#change11

“Rhizomic learning theory” caught my attention this past fall when Dave Cormier started a robust dialogue about these ideas during a MOOC I somewhat follow called #change11. I decided to "dig" into it (pun intended) as part of a course on Curriculum Theory, Policy and Change that I am taking this semester.

Dave Cormier is a blogger and educator in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and published an article in Innovate—Journal of Online Education called “Rhizomic Education: Community as Curriculum” (2008).

Rhizomic learning theory is based on the metaphor of rhizomes found in the writing of philosophers Deleuze and Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus:

"... A rhizome as subterranean stem is absolutely different from roots and radicles. Bulbs and tubers are rhizomes. Plants with roots or radicles may be rhizomorphic in other respects altogether: the question is whether plant life in its specificity is not entirely rhizomatic. ..."

A core idea of Deleuze's rhizomic philosophy suggests that there is no fixed knowledge only new knowledge that emerges from acts of creation.

Therefore in regards to curriculum, Dave writes,

"In the rhizomatic model of learning, curriculum is not driven by predefined inputs from experts; it is constructed and negotiated in real time by the contributions of those engaged in the learning process."

Other educators have been thinking about this metaphor as a way to think about learning. Mary Ann Reilly, a blogger and educator working in New Jersey, considers rhizomic theory in the context of teacher professional learning.

"I suggest that implementation of [professional development] programs as a substitution for professional learning undermines teachers' agency; obscures our capacity to recognize anomalous situations, and diminishes thinking and learning. As a counter model to development, I describe professional learning as rhizomatic, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's (1987) metaphor for horizontal thinking that is nonhierarchical, and advocate for locally determined professional learning."

In a blog post about her work at the InnovationLab in Colorado where rhizomic learning is a key theory of action in the design and implementation of curriculum, titled “Wanted (And Needed): 'Radical' Collaborations” Monika Hardy writes,

“One of our immediate goals is to affect the research/researchers/stakeholders enough to break down the walls of tradition and remove major roadblocks to these spaces of learning/permissions, particularly in the mind, such as standardized testing and set curriculum. And to do it in a way that is useful.”

I believe that I see and experience different aspects of rhizomic learning by participating with teachers and learners – particularly those taking an inquiry stance towards their work and learning – both online and within networks (see also a previous short study I did on teachers leading in online public spaces). Dave Cormier has suggested that the rhizomic metaphor is a useful way to think about the ways we can learn learning and connecting in online networked environments given his experience with #change11 and also EdTechtalk. Here are a few forums online that strike me as fairly dynamic centers of activity with potential for highly rhizomic connections:

Teachers Teaching Teachers and, a related, ...

... teacher and youth created curriculum and social network space like Youth Voices (created and fostered by writing project teachers with others)

I am biased, but … NWP Digital Is

Forums supporting peer teaching and learning such as Peer 2 Peer University

Cooperatively organized online spaces like the Cooperative Catalyst blog

MOOCs such as #change11

Twitter, in general, and in communities like #engchat

And … various social media tools for creating, collecting, curating, annotating, sharing.

Would love to learn more about your rhizomic connections too!

See also ...

Dave Cormier’s recently created Rhizomic Learning group on Mendeley group can join.

A Rhizomes about Rhizomes Pinterest board I am compiling you can follow or add comments.

I really appreciate Nancy White's recap of her week hosting #change11 conversation on Social Artistry. I like having a new role available for myself....social artist. And a new skill to wield more consciously through awareness. Nancy borrowed the term from Etienne Wagner. Here's a quote from Etienne she pulled from David Wilcox's blog...I want to capture it here in my own #change11 trail notes (my bolds):

“The key success factor we’ve found is learning citizenship where learning citizenship is a personal commitment to seeing how we are as citizens in this world. Let me give you an example: I know an oncological surgeon in Ontario, Canada who asks himself how to provide the social infrastructure for patients to learn about cancer. An act of learning citizenship is to be able to use who you are to open this space for learning. I’ve come to call these people social artists, people who can create a space where people can find their own sense of learning citizenship.

“I love social artists. In fact I worship them. First because social artists know how to do what I only know how to talk about; and second because I care about the learning of this planet. I think we are in a race between learning and survival. We live in a knowledge economy where any expertise is too complex for any one person. One person can’t be an expert so anyone who can give voice to that need to work together is a social artist.

“I do a lot of consultancy work for training community leaders, but in my heart of hearts I know the real secret of those social artists is not something I can teach. The real secret of those people is knowing how to use who you are as a vehicle for opening spaces for learning.  I don’t really have the words – but I just know when I see it. It is a way of tapping into who you are and of making that a gift to the world … it’s about being able to use who I am to take my community to a new level of learning and performance.

“I want to leave you with three questions…

How can you act as a learning citizen in this world?

How can we as a group help , sustain, celebrate that capability among ourselves? If EQUAL has done a bit of that – how do we capture it, nurture it cherish it?

For those of you who are movers and shakers – how can you build an institutional structure that enables people to find their voice in the interests of the people they want to serve? Social artists need to fight … How can we enable a structure that enables those people to do the work that they do?

“These are urgent questions. Social innovation is a matter of the heart, not just projects. We need you to do that for the world, not just Europe”.

Want the whole thing in context? Here is Etienne's keynote from ShareFair in Rome, September, 2011.

Nancy asks the question, Can social artistry be learned, or it is something some of us just carry with us? My answer, heartily, is YES, social artistry can be learned. Just a few of my dozens of social artistry mentors: Heinz Von Foerster, Humberto Maturana, Gordon Pask, Laurie Thomas and Sheila Harrie-Augstein, Marshall Rosenberg, Salvador Roquet, Carol and Tom French Corbett, John Holt, Parker Palmer.

I'm practicing illegitimate peripheral participation with the #change11 MOOC, but that's ok.  I did stumble back over to the schedule this week seeing that Dave Cormier is talking about "rhyzomatic learning."  I look forward to coming back around to follow some of the threads that are growing off of his week's worth of conversation. I'm drawn in by the metaphor of the rhyzome, as Dave describes:

A rhizome, sometimes called a creeping rootstalk, is a stem of a plant that sends out roots and shoots as it spreads. It is an image used by D&G [Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in a thousand plateaus] to describe the way that ideas are multiple, interconnected and self-relicating. A rhizome has no beginning or end… like the learning process.

The last two mornings I had 12 people add me to circles in Google+ - all from #change11. What a great way to start my day...stepping through each of their pages, reading their Abouts, glimpsing their photos and recent posts, and then adding them to my #change11 circle and occasionally a second circle. I realized that #change11 is a powerful filter for kindred spirits, like Second Life was in 2005 for early adopter changemaking edge-ucators. And I'm really thrilled to be meeting some of the many #change11 participants. I don't take this opportunity to connect for granted. Such an event is still far too rare. So I am making the time to participate (no small feat) and inventing my own ways of participating that are relatively easy to do (like my visual screen captures).