Lead Learners

Consultation: Appointment Only Next SenseMaking Forum: [date-time]

Communication

Reflection & Action

Investigating the commonsense assumptions.

learning Paulo Freire asking "why" about our world

Neoliberalism

Moral Principles & Rules Of Law

Our economic and political system has been designed to diminish the safety nets, social fabrics, and human rights that are central to resilient, sustainable communities. This is because a horrendous amount of special interest money has been infused into both political parties to determine U.S. policies, institutional priorities, and unprecedented protection of elite interests.

an ideology Chomsky & Robinson (2024) the belief that their domination is for the good of the dominated

Worldviews

Individuals make choices based on what is communicated to them, what they want, what they value, and what they can do. This is why a more in-depth understanding of communication is so important.

worldviews Kenneth Burke a way of seeing is also a way of not seeing

Forms Of Discipline

Consent & Dissent

We must be quiet when the emperor comes around. We must not speak of the taken for granted or his discretion. Do not, under any circumstances, ask questions. We may have to turn on each other.

subjugation Stephen Porges, M.D. (2017) bodies-minds conform to institutional forms

Power

Control & Resistance

Challenging the ideologies and structures that impose absolutes onto our social realities.

power Mumby & Kuhn (2026) a dynamic process of struggle that rests on the complex relationship between control and resistance

Practices Of "Good"

Protections & Promotions

Moving conversations about the assumptions of good from a private holding to publicly shared mappings.

a right to exist Martin Buber If one of the parties in discourse does not agree on the value of conversation or even on the right of the other party to exist, there is little opportunity for shared learning. In such cases, dialogue is simply not possible.

Intersubjective

Understanding & Knowledge

Challenging the institutional spaces that anoint emperors, tricksters, and queens to practice their discretion and collect their status all while offering out-dated, so-called knowledge.

knowledge production Mumby & Kuhn (2019) a highly contested, contingent, and ever-changing process

Debate

Positions & Persuasions

Communication is central to how effectively and competently we can participate in the debate of where we are positioned and how we are persuaded in our world.

the ability to John Dewey (1927) ______________________ follow an argument grasp another's point of view expand in our understanding debate alternatives to pursue _______________________

Communication Ethics

A Sharing Between

As communication claims the priority a new bond takes form between followers and leaders. The followers begin to lead in their assembly.

the learner Arnett, Harden-Fritz, & Bell-McManus (2018) one who meets difference without forgetting the limits of one's own situation and particular commitments to the good

Cultures

Practices & Performances

Reflecting and acting upon our shared power.

culture Fassett, Warren, & Nainby (2018) assumptions that draw people together within a social context of shared power

A Critical Perspective

A Form Of Inquiry

Communication offers us frameworks and processes to question and challenge what we witness in our world.

________________________ How did it come to be this way? Who does it harm? Who does it benefit? ________________________

critical inquiry Fassett, Warren, & Nainby (2018) asking complicated questions and sorting through the implications of our (in)actions

Communication

Diversity & Inclusion

Expanding in our experiences of identities, relationships, and cultures.

the oppressed Paulo Freire the very structure of their thought has been conditioned by the contradictions of the concrete, existential situation by which they were shaped

Meaningful Change

A Participatory Process

Meaningful change does not trickle from the top on down. It happens when we act upon time, space, and what we can socially form and inform together from the bottom on up. Meaningful change happens in and through communication.