Thanks to all those colleagues who have written or contributed to the books from Surrey Institute of Education published over the past ten years or so, that have informed the evolution of the Ecological University Model that is explored in ‘How to Mend a University’. I couldn’t have got there without you.
If we conceptualise the ecological university [see previous post] as a ’healthy’ system, I would suggest that we may also be able to consider the unhealthy or ’sick’ university in a similar manner – where some of the elements fail to work, or where integration of the elements has failed for some reason. Hence, the figure in this post offers a summary of ”the ecologically sick university”, in which the adaptive cycles fail to connect across the panarchy, and where epistemological monocultures result in an impoverished narrative ecology.
The key concepts within the idea of the ecological university are summarized in the figure here. Details of this model are given in the reference below.
Further reading:
Kinchin, I.M. (2021) Exploring dynamic processes within the ecological uinversity: A focus on the adaptive cycle. Oxford Review of Education,
https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2021.2007866 [open access]
Full text available online at: https://openresearch.surrey.ac.uk/esploro/outputs/doctoral/Concept-mapping-and-pedagogic-health-in-higher-education-a-rhizomatic-exploration-in-eight-plateaus/99545423202346
Abstract
This submission presents a portfolio of 50 outputs (3 books, 7 book chapters and 40 journal articles) that were published between 2000 – 2020. This accompanying narrative offers a frame for these outputs to place them in the context of the wider literature and to highlight connections and developments in the underpinning thought processes. Here I exploit the Deleuzian figuration of the rhizome to present the portfolio to emphasise the non- linear nature of this body of work and provide a novel conceptual framework for analysis.
This corpus emerged from my initial exploration of Novakian concept mapping as a tool to support and document learning. From my early studies that built on the dominant discourse of the field, I examined concept mapping as a study aid. From this my interests diverged into the visualisation of expertise and the implications of variation in the structure of knowledge as depicted by students and as promoted in the curriculum.
I started to use concept mapping to explore educational theory and have combined the tool that is strongly linked to its origins in educational psychology (particularly the work of David Ausubel) with other theoretical positions that might inform teaching in higher education. These have included ideas from the sociology of education (particularly the work of Basil Bernstein and Karl Maton); ideas from evolutionary Biology (Stephen Jay Gould’s concept of exaptation); ideas from health sciences (particularly the work on Salutogenesis by Anton Antonovsky), and the post-structuralist ideas of Gilles Deleuze (especially the concept of the rhizome). These ideas offer an opportunity to revise and refresh the assumptions that underpinned Joe Novak’s work on concept mapping – that might increase the level of criticality in continuing research.
This work raises questions about the methodological conservatism of the field of concept mapping (and perhaps of higher education research more broadly). The observed methodological and conceptual conservatism of the concept mapping literature is seen as a consequence of its linear (arborescent) development from science education. Through this work, the reader can trace the development of the researcher from his roots in Biological Sciences towards a greater appreciation of post-structuralist perspectives – challenging the conservatism mentioned above.
Full text available online at:
The concept of the rhizome using the grammar of the concept map.
Further reading:
Kinchin, I.M. & Gravett, K. (2020) Concept mapping in the age of Deleuze: Fresh perspectives and new challenges. Education Sciences, 10(3), 82.
Available at : https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10030082
By adopting a salutogenic gaze on pedagogic frailty we can reframe the problem in terms of ‘pedagogic health’:
Further reading:
Kinchin, I.M. (2019) The salutogenic management of pedagogic frailty: A case of educational theory development using concept mapping. Education Sciences,9(2), 157. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci9020157
Further reading:
Maton, K. (2014) Knowledge and knowers: Towards a realist sociology of education. London, Routledge.
PDF version Jizz map
References:
Ellis, R. (2011) Jizz and the joy of pattern recognition: Virtuosity, discipline and the agency of insight in UK naturalists’ arts of seeing. Social Studies of Science, 41(6), 769 – 790.
Kinchin, I.M. (2018) A ‘species identification’ approach to concept mapping in the classroom. Journal of Biological Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/00219266.2018.1546763
2016 2017 2018
This set of three books provides a comprehensive introduction to the application of concept mapping to reveal the knowledge structures that need to be explored in the examination of pedagogic frailty (2016), the exploration of the theory underpinning pedagogic frailty and how this relates to other areas of educational research (2017), and a series of practical case studies of academics from across the disciplines who have used the frailty model as a framework for their own reflective narratives (2018).
Reviews of the 2018 volume:
“Concept mapping and the pedagogic frailty model form a powerful combination to drive reflection upon professional development, which is critical to respond rapidly to changes in the higher education system. This book is a must-read for any academic who wishes to become a resilient teacher.”
Prof. Paulo Correia (University of São Paulo, Brazil).
“Increasing pedagogic frailty is one of the biggest risks for academic quality in universities. This book gives a systematic, compact and research-based view about contemporary issues related to university teaching. It helped me to see the problems in my own university, and more importantly, it gave me ideas for solving them. I recommend this book to everybody who is involved in teaching at universities – from novice teachers to professors, administrators and senior managers.”
Prof. Priit Reiska (Tallinn University, Estonia).
Prof Kinchin's Blog 