Tony McKenzie's page

I am Teaching and Staff Development Coordinator at Charles Sturt University, Australia, located on Orange Campus, four hours west of Sydney.

I like to try new ways of thinking about things, including the purpose and potential of university education in the twenty-first century. You're welcome to browse through my mind as I add pieces to this page.
Last updated 8 February 2012
email tmckenzie@csu.edu.au
 

Being a university in the twenty-first century: rethinking curriculum

by
Anthony David McKenzie
Joy Higgs
Maree Donna Simpson

Abstract

‘The World Universities Forum has been created in the belief that there is an urgent need for academe to connect more directly and boldly with the large questions of our time’ (http://ontheuniversity.com/ideas/; accessed 20100914). In this paper, we examine the core educational function of the university in the light of this conception of the university’s role in society. The question at issue is this: what are the curriculum and teaching implications of a university’s commitment to addressing the fundamental challenges of the twenty-first century? This paper draws from, reflects on and shares some of the ideas crystallising out of the first author’s PhD research on challenges of educational design in the twenty-first century university. We focus on the concepts of human aspiration and education for personal agency. We develop our case by reporting on two case studies – the first author’s PhD theorising and Charles Sturt University (Australia’s) institutional renewal project. We are in the process of ascertaining whether our emergent curriculum of becoming theory or mindspace could provide universities with an alternative approach to curriculum design – one that not only places students’ individual and shared meaning making centre-stage, but also one that enables universities to engage in the challenges of the twenty-first century as ‘participants in the travail’ rather than as arms-length knowledge brokers.

Keywords: Curriculum, Theory, Aspiration, Agency, Being, Becoming

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Designing and enacting a university ‘curriculum of becoming’

by
Tony McKenzie
Joy Higgs
Maree Simpson

Abstract

We believe that if two alternative curricula are designed side by side to achieve the same set of outcomes, the simpler, more economical design will be the more elegant one. It will be easier to implement and administer and will probably be more satisfying and enjoyable for both teachers and learners. Elegance of curriculum is a design attribute, and in the sense that curriculum is both learning environment and learning journey, we recognise an association between elegance of design and coherence of learning experience: the more elegant the curriculum design, the more integrated or holistic the student’s course-long, course-wide experience can be.

In this presentation we  draw from the first author’s current PhD research into transformative curriculum design. We give our working explications of elegance of course architecture and coherence of learning experience, and illustrate how the challenges posed by the CSU Degree Initiative at Charles Sturt University, Australia, are playing out in the first author’s theorising about the inner curriculum.

Tony McKenzie coordinates a number of professional development initiatives in learning and teaching at CSU. Joy Higgs and Maree Simpson are his research supervisors.

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