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This book was not around when I was a youngster living in Kenya but thumbing through it as an adult has brought back some fond memories of days out in the bush in Amboseli and Masai Mara or at lakes Nakura, Naivasha, and Victoria. Kenya is a birders paradise whatever your interest. There are fairly familiar Eurasian visiting seabirds and shorebirds and unique and beautiful East African sunbirds, weavers, rollers and bee-eaters. There are multitude birds of prey including the unmistakable tiny-tailed Bateleur Eagle and the most impressive hunting bird i've ever seen - the African Crowned Eagle. I can recall like it was yesterday watching one pluck a male colobus monkey right out of the tree tops. All of the birds are here in splendid color with the most appropriate profile presented to assist in making identification easy. You'll find the underside views of the birds of prey very useful.
While you probably won't see a Crowned Eagle on a casual birding visit to Kenya, any guided trip into the game parks will guarantee you at least 100 different species - probably in a single day! In the right locations, prepare to have your head on a swivel as the variety of birdlife you will behold has to be seen to be believed. You will find yourself regularly flipping through the pages of this book. This book is absolutely essential for your Kenyan trip.
According to the writers, constructivism is a theory of learning derived from the fields of philosophy, psychology, and science. Constructivism in simplest terms posits that learning is the process of reforming what we know, believe and value based on the connections between new and already held knowledge, values and beliefs. In other words, people are in a constant state of learning in order to secure or enhance their existence. In the school context, Lambert defines 'Constructivist Leadership' as 'the reciprocal processes that enable participants in an educational community to construct meanings that lead toward a common purpose about schooling.' (p.29) These reciprocal processes entail building trust through social and professional relationships, identifying and reconstructing commonly held assumptions and beliefs, building new shared knowledge, and altering individual and group behaviors to create new ways of doing school. In this way, Lambert and her colleagues argue, we begin to see leadership, community, and schools themselves not as roles or physical entities, but as social processes, which require constant tending and development. In a biological sense, individuals are in a constant state of constructing their understanding of the world. In an ecological sense, interdependent groups of individuals must co-construct their understandings in order to create a desired reality. In this way, Lambert's constructivist view of learning and leadership is in close company with Senge's view of the learning organization, which strives to move from status quo to a shared ideal of something better.
Theoretically, constructivism owes much Lee Vygotsky's work on the relationship between language and learning. Not surprisingly then, this book's core chapters all deal with the role of communication in constructivist leadership. In 'Leading the Conversations', Lambert argues that conversations 'are the visible manifestation of constructivist leadership' (p.83). On page 86, she provides a useful 'Typology of Conversations' model, which shows that four conversation types (dialogic, inquiring, sustaining, and partnering) contribute to, among other things, collaborative sense-making, remembrance and reflection, sharing and building ideas, and respectful listening. In 'The Linguistics of Leadership', Diane Zimmerman deconstructs the processes of paraphrasing, inquiring, and articulating ideas, and argues that when used in balance they help groups uncover 'the unspeakable', make sense of assumptions and beliefs, and find new patterns and paths to improvement. In 'The Role of Narrative and Dialogue in Constructivist Leadership', Joanne Cooper argues that 'stories provide a vision and a desired direction for adults working in schools'' (p.122) Narratives bring to life 'tacit knowledge' and in so doing imbue groups with connectivity, and common purpose and vision. In these chapters, we see strong practical and theoretical themes that are consistent with the change work of Fullan, Senge's work on learning, and the organization work of Schmuck and others.
Constructivism, as an epistemological theory, has a long and broad history in this century. I found this book refreshing for making clear connections between a theory of knowledge and the practices and perspectives relevant to organization development and learning communities.
The book makes you realize that much money can be earned in a consulting career. (This review refers to the 2nd, international edition.)