Rod Naquin on Why Teaching Requires Managing Paradox

For our inaugural episode, we're diving deep into Rod J. Naquin's November 2025 Substack post, The Science of Dialogue: Why teaching requires managing paradox. If you've ever felt like you're constantly juggling contradictory demands in your classroom—structure versus flexibility, covering content versus going deep, challenging students versus supporting them—this conversation is for you.Rod makes a compelling case that these tensions aren't problems to solve, but paradoxes to manage. We'll explore why the search for "best practices" might be missing the point entirely, what it really means to develop teacher judgment, and how leaders can support educators in holding complexity instead of demanding simple solutions.What if the reason teaching feels impossible is that we've been trying to solve problems that can't—and shouldn't—be solved?Show Notes:Keep up with Rod on SubstackRead Parsing the Practice of Teaching by Mary KennedyRod also recommends The Religion of Love Revisited by Chittick and Toward a Theory of Paradox: A Dynamic Equilibrium Model of Organizing by Wendy K. Smith and Marianne W. Lewis