Choosing Discomfort Choosing Discomfort

Erica McWilliam

Alliance of Girls’ Schools (Australasia) 2012 Conference

Melbourne Girls Grammar School25 – 27 May 2012

Alexandra David-Neel

Beatrix Bulstrode

Hester Stanhope

Mary Wortley-Montagu

Mary Kingsley

The blessings of a good thick skin?

Alice Nicklin and the Quetta 1890

Australia 50 Years Onwomen working; women working; women speaking their mind;women speaking their mind; a far freer a far freer use of swearwords; use of swearwords; calling the boss by his or her first calling the boss by his or her first name; name; couples living together before marriage; couples living together before marriage; 24/7 24/7 shopping; shopping; use of terms like 24/7; use of terms like 24/7; acceptance, even acceptance, even celebration of openly gay relationships; celebration of openly gay relationships; the admonition of the admonition of church and corporate leaders; church and corporate leaders; deference to minority deference to minority communities (eg, ‘welcome to country’ rituals); communities (eg, ‘welcome to country’ rituals); tolerance tolerance of graffiti; of graffiti; sexual images used in advertising, newspapers sexual images used in advertising, newspapers and television; and television; children telling their parents what they children telling their parents what they want; want; more praise than discipline. more praise than discipline.

Bernard Salt, Bernard Salt, The Big TiltThe Big Tilt (2010) (2010)

Retreat from Difficulty

“Difficulty has become repugnant because it denies entitlement, disenchants potential, limits mobility and flexibility, delays gratification, distracts from distraction and demands responsibility, commitment, attention and thought.”

Michael Foley: The Age of Absurdity (2010)

‘Every eye on me...’

“Raised on a diet of constant reinforcement and told we could do anything....and our teachers showered us with unjustifiable praise” (Good Weekend Magazine, 12/11/2011, p.13)

“In kindergarten I won an award for tying my shoelaces a week later than everyone else; in year 7 I won a ribbon for not finishing a cross-country run” . (ibid)

‘Every eye on me...’

“We have found little to indicate that indiscriminately promoting self-esteem in today’s children or adults, just for being themselves, offers society any compensatory benefits beyond the seductive pleasure it brings to those engaged in the exercise.”

Baumeister et al, 2005

Research Messages

• “A bizarre disconnect between perceived self-worth and provable skill’

• “No correlation between how people feel about themselves and how they perform.”

• “Self-efficacy does not come from compliments, or being spared failure. It comes from evidence of achievement.”

• “Self-control predicts all those things researchers had hoped self-esteem would, but hasn’t.”

Self-managers with Self-managers with powerful learning powerful learning

portfolios will trump portfolios will trump those who rely solely those who rely solely on test results and on test results and

credentials.credentials.

Data Transformation: the 4 Vs

VolumeVolume

VarietyVariety

VelocityVelocity

VeracityVeracity

Cultural Transformations: The 4 Cs

ConnectednessConnectedness

Change in the Workplace (Generational)Change in the Workplace (Generational)

Cheeky Power Plays Cheeky Power Plays - - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

Can I trust you?Can I trust you?

Global Labour Markets

High end personal services High end impersonal services

Low end personal services

Low end impersonal services

Knowledge Creators are the only people whose

jobs cannot be outsourced.

Agile Alumni

Agile Alumni Agile Alumni • Skilled in and beyond one discipline• Highly literate and numerate• Confident in their capacity to learn• Risk-taking - welcoming error & complexity• Relentlessly curious• Creative, imaginative• Team-oriented, collaborating• Techno-savvy – able to apply tools to higher

order thinking• Self-starting, self-managing, self-critical,

self-evaluating

Epistemological agility

• The capacity for moving seamlessly across disparate and newly emergent knowledge domains in ways that make for better living, learning and earning.

• An eagerness to engage the unknown and a capacity to tolerate the discomfort of the unfamiliar and the not yet.

‘Propelled by courage and curiosity, informed by the memory of those who preceded them, women travellers will continue to spin off out of the orbit of the mundane to claim the destiny they have had some hand in shaping.”

Mary Russell, Mary Russell, The Blessings of a Good Thick The Blessings of a Good Thick SkirtSkirt, 1994, 1994

Email: e.mcwilliam@qut.edu.au

Website: http://www.ericamcwilliam.com.au/