“I always smile when I hear executives boast about how participative they are. ‘I want everyone to feel involved’ they would say. ‘So I call everybody in, hear what’s on their minds, and only then decide’. What people call participative management is usually just consultative management.”
Despite Riccardo Semler’s story of entrepreneurial success Being full of fascinating and inspiring anecdotes, it is this one that I will always remember his book Maverick! for. In an age where terms such as ‘student-centred’ and ‘co-construction’ are seemingly flaunted at every opportunity, we place ourselves at constant risk of polishing the surface of our practice with terminology and intention without really getting under the hood. I found great solace in listening to Karla Sanders recently who reminded us that working with young people is messy and not always neat and linear, for in my own experience when placing students in the driver’s seat your vehicle inevitably ends up hitting a few bushes on the side of the road.
Which is perhaps why it is easier to justify our own version of student-centred learning through the use of terminology and tools such as consultation, than it is to really be prepared to work through the mess. Of course, not only is is often messy but time-consuming, and assessment pressure does little to alleviate this, but that cannot stand in the way of trying. I am often driven by the ‘implicit lesson’ that our teaching bestows - the silent message that students pick up on, consciously or otherwise, that sits beneath the theories, exercises and assessments. And in that vein I ask myself ‘is this student’s voice truly being valued here; am I offering this opportunity for them or for me?’ because only when a student can explicitly appreciate that they are driving - that there is not another set of driver controls on the passenger side - that student-centered learning can take manifest.
Semler, R. (1994). Maverick!. England: Century. p 82.