Enlightening

Incoherent academic psycho babble. Tell me how you really feel.

"Prior to the forthcoming termination of the out of frame
mythological creature I shall at the behest of the motion
picture's director conveniently strike a fierce pose
as pictured above." - Gandalf the White Academic 

And that is how I really feel. Anytime I am forced to open up an academic book or dissect an academic article I end up imagining some poor schmuck who was forced to adhere to some template for academic writing in which his observations and research have to match up with an entire other world of written communication. Communication reserved for intellectuals who I imagine have big grey beards and work from  Ivy League library offices in the heart of New England. To them, academic writing must be some archaic form of bejeweled where instead of matching up pretty colored jewels for combo points they string together random words from their doctorate level vocabulary.

My problem with academic writing lies almost solely with the presentation of the content and not with the content itself. You would think that these people would consider all the poor undergrad students forced to suffer through pages and pages of their research. Perfectly good research.

Enlightening even.

Take for instance research on understanding student development. Some may even go as far as to call it "Student Development Theory." If only I were so bold. The thing is that after you sift through all the fancy wording and graduate speak you get a pretty sound understanding of the numerous approaches used to develop youth over the past few hundred years.

Particularly enlightening is Perry's Cognitive Theory of Student Development. Perry talks about three levels of development dealing with the growth of a student's understanding of truth and values and eventually *gasp* "the meaning of life." This theory essentially states that a student starts with a pretty binary concept of what is right and what is wrong.  The student then makes a pit stop at "relativism" where they come to terms with the concept of shades of gray. Finally the student arrives at an understanding of the world as a complex system in which they find their own identity and live on their own terms shaped by their previous experiences.

Don't get this? Consider picking up a book every once in a while you slacker!

And here comes the key question: Now what? As a student leader and an advocate for student leadership, having an understanding of how leaders develop is pretty key.

Over the past year I have developed this toolbox as a facilitator. The Experiential Leadership Cycle has been a pretty great crutch to lean on. It provides a tangible experience from which a lesson can be learned. Something from which a clear lesson or take-away can be derived and help the students/clients to grow. The entire facilitation process has also grown familiar and is very useful when consulting with and helping to improve student organizations. However, it isn't enough to implement these processes from the comforting security blanket that their structure provides. We need a deeper understanding of what it is that we are actually doing: developing student leaders.

This is where leadership theory comes in. Examining leadership theory helps us to take a step back and look at the whole picture. By looking at the process as a whole we can better pinpoint where on the spectrum a student may sit. You may be thinking, "well why is that even important?" Think about it with the following real life scenario. Let's say you and your friends want to go to Baltimore. You know, eat some crab, see the sights, partake in some other extra-curricular activities. So you know what your goal is: Get to Baltimore. So what do you do? Well if you are like me, the first thing you do is hop on The Googles and use the nifty maps feature. And when you go to that feature not only are you prompted with your destination, but also your starting point.

I'm gonna let that sink in for a second.....

So if you are thinking to yourself "Ryan wants me to reflect on how you have to know where you start before you can get to your destination" then DING DING DING. You got it! Understanding leadership theory is pivotal because it gives us a road map that helps us identify where a student or student group may have gotten lost. Using that map is the first of many steps to getting a student or student group back on the road to their destination, speeding on their way to their shared vision.

Man I love metaphors.

So in the end, sifting through all the academic psycho babble that obfuscates the core behind true understanding is just one more obstacle in helping to develop leaders. Academic speak isn't going anywhere. But if you can sift through the riddle wrapped up in the enigma there's more than a few gold nuggets of wisdom.

Enlightened?

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If you're interested in learning more about Leadership Theory there are entire libraries and academic books full of interesting insights. Go get 'em tiger! If you are like me and want to skip the fluff and get straight to the meaning of life, have your credit card ready and head for the following link: http://amzn.to/v4NUd