Relevance of Systems Theory in Guiding Reforms in Higher Education (Essay Sample)

Relevance of Systems Theory in Guiding Reforms in Higher Education
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Relevance of Systems Theory in Guiding Reforms in Higher Education
Higher education in the 21st century is faced with newly emerging social and economic challenges, which makes the traditional models of education inappropriate to address the needs of the modern society. Consequently, there is need to transform higher education not only to align it with the social, economic, knowledge and market needs of the present times, but equally important, to make it suitable for future challenges. Towards this end, adopting an effective theoretical approach is of paramount importance. Higher education is both an organized and institutionalized undertaking. It is institutionalized in the sense that it is provided, driven and advanced by academic institutions. It is organized because learning activities are selected, organized, and delivered with the aim of achieving specific goals. These goals include promoting literacy, providing graduates who meet market needs in terms of knowledge and skills, as well as develop good citizens and leaders. However, the modern environment, characterized by developments in information technology, changes in demographic trends, economic challenges and globalization, presents challenges that are different from those faced in the industrial-revolution-driven 19th and 20th centuries. As such, the educational models that aimed to provide more skilled work force to run industries and perform managerial roles are unsuitable for today’s market needs, where universal education, information technology, technological inventions, research and work-place diversity are major drivers of many nations’ economies. This paper discusses the need to transform higher education to better meet the challenges associated with globalization and advances in information technology, and the relevance of Systemic Theory in guiding this transformation.
In their article “Exploding the Ivory Tower: Change for Higher Education,” Purdue University scholars William Watson and Sunnie Watson examine the pressures that higher education faces in meeting the needs of the modern society. The authors point out that the education system has undergone two successive phases, each with a model designed to achieve the needs of its time. The elite model was the traditional approach that served the interests of the ruling class by preparing learners to fit in the roles of upper class societies. The mass model was adopted during the industrial revolution and throughout the World Wars, with the aim of providing skills to students to prepare them for a broader range of roles previously reserved for the upper class. The major strategy of this approach was providing access to higher education to many learners from middle and lower classes, such as through scholarships and university loans.
Nevertheless, the present times present challenges that “mass education” cannot address. The concern is no longer just producing a sufficient pool of graduate-level labor force, but also equipping graduates with relevant knowledge and skills to function in a global and technology-driven environment. Thus, higher education is presently in the middle of transforming towards providing universal education- education that is relevant to diverse work environments. However, successful transformation requires more than just changing a few aspects of the education system. The challenges facing the modern society require an overhaul of the education system, because the existing one was not designed with these challenges in mind. Accordingly, it can not achieve results by just fixing a few areas. The System Theory is relevant for this transformation because it promotes an entirely new system of thinking and approach to learning in light of the emerging social and economic challenges. As the authors observe, “rather than trying to force a square peg in a round hole, systemic change posits that you should design a round peg” (Watson & Watson, 2013, p. 43).
In “Transforming America’s Universities to Compete in the “New Normal,” Bruininks et al (2010) argues that higher education is rooted in history and tradition. The history and traditions reflect the realities of a particular period, which makes the existing system of education relevant for that particular time. However, the modern society is faced with “new realities,” which include economic hardships, changes in spending trends and reductions in federal funding of higher education. Consequently, higher education, particularly in the U.S., is no longer wholly dependant of government support and federal spending is skewed in favor of other pressing needs, such as security and healthcare. At the same time, demographic changes, such as influx of international students and an aging population require a transformational change guided by a strong vision for renaissance in higher education. Considering the extent of the transformation necessary to align educational objectives with the new realities, the System Theory offers a suitable approach as it involves changing existing institutions to make them more result-oriented and adaptive to emerging problems.
The problem with the existing education systems is that they are still rooted in institutional bureaucracy. This kind of approach encourages rigidity in institutional management, which hinders innovation and creativity in exploring better teaching methods and experimenting with new ways of producing all-round learners. As Watson and Watson (2013) observes, some of the still existing traditions and histories in the education system, such as the mass model- which obviously informs the student loans and free education projects, were relevant at a time when it was necessary to increase literacy levels and produce enough skilled human resources to work in various sectors of the industrial revolution-driven economies of the 18th and 20th centuries. The biggest challenge today, however, is not producing enough skilled human resources. This is evident from the fact that not all college and university graduates are absorbed into the job market as soon as they graduate. Many of them go for years looking for jobs, or go back to college to attain a higher degree or study a different course, with the hop that it will improve their employability credentials. The real challenge is ensuring that the learners who graduate from colleges and universities can function effectively and be successful in the modern social and economic environment, which is characterized by work place diversity (e.g. working for multinationals) and information technology. Even the education sector itself has been affected by the forces of globalization and difficult economic times. For instance, the ripple effects of reduced federal funding are visible in the education system through the commercialization tertiary education. Consequently, higher education institutions no longer cater for local students alone, but in addition, to tuition paying international students who come from different parts of the world. This is the one characteristic of higher education that qualifies it as one that’s moving towards the provision of universal education. It is not universal in the sense of “education for all” as was the case with the mass model, but providing knowledge and skills that are relevant to and applicable in diverse socio-economic and work environments. In other words, a graduate educated at Harvard should be able to apply learned skills in other parts of the world other than the U.S. or the developed world. Similarly, human resource outsourcing has become a common practice among organizations today, whereby employers seek the expertise and skills of people located in different parts of the world. Accordingly, one can get educated at Oxford and end up working in Africa, India, or Brazil. The need for educational reforms in the 21st century, therefore, must first and foremost be informed by the need to produce graduates who can adapt to culturally diverse work place environments and cope with the challenges as well as exploit the opportunities presented by the process of globalization.
Having established the fact that higher education cannot address today’s challenges as long as it is guided by 19th and 20th century traditions and ideologies, and consequently, systemic change is necessary to make it more beneficial, it is worthwhile to consider the specific aspects of Systems Theory that make it a relevant approach in designing an education system intended to produce graduates who will function in the technology-driven and global environment of the 21st century.
First, systemic change aims to transform institutional cultures by changing the behaviors, processes, and products. The kind of desired products determines the nature of behaviors and processes employed, and vise versa. Considering that the desired products of higher education are graduates who can function in the modern society by dealing with the “new realities” (new normal) that Bruininks et al (2010) identifies, it is obvious that a radical paradigm shift from bureaucratic ideologies is required. Bureaucracy is only suitable for producing learners who will think uniformly a...