the district. We can sculpt our lessons to the

changing needs of our students and ensure that they meet the standard before they move

up to the next level.

I also see equifinality as being connected to symbolic-interpretivism, which

focuses on “interaction, negotiation, and each member making sense of his own

experience” (Hatch, p. 46). This is present in many of the classrooms in my organization.

How do students make meaning of different situations whether they are academic, social,

or emotional? We are in a constant state of modifying our language so that the students’

input is comprehensible. On a level deeper than discourse is interpretation and

perspective. This derives from human interaction and how meaning is made based on

how a subculture (individuals and groups) “produce multiple meanings and interpret from

their own cultural contexts” (Hatch, p. 43).

The symbolic interpretative organizational theory holds reflexive approaches as

one concept. As a reflective practitioner, I apply ethnographic methods and

organizational culture theories to myself. In doing so, I am able to observe myself as

others would observe me, thereby studying myself. What is the benefit of this?

Transformative and engaged pedagogy become primary forces in my teaching practices.

The methodologies behind these practices influence everything I do with my learners.

Mechanistic, organismic, and subjective-interpretivism are all driving forces in

my organization. Depending on the day, one theory is more prevalent than another, but

they rely on one another to make my organization work.

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TRSL B: Platform GED 8504 Amy Hewett-Olatunde The environment a learner is in has the potential of making significant life changing impacts. The organizational theory that environment adopts influences the learner’s quality of experience. I have worked in a school that has changed tenfold over the years in order to keep up with state and district mandates. I have seen initiatives introduced with vigor and authority only to be swapped out every year with the newest research. Working in a unique setting that is part of a district but operates differently based on the student population allows my organization some flexibility. These two pulls make it difficult to pinpoint one metaphor to describe the organizational theory in which I work. On one hand, it is very mechanistic; on the other hand, it is organismic. There is a hierarchy, a top-down approach from the superintendent to th ...
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