So I did a thing – again. I’ve decided to go back to school. Wish me luck. Day 1 was pretty awesomesauce. This is now a word – awesomesauce. It’s also a single word. Nota bene… I digress.
I am now a PhD candidate at the University of the West Indies, School of Education. Day 1 of my EDEA 6204 – Organisation and Administration Theories class was pretty dope. I have 10,000 14 5 books to buy (lol) and read in 4-6 weeks:
- Banner, D. K, & Gagne, T. E. (1995). Designing effective organizations: Traditional and transformational views. London: Sage Publications, Inc.
- Cuban, L. (2004). The blackboard and the bottom line: Why schools can’t be businesses. Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press
- Daft, R.L.(2010). Understanding the theory and design of organization( 10th ed). US : South-western, Cengage learning.
- Dubrin, A. J. (2007). Fundamental of organizational behaviour. Mason, OH: Thompson South- Western, Inc.
- Giovanni, D., Nelson, R. R.,& Winter, S.( 2001). The nature and dynamics of organizational capabilities of schools. Oxford, England: University Press
- Hoy, W. K. & Miskel, C. G. (2005). Educational administration: theory, research, and practice (7th Ed.).New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
- Lunenburg, F.C. & Ornstein, A.C.(2004). Educational administration: concepts and practices ( 4th Ed.). Belmont, CA, USA: Thomson Wadsworth.
- Miner, J. B. (2002).Organizational behavior: Foundations, theories, and analyses. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Olmstead, J. A. ( 2002). Creating the functionally competent organization: An open systems approach.Westport, CT: Quorum Books.
- Ott, J. S., Parkes, S. J., & Simpson, R. B. (2008). Organizational behavior (4th Ed.). Belmont, CA, USA: Thomson Wadsworth.
- Owens, R.G. (2004). Organizational behavior in education (8th Ed.).New York: Pearson Education, Inc.
- Robbins, P., & Alvy, H. (2004). The new principal’s fieldbook: Strategies for success. Alexandria, VA:Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
- Simon, C. A. (2001).To Run a School: Administrative Organization and Learning. Westport, CT: Praeger.
- Szilagyi, A. D. & Wallace, M. J. (1990). Organizational behaviour and performance (5th Ed.). London: Harper Collins Publishers.
My brain hurts just thinking of it all. Oh and I’ll take PayPal donations for the cause! I’m scared. Alone. Excited. Motivated. Ready. I’ll not be posting material more than thoughts. I’m going to use this as my medium of fleshing it all out.
Wish me good tidings and not good luck because I’d rather be good or maybe even better than just lucky.
Thoughts from Day One
Sometimes we over-complicate language. Sometimes we have to as per Orwell’s thoughts in Politics and the English Language we need to be reminded that language is not neutral. If we allow it to become vague, inflated, or formulaic, we become easier to deceive even ourselves. But if we discipline our language, we sharpen our thinking and guard against manipulation or believing in our own important-sounding ignorance. To write clearly is not just a stylistic preference, I would suggest it is a form of resistance; especially for the Trinidadian write-as-we-speak and speak-as-we-feel manner of existence. Both of those realities in a world where feelings trump facts must be arrested in week one.
Organisation and Administration Theories. What the hell is a theory?! I firmly believe that most times the Trinidadian relies on the colloquial uses that they have observed and learned from other (parents, friends, Joe public, etc) as opposed to actually knowing what a thing means. We often know what we believe the thing means; but I am really unconvinced that beyond the colloquial meanings we’ve picked up from the ‘they’ we have no idea what most things mean. The smaller the word the more convinced we know and we are informed as to its meaning. I proffer this as a Dunning-Kruger effect of the colloquial meaning and the commonness of the word. As such I posit here that the Trinidadian may rush to seeing unproven and hypothetical as perhaps the sole underpinning of the word theory. For me this is where a dictionary comes in handy:
theory | ‘Orari l noun (plural theories)
a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained: Darwin’s theory of evolution.
- a set of principles on which the practice of an activity is based: a theory of education | [mass noun] : music theory.
- an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action: my theory would be that the place has been seriously mismanaged.
The first definition is where I find my wandering thoughts settling. I’m pretty certain that when I begin to immerse self in the objectives and outcomes of the course the first may outweigh the second. My next post will plausibly confirm this as I intend to begin that immersion later today.
Dr. James suggested that a person without goals is a person who has no target. Here are my goals for this course:
- Get the core books by Monday
- Read all things necessary by week 4
- Submit all projects 1 week early
- Score 92%
- Finish the CITI course by Sunday 11.59PM1
Let’s see where this goes.
Post-publish edit.
- *Post-publish edit. ↩︎