Ten principles of Mantle – and the Commission Model?
These cards (see photos) were made by Dorothy Heathcote. They outline what she saw as the 10 key principles of Mantle of the Expert.
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The Commission Model emerged to some degree from Mantle. Dorothy herself saw it as a logical development of it. She wrote little about the Commission Model; and so we have to refer to Mantle, and see where the Commission Model builds on it, or differs from it. It is useful, then, to look at these “key principles” and to consider how many of them apply in the Commission Model.
Arguably, they are all valid (with a slight change of language here and there – e.g. “commission” instead of “enterprise”).
This includes, for example, No. 9: “Language of feeling” which includes “literary forms: poetry, story, novel, dialogue, play (written / spoken)”. This is not something you’d expect to find in a “commission,” if it’s seen as a kind of “business training” (which it isn’t).
M. of E. involves:
1. Socialisation: group work / full class work / individual work
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2. Discourse: with peers / with adults (personal voice)
public declarations, demonstrations, explanations, lectures
3. Signs: to locate and label / establish purpose(s) and / define areas of activity / create public agreements
iconic or symbolic in format
4. Learn in 2 stances:
1. wear shoes of enterprise worker in now-immediate time. doing.
*2. considering the client will awaken the self-spectator.
considering, for doing (the stance of all makers)
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5. Power is shared
Leader, guests and participants share power… Colleagues are serving the enterprise and client awareness: Task and Responsibility
6. Tasks – the basis of all the work which is undertaken
These always involve now-we-are-fully-engaged-Time
and involve caring investment which must always be won in process of doing
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7. Mantle of the Expert demands of the leader:
information – never denied / never dominant / always selective / always relevant / always supportive
relating with empowering
leader repudiates teacher dependence
8. Tasks always breed:
interest, concern, standards, explanations, reviews, and always foreshadow publishing to and for our client
iconic forms / ceremony / written forms / demonstration forms/ lecture forms
9. Language of feeling will include
literary forms: poetry, story, novel, dialogue, play (written/spoken)
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Kinds of thinking / talking will involve: explaining, point of view, purposeful selectivity of style, vocabulary, terms of address, writing and filing systems
10. Running an enterprise is not repetitive: it is based upon selective challenging moments / stages, which are designed to evoke the consolidating curriculum.
These stages are invoked by the leader and must appear entirely organic to all participants.
THE MANTLE VIEWPOINT
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This was Dorothy's definition of the ideal viewpoint assumed by participants in Mantle of the Expert:
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MANTLE: I earn by my work the right to be seen to be capable and responsible in upholding the stature of the mantle which others may recognise as valuing and expressing what I stand for.
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EXPERT: I attend to the necessary study and acquisition of skills and knowledge required to uphold the quality of the learning I undertake.
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You can change the wording slightly, and the same applies in the Commission Model:
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COMMISSIONER: I earn by my work the right to be seen to be capable and responsible in upholding the stature of the commissioner which others may recognise as valuing and expressing what I stand for.
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EXPERT: I attend to the necessary study and acquisition of skills and knowledge required to uphold the quality of the learning I undertake.
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