Constructive Alignment in the World of Institutional Management

1. Constructive Alignment in the World of Institutional Management Rob Cuthbert Deputy Vice-Chancellor University of the West of England

2. Constructivealignment It sounds like common sense, but: • is it common? • is it sensible?

3. Imaginative Curriculum Project The Project argues for a process of mainly rational curriculum design through constructive alignment of key elements of the curriculum in an increasingly complex environment eg Shaw and Jackson (2002) www.ltsn.ac.uk/genericcentre

4. Where is the best place to develop an imaginative curriculum? • Zone of technical, rational, political and judgmental decision making • Zone of complexity: the edge of chaos (suggested by Jackson as the most promising location) • Zone of chaos and anarchy

5. Designing for unpredictability All HE should generate or at least seek to generate unpredictable outcomes. That is perhaps one way to define an imaginative curriculum. To generate unpredictable outcomes we must go beyond complexity to chaos. Chaos is the normal condition of HE, and preferable to its alternatives.

6. Supercomplexity “ … that form of complexity in which our frameworks for understanding the world are themselves problematic.” Ron Barnett (2000 p76) Realizing the University in an age of supercomplexity

7. To protect the core values of the university, including a commitment to reason and the pursuit of truth, we must fully embrace the implications and consequences of supercomplexity. But how can we constructively align the imaginative curriculum with the real world of institutional management?

8. Universities must encourage: • Epistemological pandemonium: “openness and even rulelessness in the domain of knowing” • Operational pandemonium: which is to say, organised anarchy

9. A contingency approach? • rational models • political model • ambiguity model • phenomenological model A meta-frame for making sense of contexts for curriculum.

10. Organised anarchy “The logic of bureaucracy is the specification of objectives and technology. The logic of democracy is the organisation of consent. The logic of collective bargaining is the discipline of conflict. The realities of HE seem to be resistant to all three logics.” Cohen and March (1974 p40)

11. Key features of organised anarchies • problematic goals • unclear technology • fluid participation

12. Garbage can theory of organisational choice problems solutions choice opportunities I I I I I I I I I I I I I \ / \ / \ / I I I I_______________________________I

13. Managing in an organised anarchy • avoid rationalist fantasies • influence, add to and/or select from streams of problems, solutions and choice opportunities • shape the ‘garbage can’ • unobtrusive management

14. The university as a ‘mosaic on the move’ • islands of rationality • plans as hypotheses • sensible foolishness • directions for staff, not directions to staff • change is inevitable: it can be shaped, but rarely managed

15. What managers can do • help curriculum designers understand constraints on their freedom of action • hypothesise directions • control staff appointments and induction, for acculturation

16. Effective management style 1 • Tolerate ambiguity and paradox, and make it tolerable for others • use reason and be open to it • be flexible in switching frames of reference to make sense of situations • be willing not to make decisions, and not to take the credit even if you do

17. Effective management style 2 • Use projective models: believe in your theory of action enough to act on it, but be willing to abandon it as soon as it is not useful - and do it without appearing weak or capricious • be unobtrusive and be ready to be hands-on

18. Academics’ responsibilities • reasoned challenge • argue don’t scheme • lose as well as win • be flexible in switching frames of reference to make sense of situations • choose whether to participate in managing

19. Academics as managers? • as fluid participation is constrained by resource restrictions and the interconnected curriculum, academics are increasingly forced to manage • accept anarchy and celebrate chaos: they protect the core values of the university in the supercomplex real world of institutional management