Supporting collaboration in rationalising an area of study

The development of units/subjects in an area of study in higher education is often a piecemeal process which can result in the proliferation of units as staff members develop new units independently, to reflect their academic interests. Eventually, there may be a realization that there are overlaps, and deficiencies among the units, leading to dissatisfaction among academic staff and students. In addition there may be pressure on academics to reduce unit offerings as a part of economic rationalisation. This paper describes an alternative to economic rationalisation, namely, academic rationalisation, which involves academic staff working collaboratively to develop or redevelop unit offerings. This approach has been attempted at the University of New England, in relation to the research methods units offered in the Faculty of Education, Health and Professional Studies. It is argued that support is required for effective academic rationalisation and for collaboration.

Introduction

This paper is concerned with change through supporting what I have called 'academic rationalisation', which seeks to address the unplanned growth of units in an area of study, through a collaborative strategy. A proliferation of academic units is usually linked to the interests of the academic staff. In this paper collaborative academic rationalisation is proposed as a response to this problem, leading to a more effective, better integrated set of units in an area of study. Experience at the University of New England (UNE) is drawn upon where a Faculty has begun the process of academic rationalisation. The paper is also about supporting and maintaining the integrity of academic work and of academics exercising greater collective control over their professional work.

Challenge of rationalising units of study

The focus of academic rationalisation is wider than 'market demand' or the numbers of students enrolled in units. It attempts to address the issue of the unplanned growth of units in a more collaborative and rational way by the academic staff involved. It is a bottom-up process of change, managed by academic staff.

The UNE experience

Unit development as a piecemeal process

Over the years, academics located in the Faculty's four schools have independently developed research methods units for postgraduate awards, offered in different context areas: educational administration, adult education, curriculum studies, educational studies, professional studies (for personnel in the army, police, civil care and security) and studies in health. Because of the diversity of staff backgrounds and interests, and differences in their methodological orientations (which new staff members did not see adequately reflected in the existing units), and because of the changing needs of students, many new units were continuously developed.

By 1999, there were more than 15 units in this area. In response to this proliferation, a partially successful effort was recently made to compel all education students enrolled in a research Master's degree program to take only two specific research methods units offered by a specific school. This strategy has not, however, been perceived as a satisfactory solution by all staff and students.

Examination of the tables of contents of the study guides for these units and of their prescribed texts, indicates overlap and repetition among the many units offered. Staff members teaching the units in the various schools do not communicate with each other when redeveloping old units or when developing new ones. There is little collaboration across or within schools in unit development and little exploration of how units could be combined or integrated, or whether generic core modules could be developed which could be adapted to the different contexts. Also the development of units is not generally team-based, which would provide for easier entry for new staff members interested in the teaching of research methods. Some areas of research expertise in the Faculty are not harnessed or effectively used. Two previous attempts at rationalising were not successful in spite of a lot of effort, time and work expended by the committees. With increasing pressure from the University for the reduction of units and awards within the Faculty and for a more efficient use of academic staff, the current Dean established a working party instructed to consult within the Faculty, to rationalise the teaching of research methods units, to articulate the content of research approaches and methodologies across the various awards, from Bachelors through to Doctorates, and to establish opportunities for teams to teach both within a discipline or field and across the Faculty.

Unit rationalisation as a planned process

1. What should count as research training?

2. What should count as a research methods unit?

3. What principles should guide the development of research methods units?

4. What approaches, theoretical perspectives, conceptual frameworks, methodologies, methods and techniques should be included in the Faculty units?

5. What principles might guide the possible articulation/sequencing of units across the Faculty?

6. What are the research training/education needs of undergraduate and higher degree students across the Faculty?

7. What are the particular research training needs of the students you teach and supervise?

8. How can we draw upon the research expertise of staff who currently do not teach research methods units?

9. How can we bring together staff members with similar research approaches for fruitful dialogue and team teaching?

After this process of feedback and input from the academic staff, a draft model of only eight units was proposed, consisting of introductory, intermediate and advanced research methods units, which would be available for students at the Bachelor's, Graduate Diploma, Master's and Professional Doctorate levels. This model was also sent to the members of the Faculty for final comment. Based on the further input, the model was fine-tuned (Appendix 1) and constituted a framework for the subsequent development of a coherent set of units. The responses to the survey were also the basis for a set of recommendations (Appendix 2) which were developed to guide the subsequent stages of collaborative unit development.

It was anticipated that with further collaboration and Faculty support, a reduced and integrated set of units appropriate for students enrolled in the Faculty's schools could be developed for the awards offered in the three context areas of Education, Health and Professional Studies. The working party's task ended at this stage with a report to the Dean. Subsequently the Dean called for expressions of interest from academic staff for participating in the development of units.

Support for collaborative unit development

The next stage of development of a coherent sequence of units for the Faculty's various target groups, would require further collaboration and time which would need to be factored into the workloads of the academic staff involved. As a number of recent surveys have shown (NTEU, 1999; McInnis, 2000) academic staff work more than 50 hours a week and experience greater stress, diffusion and fragmentation of tasks than ever before, and greater job dissatisfaction. The task of collaborative unit development would have to occur on top of the current workloads, i.e. teaching the units in question, research, professional activities and service. Given the tasks involved in curriculum development, it cannot be just an "add-on" to existing workloads if high quality units are to be produced. (See Soliman & Soliman (1997) on the implications of workload and quality.)

To appreciate the need for support it is necessary to understand the work involved in collaborative unit development. There are many possible ways to proceed as suggested by the literature on unit and course design and unit and course review (e.g. Toohey, 1999; Conrad and Wilson, 1985). In the case of UNE, the process could begin with the establishment of a Forum, which could bring together all academic staff already providing research methods, and those interested in doing so. Such a structure for facilitating interaction in discussion and deliberation is needed, as the trend at UNE has been for academic staff to work in isolation. Support, in the form of a convener of the Forum's activities, would be needed, who could be the chairperson of the Faculty's research committee or a staff member experienced in research and research supervision. The convener could facilitate people working together by scheduling meeting times (an always difficult task), helping to form small unit development teams by liaising with unit co-ordinators, and setting timelines and deadlines for completing tasks. The Forum would provide opportunity among the group for the discussion of problems concerning the development of units, their content, sequence and their relationship. It could also facilitate bench marking and the internal review of units by the relevant unit co-ordinators.

Bench marking (Smeal et al. 1996) could involve academic staff in collecting information on "best practice" nationally and internationally, in regard to the teaching of research methods, for the purpose of comparison and for identification of changes needed to better align unit content and teaching methods with "best practice". Support in the form of research assistance would be appropriate for this task. The unit co-ordinators could review the content of their units, their relevance for particular target groups, their objectives and anticipated learning outcomes, their conceptual frameworks and structures, their teaching methods, mode of delivery, resource materials, their assessment tasks, students' perceptions of their quality, strengths and weaknesses, and their accreditation by professional bodies.

The documentation of such reviews could be the basis for communication among the Forum members and for the formation of collaborative unit design teams, as common interests are identified and possibilities of combining units or of restructuring them for a more efficient use of human and material resources are considered. This may be the first occasion that some members of academic staff will read information on the units of their colleagues. The collection, reproduction and the distribution of this documentation would need to be facilitated by administrative support.

Collaboration in unit design is a challenging task because of different philosophical positions, different values, tacit beliefs and different ideologies about the nature of knowledge, teaching and learning. Curriculum scholars describe many dimensions and theoretical orientations to curriculum (Pinar, Reynolds, Slattery and Taubman, 1995). Toohey (1999 p. 48) describes five different orientations which she has identified in college and university courses, namely, traditional or the discipline based; performance or systems-based; cognitive development based; personal relevance/experience oriented; and socially critical oriented.

Such differences would need to be articulated and their implications understood and deliberated by unit co-ordinators. Toohey (1999, pp. 48-49) suggests that deliberation of the following questions is fundamental to unit design:

• What characterises knowledge in our discipline or profession?
• How does learning occur and how is it best facilitated?
• What should be the role of teachers and what should be expected of students?
• What goals and objectives are worthwhile and how are they best expressed?
• What content is essential and what is desirable? And how should it be organised?
• What purposes do we need assessment to serve and what forms should it take?
• What resources and infrastructure are needed?

Support for the development of a collaborative culture

The characteristics of a collaborative culture include:

• participatory, democratic decision-making processes
• an inclusive non-hierarchical organisational structure
• frank, open and frequent communication and striving for consensus
• shared goals and responsibility
• respect and valuing of all
• practices that are explicit, open and visible
• reflection on one's practice
• belief that an organisation's most vital resource is the talent, skill and energy of individual members (Telford, 1996), and
• valuing diversity by being mindful that the creative, original ideas of the individual should not be overpowered by the group (Fullan, 1993).

• is generative leading to new ways of thinking about old problems
• requires sustained time for reflection and reconstruction (Aspland et al. 1996)
• can be a powerful tool for the improvement of units as collaboration offers opportunity for dialogue, critique and review
• promotes professional development through the collective sharing of collective experience
• is process oriented and non-linear as collaborators work together to continually define and redefine their work
• requires communication skills to articulate and elaborate ideas, to listen actively and with interest
• requires interpersonal skills to negotiate disagreements, defuse conflict, resolve issues, and build trust
• cannot be mandated, but is socially constructed in a working context, and
• involves a genuine intent and a commitment to collaborate.

Conclusion

References

Conrad, C.F. & Wilson, R.F. 1985, Academic Program Review, Institutional Approaches, Expectations and Controversies, ASHE-ERIC, Higher Education Report No. 5, Association for the Study of Higher Education, Washington.

Fullan, M. 1993, Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform, Falmer Press, London.

Hargreaves, A. 1993, Collaboration: A key to leadership for quality education, The Practicing Administrator, 15: 3, pp. 16-18.

McInnis, C, 2000, The Work Roles of Academics in Australian Universities, University of Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education.

Karmel, P. 2000, Funding Universities, in Coady, T. (Ed.) Why Universities Matter, Allen and Unwin, Sydney.

NTEU, 1999, Workloads Survey, A Progress Report.

Pinar, W.F., Reynolds, W. M., Slattery, P., & Taubman, P.M. 1995, Understanding Curriculum, Peter Lang Publishers, New York.

Smeal, G., Weeks, P., Gilbert, C. & Hodgson, S. 1996, Benchmarking "best practice": the induction of new academic staff, Research and Development in Higher Education, Vol. 19, pp. 808-811.

Soliman, I. 1999, Rationalisation of Research Methods Units in the Faculty of Education, Health and Professional Studies, University of New England, Armidale.

Soliman, I. & Soliman, H. 1997, Academic Workload and Quality, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 22:2, pp. 135-157.

Stokes, H. & Tyler, D. 1997, Rethinking Inter-Agency Collaboration and Young People, Youth Research Centre, The University of Melbourne.

Telford, H. 1996, Transforming Schools Through Collaborative Leadership, The Falmer Press, London.

Toohey, S. 1999, Designing Courses for Higher Education, The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press, Buckingham.

Wasser, J.D. & Bresler, L. 1996, Working in the Interpretive Zone: Conceptualising Collaboration in Qualitative Research Teams, Educational Researcher, 25: 5, pp. 5-15.

Wehlage, G. & White, J. 1995, Community Collaboration: If it is such a good idea, why its it so hard to do? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 17:1, pp. 23-38.

Appendix 1: Proposed general model

• Introduction to Research (300 level)
  An introductory unit, which could be designed in modules, which provide examples of research studies in the three context areas of professional practice and of different research methodologies and types of knowledges sought.

• Contemporary Research Methodologies (400 level)
  In-depth study of theoretical resources for new transdisciplinary ways of investigating phenomena in education, health and professional studies, including, for example, postmodern, poststructural, postcolonial, narrative, arts-based, feminist, cultural studies, cultural politics, critical discourse analysis and queer theory, etc.

• Qualitative Research Methodologies (400 level)
  Could include most frequently used methods in qualitative research, e.g., interpretive and critical methods, for the study of talk, texts and interactions, including techniques of observation, analysis of texts and documents, interviews, recording and transcribing.

• Quantitative Research Methodologies (400 level)
  Could include most frequently used methods in quantitative, experimental, quasi-experimental, survey research, e.g., mathematical, statistical procedures, sampling methods, selecting variables, measurement scales and the multivariate procedures most commonly used in social science research.

• Research Project
  This could be an experiential introduction to research in which students undertake a small research project in an area of professional or personal interest, designed for professional practitioners (including nurses, practicing teachers, early childhood workers, adult educators and workplace trainers) who want a practical rather than a theoretical introduction to research.

• Issues in Research in Education and Training (500 level)

• Issues in Research in Health (500 level)

• Issues in Research in Professional Studies (500 level)
  The above three could be advanced units designed to investigate research issues and problems in various aspects of the three context areas and could reflect the interests of specific academic staff.

Appendix 2: Recommendations for collaborative unit development in the research methods area of study

1. Goals

   Research methods units within the Faculty will

   • facilitate the development of discerning 'consumers' of research, excellent researchers and communicators of research results
   • reflect a broad range of research approaches applicable to the areas of Education, Health and Professional Studies
   • develop understanding of the language and logic of different research methodologies, and
   • contextualise the teaching of research linked concepts and skills.

2. Context

   The number and content of research methods units provided

   • will be appropriate to the perceived needs of students at different entry levels and in different awards (e.g. pre-service, in-service)
   • meet the requirements of Faculty programs and awards and the specific attributes expected of UNE graduates and
   • satisfy the requirements of accreditation by professional associations.

3. Structure

   The developers of new units will

   • consider their articulation and sequence from introductory to intermediate to advanced units
   • use the proposed model (Appendix 1) as a framework for further development
   • address the issue of overlap, repetition, appropriate depth and breadth in the content of units
   • provide a conceptual outline for the units
   • provide content appropriate to the credit point value of units
   • provide guidance and strategies to assist students' deep learning from unit materials
   • consider the relevance of various unit design frameworks, e.g. problem based learning, core and optional content areas, and the use of mixed-mode learning materials
   • provide maximum flexibility wherever possible, e.g. through a modular structure.

4. Unit Development

   The process of unit development will involve

   • all current unit co-ordinators and academic staff who are involved in teaching research methods, as well as colleagues in the Faculty who have demonstrated research expertise and may wish to contribute to the project
   • wherever possible, a collaborative team-based approach, representative of the research expertise and interests in the Faculty, particularly for units which will be offered to all students
   • consultation with Schools and Programs about the fit and implications of the new units as soon as their full details are available.

5. Support

   The development of new units for implementation

   • will be based on timelines, which will take into consideration the workload commitments of staff
   • will be supported by the Faculty to facilitate time for study, for joint planning and collaboration in the development of unit outlines and unit materials, e.g. through the establishment of a research methods teaching forum.

Author: Izabel Soliman, PhD, University of New England Phone (02) 6773 3158 Fax (02) 6773 3350 Email: isoliman@metz.une.edu.au Please cite as: Soliman, I. (2001). Supporting collaboration in rationalising an area of study. In L. Richardson and J. Lidstone (Eds), Flexible Learning for a Flexible Society, 662-671. Proceedings of ASET-HERDSA 2000 Conference, Toowoomba, Qld, 2-5 July 2000. ASET and HERDSA. http://www.aset.org.au/confs/aset-herdsa2000/procs/soliman.html