Learning Organizations and Child Care Learning Organizations

Learning Organizations and Child Care

Learning organizations are generally viewed as being businesses or enterprises that facilitate learning throughout all of their operational processes and systems. They seek to encourage growth, innovation and collaboration among the key staff and consumers through this learning, and then to use that experience to strengthen the entire organization. A key difference is that the organization is a critical element of the learning that takes place.

There seem to be many components, but three characteristics are most common about learning organizations. The first is there has to be a supportive overall learning environment. Even in a traditional business environment, participants need to be encouraged to learn and need to be allowed to be responsive to the learning that occurs. The second is that what is learned needs to be able to be put into practice. What is learned has to be used to help advance the overall goals and expectations. And finally, the system itself must reward and acknowledgement the process of continued learning and adaptability, both the keep the change happening and to enable the participants and the system to find solutions -- solutions that themselves change quickly and regularly. (Infed, 2001)

The field of child care (like school education overall) seems like it would be a perfect organization for wanting to use organizational learning principals since children vary in cultural, diversity and other factors that support quality learning (Austin, n.d.). However, there are many political and system obstacles that can make it difficult for these institutions to use this approach. Many state and regional requirements emphasize standardized learning and measured test results, which can require the use of learning tools and techniques that stray from organizational learning ideas. As such, child care often finds that it cannot be as flexible a learning institution as it should be. While there have been some studies on this problem aimed at regular schools, there doesn't seem to be very much yet for child care businesses. As Austin and Harkins (n.d.) state, "tomorrow's learning organizations will need employees socially and cognitively adept at navigating relationship, complexity, diversity, and dynamic marketplace demands."