ABSTRACT

This paper responds to a growing literature arguing that change in higher education institutions might be better understood and managed if such institutions are understood as complex systems with emergent properties. Based on complexity theory, the paper articulates a set of characteristics that might be expected if institutions are in fact acting as complex systems. The utility of these characteristics for identifying complexity in the field is tested in the context of a large partnered research project involving the mathematics, science and education colleges from six Australian universities and their local K-12 schools. The study finds evidence of subsystem variations on the initial partnership priorities, including substantial boundary crossing, leading to emergence and co-evolution, indicating that a macroscopic view of emergent variation rather than ‘micromanaging’ may be an essential factor in scaling and sustaining collaborative partnerships.

摘要

本文回应了越来越多的文献，这些文献认为，如果将高等教育机构的变化理解为具有新兴属性的复杂系统，则可以更好地理解和管理这种变化。基于复杂性理论，本文阐明了如果机构实际上充当复杂系统可能会期望的一组特征。在一个大型合作研究项目的背景下，测试了这些特征在确定领域中复杂性方面的效用，该研究项目涉及来自澳大利亚六所大学及其本地K-12学校的数学，科学和教育学院。这项研究发现了子系统在初始伙伴关系优先级方面存在差异的证据，包括实质性的跨界，导致出现和共同进化，