From CSR to a Paradigm Shift in Economics...

In response to Susan McPherson's "Why CSR's Future Matters to Your Company."

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/why_csrs_future_matters_to_you.html

Thanks, Susan. In a similar vein, Umair Haque’s recent podcast on HBR illuminated his thoughts on how businesses invested in creating “real wealth, not just profits” will support a paradigm shift in economics. http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/...

I find both your article and Haque’s podcast hopeful. The 12/06 issue of HBR stated that “[t]o advance CSR, we must root it in a broad understanding of the interrelationship between a corporation and society...” So, I think we’ve been moving in the right direction, albeit slowly.

There is a growing consensus as to the vital importance of defining “shared value” and recalibrating our “mental models” about success. To achieve such tasks, I hope to see more deliberate and fruitful communication between citizen activists, such as the Occupy movement you mentioned, corporations and NGOs.

If we don’t expand the community of voices who determine where value lies, then, I’m afraid CSR changes will largely remain rooted in a superficial consideration of the interrelationship of corporations and society.

Value Makers

In response to Cathy Davidson's August 2011 post: Educ-Traitor! Confessions of a Prof Who Believes Higher Education Isn't the Only Goal.

Value Makers

I agree, Cathy... Thank you. I don't take what is being said here to discount the importance of teaching "the soft skills of critical thinking, writing, basic knowledge of statistics..." By appropriately broadening the approach we take in educating today's learners, we would not stop teaching these skills. It isn't one or the other. And it also is not a matter of simply adding a wider variety of lesson plans. A sustainable approach, I think, would integrate more experience-based learning to allow students the opportunity to explore and participate in research and collaborative problem-solving... these lessons could teach soft skills while allowing a more individualized set of learning goals to be established and attained.
A fairly recent report by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Pathways to Prosperity, dissects the single path to higher education-driven success of past years and why it does not work for many groups in the world today. Students’ decisions to drop out of high school in the United States is increasingly driven by their report that they do not find a connection between the materials with which they are presented and how their forthcoming knowledge will apply to their lives, career options and the world they see around them. The report also suggests that linking high school classes to career paths directly connected with two or four-year college programs or vocational schools would help inspire and motivate students to stay the course.



One lesson the text suggests we could learn from overseas is to more actively integrate apprenticeships into models of education. A second lesson, drawn from the OECD's 2007 study Learning for Jobs is that "school learning is abstract, theoretical and organized by disciplines while work is concrete, specific to the task, and organized by problems and projects (Harvard, 2011, p. 19)." To best serve today's students, our focus cannot be solely on "work skills" or traditional formal learning, but we must find a way to combine these disparate approaches.

Schools alone (k-12 or higher ed) cannot make these changes. Through my current studies at Teachers College I've grown a deeper understanding of the knowledge academia has amassed in the past few decades. Imbalanced influence by sectors not skilled in new theories of education could adversely effect the current education reform movement during an incredibly delicate stage. However, in my role as director of a college Career Development office, I have worked with many talented employers armed with industry knowledge, experience and a deep desire to support the development and success of our youth.

To tackle the increasingly complex problems faced today, we must develop a community of learners and a shared vision. I believe that an important element missing from the education reform movement is a sense of community that takes into account varied stakeholders' needs, challenges and available resources. How can we teach youth about valuing disparate ideas and skill sets and collaborating for the highest common good when academia so often rejects input from "those less qualified"? Cathy, you mentioned that you want to change the "hierarchy of values in order to support a more abundant form of education that honors the full range of intellectual possibility and potential for everyone, regardless of whether they are college material or not." I believe that changing the hierarchy of values may begin with widening the circle of value makers. We must all be accountable for bringing up today's youth... as we most certainly will all benefit or suffer from the outcome.