Barbara Ann Thompson and William Allan Kritsonis - Article: Making National, State, District, and Local Plans Work Through Strategic Planning

Barbara Ann Thompson and William Allan Kritsonis, PhD 

Introduction

The role of the school administrative team is most often associated with educational leadership.  Leadership roles can be enacted by all stakeholders within the school community, including the student population (Levin, 1998; Wallin, 2003).  The six realms of meaning (Kritsonis, 2007) cover the range of possible meanings and comprise the basic competencies that general education should develop in every person.  A philosophical theory of the curriculum for general education based on the idea of logical patterns in disciplined understanding is presented in Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (Kritsonis, 2007).  There are patterns or structures in knowledge and an understanding of these typical forms is essential for the guidance of teaching, learning, and constructing the curriculum. The various patterns of knowledge are varieties of meaning, and the learning of these patterns is the clue to the effective realization of essential humanness through the curriculum of general education (Kritsonis, 2007).

Purpose of the Article

 The purpose of this article is to discuss significant aspects of the six realms of meaning as it relates to strategic planning in educational leadership. 

Planning Initiatives

The six realms of meaning are viewed as six fundamental patterns of meaning (Kritsonis, 2007).  These patterns are sequential and provide the foundation for all meanings that enter the human experience and emerge from an analysis of possible distinctive modes of human understanding.  The patterns are symbolics, empirics, esthetics, synnoetics, ethics, and synoptics (Kritsonis, 2007). 

The entire school or organization’s future is at stake in strategic planning (Center for Organizational Development and Leadership, 2007).  Strategic planning in educational leadership determines where a school is going over the next year or more and how it's going to get there (McNamara, 2008).  A postmodern approach for academic and administrative departments would be to implement plans and strategies that are narrowly focused and vital to their future.  A plan too broad would allow for planning initiatives to go amiss from the correct course of focus or persons could get stuck and not be able to move forward (Center for School or Organizational Development and Leadership, 2007).  A framework for strategic planning of higher education centered on leadership, communication, and assessment is predictive of making national, state, district and local plans work (Center for School or Organizational Development and Leadership, 2007).  Steps in the framework according to McNamara (2008) would include the following:

 Mission, vision and value statements,

1. collaborators and beneficiaries,
2. environmental review,
3. goals,
4. strategies and action plans,
5. plan creation, and

1. outcomes and achievements.

    2. The modernist divorces the knower (English, 2003).

In the fourth realm of synnoetics, the student could gain personal insight through working with skilled guidance counselors or thorough a social activity.  The student is endowed with a rich and disciplined life in relation to self and others.  Synnoetics requires active participation and engagement.  To know and to be are one and the same in personal existence.  Ethics or moral knowledge is the fifth realm where a student is able to make wise decisions and to judge between right and wrong.  His moral conduct is a universal responsibility.  It is what ought to be done and it is right action.  In the sixth realm of synoptics, the student would possess an integral outlook of which epistemology - the theory of knowledge, and metaphysics - what is real, are the primary basis for its function (Kritsonis, 2007). 

The First Realm:  Symbolics

 Systems of mathematics are designed to achieve complete precision in meaning and rigor in reasoning (Kritsonis, 2007).  Discursive language refers to language used in customary speech for communicating ideas.

        The scope of curriculum in general education allows each person’s participation in the meaning of the social whole of the educational community (Kritsonis, 2007).  Integrity and the need to be learned in certain essentials would allow for leadership that defines roles and responsibilities essential to the effectiveness of the strategic plan.  Board members, community leaders, teachers, parents and students actively participate in creating and organizing guiding principles for continuous effective leadership, communication, and assessment. 

1. Communication skills will be displayed through speaking, writing, and class experience.
2. This broader-based ownership in which participants feel valued and involved makes it easier to commit to change (Lindsey, Robins and Terrell, 2003).

Lindsey, Robins and Terrell stated in their book, Cultural Proficiency, A Handbook for School Professionals, that what is required in a strategic plan is informed and dedicated staff that are committed and involved in leadership.  They take time to think, reflect, assess, decide, and change, and actively participate in work sessions where the educational community is contributing distinctive ideas, beliefs, feelings, and perceptions (2003).  To monitor a plan’s progress and assess it outcomes, ongoing attention to assessment is necessary.  These appraisals for assessment provide guidance for developing pre-planning strategies.  They allow for monitoring the planning process and judging whether a plan’s activities and strategies are successful in fulfilling the school or organization’s goals. Strategic planning, according to Center for School or Organizational Development and Leadership (2007), can include conducting a review of the school or organization’s political, social, economic and technical environment.  In an initial review, an analysis of the school or organization can be completed.  The planning phase can look at factors that are driving forces in the environment, strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats regarding the school or organization.  The mission, vision and value statements are updated as  needed.  The Center for School or  Organizational  Development  and Leadership (2007) suggests that an environment that has a diverse leadership team fostering readiness and receptivity and has an understanding of decision making processes and boundaries would aid creating successful plans for schools and organizations.  Sizing up previous plan’s successes on current efforts helps to keep a historical perspective on efforts of change.

Mission statements are brief written descriptions of the purpose of the school (McNamara, 2008).  The mission statement is a specific purpose statement that is part of the overall mission statement.  The value and vision statements are part of the mission statement. Vision statements are usually a compelling description of how the school or organization will or should operate at some point in the future and of how. The basic strategic planning process according to McNamara (2006) would include the following steps:  (1) Identify the purpose of the school or organization, which is also called the mission statement.  The statement should describe what student or employee needs are intended to be met and with what services.  The mission statement can change through the years as the school or organization changes to society’s needs.  (2) Select goals that must be reached in order to accomplish the mission.  These goals would address major issues facing the school or organization.  (3) Identify the specific approaches or strategies to implement to reach the goals.  In this step, the external and internal environments of the school or organization are examined closely.  Steps to strengthen financial management can also be addressed.  (4) Identify specific action plans or functions of each department to on how each strategy would be implemented.  At this stage committees can be organized to monitor if objectives are met.  (5) Monitoring and updating the plan is the final step in this plan.  Reflection by planners is conducted to see to what extent the goals and objectives are being met and if the action plans are being implemented.  At this stage feedback is important.  A school or organization may generate a survey addressing school or organization satisfaction (McNamara, 2006).

The Second Realm:  Empirics

The empirics realms deals with facutal and measureable components.

The Third Realm:  Esthetics

Among the four disciplines in the third realm of esthetics to be studied by the student are music, art, literature and the arts of movement in physical education. 

 The beautification process can be applied to organizations as well.

 The Fourth Realm:  Synnoetics

The knower and the known are inseparable (English, 2003).  

Team building, decision making, goal setting, conflict resolution and diversity awareness reveal relationships to other people and should be addressed in a strategic plan.  Identifying critical stakeholders, skill of members, pros and cons of making a choice and having a process to deal with different opinions are key skill sets.  Clarifying issues, seeing the other person’s perspective, identifying common ground, identifying what can be changed and what cannot be changed are essential in plan creating and school or organization.  Highly controlled social mechanisms give way to threatening intimate personal relations and being true to self.  A growing need and emphasis is needed on the personal dimensions of understanding.

 The Fifth Realm:  Ethics

The postmodern approach preserves one’s  ability  to  exercise  choice  over  one’s   personhood,  outlook  on  life,   sexual  orientation, contined existence, thought processes and basic integrity as a unique human being.  Empirical knowledge is needed to understand that factual knowledge is an important resource in the improvement of understanding in personal relations and morals.  This knowledge is necessary in making wise decisions.  These decisions are based on consideration of alternatives and the prediction of consequences.  “Moral decision presupposes a free and integral self-in-relation, and becoming a person depends upon making moral choices” (Kritsonis, 2007, p. 592).

The Sixth Realm:  Synoptics

The sixth realm of synoptics is where the student would possess an integral outlook of which epistemology - the theory of knowledge, and metaphysics - what is real, are the primary basis for its function.  Meanings in the sixth realms are comprehensively integrative and include history, religion, and philosophy.  Empirical truths, esthetic (beauty), and synnoetic (personal knowledge) meanings are coherent wholes in this realm.  Man is revealed by the choices he has made in the context of his given circumstance.  The postmodern approach considers that human diversity and difference are beneficial to the pursuit of modern truths and are a threat to governance, authority or rule.  Any threat to diversity would be to veer toward antidemocratic persuasion.  Feyerabend (1999) and his view on epistemological anarchism believed that there was no view too absurd or immoral that he refused to consider or act on and no method was indispensable.  As people are faced with change, the  requirement for the perspectives  of history, a larger vision of faith, and the critical comprehension afforded by philosophical reflection are needed more than ever (Kritsonis, 2007).

 Concluding Remarks

 In conclusion, there are patterns or structures in knowledge and an understanding of these typical forms is essential for the guidance of teaching, learning, and constructing the curriculum.  The purpose of this article is to discuss significant aspects of the six realms of meaning as it relates to strategic planning in educational leadership.  According to Kritsonis, the six realms of meaning are viewed as six fundamental patterns of meaning. These patterns are sequential and provide the foundation for all meanings that enter the human experience and emerge from an analysis of possible distinctive modes of human understanding.  The patterns are symbolics, empirics, esthetics, synnoetics, ethics, and synoptics.  The various patterns of knowledge are varieties of meaning, and the learning of these patterns is the clue to the effective realization of essential humanness through the curriculum of general education of the complete person ( 2007).

 The entire school or organization’s future is at stake in strategic planning (Center for Organizational Development and Leadership, 2007).  A postmodern approach for academic and administrative departments would be to implement plans and strategies that are narrowly focused and vital to their future.  Strategic planning in educational leadership determines where a school is going over the next year or more and how it's going to get there (McNamara, 2008).  A plan too broad would allow for planning initiatives to go amiss from the correct course of focus or persons could get stuck and not be able to move forward Development and Leadership, 2007). 

 Kritsonis said,

 A human being is in essence a creature who creates, discovers, enjoys, perceives, and acts on meaning.  These meanings are of six general kinds:  symbolic, empirical, esthetic, synnoetic, ethical, and synoptic.  The educator can seize the opportunity to battle such areas as fragmentation, surfeit, and transience of knowledge, by showing what kinds of knowledge are required for full understanding and how the essential elements may be distinguished from the unessential ones in the selection of instruction materials. (2007, p.74)

 The six realms of meaning as it relates to strategic planning in educational leadership are indicative of making national, state, district and local plans work for the success of all students to achieve goals in scholarly disciplines.

 REFERENCES

 Center for School or Organizational Development and Leadership (2007).  Strategic planning in higher education:  A guide for leaders.  [Brochure].  New Brunswick, NJ:  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

English, F. W. (2003).  The postmodern challenge to the theory and practice of

educational administration.  Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.

Feyerabend, P. (1999).  Theses on anarchism.  In M. Motterlini (ed.) For and against

method (pp.113-118). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Kritsonis, W.  (2007). Ways of knowing through the realms of meaning.  Houston, TX:  National FORUM Journals.           

Levin, B. (1998).  The educational requirement for democracy.  Curriculum Inquiry, 28, 57-79.

Lindsey, R. B., Robins, K. N., & Terrell, R. D. (2003).  Cultural proficiency:  A manual for school leaders (2nd ed.).  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Corwin Press.

McNamara, C. (2006).  Basic overview of various strategic planning models.  In

Free Management Library.  Retrieved July 10, 2009 from http://www.managementhelp.org/plan_dec/str_plan/models.htm

McNamara, C. (2008).  Basic description of strategic planning.  In Free

Management Library.  Retrieved July 10, 2009 from http://www.managementhelp.org/plan_dec/str_plan/models.htm

Wallin, D. (2003).  Student leadership and democratic schools:  A case study.  National Association of Secondary School Principals NASSP Bulletin, 87, 55-78.

Dr. William Allan Kritsonis teaches in the PhD Program in Educational Leadership at PVAMU/Member of the Texas A&M University System.

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