The document discusses a study that used complexity theory to understand the university teaching and learning system. It interviewed a lecturer to understand the constraints and enablements related to teaching. The study found that constraints and enablements were produced through the interrelationships between different parts of the system, including communities of practice, academic freedom, development opportunities, supportive management, and vision documents. These interrelationships both disrupt existing practices and enable new opportunities for teaching development.

1. BEING AND BECOMING A UNIVERSITY
TEACHERProf Wendy McMillan, D.Ed. & Ms Natalie Gordon, MPH
Faculty of Dentistry, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
wmcmillan@uwc.ac.za
ngordon@uwc.ac.za
Background and Purpose
Increasingly university academics are being held accountable for the quality of their teaching and the resultant student learning (Knight & Yorke, 2003). A variety of
factors – structural, cultural, and agential – support, and militate against, academics being able to deliver on this demand (Lynch et al, 2005; Trowler & Cooper, 2002).
The aim of this study was to understand how these factors serve as components of the higher education teaching and learning system, and how the relationships
between them operate and, in turn, shape the system.
Complexity theory, which allows for an exploration of the dynamism of systems, was used to understand what constitutes the university teaching and learning system,
its constituent parts, and their inter-relationships. Complexity theory argues that humans are not separate from, but are fully nested within and interconnected with, the
many elements of the systems in which they participate (Fenwick, 2010). Complexity theory highlights examination of the elements which produce things rather than
focusing on the things themselves (Fenwick, 2010). It is an approach which challenges linearity or causality (Heatherington, 2013).
Methodology
The study design took the form of a single case study of a lecturer in a Faculty of Dentistry in South Africa. Complexity theory promotes interpretation starting from the
local and the singular, and hence the appropriateness of a case study (Heatherington, 2013). Data was collected through an interview exploring the enablements and
constraints related to teaching and staff development. Questions (after Fenwick et al, 2011) guided the analysis – What are the constituent parts, and how did they
come to be materialised? How do nested and interrelated processes produce the environment? What are the opportunities for resistance and change? The lecturer
from the case study was involved in the analysis and the reporting. This strategy facilitated a type of action research where a person located within a system has the
opportunity to examine the component parts and relationships constituting the system. Such an approach provides opportunities for the identification of sources
enabling connections or places where inter-connections might be disrupted.
Findings
It emerged that constraints and enablements related to university teaching were produced in the inter-relatedness of all the component parts. The concept map below
attempts to show the component parts of the system and their inter-relatednesses.
Conclusions
Both the theoretical framework and the empirical case study have the potential to allow other researchers to understand the professionalisation of university
teachers and to use similar tools to explore the complex issues outside of, and beyond, what is usually studied as staff development.
References
Fenwick, T., Edwards, R. & Sawchuk, P. (2011) Emerging approaches in educational research. Tracing the socio-material. London: Routledge.
Fenwick, T. (2010) Re-thinking the “thing”: Sociomaterial approaches to understanding and researching learning in work. Journal of Workplace Learning, 22(12): 204 – 116.
Heatherington, L. (2013) Complexity thinking and methodology: The potential of ‘complex case study’ for educational research. Complexity, 10(1/2): 71 – 85.
Knight, P. T. & Yorke, M. (2003) Employability and good learning in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 8(1): 3 – 16.
Lynch, J., Sheard, J., Carbone, A. & Collins, F. (2005) Individual and organisational factors influencing academics’ decisions to pursue the scholarship of teaching ICT. Journal of Information Technology Education, 4: 219 – 235.
Trowler, P. & Cooper, A. (2002) Teaching and learning regimes: Implicit theories and recurrent practices in the enhancement of teaching and learning through educational development programmes. Higher Education Research & Development, 21(3): 221 – 240.
Aspect of system Quotation Potential to disrupt/ enable
Communities of practice Those communities come out of the specific things that we are interested in – these
communities form. Once you get into these communities – once you stay there, you
learn and different people learn and take on different things.
Communities of practice can disrupt taken-for-granted
ways of being and doing – especially when they have
many members or have powerful or credible members.
Academic freedom We can sort of make our own decisions. I can decide what I am going to teach – not
exactly what, but how I’m going to teach and how I’ll manage the class. If things don’t
work, I can change it. We are not obligated to teach in a particular way. As long as it is
sound, nobody questions it.
Academic freedom, when supported and theorised
through ‘best practice’, has the potential to create
exemplars of innovative and effective teaching and
learning.
Development opportunities We have amazing opportunities in the Faculty for growth and development. I was sent
to an Education Conference to be exposed. I came back with something about oral
exams. I used it in my own modules. I did a Journal Club (presentation) and I tried to
influence other modules.
Targeted staff development has the potential to create
individuals with expertise who can become champions
within a Faculty.
Dean/ HOD There’s a supportive environment in terms of wanting us to develop, I think that’s right
from the Dean to my Department and my Head of Department. I could simply inform
them I’m going to be doing something and what I’ve done (with it) in terms of my
course,
Supportive management creates spaces for people to
develop. When accountability is expected, such
development results in practical application, potential
champions, and potential exemplars of good practice.
Education Vision document In the Education Vision document, we say the curriculum is integrated, it’s student-
centred. So when I look at what I do, I ask to find out, “Now, is it really integrated?”.
When I speak with colleagues about it then that is a central point – we debate the
issue, “Is it student-centred?”
Position statements, when created collaboratively and
authentically, have the potential to inform practice and
to contribute to the development of communities of
practice and a shared language.
Findings indicate that possibilities were contained in the system which were not initially visible or realized (Fenwick, 2010:108). The table below sets out the potential
locations for disruption and enablement.