Can the prevailing factory model of American education be regenerated into one that prepares students for the emerging future? Absolutely, it can. The entrenched factory model of schools, teaching, and learning must be transformed if we are to prepare students for the rapidly emerging future. In keeping with the book's title, we must change our beliefs and behaviors away from merely "reforming" schools to realizing they are "seedbeds" from which can grow whole, organic, and radically redesigned systems. To do so, we must engage with regenerative frameworks, processes, and strategies, which are detailed in the book's chapters. Complacency with the historic model is not an option given the manifesting and mutating inorganic life form we and our students know as artificial intelligence. As discussed in the final chapter, AI can be our facilitator in system transformation or will redesign schooling without us. This purpose and six others are woven throughout the book to focus and unify our thinking about the possibilities and paths for transforming schooling from what has been to what can be.
Rather than leaving readers to wonder how to lead for school system regeneration, the book threads the transformational leadership approach throughout frameworks and activities. The book's first section, Frameworks for Thinking, engages the reader in considering philosophic approaches, shifting deep-held beliefs and behaviors, knowing the historic roots of the factory model, and understanding the regenerative mindset. To offer specific ways to create substantive change, the second section, Tools for Changing School Systems, brings the reader deeply into the concepts and processes of understanding the nature of systems, engaging in artful conversation, and regenerating the development of systems. Regenerative change and transformational leadership are tightly woven together in the final section, Putting It Together. Deeply discussed are the symbiotic relationships between a system and the place in which it exists, how to realize potential futures, and the transformative nature of artificial intelligence as an inorganic life form.
In essence, the book challenges readers to move beyond the paradoxical trap of believing education must be transformed yet perpetuating the entrenched factory model. Multiple paths are offered for move out from schooling as it is to what it is becoming with or without our leadership. Readers embracing or curious about the need for radical change of learning systems will find this book full of provocations and possibilities.
This book is written to nurture the development of transformational leaders known for their charisma, vision, and ability to foster a sense of purpose and commitment among their followers. They often challenge the status quo and encourage innovative thinking, and they are deeply invested in the personal and professional development of those they lead. A focus on collaboration, empowerment, and the creation of generative contexts and relationships characterizes this leadership style. All the chapters and the concepts, frameworks, and activities are focused on developing the reader's sense of what transformational leadership will mean to their developing potential and capacity to disrupt the present norms found in our schools to evolve and nurture new structures for learning for all within a given community.
