Primary Presenter:

Ken Mawritz Ph.D.: Professor, Drexel University

Ken Mawritz has been a professor at Drexel University in the School of Education for eight years. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh, with a focus on conflict resolution. Ken’s research emphasis is on leadership and change. He was the co-facilitator of the national committee to develop Ted Sizer’s Tenth Common Principle entitled Democracy and Equity. He was a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools National Congress and a member of the Middle States Advisory Commission on Secondary Schools. He utilizes Irving Goldaber’s Communication Laboratory and The Presencing Institute’s Social Presencing Theater to address collective awareness

Description:  

The focus of this workshop is to address the significance of the conference theme regarding “Faculty Engagement.” Workshop participants engage in individual mindfulness and in practices that increase awareness of the “social body.” By heightening their sense of inter-personal connection, participants are better able to access creativity, facilitate groups, and provide effective and compassionate leadership. The use of non-verbal techniques to inquire into “stuck” situations in one’s professional and organizational life lead to surprising insights and possibilities. Social Presencing Theater (SPT) heightens sensitivity to current experience, brings attention to shifts in social justice or a contextual field, and is a method for prototyping seeds of the future. Arawana Hyashi the designer of SPT leads the creation of SPT for the Presencing Institute (Scharmer, 2016).

Leading by Convening (Cashman, et. all, 2014) is a process where educational leaders look to have authentic engagement.  This authentic engagement has three prongs of (a) ensuring relevant participation from all stakeholder groups, (b) coalescing around issues, and (c) collaborating to solve problems (Cashman, et. all, 2014).

The workshop’s teaching implications include the development of a person’s knowledge base regarding facilitation techniques, an “outright” application of lessons learned, and modeling effective teaching and learning interaction. 

Learning Outcomes:

1. To interact and collaborate within a team while utilizing empathic listening
2. To learn and understand several key leadership principles
3. To learn how to utilize a Social Presencing Theater technique(s)