Knowledge and Knowing Managers: What Transformation?

“It is no longer affordable or intelligent for us to be satisfied with way things are,” our PM recently stated when warning that Malaysia must transform or risk becoming a failed state.
In a global climate where a failed state is an easy reality, Malaysia does need to start transforming and reinventing herself. I am not advocating the rhetorical posturing associated with “thinking about Transformation”, but the actual implementation and operationalising of transformative strategies – perhaps the most important being the objective solely focused on providing the best possible environments and learning managers for our learners. This being the age of the Knowledge Economy, developing, nurturing and retaining talent should be the prime objective of any country, Everything else that is needed will automatically follow. But…
“Mankind was evolving, and hopes were high. Then came education systems and
Managers of Knowledge”….Anonymous

We are stuck in a system where we educators envisage ourselves as Knowledge Managers, rather than as Knowing Managers.
What is the difference?
Knowledge Managers are people who think that knowledge is an independent wheel in a vehicle and does not interact with the rest of the vehicle. It can be removed, damaged modified and cease to function, and still have no causal effect on the rest of the vehicle. Knowledge Managers are also traditional teacher-centered practitioners who think that knowledge is to be disseminated in chunky bites that are to be swallowed and regurgitated by learners. Regurgitation of course, occurs at hallowed examination halls, where it will be determined how good learners are at regurgitating data.
Knowing Managers, on the other hand, are people who understand that that one insignificant wheel plays a determining role, in the overall performance of the vehicle. These managers know that the sum total of learning occurs in a multi-linked wheel where the weakest link determines the overall performance.
The overall immersions, interactions and experiences in a learning environment will determine the final outcome – the person that student will become. I have found that students, who make the effort to spend time with their lecturers outside their classrooms, engaging in chatter about things outside their areas of expertise, end up becoming much more thoughtful thinkers and are able to have a world view of things. They are quite distinct from the straight A’s scholars who studiously plug away at their assignments and books, but never really understanding where everything falls in the greater scheme of things.
Why is this so?
Many educators seem to make the mistake of falling into the role of Knowledge Managers the instant they step into formal learning spaces – this is true at schools and at universities. It is the schools and the universities job to graduate a student once they feel he has acquired a fixed quantum of knowledge that qualifies him for an exam grade or a degree. Who can blame the educators then, for wanting to become knowledge managers who teach to exams, since this is the requirement the institutions and ministries require? This would also, as expected, inform the student that it is okay to feel confident going out into the world with his fixed quantum of knowledge.
Knowing managers, on the other hand, know that learning through knowing is an infinite system of beliefs, knowledge, skills, ethics, social interactions and a million other nuances, some subtle and others in-your-face, that come together in a journey that never ends. Research and investigations, debates and discussions, presentations and defending them, all mesh into a single coherent set of skills that stimulates and builds KNOWING; and these series of orchestral maneuvers finally result in a learned person.
The environment that provides all these are almost non-existent in nearly all educational systems.
In my own students, I have found they quickly disengage from me when they cannot find relevance and synchrony between my teachings and what they need and want. This is especially true in first year students. They come to the university with grand ambitions, after having been told they are the cream of the crop, and that a fantastic education awaits them that will prepare them for a successful life. I too have been informed by the system that these students are the cream of the crop, excellent communicators with immense knowledge content, logical and precise after having undergone so many examinations – and now, I am thinking, ready for Knowing.
When we meet, the student and I find there is almost a complete mismatch in expectations.
I am there all ready to be their Knowing Manager, but students want me to be their Knowledge Manager. That is what the education system has prepared them for and brainwashed them into. They want a set amount of knowledge that will prepare them for graduation in a few years.
With the stage set by this mismatched expectations, students slowly succumb to a downward spiral where they realise that the knowledge and certainty they had, is not quite the knowing and certainty they face. They slowly start realising that the expectations that they had, to quickly quantify their achievements on examination papers and high grades, has no value. The actual expectation is for them to open their minds to new ways of thinking and knowing. They start realising that the PowerPoint lecture they expect has no value, and it is the discussions and arguments we have everywhere and every when, that provide a real understanding of knowing, and perhaps even is the actual route to understanding the world in a meaningful context.
This is the start of the mess we are in now. The system demands that I become a knowledge manager who grades students on quantified knowledge and then assign them marks and points that will determine a range of grades. At the same time, the system also demands that I become a knowing manager who will immerse students into a knowing environment.
I am reminded of my class for public speaking training for students, where the students simply could not initially grasp that a great speech is a combination of many, many components coming together. When I spoke about eye contact, everyone focused on eye contact, forgetting gestures and voice tone. When I spoke about humour, all everyone wanted to do was to become a clown, forgetting that the message was also vital. When I spoke about wrapping up a speech by going over what had been presented, everyone focused on that. They are now getting the idea that no one thing can work by itself, and it is all about knowing their speech and their audience, not knowledge of the speech and the audience – knowledge being an ineffective tangible factor; and knowing being about an intangible, powerful force.
Don’t get me wrong. We have had this problem since the beginning of education systems. We just never have had high expectations until now. The demands of the modern world - technology and for high levels of expertise - have always been served by a slip-shod education system. It is only now that problems are emerging from the cracks because current expectations are not being met. These problems were never identified before simply because expectations were low even up to 20 years ago. Even that is fine. Expectations and outcomes have evolved as we humans evolve.
The problem lies with the fact that educators and education systems are not evolving, or not evolving fast enough to meet new demands.
The other problem is also that entrance into universities and even schooling systems is a global economic game now, and all the major players believe in looking at Knowledge Grades first before looking at the Knowing Skills. Research and analytical abilities; dedication, willpower and commitment; understanding of social skills in team work, communications and leadership; we put aside the attributes that count and qualify candidates on knowledge grades that we KNOW are not true indicators of abilities and success!
Why? Why cannot we evolve from a system of Knowledge Managers with exams, to a system of Knowing Managers with non-exams?
One, we have encouraged the growth of a grading system based on student competition, where students (and educators) are forced to seek an edge over their peers. This restricts them from engaging fully with each other in a trusted manner since information that is perceived to give an edge, will be held back. In many Asian countries, this has also resulted in one of the biggest disasters - tuition centers.
Two, educators are graded on their students performances in exams, bringing us back to one.
Three, schools and administrators are graded on students’ performances in exams, bringing us back to one.
Four, higher education institutions of education insist on a prerequisite of recognized exams, bringing us back to one.
I have come to believe that the assessment based system we have created is the core catalyst for the dysfunction of our education system. Before I go on, I do realise it is absolutely useless and probably crazy for me to say that we should get rid of exams, but I will say it anyway. Exams have become a drug for us, and we are all addicts. We are addicted to knowledge of the tangibles, and have lost focus, lost faith even, on knowing the intangibles.
What is the way out?
Simplistic as it may be, and notwithstanding political implications, which Malaysia has in abundant quantities, if Malaysia truly believes that “It is no longer affordable or intelligent for us to be satisfied with way things are,” then why does Malaysia not position itself to become the champion of Knowing Managers in a Knowing System? The start point is to create meaningful and relevant alternatives to exams, and there are many – from research projects to scholarly debates to entrepreneurship – the list is endless. All are difficult to do, but then, that is the reason why it is not being done in the first place. We no longer have the option of choosing a simpler route.
There are other issues to be addressed too; automatic promotion versus ability based promotion, traditional subjects versus meaningful subjects; and I will talk about these in future articles, but these are minor issues compared to the first hurdle to overcome.
It is time to decide once and for all whether we want students who MUST go to school for grades and knowledge or students who will immerse themselves into ways of knowing and become relevant to the future that is already at our doorstep. Or are we willing to risk a failed state?