In response to my post on meaningless meetings, where people break into small groups, speak up, but no one ever hears what they said or recommended, I received two similar comments.
Both said that the ultimate method of listening without hearing is the Delphi Technique. As one commenter put it:
This group manipulation is often called “the Delphi Technique.” Look for buzzwords like “vision,” anything with the number “2020” in the title, “stakeholders,” “consensus,” and when education is involved, a mantra such as “it’s for the children.”
My hunch is that there are many other techniques used to pretend to hear and to give “stakeholders” a chance to vent, and to provide the facade of democracy while ignoring its meaning.
The management consultant groups now designing plans to re-engineer school systems know all about these techniques. They are very smart. They went to the best universities. They make a lot of money. Why should they care what teachers think?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Another buzzword much in use these days: “collaboration”. This is especially coming up in discussions between union leaders and schools taken over by state governments. A dictionary.com definition of “collaborate”: “to cooperate, usually willingly, with an enemy nation, especially with an enemy occupying one’s country”
Everything you want to know about the Delphi Technique……
http://www.iror.org/delphi.asp
This sounds similar to the social engineering techniques used in the curriculum change movement of the 1930s onward–the ones you describe in Left Back. There, the group exerted social pressure on the individual; by having teachers work in small groups, and by arousing dissatisfaction with the current situation, leaders hoped to bring them around to the desired change.
Here, the small groups serve to give the participants the illusion of a voice (and if an intimate setting). Of course the sharpest points don’t come through; they end up on a chart or list, in reduced form.
That is one of my greatest objections to the overemphasis on small-group work in school. The most interesting ideas disappear. The emphasis is on process and product, not ideas or subject matter. Kids with unusual ideas often shut down or get ignored. An idea that delays the completion of the task is an inconvenience. Moreover, for the sake of order, group members are given highly specific tasks. They don’t have much time for thoughtfulness. This, supposedly, is “collaboration.”
It’s not just the educational field that has meaningless meetings and work groups. My employer (not a school district) is wonderful at that. They seem to care what we who work in the trenches think. They are wonderful at going through the motions of caring about what we say or think. I can’t count the number of times they’ve told us, “Tell us what you think, how can we improve, what can we do.” In the end, nothing changes, Nothing improves, and nothing gets done.
Meaningless meetings are not native to the educational world, they are endemic to EVERY facet of our lives.
This is exactly what our state department is doing in order to force the new teacher evaluation system into place without much fuss. They tell everyone at these “input” meeting about a baseball coach who had never been a good player, but was considered the best coach in history. The message behind that story is do not question laws imposed on teachers by people who have are not educators. I attended two of these meetings and it is obvious to me that it was done just to say teachers had agreed with the new evaluation. It all links to RttT, and NCLB waivers that require using scores to evaluate teachers. Most people in attendance did not see a problem with any of it. I was shocked.
Oh my you have hit a nerve here in Ohio where we are being herded into Professional Learning Communities, which have turned out to be the most Unprofessional Treatment of educators. It is a total waste of time but gives administrators bragging rights and enables them to further destroy innovation and creative for both the teachers and their students.
Our state superintendent Dr. Barrisi uses this technique with the ABC School Grading System, and the wavier, for a couple examples. She asked for public input and ignored the findings and did as she please because she has the power now, given by our govenor. I have asked to see the data concerning the results and have been ignored.
Educators you have been trained and experience is the great trainer. It is time to unite and stand up for the high quality teachers in Oklahoma.The new evaluation proposal is rediculus. A book to be evaluated by! Evaluation…did the teacher receive complaints, were her/his students happy and eager to learn?….I taught before evaluations….the teachers were great then…we just got a raise and the evaluation came with it …I made $9,000 a year then. It is all about the money. Many ignorant people think a teacher is not worth their pay so that add meaningless meetings and evaluations. Teachers of Oklahoma you are worth your pay. Stand up and STOP the nonsense. Cut out evaluations that cost the tax payers money and distrupt class. There are a handful of teachers that may need redirected let the principal deal with them as complaints come in.That is enough evaluation.
Testing……another day…testing our students to death of love of learning.
Dr. Baressi doing the same to the people of Oklahoma, she asks for public input and ignores it. Vote 2014 So concerned for the vision of education she holds.
The Delphi technique has been around for years. The leaders are trained to silence any oppositon to the already established position. Their job is to make all present think they have all reached the same conclusion. If one table disagrees, then that table is never heard. In the Legislature, they simply run out of time before the opposition has a chance to be heard. I speak from experience.
This reminds me of “Whole Brain Teaching”. Have any of you had any experience with this classroom management technique that requires collaboration of the students to make their “dear teacher happy”? They are starting small children young in this Delphi technique. It’s happening here in Missouri:
http://www.missourieducationwatchdog.com/2012/06/twinkle-teachers-demand-personal.html