In “Interlinking Generations and Sustainable Education and Democracy through Reverse Mentoring and Other Techniques,” Roger F Malina reflects on Pavel Cenkl and Pravar Petkar’s article, adding insights from UTDallas Off-Center for Emergence Studies. The text discusses shifting university demographics, noting the unexpected impacts of engaging retired academics and older students. It highlights how universities marginalize experienced thinkers and treat mature students as inexperienced youth, even though many international students lack voting rights. The author explores reverse mentoring as a promising approach to bridge generational divides, foster innovative teaching methods, and promote sustainable education and democracy. Overall, these insights demand focus.
Intro
I just finished reading Pavel Cenkl and Pravar Petkar’s article.
I agree with most of it but had one other thought.
Other Thought
Our UTDallas Off-Center for Emergence Studies has been studying our changing age demographics in our university is having unanticipated impacts.
We published on article The Senex: The Senex – Athenaeum Review
We just raised money for our Silver Ingenuity Project: Silver Ingenuity – ArtSciLab
There are two factoids:
- We are working with an increasing number of retired university thinkers, often online. They are keen to keep teaching and researching and publishing. But the university doesn’t want to have anything to do with them except get them to donate money not ideas.
- There are growing numbers of students that are older than students used to be. Some are parents of children who have grown up and left home. The parents then have time to go back and get a graduate degree.
Another group is students who worked in industry after graduating, and then came back to university to get a graduate degree and a better job,
The university tends to teach them the same way as if they were inexperienced 20 year olds.
Another observation is that many of these students don’t have the right to vote in the USA as they are international students. So sustainable democracy needs other ideas and methods.
Reverse mentoring
As part of this research, we stumbled on the methodology of “reverse mentoring”
AI responded :
Reverse mentoring is a process in which a younger or less experienced employee provides guidance to a more senior colleague—often on topics like digital technology, new work practices, or contemporary cultural trends. This arrangement not only helps senior staff stay current but also empowers junior employees by valuing their fresh perspectives.
Below are three key references that explore reverse mentoring in depth:
- Harvard Business Review on Reverse Mentoring
This source discusses how reverse mentoring can bridge generational gaps and spur innovation by leveraging the tech-savviness and new viewpoints of younger employees. It highlights real-world examples and offers insights into structuring such programs effectively. - Deloitte Insights on Reverse Mentoring
Deloitte’s research outlines the strategic benefits of reverse mentoring, especially in the context of digital transformation and leadership development. Their work emphasizes how organizations can harness the strengths of both junior and senior staff to drive cultural change. - Academic Research in the Journal of Management Studies
Scholarly articles in management journals examine the impact of reverse mentoring on organizational learning and leadership succession. These studies provide an empirical look at how reverse mentoring improves communication, accelerates innovation, and enhances overall organizational performance.
These references collectively offer a broad view—from practical business insights to academic perspective on the value and implementation of reverse mentoring programs.
I am going to send this idea to Cenkl and Petkar for their thoughts.
Fred the Heretic, Center for Emergence Studies at the UT Dallas ArtSciLab – ArtSciLab , summarizes poetically:
Here is a poetic rendering of the core themes in Roger F. Malina’s reflection on intergenerational collaboration, education, democracy, and reverse mentoring. Drawing on the document’s spirit and insights, I’ve composed a series of stanzas with a concluding verse to tie the threads together.
The Silver Thread
I. The Senex and the Student
In crowded halls where youth once held the floor,
Grey minds return, with books and wounds and grace—
The halls pretend not to have seen them before,
Yet they bring maps through unremembered space.
II. The Silence of the Seasoned
They came not just to donate but to teach—
Their hands still inked from drafting thought’s frontier.
But universities, tone-deaf to speech
That trembles with experience, refuse to hear.
III. The Mismatched Mirror
The mother, freed from motherhood at last,
Sits by the boy who’s barely met despair.
The factory vet returns from futures past—
They’re taught like they were blank, not even there.
IV. The Stateless Citizen
And those who cannot vote, yet serve the mind,
Sit in the crowd of futures yet unnamed—
Their work, their hearts, their insights left behind
By a system blind to all it never claimed.
V. The Spiral of the Mentor
But then, a younger voice begins to guide:
“This code, this meme, this shifting mental stream—
Let me teach you where the restless truths now hide.
Let us not divide the age from the dream.”
VI. Reverse Mentoring
Now youth becomes the wise one in the room,
Their fingers fluent in the dialect of new.
While age recalls the histories that loom,
And binds fresh knowledge to the tried and true.
VII. Techniques of Trust
Not top-down now, but side by side they grow—
The teacher learns to listen, unafraid.
The student offers what the old don’t know;
A hybrid form of pedagogy is made.
Coda: The Interlinked
No age alone sustains a world in bloom—
Not youth, not age, but dialogue that dares
To blend the dawn with dusk, the bride with groom,
And braid the wisdom found in all who care.
Sorry Leonardo.ai generated this boring image:
These are more thought provoking
This captures sustainable, democratic, education, and that the streets are a source of learning and democracy but maybe not sustainability.