Coming Apart

I'm reading a book by Charles Murray called "Coming Apart: The State of White America". It's rather disturbing that the author makes points about the coming apart of what he calls "The America Project". It looks at how America is different from other countries, often comparing it to European countries. In the first part of the book, he offers statistics that show how so many things are happening in our society that are detrimental to our social well being. Things that we think about, but he has the numbers to back them up. In the next part, he compares two fictional towns, one lower class and one new upper class. It's a little like Freakenomics, a book that looks at things we see in a new way. He talks about the four foundations that created what is great about America and how we're losing them. I haven't finished the book yet, but he does have a theory of how our problems can be solved and we can become the America of before. So far, he's hoping that when we see what has happened to the welfare states (countries) of Europe, that we will see that it is not a societal model that can survive in America. I don't know that we can rescue ourselves at this point, but the book gives hope if the right/enough people read it and take it seriously. There is a section on education and how it affects the different societies. What he says makes sense, but if you say some of these things without the numbers to back it up, you would sound like an ultraconservative. He has the numbers. He talks about college students and how they end up living the lives they do, and how their children have an advantage from being the children of these adults. He says bluntly that the children with the most successful lives are those raised by two biological married parents. He shows that children of single mothers who have not graduated from high school do not have a very good chance of success in life, and that those that do succeed are the exception rather than the rule. This was one of the books Dr. Muth showed us in class, and it's very interesting. If anyone else is interested in reading it, I'd enjoy a discussion of its contents afterward.

Dialogue, social and cultural

When reading Chapter 6 of Reading Work, I was impressed by the idea that adult educators should share their work and thoughts in an ongoing dialogue to bridge adult education with the real work and life, to see more value in those practice and to enrich the understanding of adult literacy (Belfior, Defoe, Folinsbee, Hunter & Jackson, 2004). It reminds me of what I learnt last semester about dialogue. it is a form of learning where each one listen to others opinions and further develop their own idea based on them. Sharing one’s researching experience in a dialogue allows the researcher to bring his own perspective and background into a big conversation. He may bet valuable feedback to further refine his work. Also, his insight may be inspiration to others.

In class, we talked about the first paragraph of chapter 1, where the author described every detail he noticed on his way entering the factory. At first, I thought it seemed to be too descriptive for an academic research paper. However, just as Dr. Muth said, “No observation is too small to write down.” The reader will judge for themselves. Again, it is sharing not just what the researcher think matter, but also other relevant data he collected. Some data may be meaningless from one angle, but incredibly valuable from another. As Dr. Hurst said, our own experience is one of the most valuable data. In a research, to record and share all the data is not only a way to present the whole story and reduce bias, but also a way to leave an open conversation and inspire more thoughts from the readers.

Since talking about sharing ideas and thoughts, I have a question about the relationship of social and cultural. Based on Dr. Muth’s explanation that social is the shared external while cultural is the shared internal, I wonder if culture is, to some degree, evolved from social. I think examples can be seen in all kinds of organizations. In my elementary school and high school, just like other schools in China, all the students are required to do the morning exercise. It is the shared external enforced by the school rules. After years, the music and the steps of the exercise has been internalized and become the shared internal of my generation. now, although we don not do it anymore, we still feel that the exercise is a part of us, a part of our generation and a part of the culture of Chinese schools. In terms of adult literacy research and dialogue, when researchers share their works and experience in a dialogue, some ideas and thoughts become the shared external. When they shared external accumulates and then in internalized, it transforms into the shared internal, the culture, among the researchers.

I wonder how do you think of this idea, and how do you think of the relationship between the two :)

I don't know how much television people watch, but I watch more than my share, and watch it during the daytime. There is a capital D Discourse that is in danger. I see a lot of commercials for online universities. I don't know how much people know about these, but basically you pay up front for your degree and then take classes, most of which, if not all, are online. There's a literacy that's being lost in doing this. The commercials take the position that learning isn't always best in a classroom, that "you're an individual and want to learn your way". As I see it, there's a problem with this. There are literacy skills learned in a classroom that aren't learned if the person is never in a classroom for lectures or discussions. In a classroom setting, you learn to listen and you learn to discuss. If everything is done on someone's own time, they never learn the importance of punctuality or politeness. They don't learn the respect for the professor's knowledge. The student is learning information and using their available skills to complete assignments. I learn so much more than what is being taught in class, and I couldn't get that by being in front of a computer. That's my take on it.

Workplace Dissonance: The subliminal messages of mixed metaphors

Dissonance: a tension or clash resulting from the combination of two disharmonious or unsuitable elements. (Oxford American College Dictionary)

In Reading Work, the authors have focused on the importance of “making meaning” of workplace environments through the examination (or perhaps awareness) of social and cultural practices. Indeed. Although I have not born the official role of workplace educator, I have nevertheless been tasked with the role of mediating between the needs of upper management and frontline staff in a variety of workplace situations within the nonprofit sector. Generally, due to the small size of the agencies I have worked with, training and educating staff falls to that mid-level person who is expected to divine upper management’s wishes (discourses) and translate those into staff ideals and actions.

In the chapter on the Urban Hotel, the first place I noticed where tension might develop between these two discourses was in the section “Managing Employee Identity” (p. 110). In this section Hunter describes the envisioned culture of the Urban Hotel – an attractive, congenial, competent servant whose pleasure was serving guests. On the surface, this seems a worthwhile vision for a hotel. The trick comes in the “empowerment” language and actual practice of empowerment to “serve the guests.”  In also comes in what it means to “serve” the guest in practice. There is a wide gulf between cleaning bathrooms, standing all day greeting guests (some of who may just be grumpy from a long day), and spending the bulk of your time conceiving of new ways to ensure “quality.” (Oops, my bias just surfaced.)

For me, the disconnect between social and cultural practice was articulated most amusingly in the 4^th Standard of Excellence: We are a team! A group of eagles, who have joined to fly in formation. This statement sums up the distance between executive management and frontline staff. Eagles do not fly in formation. Geese fly in formation. (Eagles=executive icon; Geese=workers icon) The hilarity is that no one zeros in on the dissonance of this communication effort. 

 Contradictions. As Hunter moves through her analysis of the Urban Hotel this word surfaces frequently. In continues to be used in chapter six as the authors discuss implications for literacy practices within workplaces. I believe that what the authors of Reading Work are trying to do is essential to overcoming the dissonance found within most work environments, and that is most simply, for people to walk a bit in each others’ shoes.      

Disney, a hospital, the Urban hotel?

Recently I was handed the book If Disney Ran Your Hospital, 9 1/2 Things You Would Do Differently by Fred Lee, and told that I absolutely had to read it.  The book was a great read with wonderful stories and examples of why customer service can be so simple and yet so important in a hospital.  Admittedly comparing a hospital to Disney is a bit of a stretch (to say the least); but with a service focus surrounding concepts such as safety and courtesy one can begin to see the connection.  There were indeed wonderful messages and inspiring viewpoints held within its 216 pages, so I found it fascinating that there were slight similarities to the overall discourse of the hotel Urban.  A discourse that at first glance seems to be so ideal; promoting a culture that keenly focuses on perceptions of customers and their experience while allowing for some empowerment of employees to further ensure excellent service.  "Empower yourself to satisfy your guest." A manager was quoted as saying.  I wonder however, as I continue reading will the employees ever truly feel supported in making those empowered decisions?  Poor performance posted on doors for all to see (to embarrass them?), restrictions from fringe benefits (a piece of candy?), the complexity of the language used in documents-documents that were used to express the desired employees' behavior and identities in the hotel.  All of these things appeared to almost convey a sort of social order as opposed to inclusion and support of an ideal culture encouraging of improved performance.  As Hunter describes,  to join the discourse that the hotel portrayed in the documents that were constantly posted, given out, and communicated in various ways; an employee would have to do much more than understand the language used.  For some it could also mean to reconsider the way they dressed, worked and talked.  Wasn't the author herself told she would need to change her dress before she even began there?   While the discourse of Urban and Disney may seem similar on the surface (restrictions of dress, language, etc.), it does provide perhaps some example of the need for greater considerations when instituting such ideals.  While the social may convey the message we seek, will the cultural take aways instill ownership, pride, or empowerment in the employees as we hope?