Presented by Carroll Wetzel Wilkinson at The Innovative Library Classroom 2014 conference at Radford University

1. ( TO ST R E N GT H E N I N ST RU C T I O N P R AC T I C E )
Courageous Conversations
Worth Having:

2. Innovative Library Classroom Conference
 Radford University
 May 13, 2014
 Carroll Wetzel Wilkinson
 WVU, Director of Instruction and Information Literacy
 West Virginia University Libraries

3. Learning outcomes for this session
 See courageous conversations in a new way.
 Use the technique of starting conversations about
instructional subjects that matter to you.
 Contribute to your organization's workplace climate
for instruction in a positive manner.
 Enrich your own teaching practice.

5. What’s the Context?
 “ Any form of organizational change redesign is
planning that begins with a comprehensive inquiry,
analysis and dialogue of an organization’s positive
core, that involves multiple stakeholders and then
links this knowledge to the organization’s strategic
change agenda and priorities.”
-definition of positive change from Cooperrider’s Appreciative
Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change, 2005.

6. Why Talk about Conversations at a Library
Instruction Innovation Conference?
You
Another
instruction
librarian

7. Getting Views in Balance
Your
perspectives
Another
perspective

8. Definitions of a courageous conversation
 Heifetz et al. 2009, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership
“a dialogue that is designed to resolve
competing priorities and beliefs while
preserving relationships”

9. Courage has a relationship to vulnerability
 Brean Brown takes on the myths of vulnerability in her
book entitled: Daring Greatly.

10. Another important perspective
 Chapter VI “Learning in Community: The
Conversation of Colleagues” in The Courage to
Teach, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, California, 1998.
“If we want to grow in our practice, we have two
primary places to go: the inner ground from which
good teaching comes and to the community of
fellow teachers from whom we can learn more
about ourselves and our craft.” (p.141.)

11. A few of Palmer’s questions
 Does this person take teaching seriously as signified
by his or her involvement in conversations about it?
 What kind of process does this person go through in
designing a course [or lesson]?
 Does this person attempt to help colleagues with
issues in their teaching?
 How does this person handle critical moments
(learning moments that open up or shut down
depending on how they are handled) in the
classroom?

12. Another relevant definition
 “Courage is a pattern of constructive opposition, in
which in an individual stands against social forces in
order to remedy duress in the organization.”
Worline, Monica. C. “ Courage in Organizations: an Integrative Review of the Difficult Virtue.”
Chapter 23 of The Oxford handbook of positive organizational scholarship /Kim
S Cameron; Gretchen M Spreitzer. New York ; Oxford : Oxford University Press. P304-315.

13. Understanding courageous conversations
 More about Worline
 David Whyte

14. Quick work environment assessment questions
 Do the instruction librarians in your library get
together to talk about instruction periodically?
 What is the climate for those talks? Welcoming,
respectful, encouraging, or other?
 When someone needs help in teaching, what happens?
 In your library, what’s the norm for expressions of
emotions about teaching?

15. Examples of conversation topics (stuff we’d like
to talk about, but we hesitate)
 Real reactions to the assessment of instruction by
librarians, both positive and negative.
 Frustration with the lack of impact on student
learning through one shots.
 Frustration with some librarians’ attitudes toward
instruction.
 Giving up one shots and substituting a new
instructional model
 Our reactions to the new framework for
information literacy……

16. The challenge of authenticity: the link between
authentic conversations and change

17. BRAINSTORM

18. Practice with others

19. Great obstacles, small victories

20. Conclusions
 Each of us can start change by talking authentically to
another teaching librarian about something that really
matters to us in teaching.
 Courageous conversations are the connective tissue of
growth and change in any context.
 Innovation needs to be nurtured and encouraged so
we don’t box ourselves into habit and repetition.
 The new Framework for Information Literacy for
Higher Education calls for teaching with ideas…it’s a
great time to start talking holistically, and bravely,
about library instruction innovation!

21. References
 Brown, Breann. Daring greatly: how the courage to be vulnerable
transforms the way we live, love, parent, and lead. Gotham
Books/Penguin, New York, 2012.
 Heifetz, Ronald et al. The practice of adaptive leadership: tools and
tactics for changing your organization and the world. Cambridge
Leadership Associates, 2009.
 Palmer, Parker. The courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape of a
teachers’ life. Jossey-Bass Inc. San Francisco, California, 1998.
 Whyte, David David Whyte on courageous conversation.
http://www.hr.com/en/articles/thought-leaders-david-whyte-on-
courageous-conversa_eaj1hqw2.html
 Worline, Monica C. Courage in Organizations: An integrative review of
the “difficult virtue.”In The Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational
Scholarship (Oxford Library of Psychology) by Kim S. Cameron and
Gretchen M. Spreitzer, 2011. (Chapter 23, p304-315.)

22. Thank You!
Carroll Wetzel Wilkinson
cwilkins@wvu.edu
West Virginia University Libraries