The Institutional Organization of Knowledge
To the acronyms TOK (Theory of Knowledge), WOK (Way of Knowing) and AOK (Area of Knowledge), I shall add IOK (Institutional Organization of Knowledge). It is not that new a concept; from about 2005, several books I came across spoke in detail of the tacit and detailed internal knowledge structures of large organizations.
However, my New York link sprouted an email in my direction pointing me to Amnon Karmon, an Israeli specialist (no, not that kind, you servicepeople!) in alternative methods of teaching. He's the director of the Kerem Institute of Jewish Humanistic Teacher Training in Jerusalem. This is how he begins his 2007 article:
For over a hundred years, there have been efforts to change the way that schools transmit knowledge. Most of these efforts have failed. The most common explanations found in educational research for this are either: 1) macro-social, according to which social interests and powers hinder these changes. 2) teacher-oriented, according to which the teachers themselves either resist those changes or/and lack the training and qualifications necessary to carry them out. Although these explanations have a lot of truth to them, they ignore a crucial point, a “missing link” between teaching and subject matter, and society. Every educational institution has a special structure for organizing knowledge. This structure is independent in many respects from macro-social factors, as well as from teacher behavior, and it has important effects on the ways educational institutions deal with knowledge. Educational research has not yet provided a detailed and focused examination of “the institutional organization of knowledge” in education.
Teachers College Record Volume 109 Number 3, 2007, p.603. http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 12826, Date Accessed: 3/14/2009
Wow, some abstract eh? Fear not. Abstract of abstract: "Don't just look too big, at national and international scale; don't just look too small, at the teacher level. Look instead at the educational institutions which occupy the space in between. Those are the things which need looking at."
This is exactly the kind of research I'm doing, and probably the reason why some people don't want me to do it. You see, the problem in some institutions is that they have no idea what kind of knowledge structures they're using. When the head is missing, there is no alternative to the complex snarl wrapped up in that unit. Well, actually, there is — but those in authority do not like being 'undermined' by things like tradition and thought.
When my long 'disqusition' comes to an end, it is my hope that we'll all know more about how an institution can either a) function at a high level without a proper IOK, or fake it so well that you can't tell the difference for all practical intents and purposes. Then again, there may be any number of other options. Amazing stuff!
However, my New York link sprouted an email in my direction pointing me to Amnon Karmon, an Israeli specialist (no, not that kind, you servicepeople!) in alternative methods of teaching. He's the director of the Kerem Institute of Jewish Humanistic Teacher Training in Jerusalem. This is how he begins his 2007 article:
For over a hundred years, there have been efforts to change the way that schools transmit knowledge. Most of these efforts have failed. The most common explanations found in educational research for this are either: 1) macro-social, according to which social interests and powers hinder these changes. 2) teacher-oriented, according to which the teachers themselves either resist those changes or/and lack the training and qualifications necessary to carry them out. Although these explanations have a lot of truth to them, they ignore a crucial point, a “missing link” between teaching and subject matter, and society. Every educational institution has a special structure for organizing knowledge. This structure is independent in many respects from macro-social factors, as well as from teacher behavior, and it has important effects on the ways educational institutions deal with knowledge. Educational research has not yet provided a detailed and focused examination of “the institutional organization of knowledge” in education.
Teachers College Record Volume 109 Number 3, 2007, p.603. http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 12826, Date Accessed: 3/14/2009
Wow, some abstract eh? Fear not. Abstract of abstract: "Don't just look too big, at national and international scale; don't just look too small, at the teacher level. Look instead at the educational institutions which occupy the space in between. Those are the things which need looking at."
This is exactly the kind of research I'm doing, and probably the reason why some people don't want me to do it. You see, the problem in some institutions is that they have no idea what kind of knowledge structures they're using. When the head is missing, there is no alternative to the complex snarl wrapped up in that unit. Well, actually, there is — but those in authority do not like being 'undermined' by things like tradition and thought.
When my long 'disqusition' comes to an end, it is my hope that we'll all know more about how an institution can either a) function at a high level without a proper IOK, or fake it so well that you can't tell the difference for all practical intents and purposes. Then again, there may be any number of other options. Amazing stuff!
Labels: Institutions, Knowledge, Management, Organisations
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