Complex systems are open, recursive, organic, nonlinear and emergent. Reconceptualising
curriculum, teaching and learning in complexivist terms foregrounds the unpredictable
and generative qualities of educational processes, and invites educators to value that
which is unexpected and/or beyond their control. Nevertheless, concepts associated with
simple systems persist in contemporary discourses of higher education, and continue to
inform practices of complexity reduction through which educators and administrators
seek predictability and control. I focus here on two specific examples of complexity
reduction in higher education, namely, the widespread adoption of ‘constructive
alignment’ as a curriculum design principle and the similarly widespread imperative
for teaching to be an ‘evidence-based’ practice modelled on Western medical science.
I argue that a totally ‘aligned’ curriculum risks being oppressive, but that tactics of
deconstructive nonalignment can be deployed to mitigate this risk. I also argue that
acknowledging the complexity of higher education should dispose researchers to value
multiple and diverse concepts of evidence rather than reduce them to understandings
privileged by Western medical science.
History
Publication Date
2013-01-01
Journal
South African Journal of Higher Education
Volume
27
Issue
5
Pagination
21p. (p. 1213-1233)
Publisher
South African Journal of Higher Education [open access] - hosted by tellenbosch University Library and Information Service
ISSN
1011-3487
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