The role of leadership non interventionism and childhood autonomy

They allow children to learn and "ground up" on their own. This paper examines two highly effective and popular education practices and beliefs which promote the concept of autonomy in the classroom, either regarding early childhood development in preschool or education in elementary and secondary editions. Firstly, in the Finnish education system and in an innovative form of Japanese pedagogy referred to as the "Japanese experiment. " This paper concludes with the presentation of an alternative Indigenous framework that outlines Haudenosaunee epistemology – that is, an engaged, experiential and unfixed epistemology – which is believed to enhance child development and education. In turn, the Finnish and Japanese teaching and learning practices are contrasted to the Haudenosaunee approach in order to permit myself to reflect on issues so I can bring ideas back to implement in The Six Nations of the Grand River education system.

As a result, this underscores the importance of the collective, the onlookers of society, and the mutual relationship between the human individual and the social collective (i. e. , agency and structure), both pedagogically and ontologically (Paradise, Rogoff, 2009). Contrarily, American culture centers individualism and standardization, and since the neoliberalition of the 1970s and 1980s, this has intensified (Harvey 2006). The American education system is based on a banking style of education where an authority figure transmits knowledge to students who must retain without question on what is taught, reinforcing the individualization of knowledge production and retention. Nevertheless, strict rules and regulations are replaced with a free choice as students are treated as civil and equal social beings. As opposed in the American way, the community is emphasized through the recognition that children accomplish more with a higher degree of autonomy, either individually or collectively (Walker, 2017).

This is echoed in the Japanese experiment as an even greater degree of independence that is given to the children as well as to the collective. Autonomy and the Collective Finnish and Japanese approaches to education balance both "hand holding" and "non-hand holding. " The Finnish system allows a certain degree of autonomy for the individual but misses out on the collective experience that the is achieved by the Japanese teaching experiment. If the latter was applied to the American educational system, for instance, it would lead to more legal cases of lawsuits for boards and teachers who did not intervene in the physical contact between two or more students. Also, another limitation is in the number of resources available for public education.

Thus, educational systems are not easily comparable due to funding and resource issues. For example, fifteen-minute breaks every 45 minutes for both teachers and students, or being very well-staffed, are based on the amount of funding allocated to the school system (Walker 2017; Harvey 2006). Additionally, The Finnish educational system allows limited interaction between the students since the teachers are trained to intervene once continues contact has been made (Walker, 2017). This does not only teach children conflict resolution and acceptable behavior but also teaches stigmatization that leads to unacceptable behaviors and unproductive behaviors. In turn, this promotes unity and social cohesion as the "locus of social control" shifts to the level of the collective, away from the level of an individual and therefore it simultaneously promotes socialization and self-control at the level of the collective (Hayashi and Tobin, 2011) Obviously, people intervene when the dispute is getting violent, or children are hurting each other.

The true function here is to allow the students to witness, experience and help them understand the dispute in a manner to which they peacefully work through the resolution autonomously. For example, the Haudenosaunee approach requires the two people in dispute to work with each other in order to ensure the dispute is amicable. In this sense, the authority figure or teacher becomes a guiding figure as opposed to an authority figure. The Haudenosaunee epistemology conceives the experience of a person, as a point to establish a relationship that can only be gained by attendance and participation. This leads to a point that is fundamental to grasping the world around us, making people understand the position central to growing as a person and living a fulfilling life.

For instance, a Haudenosaunee ceremony practiced on the Six Nation reservation about the weather, storms, clouds, and thunder is an excellent example of how a ceremony functions as part of the Haudenosaunee epistemology of learning and remembering through cultural practice. This is because it follows the Haudenosaunee perspective of giving thanks, and as the ceremony takes the words, people are reminded of daily life and provides a vessel where teachings become alive, personable and thereby providing many unknown emergent variables that are unrepeatable. Learning becomes enhanced, and one learns to appreciate the responsibility completed by the clouds, thunders, movement of the elements, and how this is all interconnected with human life. In this sense, the individual is dependent on the collective, but also the collective is dependent on the individual.

Haudenosaunee epistemology centers experiential/environmental learning as the primary form of the pedagogy of teaching new perceptions where children (as well as adults) learn and progress collectively through an unbreakable tie between discourse (speech) and practice (experience from engagement). Thus, education ought to be reconceptualized on the grounds of this Indigenous approach to an epistemology which can be broken down into three main categories: 1) The mode of knowing must be based on personal experience, guided by one's social environment. But this experience is neither an individual experience nor an experience which operates separately from the natural world. This experience is a community experience which develops collectively and is unified with the natural world, and therefore can be summarized as experiential/environmental based learning.

These approaches are consistent with and directly relate to the Haudenosaunee perspective (Kovach 2010). But, moreover, these approaches provide a discourse on how to implement, describe and plan that varies from the ingenious way. The main point here is found in the enhanced learning environment that the Finnish and Japanese examples initiate. Following the Haudenosaunee tradition of learning and growing, it views experiences as unique and unrepeatable, as the unknowingness of such emerging experiences enhances one's learning and teaches them to deal with new things. The method employed in the Japanese experiment stands out as it indeed serves to reinforce the experiential learning on the part of the individual(s) who are participating in the conflict/dispute. I believe that adopting a full non-interventionist approach where the "locus of social control" shifts onto the collective from the authority figure is a stronger approach here (Hayashi and Tobin, 2011) While much of Finland's pedagogical success is rooted in autonomy, that is, it focuses on the peer context of peripheral participation, and the Japanese experiment goes deeper.

Merging both of these strategies alongside an Indigenous experiential based learning approach will significantly enhance learning. In sum, approaches to education need to be reformed and be based on interpersonal social relationships which are egalitarian, and not base them on power and control but base them on smoothing out and balancing power and control. Since the teaching strategies in Finland are excellent, I will bring some teaching strategies back home to enhance performance in the teaching area. Much of the teaching strategies that I will bring back to the school include; less time in school which means more mind rest, less assessment to enhance more learning and help more students develop more individual attention. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hayashi, A. , & Tobin, J.