| Summary: | There are many types of leaders and leadership but rare is it to find leaders
operating from a fearless standpoint, like that of the sacred warrior traditions, where
the very construct of 'fear' is seen as the "first enemy" and is thoroughly critiqued. If
we are living in a 'Fear' Matrix where 'fear' rules and shapes our personalities,
organizations, leadership and pedagogy, then a new kind of leadership in education is
required— especially, in a post-September 11th context with a cancerous "culture of
fear" and violence (terrorism). After watching the popular sci-fi action film The
Matrix (1999), it became evident that this dissertation was going to be directed and
shaped by the film's characters and meta-mythical narrative. The problem and
question that this dissertation explores is "What is the 'Fear' Matrix?" This attempts to
legitimize the question and the ongoing answers as having curricular and pedagogical
relevance, especially for educational leadership development.
The dissertation inquiry takes complex, chaotic, and artistic pathways, collaging
together multi-layered transdisciplinary processes of an arts-based performative
postmodern methodology. The play opens with Part One and an introduction to a
polyvocal chorus of insights into the role of fear in education and our world.
Revolutionary fictional dialogue with Ken Wilber (critical integral theory) and Daniel
Cohn-Bendit (French revolutionary), serves to introduce the intellectual problematics
of understanding the 'Fear' Matrix and the author of the dialogue. Part Two is the
performance of a sequel (screen play) and critique of The Matrix, written through a
general cyborg feminist lens. Part Three summarizes the methodological problems of
the dissertation through a post-performance fictional dialogue with the audience and
reader. === Education, Faculty of === Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of === Graduate
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