Realising the Ecological University – a feasible utopia Ronald Barnett, UCL Faculty of Education & Society The Education University of Hong Kong, Invited lecture, 16 May 2023, www.ronaldbarnett.co.uk Centre for Higher Education Studies Sub-brand to go here
My talk My themes: Ecology and Sustainability – and the University for the C21 My concerns: Universities and HE falling short of their responsibilities and possibilities. My orientation: philosophy with a practical intent. (Social/ critical/ imaginative/ environmental) My intent: A better world; a flourishing world, with every entity accorded its due. ‘Head in the air, feet on the ground’
A difficult age – an age of complexity Consider the COVID crisis: Many technical matters: - Virology - Immunology - Epidemiology - Pharmaceutics - Statistics - Zoology - Modelling - Economics - Transport - Health systems - Distribution systems - Science and research systems - Education systems - etc, etc. - These systems interact – a situation of complexity, with unforeseen outcomes 3
But also an age of supercomplexity The COVID crisis also includes: - Views of human rights - Of social obligations - Of freedom and liberty - Of persons and the state - At play: - Cultures - Religions - Family and social group relationships - Perceptions (of science, ‘acts of God’, politicians …) - The public sphere - ie, an inchoate swirl of ideas, concepts, frameworks - A situation of supercomplexity – of multiplying and conflicting frameworks 4
Comparing complexity and supercomplexity • Given sufficient resources (money/ time/ technical know-how), matters of complexity could be mitigated – tho not dissolved. • Matters of supercomplexity can never be mitigated. On the contrary! • The more attention given to matters of S, the more complicated they become • Indeed, intractable • (Should masks be worn or not? Should vaccine passports be mandatory? Should I obey the state or not? Is this situation the work of God?) • [At stake: fundamental issues over what it is to be human; to have a body; to have a mind.] 5
Both of these – C and S – bedevil higher education and universities • Universities swim in situations that are both complex and supercomplex • Embedded in systems (explicit/ implicit) - national (funding, audit, law, regulation) - global (rankings, competition, regional set-ups) These are complex systems, of unpredictability, uncertainty. • (Suddenly, the state changes its HE policy framework; the flow of international students from a particular country stops; the criteria for the rankings change …) 6
The challenges of supercomplexity But the university also is confronted by supercomplexity: • Where lie the responsibilities of universities? • To the state? To ‘knowledge and truth’? • What is higher education? • Acquisition of skills? Development of students’ humanity? • What is it to ‘engage’ with the world? • To give the world what it desires or to reshape those desires? • What is ‘sustainability’? Simply sustaining systems of the world OR improving systems of the world? 7
Implications • The matters of complexity are difficult – they are complex! • BUT they can be addressed • The matters of supercomplexity are perennial and intractable • And go on becoming more and more difficult • And more and more global • (Individual cases become global – not least in an age of social media) • And so universities tackle the matters of systems complexity • And tend to avoid matters of ideas, and fundamental issues, where there is much conflict. • Supercomplexity is just better avoided! 8
In turn, university corporate strategies are unduly limited • University corporate strategies focus on matters of systems & structures • And – sometimes – their inter-relationships • ie matters of complexity • They are less likely to get deeply involved in matters of value • - the difficult matters of supercomplexity • eg, academic freedom; being human; concern for the world; wellbeing of staff • And when they do, it is all too often superficial • - & turned into matters of systems • (Staff become ‘human resources’) • [None of this applies to EU HK! – with its interests in wellbeing, community, ethos and belonging.] 9
The problem of research Many universities are trying to boost their research profiles • They focus on performance evaluation • Data, analytics, and rankings • These are matters of complexity – systems upon systems • But they rarely consider • What is to count as research? (STEM is the standard.) • So ‘scholarship’ is neglected (interest in ideas; traditions; critique …) • Felt to be a weak notion – and so it passes out of our HE vocabulary • And value to society (of R) is largely ignored • For how measure value to society? • Interestingly, some effort being made in this direction … (eg THE) 10
The problems of teaching and learning • Again, teaching and learning are reduced to performance measures • Throughput • ‘Skills’ • Employability • Graduate premium BUT: • What – at the level of higher education – is ‘teaching’? • What is ‘learning’? • Do these concepts have any value for the twenty-first century? • (Many students will be alive in the 22nd century …) 11
But what is the context? • Many universities are reviewing their corporate strategies • And look at the context within which they are working • ‘Environment scanning’ • ‘Scenarios’ • ‘Foresight’ planning • Even talk of ‘design’ • But this doesn’t go far enough. 12
The context • The university is embedded in the world in a number of ways • - in a number of systems • 8 in particular • Knowledge • Learning • Persons • Social institutions • Economy • Polity • Culture • Natural environment 13
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These systems are ecosystems • Why ‘ecosystems’? 1 Each is a unity, more or less 2 With a tendency to self-reproduction 3 But also a fragility 4 Each one is affected by surrounding ecosystems 5 Can be and are impaired 6 And they are impaired mainly through human activities • (All 6 conditions are evident in the natural environment – but evident too in other domains of the world.) 15
The university in its ecological environment • Each university is placed in this environment • - these 8 ecosystems • Whether it realized it or not • But each university has its own pattern of relationships with these 8 ecosystems. • Its own ecological profile – Its own possibilities • And that pattern of relationships is always on the move. 16
Designing a university strategy • It follows that a university strategy has continuously to be redesigned • (as the world changes) • - that design to be sensitive to each of the 8 ecosystems • ie, none to be privileged – neither the economy nor the natural env’t nor society not persons (students) • For all affect each other [cf the COVID pandemic] • And the university is implicated in all of them • Moreover, each ecosystem is impaired – the ‘Anthropocene’ • So humankind has responsibilities to repair each ecosystem 17
A(nother) word – or 2 - on sustainability • ‘Sustainability’ IS important BUT we need to treat sustainability carefully • It is not that there is a well-functioning world that should be sustained • Rather, it is a mal-functioning world – in/ across the 8 ecozones. – Each ecozone is falling short of its possibilities • & universities are partly responsible for those shortfalls – in each ecozone – And so universities have responsibilities of repair (eg public reason) • Moreover, it’s not that the world is out there, to be sustained ▪ But that the world is in us and we in the world » Being culpable, we have to look to ourselves – our conceptions of knowledge, of learning, of our relationships with the world … 18
Each university has its own ecological profile … • Each university has its own ecological profile • Across those 8 ecosystems • Their possibilities will differ (even if their responsibilities are similar) • So the challenge is working out a university’s possibilities across the 8 ecosystems. NB: • If management is the art of the possible, leadership is the art of the impossible: – It is the task of management to focus on structures - & complexity; – It is the task of leadership to focus on agency - & supercomplexity – to imagine new ideas … • - a university’s possibilities & responsibilities in the world. 19
However, this is a complex world … • Universities are noticing much of this • And are using their freedoms to re-think their place in the world • And how they might contribute to the world • Each one is looking at its possibilities • BUT they look at a limited range of possibilities • And insufficiently recognised the intertwined nature of the world • The ways in which those ecosystems are intertwined • And their complexity • & matters of supercomplexity are largely ignored • (Do we have models of institutional leadership that accommodate all of this?) 20
Learning as an ecosystem (1) • For thirty years, the key idea has been that of ‘learning outcomes’ • This is anathema to learning • Understood ecologically, what is it to learn? • Many of our present students will live into the 22nd century • What is it to be educated, to learn, for an unknown world? • ‘Learning’ has to be entirely rethought: • Universities have to give their students the human wherewithal to live, to thrive, to be in, to contribute to a world in incessant motion and faced with intractable issues. • Again, learning is reduced to a matter of coping with complexity – even ‘complexity skills’! – but what is called for are human virtues in a S age. • What has happened to criticality? 21
Learning as an ecosystem (2) • But, as an ecosystem, learning extends well beyond the university – And even beyond education and schooling ▪ As an ecosystem, learning extends across society • And at 2 levels • (1) Are adults continuing to learn? To what extent? In what ways? • (2) Is society itself learning? • Is it learning about itself – collectively? • This societal learning is impaired – Low level of public reasoning … (Populism …) • Yet, the fate of the world depends on it; on society learning about itself ▪ (Brexit is (partly) the fault of universities … Discuss!) 22
Transdisciplinarity (TD) • Distinguish TD from multidisciplinarity (MD) and interdisciplinarity (ID) • MD and ID start from knowledge, and offer (different) ways integrating it. • TD, however, starts from the world – and its interconnectedness • And identifies an overarching – ‘transcending’ – feature of the world • This serves to unite knowledge efforts across the disciplines • Moreover, there is an ‘is-ought’ conjunction at work • eg, the climate is warming and so we ought to do something about it • & since the world is inter-connected, our knowing efforts have also to be inter-connected. • Ontology + Epistemology (& ontology is prior): we (re)join K to the World • The fate of the world depends on its becoming more transdisciplinary. 23
24 Conclusions • The world is inter-connected - Animal, mineral, vegetable, human – & it is complex ▪ And the human world is also supercomplex » Where we see fundamental conflicts of ideas • Moreover, we can discern multiple ecosystems • Knowlege, learning, social institutions, economy, the natural env’t • - which is each impaired • Large implications for universities • Each university has its own ecological profile • Its own possibilities in attending to its responsibilities in repairing the world (not just in sustaining the world) • No blue-print – to be worked at imaginatively – and at all levels • eg, the learning ecosystem, as it interacts with other ecosystems • This is a difficult matter, not least for U leadership • But who said that university is easy?! Institute of Education University of London 20 Bedford Way London WC1H 0AL Tel +44 (0)20 7612 6000 Fax +44 (0)20 7612 6126 Email [email protected] Web www.ioe.ac.uk