Carta de Dominium Charter of Ownership

Ownership Living Ownership Learning

A PUBLICATION OF MSA 7 July 2017

Overhead the sun moves slowly Through a pale yellow haze It’s doppelganger nibiru trails As twin reality Of matter and spirit intertwined Beneath which we stand alone Susceptible Shreds of hope disappear Slowly smothered and engulfed By grains of sand that form a desert Feeding upon itself The burial hour is over Our dreams lie stripped and bare Our aspirations lost in malevolent deglutition Desertification of the soul The enemy is ourselves With no mirage in sight One question resounds across a wasted landscape Can we build again on barren ground? The hour glass is melting Persistence of memory fades But wait! A sudden shifting in the sands A quickening, a call for change It is time! https://thenibirusunset.wordpress.com/2016/10/24/nibiru-wiki-leak-emails-and-photos/ http://link.hepl.lib.in.us/portal/The-burial-hour-Jeffery-Deaver-sound/T8wZHzK5Yp4/ https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/1168-2

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教育机构 Instituciones educativas Education Institutions ‫مؤسسات التعليم‬ Onderwysinrigtings Учебные заведения 法律机构 Instituciones Legales Legal Institutions ‫المؤسسات القانونية‬ Regsinstellings Юридические институты 医疗机构 Instituciones de Salud Heath Care Institutions ‫مؤسسات الرعاية الصحية‬ Gesondheidsorginstellings Учреждения здравоохранения 宗教机构 Instituciones religiosas Religious Institutions ‫المؤسسات الدينية‬ Godsdienstige Instellings Религиозные учреждения 经济制度 Instituciones Económicas Financial Institutions ‫المؤسسات االقتصادية‬ Ekonomiese Instellings Экономические институты

⠿⠑⠌ “Progressive Societies Outgrow Institutions

like Children Outgrow Clothes.” Henry George - 1884

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http://www.litnet.co.za/wpcontent/uploads/2017/01/feesmust-fall-650.jpg

http://aidc.org.za/wpcontent/uploads/2016/10/maxresdefault-1.jpg

http://www.corruptionw atch.org.za/aboutus/who-we-are/aboutcorruption-watch/ http://katehon.com/sites/defa ult/files/flag1_gallery_600x38 4.jpg

http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21694829protesters-call-elections-markets-and-political-allies-waver-theirsupportdilma?zid=312&ah=da4ed4425e74339883d473adf5773841

https://www.opengovpartnership.org/

⠿⠑⠌ “When you change your mind about how

you look at things; you see there might be another way to look at it that you have not been shown.” Gil Scott-Heron – 1970

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We need new governance & an inclusive & participatory approach. #H3Plenary Each of us has our own path, but each of us share the same goal, a free humanity. Together we stand! #Anonymous World Silk Road of Development and Peace— Going 'from Concept to Action #BeltandRoad #OBOR #BRI

International Alert’ brings together technologists, designers, developers and peace practitioners to create and realize solutions for ending violent conflict and building peace. #Peacehack Economic Freedom before Peace - We do not lack common challenges; in fact most of the biggest challenges of our time are global and universal. #UBI For 68 years NATO has failed to create a peaceful world. #NATO

⠿⠑⠌ “No matter how bright the light shines, its

usefulness is but to illuminate the path before. For life is growth, and growth is change, and progress consists of getting rid of institutions we have outgrown.” Henry George - 1877 Page

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Join US

Live Journey with us as we take ownership of our lives, our learning and our future…

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary

1

Chapter One Facing Tomorrow ➢ Lost ➢ Where We Are At ➢ Arenas of Practical Engagement

2

Chapter Two Beyond the Realm of the Classifiable ➢ Learning Golf with a Broomstick ➢ Last Things ➢ Tomorrow Waits

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Chapter Three Casting a Flower Net ➢ Formalized Curiosity ➢ Hegemonic Status, Discursive Frames and Complex Hyperpolarization ➢ The Annoyance of a Good Example ➢ Bridging Education for the Now ➢ A Strategic Framework for Action

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1 - 12

1 4 7

13 - 22 14 16 19

23 - 48 24 27 30 35 41

4

Acknowledgements

5

Access Point

6

Youth Culture X + Y

7

Future Career Direction

8

Something Other Than ‘Education’

9

The 21st Century Artisan

10

Living and Learning

11

AI Interactive

12

Into The Future A Call to Action…

Chapter One

FACING TOMORROW

Begins With An Understanding of Where We Are Today We live in a world obsessed with road-mapping the future, a world constantly on the look out for ‘best practices’ which we incorporate into future plans, a world bedeviled by ‘triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment’ met with stringent policies of equity, redress and progress to ‘level playing fields’, a world which persists in looking to old solutions to solve new problems. Einstein claimed that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results could be considered the definition of insanity. We stand today, on the edge of yesterday, with tomorrow across the road, ready for exploration: As human beings we are free to leave our past behind us, to cross the road into the future, a future yet untold…

https://www.ancient-code.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Planet-X-Planet-Nine.jpg https://i2.wp.com/myamymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/tomorrow-loading-shutterstock_151572575-SukitHanphayak.jpg?fit=800%2C576

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Lost “Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves…” Henry David Thoreau 1854

The creation of this Charter began with a journey. A journey for meaning. At a time when people around the world are trying to navigate, make sense of, and future plan in a geopolitical socio-economic climate in constant flux. Where none are secure in their past, their present or their future. Where divisions of whatever nature have become huge gaping divides preventing meaningful dialogue and communication between people. Where humankind has fallen into a pit of despair and lost sight of any sort of tangible hope for their personal or collective future. Where the future of coming generations is unimaginable. Where the only way of expressing our discontent appears to be in groundswell marches where groups of people rail against those who appear to have power over their current situations. Like children running blindly in a wood, uncertainty and fear overwhelmed us all, until an unanticipated series of events resulted in a band of weary travelers finding each other in the darkness in a place of relative calm. A place where we felt safe enough to give vent to our frustrations, our despair and our vehement criticisms of how the world had let us down. And, having found a safe space in which to rest awhile from the anxieties and fears from which we were attempting to flee, an interesting thing occurred: where initially our voices, harsh and angry, intermingled as each of us within the group cried out in criticism of our perceived current forced existence, over time, and individually, we moved from criticism to critique of present circumstances which in turn resulted in the emergence of a question forming in the air around us, a question requiring silence to be heard: “Where to now?” Such simple words and yet they raised a terrifying prospect: in order to move forward, we needed to come up with a plan; we needed to stop looking for other people to save us, and we needed to find a way of saving ourselves. This understanding required us to acknowledge a disturbing fact about ourselves, that we had been swept up in the rising tide of liberal ideology, of rights discourses embedded in moral connotations, of the promise of technological emancipation, of the perception that ‘our vote’ counts… We, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, etc. had been lulled into a false sense of self importance whilst simultaneously removing ourselves from blame for anything that we consider “wrong” within our lives. In essence, we had willingly given up our individual efficacy and our locus of control to imperfect institutions and organizations onto which we could project dissatisfaction, rage and blame when these socially created structures failed to meet the needs of the societies which they had been mandated to protect. In this age of vast access to fast information, we had succumbed to the false belief that #hashtags and twitter feeds and other forms of social media are news, not merely views, many of which are generated by bots, not even people. Page 2

We had forgotten the long ago words of Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, Viscount de Tocqueville, a French diplomat, political scientist, and historian who in 1835 penned these profound words: “Providence has not created mankind entirely independent or entirely free. It is true that around every man a fatal circle is traced beyond which he cannot pass, but within the wide verge of that circle he is powerful and free; as it is with man, so with communities. The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal; but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or wretchedness.” To our small group of travelers, these words inspired us to reclaim our individual power to make decisions for ourselves. To reclaim our freedom to choose a different future for ourselves. In a sense we could be likened to lemmings leaping of a cliff face. But, we were lemmings with a purpose.

We were a small committed group of lemmings in search of meaning. Our last task before ‘taking the path less travelled’ (Frost, 1920) was to ensure that in our quest for meaning, we obtained a floatation devise which would provide us with focus and purpose. A device to bolster us and prevent us from splashing out into the unknown without direction. Our aim was not to end up in a too cold sea ‘not waving but drowning’ (Smith, 1957) in the heartless ebb and flow of life beyond the shallows, but rather to pursue the unchartered on the shoulders of giants who had gone before (Newton, 1675). When travelling in uncharted territory, it is best not to rely too much on past tools and techniques as a means of devising comfort and a sense of security and safety. And so, our group of travelers decided to utilize the current failed state of education alongside its glorious past as a flotation devise in this quest for meaning. We dared to take a leap of faith which hinged on a belief in our own ability to work through and solve our own problems. If we drowned we would have no one but ourselves to blame, however, if we succeeded, we would surely ride the floodtide (Shakespeare, 1599). Sink or swim, we took the decision to own our lives.

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Where We Are At Becoming a shaper of tomorrow begins with an in-depth understanding of (where we are at)today. Belgard & Rayner 2004

All human enquiry, whether heuristic, scholastic or Socratic, enmeshed and integrated in constructs of education foundations over time, has, throughout history, and without exception, been a quest for understanding, attaching meaning to, and making sense of, the world around us. ≅

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From Plato’s super-sensitization of “shadows on the wall” (Allegory of the Cave, 514 – 520) and his theory of forms highlighting the distinction between realities which are perceptible but unintelligible, and those which are imperceptible but intelligible; to Mozi’s engagement with early government structures and their inherent hierarchical models which he warned posed the danger of elevating social and economic status over intrinsic talent found within ‘ordinary citizens’, and which, as far back as the period of the Hundred Schools of Thought, 468 –391 BC, he claimed would result in the loss of collective human capacity to selfreflect regarding individual contributions each person has the potential to make to society; to Viktor Frankl’s grappling with the existential vacuum in humankinds’ daily toil and existence in his publication, the “Will to Meaning” (Frankl, 1969) and his creation of logo therapy to assist those who had ‘lost hope in humanity’ to re-find meaning in their lives; to Lev Vygotsky’s (1978) endeavour to understand consciousness, thought and language, the relationship between them, and the impact of social interaction on communication as a vehicle of the attainment of meaning to be achieved through cognitive output structures, his exploration of how both consciousness and meaning can be grown and expanded through zones of proximal development and the use of carefully constructed situated, socially embedded mediated learning experiences to enhance the exchange of ideas, meaning making, and the development of new questions for which answers need to be discovered.

Over time, man has been watcher, seeker, listener, explorer, creator, explainer and information categorizer as, in a manner reminiscent of our ancestral hunter-gathers of long ago, we have at different times and in different ways boldly gone in search for knowledge and then carefully gathered what we have discovered and concisely labeled and itemized what we have found; developing an accumulation of data so vast that it has come to be known as “a body of knowledge”:- an entity in and of itself. And, in the creation of this ‘body’, humanity has created an explanation system for almost everything our children see, touch and experience today, an explanation system which has become the corner stone of formalized educational provision… for all. An explanation system which has rendered humankind into a new social class, a class into which we are categorized as ‘learners’. And within this rubric, as ‘learners’, we have lost our ability to view ourselves as individual ‘creators’ and ‘explorers’, indeed, we have lost our ability to perceive ourselves as ‘contributors’ to the existing ‘body of knowledge’. Page 4

And so, we perpetuate a 21st century misconception that in order to function within society we are required first to learn, by heart, the gathered information of the past, to embrace the opportunity which is presented within the category ‘learner’, ‘student’, ‘scholar’, etc. and to meekly accept that our current role within society is to ‘be filled with information’ – not for us the opportunity to ‘go boldly’ in search of the unknown. We live in an age when information abounds, and yet, somehow, we, the recipients and beneficiaries of all this ‘knowledge’ have reductionized experience and adventure into fact. We have created a reproducible repetitive system of transmition of past knowledge, assumed prior knowledge, and elevated old ways of understanding our world, while around us, within the very world we claim to be learning about, a fundamental shift has occurred. Our world has changed and continues to change at an alarming rate. We are informed that we have entered into the Fourth Industrial Revolution – a digital revolution which began in the middle of the last century. Around us, evidence of this digital revolution impacts on every aspect of our daily lives. The WWW, the IOT, developments in Robotics, AI, social media platforms, big data mining abilities, cryptocurrencies, nanobots, etc. have thrust our ‘known world’ into unfamiliarity and uncertaincy where the only constant is change (Heraclitus of Ephesus, . 535 BC – 475 BC). We have knowledge, we have instant access to information, and yet, we have no answers to the most fundamental questions facing societies today. And still, we persist in equipping and preparing our youth to achieve within this 4th revolution with the tools required to participate in and benefit from the 1st industrial revolution. Indeed, the very foundation of ‘their’ education is based on ‘our’ teaching ‘them’ the skills and abilities required for the traditional occupation of ‘scribes’ and ‘respondents’ – with the addendum that what ‘they’ write and how they ‘answer’ be ‘politically correct’. To provide just one example:

Starting at 07:00 GMT Friday the 12th of May 2017 and quickly spreading over the next 36 hours, a Global Ransomware Cyber Attack was launched worldwide across more than 100 countries. The cyber virus infected computer files, encrypted then and then demanded bitcoin payment in order for the files to be decrypted and returned to the users. The ransomware, known as WanaCrypt0r 2.0, or WannaCry, infected the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, Spain’s largest national telecommunications form, Telefoica, Russia’s Sherbank and the Russian Railways IT system, etc. Where this international crisis of unspecified magnitude has led to blame being cast in all directions and the reprimand that the ‘militarization of cyberspace’ is out of control (https://t.co/6FLFxJh8EW), appropriate response to this cyber threat has been dismal, despite ongoing warnings of the possibility of such over the past decade and, a trial run of this very same cyber attack format in February of 2017. Our world is not equipped to deal with such acts of cyber crime and the reality is that there is no time, now, to lament the vulnerabilities in user software. We are living in a time of borderless warfare where the battlefields we are required to fight in have no rules. The enemy is unseen. There is no armistice here, no, nonesmanneslond, no portals of agreed relief during which the casualties and wounded can be tended to. There is no opportunity for ‘trial and retribution’ (La Plante, 1997). The threat is existential, but very real. We have entered a time when the seizure of territory and the appropriation of objects through cyberwarfare makes all mankind vulnerable targets at a very personal level.

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We should have been prepared. Indeed we should have been preparing our youth for managing such situations. Instead, international education conferences, in the same month of this attack, were being held around the world to discuss ‘handwriting matters’, the effectiveness of new handwriting curriculums implemented in late 2016, and to determine whether printing or cursive should be taught first, second or simultaneously. While in Asia debates over the dilemma of teaching Mandarin through traditional or simplified hanzi and variations in character formation models continues to rage. http://writingmattersconference.com/; https://www.hwtears.com/hwt/news-events; http://www.nha-handwriting.org.uk/courses-events/events; http://repository.lib.eduhk.hk/jspui/handle/2260.2/22806

https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/stock-photos/ransomware/ransomware-key.png http://www.cachedistrictliteracy.org/uploads/4/3/1/3/43134855/cursive_handwriting_model.svg https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11111/111119495/3299555-kickass12.png https://www.chinasmack.com/wp-content/uploads/chinasmack/2009/03/traditional-vs-simplified-open-picture-fun-learn.gif

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Arenas of Practical Engagement “Once in the political arena, (they) found their appeal in portraying themselves as everymen, if not in wealth, then in language, tone, aspirations, and resentments.” Slate April 3, 2017

Arenas-of-times-past bring to mind enclosed showcase theatres evoking imagery of blood, sweat and cheers. Places where gladiators and sportsman pitted their skills, strength and mental agility against each other in the forging of regional identity and personal achievement; spaces where competition gave rise to mythical hero's of strength, power, exertion and stamina; colosseums hosting spectacular public events demonstrating the power and generosity of the ruling elite towards ordinary people. For some, the concept of an arena may evoke early practices of Athenean demokratia, in particular the institutes of boule and dikasteria through which public arenas for discussion and representation where established which sought to create a system of governance based on the virtue of equality before the law. For others, the notion of an arena may give rise to the imagery of a sage positioned in an amphitheater surrounded by pupils, disciples or followers. For others still, the concept of arena may bring to mind ‘arenas of conflict’, ‘problem arenas’ in modern scholarship, the ‘arena of war’… The list is endless. And then, of course, we have, the ‘political arena’. The arena of politics which, in the not so distant past, was separated from the ‘public sphere’ (Dahlgren, 2006), cloaked within a closed orb of intense political activity relating to national leadership structures, domestic policies, structural and global factors impacting on economic development, issues of sovereignty, etc. A domain far removed from the lives of ordinary, everyday citizens, but which, incrementally, through mediatization, has, within the past decade woven itself into the fabric of our everyday lives and conversations creating what has been termed a ‘media-drivenglobal-republic’ (Mazzoleni & Schultz, 2010). The emergence of extra-parliamentary politics into civic discursive spaces via media has given rise to the belief that ordinary citizens have communicative links to the power holders in society. It has espoused a sense that ‘we’ are active participants in the political economy through a configuration of representational dimensions within which we can voice our civic discontent, tensions and rivalries. Perceptions of this ‘voice’ which ‘we’ provide are interpreted as perceptions of ‘power’, and promote a sense that the populace has control over political aspects and functions, over ‘realpolitik's’:- that ‘we’, ‘the people’, have a right to engage in moral issues through a logic of connective action, to make judgements, however uninformed, through the personalization of contentious politics, primed by the public opinion industry (Spilichal, 1999; Lewis, 2001) to regard our views as #relevant #trending political communication despite them being little more than ‘public sphere perspective’.

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Living in technologically connected social settlements, we have bought into the belief that we are able to truly engage ourselves in matters relating to identities of power and control through our immersion into the macro and micro dramas of politics presented to us through the media and expounded by centripetal forces cloaked as ‘political analysts’. We absorb this commentary within a para political domain failing to recognize that it provides little more than psychocultural gestalt therapy promoting fragmented uncoalesced ‘cyber ghetto’s’ which undercut integrative societal function through the presentation of ‘master frames’ which colour and control interpretive mediums directing our micro-level focus to frames regulating our everyday experiences. (Buechler, 2000; Capek 1993; Fellow, 1999; Perrolle 1993) The 21 June 2017 UK Day of Rage aimed at ‘bringing down the British government’ is an example of this inflated sense of power ordinary people have regarding their influence on political structures of the time. Dalton (1994) makes a fascinating statement. He states that ‘any systemic differences between nations are outweighed by the variation across groups within nations’. A scan of trending twitter feeds today gives credence to this claim and suggests that we have been lulled, by intelligent anticipation of opportunities of participatory politics, away from real identification and interpretation of pressing social problems, their dimensions and causes, and potential remedies. In effect, we have been rendered to the category of ‘clanging gongs’ feeding media ratings, consuming prime time advertisements, whilst engaging in populist emancipation and consumption lifestyle politics which have no positive impact on our actual day to day life experience. This does not mean that we are powerless. Rather it means we need to re-evaluate where our personal power lies and direct this towards claiming ownership of our lives. Today we find ourselves at a difficult point in human history. No matter who we are nor where we reside, we find ourselves in a world that has changed fundamentally. A world where progression, specifically in the areas of science, travel, technology and communications, human rights movements, artificial intelligence, geopolitical shifts, new economies, the rise of liberalism, the death of post modernism, considerations of post-post modernism, excessive managerialism, open source access, open sharing on social media platforms, and the emergence of new and future predicted global megatrends have systematically eroded traditional boundaries of both “knowledge and society” and “knowledge in society”; a world where situations of natural disaster, war, terror, mass migrations, refugee influx, government corruption, and unemployment have permeated borders and wrought instability at all levels of society; a world where ‘traditions’ are constantly being eroded. And, into this erosion of ‘the traditional’, space has been created for global trends and forces, along with local imperatives, to coexist in an emerging megadigm of sometimes competing yet often complementary interests to which concepts such as identity, human relevance, employability, development and sustainability are fundamentally interlinked. As mentioned on the opening page of this chapter, as we stand on the precipice of today, facing tomorrow, rather than seizing this ‘gap’ or ‘space’ for purposes of relevant and real time intervention, individuals, organizations, institutionalized specialist service providers, governments and entire nation states, remain suspended in inaction, continually focusing on strategies for how to ‘shape the future’ from within societal structures which are no longer relevant in our changed world. Power holders persist in focusing their attention on ‘analyzing what is wrong’ with left over structures and attempting to ‘attach transformational policy initiatives’ couched in mandates for ‘reform’ of existing structures embedded in ‘morality frameworks’ stringently opposing the very elitism on which structures of old were based.

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Despite the emergence of vast opportunities for civic participatory engagement through social media, an international country-by-country analysis indicates that as the ‘old guard’ focus their energies on ‘forward planning’ or on ‘road mapping’ future actions and political developments, they continue to retain the ‘mosquitoes and flies’, the youth, in holding pens called ‘education’, directing their energy and creativity to 40 character compositions which automatically delete within hours of expression. And, what is emerging in this ‘space’, between traditional boundaries and new technologies, is the collapse of human interaction and the creation of complex generational divides so vast that it is impossible to keep abreast of predicted challenges between people let alone unanticipated tensions arising within the cosmorama of social diversification and disaffection at the interface of our existence. Within the public sphere of our daily lives, it is easy to rage against inequality and injustice. It is also easy to state that the solutions to the problems the world faces today lie in tolerance and acceptance of difference. However, when arenas of engagement provided at the level of civil society offer no significance to meaningful direction or solution for the alleviation of suffering of the everyday man/woman-in-the -street, they need to be acknowledged as void in application if we are to claim ownership of our own lives. In 1997, Vale presented an overview of international relations and political structures as being composed of an ‘upstairs of formal diplomacy’ and a ‘downstairs of complicated, unofficial reality’ – a downstairs in which the majority of the world live, fraught with complexity at cultural, social and economic grassroot levels across all areas of practical human engagement.

Formal Diplomacy

Complicated Unofficial Reality

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An example of the complicated challenges facing ordinary people in our modern transnational world is highlighted in the 5 part series documentary Bubu in Africa which chronicles the challenges facing Chinese immigrants on the African continent uploaded on March 21, 2017: Utube 1. 1. 1. 1. 1.

Bubu in Africa (1) 步步走非洲1—持枪抢劫、疟疾，安全问题不容忽视 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie4D5SRZe9Q&index=3&list=PLy2FR-zJ8KQVfg5OK4yc8Dyu67hySnPk9 Bubu in Africa (2) 步步走非洲2—用牛换老婆、割礼、杀狮子，原始才劲爆 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZhofLQNyYc&index=1&list=PLy2FR-zJ8KQVfg5OK4yc8Dyu67hySnPk9 Bubu in Africa (3) 步步走非洲3—被打手、罚跪、要小费，中国娃不容易 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgv-LIEw1ww&index=2&list=PLy2FR-zJ8KQVfg5OK4yc8Dyu67hySnPk9 Bubu in Africa (4) 步步走非洲4—在坦华人的生意经 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qzZNXT9FW0&list=PLy2FR-zJ8KQVfg5OK4yc8Dyu67hySnPk9&index=4 Bubu in Africa (5) 步步走非洲5—挑战非洲最高峰乞力马扎罗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRmNWjGPNNw&list=PLy2FR-zJ8KQVfg5OK4yc8Dyu67hySnPk9&index=5

Where Bu Xian, the director of the documentary series was advised expressly not to focus on people’s bad experiences, her incorporation of Chinese immigrant experiences in Africa at levels of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, local vendors and people working on projects spearheaded in China interwoven into the astonishing tapestry of diversity found on the African continent highlights some of the daily challenges facing individuals in multicultural, pluralistic societies. http://www.pressreader.com/china/china-daily-usa/20170621/281741269418152 MSA addressed these exact challenges head-on in a presentation at the Gordon Business Institute of Science, Johannesburg, South Africa, on the 30th of August 2016, and has actively pursued binational relationships between China and African nation states at community levels as part of its commitment to promoting economic growth and development from an ownership living perspective.

FYI: MSA’s GIBS presentation, media coverage of the event and a sample of MSA’s FAWDE Africa Marketing Initiative for enhancing intercultural community relationships between China and South Africa can be viewed here.

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With the publication of this charter, the focus of MSA’s ownership living, ownership learning initiative focuses on providing ordinary people with opportunities within which they can empower themselves to purposefully engage and interact with downstairs process challenges. To equip them with skills, attitudes and truths to help them navigate a world which has become ‘stranger than we can imagine’ (Higgs, 2015) and which has in fact moved into a reality ‘beyond the realm of the classifiable’. Within this publication, education is our arena of engagement… and it is into this specific arena which you are invited to journey with us and to actively participate at all levels of practical engagement in order that you may make informed choices for the future of your children and the youth of our world. And this invitation is personal, open and inclusive.

For more than two decades, members of the executive council of MSA have been requesting participatory alliances regarding reformulation of education provision around the world: Requests which have consistently been ignored by ‘the powers that be’. Over the past two years, MSA has actively sought to open channels for dialogue for practical change at the teaching and learning interface … Once again, these requests have been ignored. Copies of our publication EDUCATION for the NOW: Epic Theatre meets Theatre of the Absurd, A Play in 3 Acts and special invitation to government officials to be a part of the ‘education solution for the 21st century’ can be obtained here. Despite refusal by ‘those who are responsible for change’ regarding collaboration, MSA and its affiliates pressed ahead, until they found a solution – and when this full solution for education in the 21st century was offered, free of charge to government in South Africa, with the promise that government could take the credit and MSA would assume responsibility for any problems – our proposal was still not considered. Instead, government officials have, subsequent to our offer of a full educational solution, addressed the public through media claiming as official communication that ‘they are stuck’, helpless in the face of the education crisis playing out around the world. Governments are not ‘stuck’. They do not want to change the status quo.

And the youth of the world cannot wait. Despite all our best attempts to engage through procedures and protocols in a participatory manner, MSA has finally come to the conclusion that, in the words of R. Buckminster Fuller,: You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

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This Charter of Ownership presents a new model for education and we invite you to travel with us, find the solution for yourself and form your own opinion. We have declared ownership of our own learning, ownership of our future. We invite you to do the same. .

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Chapter Two

Beyond the Realm of the Classifiable “I cannot classify the other, for the other is, precisely, Unique, the singular Image which has miraculously come to correspond to the specialty of my desire. The other is the figure of my truth, and cannot be imprisoned in any stereotype (which is the truth of others).” Roland Barthes - 1978

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Learning Golf with a Broom Stick Scree: My companion is ill-equipped for life in your world. I had to leave her on the surface. Primal – Video Game, 2003

Following a ‘scientific method’ of analysis for understanding new and emerging challenges facing us in the world today, and attributing the purpose of science as critical function in ‘knowledge establishment’, we have become conditioned to chunking information into ‘controlled experiment’ format across a linear timeline where ‘laws of parsimony’ (Occam’s Razor) are identified as truth and allocated space within system categories of general knowledge (Dewey System of Classification, 1876). With scientific backing of such systems Belgard and Rayner’s 2004, claim that ‘becoming a shaper of tomorrow begins with an indepth understanding of today and the forces, changes and trends that have brought us to the point we are at’ makes common sense. It suggests that we can analyze variables which no longer produce their desired outcome, attach these to correlation analysis, identify causal outcome, and produce ‘if, then’ solutions to challenges through logic and deductive reasoning through a relatively straightforward process enterprise known as research, through which ‘answers’ can be reallocated into categories, or sub-categories, within appropriate ‘pigeon holes’ for understanding regardless of their tenuous or inconclusive nature. If we are painfully honest with ourselves however, we would need to acknowledge that ‘where we are at’ is different for everyone - that there are no ‘quick fix’ answers to the challenges we are facing; We would need to admit that our world has shifted and that we cannot rely on scientific hypotheses or old measures of classification to understand this age in which we live; We would need to accept that as generalization ‘old ways’ of doing are ineffective if not obsolete. Wherever we look, specifically in the domain of education – we see the same old questions being asked over and over again. Thousands of personnel hours are spent producing thousands of pages of criticism of current structures, and yet, valuable and viable solutions are not provided. Indeed, these criticisms are highlighted not as ‘problem ownership’ but as pathway for others to read and take suggestions for change from. And even when new ideas evolve from this process, they are considered ‘futuristic’ and bypassed for consideration of their practicalities for review at ‘a later date’. The tragedy of this scenario is that despite utilizing ‘the best brains’ in the business to ‘think tank’ contemporary problems, perpetuation of old frames or references utilized for understanding automatically shuts the door to recognition of new realities. Mbuelo Ramafamba (2016), as a youth himself trying to make sense of the education system he is currently offered, provides a fascinating perception of the challenges facing youth in education today:

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From Mbuelo’s perspective, education provision for all, can be summarized as providing all children with a broomstick with which to learn the game of golf. Teaching them the rules and regulations of the game, in the hope that when they grow older, they will be able to obtain their own golf sticks and play independently on the perfectly manicured lawns of the most elite golf courses in the world. The problem with this scenario, is that golf is no longer being played – the new game is water polo, the playing field has not been leveled, it has been removed and what is left is millions of children, clinging onto broomsticks to keep their heads above water, never having being taught to swim. Powerful, powerful imagery which resounds with the truth of the reality we are faced with today. We have entered the realm of the unclassifiable yet persist in trying to understand this ‘new world’ through the use of ‘old tools’.

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Last Things “Where did all the words go?" I asked. "They just wasted away," my mom explained, " like a leg you never walk on.” Jenny Offill - 1999

The title for this chapter has been taken from a review by Steffan Hamilton on Paul Auster’s 1987 literary work ‘In the Country of Last Things’, which, hailed as an indelible mark on the literary map, has defied genre placement. Considered in part a dystopian epistolary novel, the opening paragraph begins with the following proclamation: “These are the last things, she wrote. One day they will disappear and never come back.” While this might sound ‘dramatic’, ‘futuristic’, a ‘plausible eventuality’, it is in fact the reality we face, right now, today. Two movies, 40 years apart, provide insights into the astonishingly rapid rate of change our world has experienced over the past 50 years whilst giving humour to the human attempts to adapt, to keep abreast of change, and to find meaning in what we are doing, what we have done, and what we hope to achieve.

Initial release: 1973 Director: John G. Avildsen Screenplay: Steve Shagan

Initial release: 2016 Director: Tom Tykwer Screenplay: Tom Tykwer

Save the Tiger (1973) staring Jack Lemmon and A Hologram for the King (2016) starring Tom Hanks are pivotal movies in enhancing our understanding of how the world has changed and of the need to ‘be kind to those who are behind’ while valuing their experience and contribution. And yet, even in these movies, the focus on how change disrupts the world is limited to the feelings and actions of adults within a transforming world. What about our youth? Where are the seminal texts or movies exploring how young people, children and teenagers, are attempting to navigate and make sense of the world they wake up in everyday?

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Change has occurred, enormous change, and this change has impacted on language, communication and perception across generations. And yet, texts, articles and visual literary publications persist in providing ‘old timers’ views regarding these changes while the ‘new comer's’ voices are silent – our children are not given a voice and yet they are forced into situations whereby they are required to listen to and learn from our experiences of a different time. In the novel The Country of Last Things (Auster, 1987) the opening paragraph “These are the last things, she wrote. One day they will disappear and never come back.” requires from us an immediate response of selfinterrogation: It demands action. It requires us to reflect with utmost deliberation regarding what has changed in the world, what no longer exists, what has been introduced, and how these additions and subtractions impact on shared understandings of meaning making across generations. And when such action is taken, when we sit down and analyze the reality of change, we find ourselves hovering in a metaphorical state similar to that of having Alzheimer's Disease - where the memories of the past can no longer be shared and where it is impossible to create new memories for future reference. We provide just one example here, of what is in reality an endless, perseveration of the instability of flux: Date

Action

What it means

Terminology our ‘youth’ have no reference to

Terminology ‘adults’ have no reference to

April 22 2017

Britain cuts coal from their electrical grid for the first time since coal-fired energy began during the industrial revolution. (1760 - 1840)

The industrial revolution is over!

Coal mining terminology Pit terminology Standards for Float and Sink Analysis Coal fired engines Catalytic steam Gasification of large coal particles Anthracite Bituminous Lignite Coal oil Coal gas Coal stove Coal combustion Acid rain ‘bed warmers’ ‘lighting of the lamps’ ‘black lung’ ‘as black as coal’ ‘fly ash’ ‘to act like a canary in a coal mine’ ‘glowing embers’ ‘charred’ Mary Poppins (1964) Chimney sweeps…

Gasohol Clean technology ‘Bundled’ Biodiesel AAL AEI End Use Intensities FONSI Higher heating value lbs/MMBtu Maximum containment level No load losses Public Generating Pool Photovoltaic Total suspended particulate matter Volatile organic compounds YTF NOx Market model Building technologies Appliance saturation Basic impulse insulation level…

As the great grandchildren of the industrial revolution, we have learned, at last, that the heedless pursuit of more is unsustainable and, ultimately, unfulfilling. Our planet, our security, our sense of equanimity and our very souls demand something better, something different. - Gary Hamel Note has been taken of President Trump’s push for the reopening of coal mines in America at the time of creating this table.

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Where some might be tempted to consider the above tabulation ‘alarmist’ in intent, rather than as current reality, we would urge you to create your own table relating to fintech or UBI. In doing so, you will be required to acknowledge the truth of Kunal Sen’s (2012) words: There would remain no sign of you ever having played in this house. Your childhood is going to be swept under a camel-skin rug and elevators are going to be built over the lake we once swam in. This address, as we know it, would be lost forever and we’ll wake up in a box-sized room: cramped, trampled and sensationally unhappy. Where others may wish to criticize our reference to Auster’s 1987 work, pointing to futuristic ‘absurdities’ such as ‘the runners suicide cult’, we would refer you to ‘The Blue Whale Challenge/Синий кит’ – more information about which can be obtained from Anonymous Operation Bluewhale (#OpBluewhale ) published April 6, 2017 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WLgyDIijR4).

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Tomorrow Waits Captain Mallory: Come on, man. Take it! Grab it! Guns of Navarone, 1961 (Film)

All involved in the formulation and application planning of the MSA Charter of Ownership have spent considerable time, years in fact, pondering the social dilemma facing the world today. Collectively, we have come to the conclusion that the anger, frustration, confusion, ‘entitlement’, despair, etc. ultimately stems from a lack of understanding between the groups of people involved in our forward march into the unknown and is exacerbated by false stigmatization within groups of others: x projecting onto y and y projecting onto x attributes drawn from their own experiences which in no way correlate to the perceived reality of the ingroup they are denouncing. There is an old eastern fable titled ‘the monkey and the fish’ (Gibbons, 2009) which perfectly illustrates how interpretations of the signifier and the signified, projected onto others, regardless of intent, has resulted in broad causal grouping terminology and variegations of use that fail to provide even a weak compass for genuine future planning and priority direction. A typhoon stranded a monkey on an island. In a protected place on the shore, while waiting for the raging waters to recede, he spotted a fish swimming against the current. It seemed to the monkey that the fish was struggling and needed assistance. Being of kind heart, the monkey resolved to help the fish.

A tree leaned precariously over the spot where the fish seemed to be struggling. At considerable risk to himself, the monkey moved far out on a limb, reached down, and snatched the fish from the waters. Scurrying back to the safety of his shelter, he carefully laid the fish on dry ground. For a few moments, the fish showed great excitement at being rescued but soon settled into a peaceful rest from which never to awake. http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/1171899/23567004/1380044219507/monkey+fish+parable.jpg?token=fQX4Lf3syMqb5SaXOzYEXOYs%2FxA%3D

Where Gibbons’ (2009) uses this fable to introduce his concept of the need for ‘liquid leadership’ when working in multicultural settings, it lends itself well to our understanding of the worldwide disease burden of good intentions where redress is used as a schematic term within macrostructure discourses of policy and charity and social justice. It highlights how notions of interdependency have been undermined within society, how substantive specifics of need have been misconstrued and misinterpreted, how divisive super positioning has sequelled both a psychic numbing and a sense of Schadenfreude amongst and between different groups of people, allowing each group to proceed with an egregious moral salve … with the belief that they have ‘done all that they could’ in the circumstances. Page 19

Later in this publication, Rui Wang provides an in-depth description of misconceptions that have been placed on ‘others’ across generational groupings. For now, it is sufficient to say that what is required of us all in moving forward is purposeful and deliberate open engagement from a new place of understanding for a collective future: A new place of understanding where everyone is prepared to give up all sense of control, false importance and fake authority; A place where we begin engaging from a premise of trust, where we believe that everyone, regardless of age, background, gender, race, etc., has a contribution to make; A place where communication involves active listening to what others are saying; A place where we can come to an agreement regarding meanings attached to words within complex settings and where we can in fact create a new language for communicative competence relevant to the 21st century. Unless we find a way to do this, we will end up destroying ourselves, our children and our future. Unless we find a way to do this, our lives will play out in perpetual cycles of opposition, resistance, rebellion and revolution. It is MSA’s desire that through this publication, a space will open up for the provision of a place where those committed to finding real solutions will be able to engage without barriers or constraints. In 1970, Gil Scott-Heron, revolutionary poet and beat musician, recorded the ‘spoken-work’ performance "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," for his album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox released under the Flying Dutchman Productions record label.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGaRtqrlGy8 This biting satire against mass media and consumerist culture is remarkable in its scope and depth and is as appropriate for today in promoting self-determination and personal ownership as it was nearly half a century ago. However, as with many other meaningful productions placed within historic contexts, cultural reference and time specific terminology prevent the youth of today from understanding or engaging with the message Gil Scott-Heron gave to the world in the 1970’s. As a group activity, the 2016-2017 MSA post graduate cohort were invited to produce an ‘early 21st century’ version of Scott-Heron’s 1970 performance. Their work produced on 28 May 2017, updated on 28 June 2017, is provided on the following page:

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You will not be able to stay home, zie, You will not be able to log on, live stream and cruise the digital space in avatar form You will not be able to lose yourself on legalized marijuana And hit the fridge for a beer during commercials Because the revolution will not be televised The revolution will not be televised The revolution will not be brought to you by CNN It will not be presented in 4 parts like the “Putin Interviews” The revolution will not show you pictures of mass marches led by masked youth, LGBT right activists or woman advocates who tell you they have often dreamt of blowing up parliamentary structures The revolution will not be televised The revolution will not be brought to you by the screen writers guild, the Locarno International Film Festival, Bollywood, Alibaba Pictures or Netflix It will not star Ariana Grande, Cristiano Ronaldo or Shah Rukh Khan You will not be able to follow it on Instagram IMDB or Pollstar The revolution will not give you sex appeal The revolution will not involve online shopping The revolution will not make you thinner, age better or develop overnight abs Because the revolution will not be televised, zie There will be no footage of ‘Roses for Ramadan’ Or stringer portrayals of vigils for victims There will be no reports of cyber attacks and News agencies will not predict the outcome of elections until the last vote is tallied The revolution will not be televised There will be no suicide bombings in instant replay There will be no slow motion gifs of Lady Gaga in a meat suit emerging from an egg Game of Thrown, Iron Man, Harry Potter, and the threat of alien invasion won’t be so damn relevant No one will care if Dick marries Dave or Spot and Jane enter a partnership on reality tv Because those assuming ownership for their lives will be actively searching for a brighter day The revolution will not be televised There will be no late night news 24 No pictures of hairy armed woman liberationists or comments on Scarlett Johansson’s latest fashion fail The theme song will not be written by Ramin Djawadi or Brian May Nor sung by Adel, Miku Hatsune, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Maroon 5 or Pelageya The revolution will not be televised The revolution will not involve breaking news headlines or alert notifications on your smartphone About a white tornado, white lightning, or white privilege You will not have to worry about zika, Ebola or swine flu a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl The revolution will not go better with Pepsi The revolution will not fight the germs that cause bad breath The revolution WILL put you in the driver's seat The revolution will not be televised WILL not be televised, WILL NOT BE TELEVISED The revolution will be no re-run, zie The revolution will be LIVE

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MSA’s reference to Scott-Heron’s work is not in solidarity with a call to revolution, it is not promoting a ‘turn around strategy’. Our reference is to point awareness to the fact that societal challenges are not new, that the issues Scott-Heron highlighted in 1970 continue to be replicated in 2017, albeit, with different terminology. What Scott-Heron was promoting in the 1970’s was a challenge for youth to step away from technology and consumerism and to actively participate in making their own lives better, in taking responsibility and ownership for their future rather than being passive voyeurs of their existence. History shows that the youth of the 1970’s did not respond to this challenge. Today, in 2017, we reoffer Scott-Heron’s invitation for youth to be active participants in owning their lives and their futures. Lessons from history suggest that this call will go largely unheeded, however, the invitation, together with the promise of ongoing support, is offered with this publication to anyone, anywhere in the world, who is seeking personal control of their lives and who is willing to accept responsibility for owning their own living and learning. The Chapter that follows outlines the overarching principles and practices promoting the construct of ownership living/ ownership learning and staff at MSA are available to you at anytime to answer questions you may have relating to this project: [email protected].

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Chapter Three

CASTING A FLOWER NET The flower net is a method of fishing that dates back many centuries in China. It is a round, hand woven net with weights on the edges and the fisherman would throw it out into the air where it would open like a flower, settle on the surface of the water, sink to the dark depths of the ocean, and trap everything within its circumference. Once pulled back to shore, the fishermen would then be able to go through their ‘findings’, select what is relevant, new ,or of value to them, and then discard the waste or return what they have no need for back into the sea. In this Chapter, we provide an overview of what we have found through our interrogation of education in its current state alongside our strategy for moving forward. We begin with an overview of current research failings.

https://image.baidu.com/search/detail?ct=503316480&z=0&ipn=d&word=%E6%92%92%E6%B8%94%E7%BD%91&step_word=&hs=0&pn=3&spn=0&di=95063339360&pi=0&rn=1&tn=baid uimagedetail&is=0%2C0&istype=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&in=&cl=2&lm=-

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Formalized Curiosity “I accept the notion of complexity and complex systems. But how much of the complexity we supposedly see around us is real, and how much is simply that we are confused by things because we just don’t have the right theories or approaches to understand them? Mintzberg, 1998

Many who take the opportunity to pursue research at institutes of higher education find the process mystifying, intimidating and overwhelming. Where much of the insecurity and confusion surrounding ‘academic research’ can be directly attributed to occluded genre in the administrative and evaluative functioning of research worlds, deliberate withholding of research genre from the sight of ‘outsiders and apprentices’ makes infiltration into ‘academia’ a ‘cold walk in’ challenge, not for the faint hearted. In addition, core introduction modules to academic research focus almost exclusively on Research Methodology, considered one of the most ardently disliked aspects of all research design courses (Terblanche & Durnheim, 1999), and viewed by numerous potential research candidates as a requirement for conventional conformity, rather than real opportunity for investigative or exploratory interrogation of the challenges facing our world and the societies in which people live. Where some may argue that postmodernism has brought with it a proliferation of radically divergent research philosophies and techniques beyond the boundaries of pure ‘scientific orthodoxy’, the reality is that the way research has been and continues to be taught to aspiring academics through workshops, seminars and courses continuously perpetuates broad theme coverage of qualitative, quantitative and blended approaches to research. As such, potential or emergent researchers are provided with a ‘basket of past practices’ from which they are required to select one or more methods or research tools which ‘best fits’ their research topic or hypothesis. And from this, they are expected to finalize their methodological design for proposal purposes, which, once endorsed by a graduate committee, hems them in to a research protocol from which it is impossible to escape:- prohibiting both an agility research mindset and the possibility of the incorporation of potential findings outside the parameters of existing ‘ways of viewing’ and ‘interpreting’ the world. Despite academic research, and the publication thereof, having become a requirement not only for qualification purposes for students, but also for contract renewal and ‘tenure’ for academic staff, sadly, much of the research published over the past two decades is not very good. Review of academic journals generally finds the same authors publishing repeatedly, frequently ‘the same thing’ but in different ways, with no voice given to ‘new’, ‘emerging’ or ‘unheard of ’ researchers. Moreover, when students and staff do have their work published, publication kudos is generally reserved for the ‘professor’ whose name is attached to the publication and increasingly one finds mention of ‘research partners’, ‘research surrogates’ or ‘research participants’ within academia as both students and academic staff members are ‘slotted in’ to small parts of broader financed research projects and required to make use of particular methodologies subscribed to by A-Listed Researchers in various fields or disciplines of study. Page 24

We have reached a point in the technological revolution where ‘even’ IT jobs have been itemized as ‘bound for extinction’ (Tynan, 2017), from as early as the second half of this year, and where research in the fields of ICT, AI, BI, CI, etc. in areas of immersive technology, augmented, virtual and mixed realities, and in various analytics is being conducted either in secret, in large corporations, or in private, by ‘citizen data scientists’ (https://www.gartner.com/). Where this research is not happening, is in institutes of higher education. Currently, people around the world are searching for application answers to imperative questions relating to human interaction, teaching and learning, belonging, purpose, career projection, changing consumer behaviour and new medias. As long as ‘Methodology’ dominates the research world to the extent that individual research contribution, regardless of finding, is frequently judged on the methodology utilized in a research project, we are in danger of ‘mastering the art’ of research protocol for mark earning purposes and preventing ‘new shoots from developing from old branches’. In addition, contemporary and historic higher education research practices are in danger of denying potential new knowledge and new solutions to problems humankind faces as a collective. More specifically we are in danger of preventing our youth from navigating the ‘new’ world in which they find themselves and in restricting them from searching out practical solutions to various challenges facing society around the world in the 21st century. Whether it’s IoT, big data, analytics, next generation networks or process automation, consulting firm Accenture has made it clear that modern professionals have to find ways of adapting to a ‘liquid workforce’ where innovation, a fluidity mindset, flexibility, agility, reactivity and skill churn (www.barloworldlogistics.com) are considered core competencies for a technologically developing ‘work stream’. In the light of the above mentioned skill array required for employment opportunities in the 21st century, the head of the World Economic Forum asserts that until critical pressure points in the chain of education are addressed, technological advancement will continue to be a disruptive influence as industries continue to evolve and adapt (WEF, 2017). Where the necessity of ‘paving the way for youth’ is emerging as a rally cry for aligning education and training with the skills and expertise that employers require, and where there are a number of institutes of higher education who have sought to create centers or ‘hubs’ to promote ‘high level digital skills’ for professionals, youth and the unemployed, for example the Wits Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa (http://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/generalnews/2016/tshimologong/), which you can find out more about from here:

https://youtu.be/L--8s9tLmKU However, until such time as youth are provided with genuine individualized and relevant research opportunities, their ability to contribute to society and forge their own future role and identity in a changing world will be restricted. Page 25

Currently restrictions to youth contribution through recognizable research can be viewed in part as a result of methodological restrictions and occluded genre at post graduate level. However, we at MSA believe that there is a more fundamental challenge facing research worlds, namely, that historic post-graduate practices are based on the premise that “students can’t be trusted”, “that others need to know what the student is going to do before the go ahead can be given”, and that “students need to prove themselves capable before research can commence”. In other words, individuals who may have a remarkable contribution to make to society are required to first ‘master the art’ of primary research design, research methodology, writing structure and type, before their ideas are considered ‘suitable for assessment of value’. Given the above, is it any wonder that social institutions, and in particular, world education systems have collapsed? Given the above, is it possible to begin considering that our current research structures, traditions and conditions pose a substantial part of the answer to Torbet’s 1981 question:

‘Why has educational research been so uneducational?’

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Hegemonic Status, Discursive Frames and Complex Hyperpolarization “Since the internet comprises of contents, such as texts, images, sounds or videos, revolutionizing existing distribution channels may well mean to reconstruct the whole internet” Li Xiaolai 5 July 2017

As a group reflecting almost 40 years later on Torbet’s (1981) question: Why has educational research been so uneducational? We arrived at the following understandings: 1. Despite professional education diplomas and degrees requiring a research component for qualification purposes, these research ‘projects’ are required to be brief, to the point and in line with research structure formats. As such, they are ‘mini-research projects’ written to ensure a pass mark and generally utilized as independent ‘interest projects’ the findings of which are sent to an external examiner for a mark allocation rather than disseminated across education cohorts for peer review or as a means of building professional knowledge through transmition of findings to other ‘teacher-students’ or educators already in schools. 2. Undergraduate, in-service and post graduate research, other than at PhD level, centers around ‘personal interest’ studies and research for promotion purposes. As such, ‘students’ are enculturated into a traditional ‘research paradigm’ where structure and presentation is more important than potential contribution. 3. In general, academic research is singular and solitary with the end product understood as being the obtaining of a qualification or publication in an accredited journal within the context of the need for institutes of higher education to fulfil throughput and publication quota’s. From this perspective, marks are earned for format, research design, review of literature, summary of findings and suggestions for future research, with little opportunity for the creation of ‘new ideas’ or for broad based application within complex education contexts. 4. Third stream funding from throughput and publication does not require ‘applied research’, neither does it allow for time to be spent on current broad research questions where students are given the opportunity of grappling with real societal issues external to prescribed curriculum matters. 5. Where some students do wish to make a contribution to topical issues, many are unable to find a supervisor or external marker who has expertise in their field of interest and so revert to ‘the known’ in order to ‘get their research over and done with’. 6. Significant research has been conducted over the past four decades, however, much of this research is sitting in university libraries, read only by current students attempting to fulfill literature review criteria. Much of the research conducted over the past six decades or so is not available online, and reading through research documents is tedious, it is far simpler to access abstracts or papers which summarize research rather than to page through old typed documents however enlightening they may be.

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7. Children under 12 and youth between 15 and 21 are precluded from post graduate study due to their age, regardless of whether they have a contribution to make or not. 8. Approaches to research are not flexible, there is basically only one way and the ‘way’ is rigid. Supervisors and institutes of higher education are unwilling to take risks in research. 9. The general education schooling sector, parents, etc. do not believe that children and youth have a contribution to make to either education or research in different fields. 10. There is too much emphasis on past theorists, ‘best practices’ which are obsolete, and the giving of information. Research is viewed as homework and marked as right or wrong according to set criteria and, as in examinations, an unexpected or unique answer is frequently not considered correct. 11. Lecturers and supervisors tend to want to control the research process. 12. No real time is allocated for appropriate developmental supervision. 13. Even though supervisors have been taught different methodologies, they generally specialize in only one or two and are not appropriately equipped to support students who wish to take risks with methodology or make use of methods of research they themselves are unfamiliar with. 14. New paradigms in research methodology have complicated names which are off-putting to students who are already insecure about conducting required research. For example, positivist-empiricist approach, heuristic research, endogenous research, phenomenology, empirical approaches, etc. are discursive frames which create anxiety in emerging researchers and obscure the joy of embarking on a journey of discovery in order to address real challenges. 15. Much contemporary educational research is aimed at redressing past educational inequality and many students are afraid of being accused of being politically incorrect, ‘racist’, ‘sexist’, ‘intolerant’, etc. in their choice of words and in their choice of topic and as a result, research within higher education promotes the status quo rather than challenges current practices. (Focus Group, 23 July 2016, Seminar Title: Occluded Genres and Frames of Reference)

In providing an answer to his own question, Torbet refers to Argyris (1969) who claimed that “administrators in all fields (of study) choose without question methodologies which seek to maximize their unilateral control over situations” He then goes on to state that “The reason why neither current practices nor current research helps us to identify and move towards good educational practice is that both are based on a model of reality that emphasizes unilateral control for gaining information on, or, having effects on, others”. Torbet further makes the claim that ‘rigorous research design’ directly advocates the ‘tightest possible control over the research setting’. In other words, research within higher education keeps getting better at things that do not matter as much anymore – if at all.

http://slideplayer.com/slide/228355/1/images/6/We+are+getting+better+at+things+that+do+not+matter+as+much+anymore..jpg

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Reading through Torbet’s paper, it emerged during group discussion that the schooling system also contributed to ‘educational research being uneducational’ in two significant aspects: First, despite ‘research’ being included in the general schooling curriculum, ‘student research’ is required to fit very specific parameters and does not include notions of praxis, of theory informing practice or practice informing theory. In addition, school based research projects are geared towards ‘information gathering’ within particular subject/learning areas where focus is concentrated around ‘what students have learnt in terms of subject matter’ rather than ‘what they have discovered about the role of research’ in everyday life. Second, where ‘teachers’ identify as ‘educators’, most ‘educational researchers’ do not work at the interface of education provision. As such, even by incorporating teachers as ‘participant researchers’ into a methodological paradigm, ‘specialist education researchers’ remain isolated from the frustrations of current teaching and learning scenarios, produce external analysis of contemporary challenges, and have no vested interest in bringing about change, as their role is confined to researching and reporting problems found in education rather than practically addressing these problems. Such role identification removes researchers from the responsibility of ‘transforming’ areas in education which are not fit for purpose and absolves educators and policy developers from adjusting educational practices at impact level as they wait on ‘experts’ to provide practical guidelines for change and appropriacy.

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The Annoyance of A Good Example An example is not the shadow that mimics you, but the one that casts all shadows away. Reference given to Shannon Alder & Mark Twain

An example of the ‘gap’ between education research and education provision outlined in the previous section is provided quite clearly in the example below: In 2016, Gauteng Province, South Africa, produced a NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE DIAGNOSTIC REPORT utilizing the following proclaimed methodological structure: During the marking of the 2016 NSC examination, 300-500 scripts were randomly from each of the marking centers in the province for analysis. The selected scripts covered all the 15 Districts and middle low and high scores were used. The analytical moderators analyzed and recorded learner response to each question and item. This entailed the capturing the marks obtained by learners from 300-400 scripts on a per item basis. The scripts were analyzed in order to determine detailed understanding of the range of different responses and to note the gaps and areas of good practice. ▪ Detailed explanations are provided for each subject covering the following key issues; ▪ Description of errors, possible caused and suggestions for improvement. ▪ Content coverage. ▪ Diagnostic analysis presented with graphical representation, analysis per question and items highlighting of common trends in learner responses. (NSCDR, 2016, page 5) Having identified the ‘purpose’ of the report as being “to provide findings on the 2016 NSC analytical moderation of learner scripts with a view of identifying trends in learner responses, areas of good practices, challenges and areas for improvements”, the document further aimed: • To make recommendations for ‘teachers and subject advisors’ regarding the self ‘monitoring of their teaching strategies’; and • To provide for ‘teacher development strategies’ to be put to ‘effective use’ in and by the ‘Further Education and Training Phase in 2017’. The final diagnostic review culminated in a 304 page report itemizing learner errors across 10 different subject areas and identifying poor teaching practices resulting in such errors. A copy of this document is provided here.

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One of the functions of MSA is to view and evaluate all education related documents as they are produced (internationally), in order to absorb as much information as possible from data collected across education systems and sectors, and to utilize the findings presented in these publications to build an evolutionary research led platform for exploring the varied, multidimensional, common and paradoxical challenges facing those involved in the teaching, learning, and assessment processes and practices impacting on learner success in education provision across phases. As data is collected within this platform, staff at MSA work at integrating information obtained into application frameworks which can be utilized for supporting education structures and systems at the teaching and learning interface. Given this framework for document review, the National Senior Certificate Diagnostic Report (2016) was received with great anticipation and appreciation for the work which had gone into the itemization of errors identified in the diagnostic report.

On completion of review of the NSCDR 2016, MSA’s Board of Directors along with key members of the Advisory Council met to determine how the document could be utilized for purposes of addressing the challenges identified in the report. In this meeting, held on the 18 January 2017, it was determined that: a. Feedback from students/learners who had ‘sat for the examinations’ was required in order to better understand issues arising from the report; b. There was distinct opportunity to interact with the document within a futures scenario framework, blending economic, educational and national developmental needs and targets across educational phases; c. Subject related error documentation from the report could be augmented into a matrix mapping error type analysis through both univariate and multivariate linear models of investigation which would allow for a broad conceptual clustering of information provided to be condensed into pedagogic pathway through which curricula responsiveness and/or learner responsiveness could be appropriately addressed; d. When viewed from a hierarchical similarity framework as a means of understanding overarching need across education sectors, the data provided in the NSCDR 2016, summarized into condensed critical cross cluster factors impacting on student success within the context of current educational provision, had the potential to be used as a springboard for introducing a supportive model of ‘ownership learning’ for districts, schools, teachers and learners in 2017 and beyond. e. If utilized as a means of addressing educational challenges in South Africa according to international mandates for strengthening and expanding cooperation in the fields of higher education, basic education, early child development, mathematics, science and technology, language, teacher training, management of professional development, and skills training (2010 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership section XXIV: and in accordance with the PRC Ministry of Education and Ministry of Education RSA cooperation agreement) MSA review and feedback stemming from the NSCDR 2016 document could present a timeous opportunity to raise awareness of interpretations of the challenges facing education through consolidation of information which could be utilized to remove perceptions of threat, increase student and teacher morale, and enhance the integrity of the education system.

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Condensing the 304 page NSCDR 2016 document into a 5 page working document inclusive of a single tabulation of factors impacting the integrity and viability of the South African National Senior Certificate Examination, MSA produced a Review and Feedback of 2016 Diagnostic SBA Gauteng Province Report which was disseminated to the appropriate personnel on the 1st of February 2017. The ‘Review and Feedback’ report summarized the findings of the NSCDR 2016 report into nine error categories: 1. errors of engagement, 2. errors of expectation, 3. fundamental errors, 4. errors of interpretation, 5. errors of assessment, 6. errors of integration, 7. errors of abstraction, 8. errors embedded in L2 loss of translation, and, 9. lack of understanding of ‘mark earners’ and included a ‘district by district’ implementation strategy for addressing the above error categories through a holistic community based ownership learning approach across all phases of education.

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The overview summary, tabulation and application documentation, which included the provision of internet access to all schools in Gauteng Province currently without, alongside multiple other ‘localized’ community development and job creation opportunities for school leavers, in-service teacher training opportunities, the establishment, mobilization and equipping of community centers, UGC provision and opportunity was sent to the relevant National and Provincial Departments of Education on the 1st of February 2017. In the tradition of MSA’s internal mandate that we collaborate, not compete, with localized educational structures and services, we extended an open offer requesting that MSA utilize our own resources and be allowed to support districts which had underperformed in the 2016 National Senior Certificate Examinations – free of charge – with the additional proviso that the Department of Education would take the credit for any and all educational improvement resulting from such support provision.

On 17 March 2017, MSA received correspondence from the Director: Curriculum Implementation and Quality Improvement (FET):

Despite repeated follow up with the referenced ‘authority’ mentioned in this correspondence, and the provision of detailed and concrete plans for support provision at the teaching and learning interface for two specific districts in Gauteng Province: Hammanskraal and Vanderbijlpark, to date, MSA’s offers of support and assistance have not only been rejected, all requests to meet, have been ignored.

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Incorporating this specific experience (one of many across multiple contexts and countrys) into the MSA research seminar for the 2016/2017 cohort as a participatory example of Torbet’s (1981) claim that ‘educational research can be uneducational’, the following conclusions were reached during the ensuing group discussion: ➢ Alec Bourne (thepeopleproject.com) was totally correct in claiming that "It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated"; ➢ Benjamin Franklin’s statement from the mid 1700’s that "Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning" is still applicable today in 2017; ➢ Those ‘responsible’ for education persist in perpetuating a cycle of ‘short term’ diagnostic criticism of the current system without moving to a full and systemic critique of need and provision and the opportunity such ‘critique’ would provide in terms of contribution through application at the teaching and learning interface; ➢ Isolating education research to comment on error analysis of a specific section of the education system as a whole, in this instance, the National Senior Certificate Results of 2016, without a broader fitness of purpose of research design, fails to attach meaningful significance to the link education has to other national and provincial programmes, for example other Departments of Education and Training and the Departments of Health, Welfare and Public Works. It further downplays the role the Senior Certificate, as culmination of the GET and FET teaching and learning provision, plays as transitional bridge for youth to the world of work, opportunity for access to HEI provision, and future social and economic mobility of school leavers; ➢ Without a clear political will to transform education for the benefit of those who enter the system at an application level, educational research, education policy and any managerial design or structure relating to the system is rendered null and void; ➢ Under a managerial system, governance of education has become so deeply compartmentalized that despite the opportunities presented for cross phase and cross discipline identification of core problems and the mass implementation of viable solutions, fragmentation within the education sector has removed the authority of any single person holding a directorate of responsibility from actively pursuing a leadership role in education transformation; ➢ Removal of authority from and failure to recognize and reward transformational leadership within education systems has created a continuous ‘passing of the buck’ mentality regarding the failure of the current ‘education system’, produced deliberate passivity amongst ‘those who could bring about positive and meaningful change’ due to fear of ‘risk’ or ‘fear of rocking the boat’, and resulted in the normalization of ‘surrender’ to the belief that ‘nothing can be done to change the status quo’; ➢ Where it is feasible to consider that educational ‘reform’ could utilize current educational systems for enhanced appropriacy and outcome of education function within society in the 21st century, blatant refusal by persons in position of power to bring about transformation or even to consider other options available to them has unfortunately resulted in the need for ‘an alternative’ to be presented to youth who are seeking purpose and meaning in their lives and an opportunity to contribute to their own growth and development and the development of the communities within which they live. Education opportunity needs to be brought into the future, now.

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Bridging Education for the Now “In all experience, there is something to be learned. In deepest sorrow, wisdom is found. In the well of despair, hope rises.” Juliet Marillier 2007

Given the continual rejection of MSA’s offers to support education at this time of international crisis, despite our development of a total solution for education for the 21st century designed to align directly to current provision structures and systems, it would have been easy for us to fall into the trap of ‘documenting’ our failed attempts to bring about change despite following protocol and procedure. We could quite easily have created our own ‘Diagnostic Report’ highlighting the shortcomings of the current system and the failure of those within it to respond. But who would benefit from such a practice? Our collection of hundreds of thousands of diagnostic reports obtained from countries around the world over the past twenty years, have yielded little in terms of improving education practice. Similarly, our deliberate attempts to practically support and collaborate with ‘educational authorities’ had proved a waste of time. Over the past few years MSA has corresponded with Government Ministers; Curriculum Designers; Federal, Provincial, Regional, and District Officials; Tribal Leaders and Elders; Heads of Homeschooling Communities; Heads of Public and Private Schools; Vice-Chancellors; Deputy Vice-Chancellors; Chief Justices; Teacher Unions; International Economic Forums; International Education Forums; International Vocational Forums; Chambers of Commerce; HEI’s; Student Unions; Chief Education Specialists; Directors of International Educational Exchange; First Secretaries of Education; etc… … all who endorse our ‘commitment to youth’, yet question our ‘real agenda’! An agenda which can be summarized in one word - RELEVANCE! Any education provision which regards itself as gatekeepers of knowledge, no longer has relevance in today’s world.

Ross Hunter (June 2017) of Moscow speaks of the ‘sea of change’ which has overtaken education, and elucidates the point that teachers today can consider themselves ‘at best gatekeepers of knowledge’. https://sputniknews.com/radio_brave_new_world/201706161054671002-the-new-role-of-schoolteachers/ Ross suggests the role of educator as being that of guide, we believe he has not gone far enough – any education for the future now requires educators to give up any sense of knowledge binding – it is time for us all to move into understanding a new reality unfolding around us, together, in a mutually supportive manner where each of us elevates others to advance mutual and real time understanding. Page 35

Global Teacher Prize published on the 14 February 2017 promotes the view that teachers must become facilitators – supporting students in their own ways of “knowing and thinking”. http://www.globalteacherprize.org/teachers-are-changing-this-is-why-and-how/ Yet this term, too, implies that educators hold answers to current pressing questions. They do not. For any progress to take place in educational institutions ALL those involved in education need to acknowledge that none of us are equipped to shape the future unless we enter into a ‘game plan’ whereby we acknowledge that in order to face and survive the future we all need to work together from a vantage of inquiry where everyone is valued, no-one is superfluous and all are needed to make sense of tomorrow. Education needs to embark on a journey – a journey of discovery. http://praylikeagourmet.com/thoughts/here-be-dragons/ As in days of old, when forging new frontiers, the unknown rose as Dragons … So today, as we contemplate a new era in education purpose and in unescapable global and international relations … There be Dragons too. Contemporary discourse refers to them as “Black Swans” … Unforeseen disruptive impacts on implementation of political strategy … But they are dragons! And yet, dragons not to be feared, not to be slain… Dragons which we can tame… And if we are prepared to embrace a thrilling journey, to opening ourselves to seeing the world in a different way, to walk, dance and breath fire with the dragons of the now, we will not only create a new culture of understanding … we will learn how to fly.

We would encourage you to take a few minutes to view the video insert below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shj7YP98Yxs It is from the 2006 movie Eragon. Imagine yourself as rider of this dragon. Imagine the possibility for seeing our ‘known world’ in new ways.

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MSA programme provision is not definitive, it is not ‘the solution’, but it is one solution - an open ended application of education opportunity for the now which is developmental in nature and committed to harnessing the experience, knowledge and understanding of all people interested in equipping themselves and others for the future as it unfolds. The bridge that MSA is building through the publication of this Charter and through its invitation for anyone who believes they have a contribution to make to our understanding of the world, is not for the faint of heart. It is for those who actively seek a better future for themselves; for those who are prepared to grapple with the new and the unknown; for those who have a spirit of adventure and who are capable of dealing with frustrations and setbacks; for those who are prepared to give up what they currently ‘know’ in pursuit of what is uncertain. All programmes offered by MSA have been specifically designed for fitness of purpose as they relate to relevance of educational provision from an international perspective pertaining to policies of access and success, alongside local needs and contingencies within a future scenario framework of development and individual efficacy. All innovations in programme and product design aim at actively supporting and scaffolding new ways of being and seeing and utilize the integration of peer tutoring and unique features in case study application. Our developmental, full service programmes are inclusive and have been carefully and sensitively designed to meet the specific needs of both learners and educators in the 21st century, offering and providing multiple forms of necessary support and encouragement to promote ease of access to paradigm shifts required for the integration of new concepts. Our materials are creative and innovative in their use of interactive narrative approaches to presenting content and actively encourage students and teachers at the education interface to reflect on new concepts as well as on their own beliefs, perceptions and attitudes, to engage actively with all forms of content, and to consider their own contribution to their future learning in the light of new insights. Presentation across programme offerings include an imaginative mix of styles and formats with appropriate illustration in order to sustain interest whilst replicating authentic dialogue between different educational paradigms in a manner allowing for new concepts to be sensitively and gradually introduced. All programme offering has been specifically designed to anticipate and address students’ or educators’ reservations or possible sense of threat, and to reinforce and build on the concepts while progressing to new ones. Assessment methods across programmes reflect and support the principles of course design purpose and are woven into the process of conceptual, cognitive and reflective development. All MSA programmes are recognized for imaginative integration of conversational tone, multimedia presentation, constructivist developmental approach and specific forms of scaffolding and have been cited for being well linked to and promoting wider societal goals. While the significance and potential contribution of our programmes is clearly recognized by education authorities, no one has been prepared to commit to affording MSA the opportunity of proving our programmes’ capability and capacity of enhancing educational relevance through broad implementation at a grassroots level.

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To give a singular example:

On the 20th of September 2016, correspondence was sent to all Political Parties operating in South Africa and in the SADC Region. The correspondence included a copy of MSA’s Global Languages National Development, Curriculum and Assessment Policy Grades 0 – 12, country specific, together with reference to a Global Higher Education and Vocational Training Language Policy relating to user generated, moderated content aimed at uplifting all languages in the area to the same level whilst simultaneously promoting a global communication structure through which youth of the world could communicate, in line with international and country specific statutory mandates. In short, what was provided was a Language Framework for Global Citizenship in the 21st Century combined with teaching and training in technological skills and futures terminology, with assessment and feedback available in all languages used by learners within the schooling system nationwide. (This included, in South Africa alone, assessment and feedback provision in all 11 official languages, South African Sign Language, Braille, as well as in 15 nonofficial languages at the level of home language, first additional language, second additional language and foreign language). Further, the Global Languages National Development Policy (which will be outlined later in this publication) included community specific developmental implementation strategies for national scale role out aimed at immediate transformation of education provision, organized community economic employment opportunities and possibility for all citizens to contribute to owning the accelerated language development process. The above information was provided in email format with the request for an opportunity to meet with interested parties in order for a ‘show and tell’ explanation of the project and to allow MSA to answer any questions which may have arisen from the correspondence. The correspondence was tagged as urgent, as the school year in Southern Africa begins in January and we wished to implement, at least a trial or pilot, in the first term of the school year. The Democratic Alliance (DA) was the only political party to respond to the correspondence. The DA Federal Head Office passed the information to the Shadow Minister for Basic Education, their Head of Ministry and their Curriculum Directorate. On the 15th of December 2016, follow up from the DA was received through the medium of an email review by the Curriculum Directorate, who, without having met with MSA representatives, provided tabulated comments, itemized revision queries, and the following concluding comment: 1. The ideals of the SAGLNDCS are noble, futuristic and inclusive of all language offerings in both national and global contexts making sure that all cultures are embraced and ultimate social cohesion is achieved through the curriculum. 2. The aim to equip the youth of today with new ways of navigating the social world and the world of work transnationally is very welcoming. 3.

Whilst we recognise the need for innovative teaching to afford learners to become risk takers be able to navigate their way transnationally the SAGLNDCS is single-minded in believing that a language policy alone can bring about educational reform. For whole-scale reform to take place the entire NCS will have to align itself with the principles of the SAGLNDCS. At this point it seems to be a stand-alone policy that will drive all other policies or teaching and learning in general.

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4.

5. 6.

Even though the SAGLNDCS does assert to underpin several educational policies it does not reference or provide the necessary links to these policies so that one could see the integrated nature of the curriculum. The Incremental Introduction of African Languages (IIAL) is already a step in this direction. The system as it stands can at present not cope (in terms of resources) with the introduction of a 3rd language, how much more will it cope with other languages. At the moment we are concentrating on the improving the delivery of African Languages. Given that our current performance in both the Home Languages and First Additional Languages is also not up to standard it will be difficult to further introduce foreign languages into the GET space. This is more easily aligned in the FET space given their access in terms of policy to foreign language subjects.

It is however suggested that we begin to introduce and harness some of the soft skills proposed by the SAGLNDCS into our existing language policy so that we can begin to move towards a more culturally and socially tolerant society. However, the soft skills that are introduced should not require material resources neither any policy shifts for the near future.

To summarize: MSA’s proposal is noble, futuristic, inclusive and promotes social cohesion. It touches on all aspects that education is currently grappling with. We should harness (steal) some of the soft skills proposed – for students in the last three years of schooling – but will not spend any money or resources on this project nor change the way we currently do things.

http://sportstradinglife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/betfair-what-if.png

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Given time constraints, and the urgency of the need to radically address what can only be considered the perpetuation of ‘human wastage’ within current education provision, MSA took the decision to assume ownership of its own relevance. We could no longer wait for ‘others’ to approve our provision. The need was too great and our solutions were already becoming dated despite their developmental framing. It is time for us to begin building a bridge across the well, no matter how tenuous, and to pioneer a way forward for education and individuals which could be built on later. Into this Charter we have encapsulated the discursive framing of ownership learning already in place with our 2016-2017 post-graduate cohort, where each member of the cohort brought to the ownership learning process a unique area of expertise and interest, and where all, without exception, found commonality in situating their research within complex situation social problems which required a multidimensional, inclusive, transcultural, transnational perspective of understanding from a change orientation.

The following section highlights the choice-specific approach format utilized by MSA in its education provision whilst synchronically predicating the tactical selection for the flow and design of subsequent chapters.

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A Strategic Framework for Action “In our volatile and connected world, traditional, linear forms of analysis have repeatedly proven wrong. They alone simply aren’t enough to help us anticipate and prepare for change. In the search for robust strategies, we need to widen our perspective, think in alternatives and consider different paths leading to different futures.” Frank Appel - CEO Deutsche Post DHL - 2012

In 2016, one of the participants in the MSA 2016/2017 research cohort wrote an essay for the topic "Education to Build a Better Future for All" and submitted it to the Goi Peace Foundation international writing contest for young people. Below is an extract from that essay: Every person in the world needs an education to live a life of productivity and meaning. We have been taught that this is the outcome of education. We have been told by our parents, teachers and politicians that to succeed in education we have to work hard, listen, study and get good marks. This means that if you get a “pass”, you can be considered “educated”. In school there are different types a subjects we can be “educated in”, such as electronics, history, science, archaeology, business, etc. But looking around my country, it seems that education is going backwards. Right now in the world governments are offering parents’ houses, cars and food … but I do not think this is really what parents want. I believe that parents want education for their children, so that their children can have a good life one day. But what kind of education remains a mystery for everyone. Children everywhere are told that education is hard and that we need to study, study, study, and even if you do not get 100%, just be happy that you passed. This does not make sense to me. Education is hard; but the harder you work, the easier it is to “pass” the tests set for us. Then after 12 years, we finish school and get to wear a black robe and a square hat and then voila’ we throw the hat into the air and “we are educated!” But what does this mean? What does it actually mean if we say we are "educated" in our society today? I think that society believes that when someone has passed school, they must be responsible for looking after themselves. But “education” does not teach you responsibility: it does not teach you to cook, clean, drive a car, etc. It does not teach you to make wise decisions. It does not prepare you for a future still uncertain .

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I do not believe that when people leave school they are “educated” because if they were, then they would be employable and most are not. After finishing school we need to go on and study at university to be thought of as “educated”, but many university graduates are also unemployable and remain unemployed. I think the whole education system needs to be changed and to start, educators need to stop thinking about what they need to teach us and start thinking about how they can help us develop the skills and attitudes and experiences that will make us autonomous, resilient and adaptable to our ever-changing world. Students in schools today are like silkworms and the teachers feed them daily with information. They grow fatter and fatter with information and when the students /silkworms are ready spin their cocoons, meaning they are ready to start making meaning about the world they live for themselves, the teachers tear their cocoons apart because they think they still have to get more information. As a result, youth die as big fat information filled worms on the leaves of education and never get the chance to become moths, to fly free and make a life for themselves. I do not know what goes on inside a cocoon during metamorphosis, and I don’t know how a child metamorphoses into an adult. But I do see moths and butterflies emerging from cocoons in nature. But at the end of “education” I do not see youth flying free, rather I see youth afraid for their future, scared and without direction. They are told they have an education, but they do not know what to do with it. This makes youth anxious, afraid and frustrated because their “education” has not prepared them for these feelings or taught them how to fix the problems they are facing for themselves. The author of this opinion piece was 12 years old at the time of writing. He did not feature anywhere in terms of the competition. He did however find himself on the receiving end of a lot of hostility and anger from the adults and educationalists around him regarding the content of his essay. What these ‘grown-ups’ saw when reading his ‘work’, was ‘a trouble maker’, a ‘child’ with ‘no respect’ for ‘authority’ nor for the ‘great sacrifices’ made by those around him to ensure his future success. What was not seen, was the germination of an idea for the need for ownership learning. What was hidden from the eyes of his primary school educators was this child’s active engagement with constructs of education and development. What was inconceivable at the time, was the fact that, within a year of writing this essay, this child’s questions regarding linguistics and the role of language in society would produce a Global Language, National Development, Curriculum and Assessment Protocol within a Language Framework designed for Global Citizenship… which has the potential to change the way language is viewed and used throughout the world at all levels of society. Why did adults miss this? In grappling with this question, staff at MSA came to the conclusion that the reason for the dismissal of this child’s views regarding education and change had everything to do with an ‘adult’ perception that ‘children’ cannot be trusted, that ‘children’ have no contribution to make to their own future, that ‘a child’s’ recommendation cannot be viewed as believable, legitimate or valid until such time as, to use the child in question’s own words – ‘he had been fed enough to be considered educated’. Page 42

Identification of the above transformed into the recognition of a web of mistrust and lack of belief found around the world between children, youth and adults and played a significant role in the development of MSA’s strategic framework for action with regard to the way in which research opportunities for the 2016/2017 cohort were structured. In short, the process began with a ‘hypothesis of belief’ – belief that everyone who enrolled in this project had a contribution to make, regardless of age, gender, language, ethnicity, etc. And it was this hypothesis of belief which formed the cornerstone for the development of a strategic framework for action, the acknowledgement that every person on earth has the potential to contribute to our understanding of the world in which we live and the ability to make a difference to how we live within the world - as long as there are people who will listen to and learn from others. The hypothesis of belief predicated a provision process enmeshed in a structure of support within an environment of trust and in the joint formulation of a strategic framework for action, the 2016/2017 MSA research cohort decided on a reticular, multidimensional, situational, psychosocial, ecosystemic approach to their research design. This approach, embedded in a collaborative/participatory organizational structure allowed for wide access to mediation opportunities, the creation of individualized learning pathways within the research process, opportunity for the incorporation of identification of proximal development zones relating to both individual understandings and to group conceptual growth, alongside provision of a unique mentoring and guidance system which gave access to a ‘cloud of supervisors’. The unequivocal commitment to academic integrity of this process, with regard to both person and product, determined the upfront insertion of an ethics advisor into the ‘action plan’ alongside an accountability structure drawing on principles of transparency, peer mentoring, and open communication pathways designed to provide a continuous, formative feedback loop incorporating direct, incidental and focused learning opportunities. This ‘loop’ served to guide, contour and shape the veracity, rectitude and reliability the project as an entity. Working from a mandate of ‘integrity above all else’ in combination with the acknowledgement of the vital role of personal agency regarding individual ownership of the research process, MSA took as its 2016/2017 cohort motto the words of Polonius from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1599-1602): This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Emphasizing personal agency as a vital aspect of ownership learning, the strategic framework for action was premised around crediting individuals with the ability to deliberately claim an internal locus of control (Lefcourt, 1981; Levenson, 1981) with regard to their belief in their own ability to both a) conduct research and b) to make a contribution to the existing body of knowledge. Such a belief structure required participants in the research process not only to take personal responsibility for their research and their interactions with their peers, but also to claim responsibility for their own lives:- to own aspects of their past life experience as crucial factors in having shaped who they are ‘today’; to use their understanding of past and present situations to interrogate the way in which they respond to challenges; to identify their personal bias with regard to their approach to their research interest; to explore how their personal history has uniquely equipped them to make a sui generis contribution to the existing body of knowledge; and, to risk revealing who they ‘are’ to others through the creation of an idiotype using personal narrative as data for situating their research into a specific locale of time, place and context for external review.

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Convoluted and experimental in nature, the developmental design of the strategic framework for action, was ‘kept on track’ through the deliberate use of a continuous reflective ‘matching and mapping’ process which allowed for flexibility in research design whilst maintaining stringent adherence to research purpose embedded in a framework of discovery. Utilization of a ‘scan’ approach as a ‘thread to pull the research together’ allowed for the research process to remain open ended, created opportunity for an ‘ongoing review of literature’, structured the research as forward looking and anticipatory of change, and allowed for the ‘up-to-date’ identification of ‘growlers’ to be flagged right up until the dissemination phase of the research. Adhering consistently to ‘analytical procedures’ of familiarization and immersion, thematic induction, coding, elaboration, and interpretation of data, experience and findings (Terre Blanche & Durrheim, 1999), the methodological structure of the research process was designed to place real life events and phenomena into a perspective from which a contribution to society could be made. Taking as ‘given’ that the 2016/2017 research cohort would be required to grapple with concepts of flux and appropriacy, specifically as these relate to linguistic forms of ‘meaning making and shared understanding’, within a multilingual, multicultural global context where social constructions of intertextuality, have, through evolution of use become fatally blurred (Bloom & Egan-Robertson, 1993; Muller, 1997), rendered unstable, and resulted in scarcity of consensus, a strategic approach to terminology was developed. This strategy involved an embraced dynamism of meaning and a systemic accumulation of old, new and emerging terminology and phraseology. Producing an approach, which views language as ‘fluid’, as having liquid properties allowing for shape-shifting according to specific contexts, hovering over time in an ‘intermediacy of phase’ subject to intermolecular attraction yet lacking fixture of position, and capable of transformation into porous gaseous particles or solidity of form dependent on particle behaviour, allowed for the gathering, grouping and categorization of ‘terms of reference’ to be allocated across historic, successive, sequential and emergent contexts.

Such an approach, embedded in metaphoric attributes of language as flow, tributary, flood, estuarial, circulatory, precipitatory, evaporative, transpirational, etc. determined the need for the creation of a ‘living glossary’ by participants in the research process which could be utilized as a guide for shared understanding of meaning in confronting issues of the 21st century through the incorporation of multiple voices, opportunities for simultaneous translation across languages of the world, and deliberation in blending human agency with technological advances. A living glossary providing a foundation for the creation of a symphony of international understanding, transcending any one particular language, elevating oral literacy practices in recognition of their transformative nature during times of transition, and contouring the opportunity for experiential cognitive development from a vantage point which draws on ‘the magnificence of language’ whilst simultaneously acknowledging the ‘irreducible unique perspective of multiculturalism and multilingualism’ within which ‘everyone is needed, all languages are valued and no one is extra’. As Marc Gafni states – “What power such a symphony would have the potential to release in terms of creativity, global evolutionary intimacy and entrepreneurial innovation” (https://centerforintegralwisdom.org/category/ciw-founders/marc-gafni).

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Interweaving the creation of a living glossary into the broader strategic framework for action through the purposeful and deliberate blending of human agency with technological advances, in particularly digital distribution platforms such as “steam”, developed by Valve Corporation, with its integrated community features and free application programming interface (API), known as “steamworks” which allows for the support, management and updating of user-generated content (UGC) and in-game voice functionality along with cloud saving, created an opportunity through a virtual platform for real-time automated updating of terms, phrases and concepts which would allow for simultaneous and successive accessing of meaning within the 2016/2017 research cohort. Further to our determination of working from a principle of integrity in all things, the strategic framework for action, while encouraging innovation and ingenuity at all times, required a ‘backwards and forwards pacing’ between knowledge and information, past and present, and a commitment to searching ‘beneath the skin’ of what has been presented in order that our findings be based on understanding rather than heresy. As such, while the 2016/2017 cohort was encouraged to ‘light their candles’ from knowledge obtained from ‘giants of the past’, an indelible requirement of the research process determined that ‘there would be no cherry picking’ approach to referencing, and that all references made to past or current works would be made only on completion of proof of ‘full reading and review’ of seminal works. This practice promoted the concept that each participants life experience could be referenced to others, and that concomitantly each participants contribution to the body of knowledge need be written in such a way that it provides reference for others – others – who though unknown to ‘us’ are linked to ‘us’ through our common humanity. Such a view was premised around the notion that everyone needs multiplex points of reference in order to really grapple with the challenges they face now and those they will face in the future and in acknowledgement that yesterday’s solutions are not necessarily appropriate to the problems facing us today, nor will they be appropriate to the problems we encounter in the future, unless their value can be contextualized within an understanding of ‘fitness of purpose’. Such principle in turn led to stylistic choice whereby the final document for dissemination would allow for the superimposing of in-textual references which had shaped individual and collective research as a means of ensuring credit being given to the work, contribution and influence of all who had assisted in facilitating our understanding of the challenges facing us, and whose contribution had served as a springboard for new vantage points of viewing the world. Working with constructs of ‘scarcity of collective meaning’ and ‘shifting senses of meaning’ across time, place, language and cultural interpretation, the research process was deliberately designed to: a) incorporate multilingual and multicultural dimensions of meaning making; b) utilize a range of lenses for viewing a particular research problem; and c) enhance contextual understanding of data interpretation from a position of empathic understanding through the use of ‘thick description’ of the characteristics, processes, transactions and contexts that constitute the phenomenon being studied (Geertz, 1973). Framing of the research in this manner was deliberate and designed in the hope that it’s ‘thickness’ would render the research conducted accessible to interested parties in a manner that would allow for an illumination of some of the dimensions of emerging understanding of the issues at stake (Thompson, 2001) whilst simultaneously providing an opportunity to those reading the document, to identify potential gaps or areas in the research through which they, as audience, could see their way to becoming future contributors or participants in the creation of a much needed ‘new’ body of knowledge required for those attempting to navigate the world of the 21st century.

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Situating the research cohort within an identity of responsibility, exposing them to the vulnerabilities of impression, and engaging them in interactional theories throughout the research process, allowed for the formulation of a rigorous research protocol design which required cross-site knowledge gathering, utilization of reflective illuminative exploration (Hart, 1989), and juxtapositioning of multiple lenses for viewing and understanding situational developments in history alongside their unforeseen consequences, regardless of intent. The protocol further provided kaleidoscopic opportunities for ‘purposeful observation’ within a systemic framework that allowed for referenced interpretive measures to be used in mixing logical levels of objectivity and subjectivity relating to locale and purpose of all research conducted during the 2016/2017 time frame within a pragmatic action orientated which sought proactively to allow the the voices, actions, and meanings of interacting individuals to be heard (Denzin, 1989; Majchrzak, 1984; Vorster, 2003). The figure on the following page provides an indication of the epistemological framework of the research design, embedding developing and emerging conceptual frameworks within a multi-access continuum of triangulation of concepts and purpose at a macro research level, with checks and balances incorporated into the process by micro level triangulations around each “series of research events”, allowed for a biodiversity approach which interrogated socio-political, economic and institutional factors impacting on each individual research focus in a manner which bypassed perceptions of threat and a focus on ‘loss and discrimination’, enculturating in its place positivity of perspective in terms of human agency for identifying change, adapting to change, and becoming agents of chance.

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Access Structure Informing Research Protocol and Epistemological Framing of the MSA 2016/2017 Research Cohort Stratified research feedback loop – correction and addition into narrative and contribution from a systems perspective – formative and continuous

Location of each research event within an international, national and personal context

Broad-based identification of global megatrends within a futures scenario framework* across multi-case sites (What led to these? Where are they leading?)

Linear Dynamical &

Broad-based exploration of youth concerns and perceptions of threat relating to current and future predicative scenarios

Multi-case plurality of insights into possible and perceived challenges and threats relating to times of transition (SWOT)

Complex Adaptive Historic Systemic Review Literature Review - Beyond Equilibrium - Conditions Fostering Phenomena Emergence - Amplification of Resultant Events

- Identification of recurring themes within and across multiple responses - Frequency and replication of literal and metaphorical cognitions, associations and anxieties

Deliberation of psychosocial, intrapersonal, interpersonal, emotional, developmental and discursive closed and opencoded participatory investigation for themes and data patterns

- Progressive/Evolving Complexity

PRE-RESEARCH International/National Level broad framework setting

Contextual Historic Panorama contextualized against key features of World Events and Influences

MID RESEARCH

DIACHRONIC

FOCUS

MULTI-CASE STUDIES

FOCUS

Group and individual teasing out of emerging, relevant and recurring themes for further engagement and analysis alongside continuous phasical reflection

Critical Dimension of meaning through multiple interpretations of events significant to research events

Levels of accuracy measured against preobtained and emerging information gleaned from documentary analysis

Exploration of discourses as relevant to topic research selection and approach with overview of barriers and opportunities alongside general and specific conceptualization for new areas requiring support and provision of meaning.

Purposeful, stratified triangulated multi-case student participatory research over a one year period

thematic discriminant analysis

Analysis and thematic categorization of research findings within an inclusive framework regarding fitness of research purpose individual and collective

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In addition to the methodological framing outlined in this section, planning for the research experience adhered to specific guiding principles for supporting each individual involved in the research process. These guiding principles included, but were not limited to: The creation of a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment; Scaffolding of support aimed at allowing individuals within the research cohort to navigate the cross-roads of critique as both recipient and participant in the learning process; Deliberate promotion of risk taking and resilience building amongst the individual researchers as individuals and in their role as researchers; and, Personal and group ownership of compatibility of purpose within a community of practice, exemplified by trust, industriousness, a shared will to meaning, and the commitment to making a contribution. As means of ensuring the ongoing application of these principles into the research process, MSA developed a pledge to all participants entering its programmes and took heed in its fundamental objective for academic provision, the warning provided by Dentith (2012): "Insofar as one of the primary purposes of inquiry is to heal the alienations that characterize modern consciousness, participation provides a throughway to relationality and healing that objectivist and Cartesian methods necessarily re-inscribe via the distance and fragmentation that they evoke." Within this structure, the 3 “R’s” of traditional educational emphasis – reading, writing, arithmetic, repeat ad infinitum- were replaced by the 3 “R’s” of transformative research – responsivity, reliability, and redoundability offering an opportunity for each participant in the research process an opportunity to actualize with determination their purpose at a particular point in their life trajectory whilst simultaneously understanding the importance of the fact that: By its very nature, (true) education demands the transcendence of all boundaries, be they physical, cultural, real or imaginary. It is transnational, transcontinental and transcultural. Many in its pursuit travel the length and breadth of earth to gain new and enriching experiences. (Researchers) have an international responsibility as generators of new knowledge for the international community. Their fundamental role is the pursuit of truth and advance, growth and dissemination of knowledge. (Ramphele, 1991) As the 2016/2017 research cohort of MSA, we welcome you, the reader, to our journey…

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CALL TO ACTION To access our website and receive the October/November installment of this Chapter please send an expression of interest to

[email protected]