IMPACTO DEL CURRICULUM BASADO EN COMPETENCIAS PARA LA EDUCACIÓN SUPERIOR

There are three main leadership theories or models that will be considered in this research. The first is Robert Kegan’s higher levels of thinking which emerged from his examination of constructive and transformational leadership in an educational

leadership psychology context. The second is visionary, transformational and outstanding leadership and thirdly sacred leadership.

3.4.1 Robert Kegan: Constructive Development Theory - Higher Levels of Consciousness

Robert Kegan’s work on higher levels of leadership emerges from his Constructive Development Theory developed in the early 1980s and the transformation that can occur in a human being as a result of their development (Kegan 1982).

Kegan’s theory of social orders of consciousness was described as a developmental model based on the following tenets: development was lifelong, was a process distinct from life tasks, was more than the accumulation of new information as it represented qualitative changes in the ways we know, was identified by an inherent mismatch between demands and capacities, and transpired through ongoing interaction between the person and the environment (Kegan, 1982 cited in Barbuto et al, 2012 p.236.

Kegan builds on the Stages of Development as described by Erik Erikson, (1950) a colleague of Sigmund Freud and author of psychological human development and says that if children can grow up according to the healthy functional stages of human emotional development, then as adult leaders they can reach higher levels of thinking. It is an approach that is used to better understand leadership dynamics in teams and companies. I learned of Professor Robert Kegan’s work in transformational educational leadership whilst working in transformational leadership mentoring with an international leadership company.

Kegan describes five ‘orders of consciousness’, the first two being navigated in childhood and adolescence and in leadership education we focus on the third, fourth and fifth orders. The fifth order of consciousness that Kegan describes is called the sacred level of consciousness. It was this that explained to me how the storytellers in this research have lived through the generational traumas of colonisation and utilised their spirituality or cultural spiritual practice to navigate traumatic events and move

beyond them. Kegan’s research into knowing at higher levels of thinking (see adapted figures below) was utilised in my work mentioned, to show how the effects of human development in an individual’s family of origin impacts emotional intelligence in adulthood which is especially exhibited in leaders at the higher levels of thinking, knowing, being and doing.

Kegan’s Constructive Development Theory is a model of adult development based on the idea that human beings naturally progress over a lifetime through the stages called the five ‘orders of consciousness’ (Kegan 1982). Kegan collected data over the years on the developmental stage of thousands of adults. As Kegan describes each stage: Stage one is a young child with no idea of the separate self. Stage two is a young adolescent who has differentiated from others and pursues selfish goals driven only by his or her own needs. Stage three is late adolescence or early adulthood where people are fully socialised adults who look to family, community and organisational workplaces as sources of values and self-worth. In contrast, at stage four an individual has developed a strong, resilient, self-aware ego; and at stage five they have developed the humility and the expanded consciousness to move beyond ego.

Going back to stage three, where we begin to examine leadership qualities, the person can become enmeshed in the roles and relationships around them but can empathise and recognise different points of view. In stage four people develop a value system that is truly theirs, they master the skill of balance, to see and empathise with others, and they have developed their own views about the world and recognise their power. Individuals at this stage are responsible in the truest sense, as they understand the power they have to create their own feelings and responses. They understand the source of their own and others’ values. They are much better able to deal with conflict, since they are not dependent on others for their self-esteem. At this stage, they are able to commit to an institution without being engulfed or overwhelmed by it; they can be a part of a group without being dependent on it. They can move beyond self-blame and blaming others to claim the power they have to step outside themselves, observe

At stage five people can even see the limits of their own value systems. As leaders, people at this stage are most open to ambiguities, most able to perceive and hold polarities in tension, and most concerned with larger systems – not just the corporation for example, but also the country, or the world. They are most able to focus on the whole. The data that Kegan collected shows that most adults, even those in professional or leadership positions in organisations, are primarily at stage three or between stages three and four, not at stage four or five (Turknett & Turknett 2005, pps. 1–2) He describes stage five as the sacred level of leadership.

These developmental stages are based on Erik Erikson’s (1950) Stages of Human Psychosocial Development, relating specifically to emotional, psychological and social development. Kegan (1982) says that each development stage raises our level of thinking and increases our ability to think through issues and find new solutions to significant problems. He suggests that very few adults make it to the highest level of sacred leadership, theoretically 1% of the population (see Fig. 3.2).

Diagrammatic representation of Kegan’s theory of higher levels of thinking is shown in Fig. 3.1 and Fig. 3.2. At the lowest level, egocentric, Kegan says that 15% of adults never make it out of this early development stage. At the egocentric level individuals are incapable of perceiving themselves as separate from their needs. At this stage, people are experts at looking out for themselves and yet incapable of integrating their needs and the needs of others, thus they do not make decisions based on their impacts on others. Layering this on Erik Erikson’s Stages of Human Development, a person does not move beyond egocentric if their development is arrested before the age of seven years. This is because up to that point everything is about the individual and what they need to survive: life is ego based and the individual sees the world in terms of itself and its own narcissistic needs. Children who do not have their needs met before the age of seven stay in Kegan’s egocentric stage as adults and as leaders.Those who make it through to the socialised level often stall at this stage; they are incapable of perceiving themselves as separate from their attachments to role, achievements, relationships, power, possession or status.

Fig. 3.1 Robert Kegan’s Diagram of Levels of Thinking (Source: Kegan, R., 1982)

About 50–60% of the adult population are located at this level where identity is externally defined. They are their role, their possessions or their relationship. They demand constant external validation of their self-worth. The next level is independent where 25% of people have the courage to move past this level through the confronting process of examining the self. If they do so they reach the level of independence which is identified on Erikson’s chart (Fig. 3.5) located later in this chapter. This level is characterised by a strong sense of self, where people do not draw their identity from things. Their authority comes from within, and they are capable of independent thought and relationship. They are also capable of valuing both their point of view and that of others and can set and stick to boundaries, speak for themselves, live comfortably with difference and mentor others.

Sacred is the highest level of thinking and Kegan postulates that 1% of the population