Equilibrium and Change

TAFESA like every organization in recent years has changed significantly as a result of the introduction and continuing developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s). Even so, there is a strong sense of equilibrium in the system for a number of reasons.

TAFESA is a State Government body and although accountable to the State Government, it also accepts funding from the Federal Government and in doing so must also be accountable for that funding. Therefore TAFESA is subject to the desires and policies as dictated by those Governments. This extends beyond just funding but is answerable for access and equity, social justice, strategic directions, policy and sustainability. Yet despite strict controls over funding and accountability for the management of TAFESA, there is a more loosely coupled system with what occurs in the delivery of education and training.

Weick (1982) highlights a number of these when recognising that schools are not like other organizations. For example, classrooms are often tightly controlled to avoid anarchy amongst students but the goals and curriculum make it difficult to measure hard standards and individual performance. They need to be in order to solve local issues and problems quickly and appropriately. On the other hand, the management and administration of those schools are tightly controlled to ensure accountability to stakeholders.

TAFESA is predominantly used for Vocational Education and Training (VET). As such the curriculum is the training packages developed by representative industries and organizations outside the VET administrative system. These training packages represent the requirements by these organizations and systems are in place to audit and give account that the packages are being delivered as intended. However these are so broad that they do not include the learning materials, content or assessment criteria. This is the purview of the lecturer and therefore the quality of the actual training is based on the experience, tools and equipment, funding, initiative, and philosophy of the staff and culture of the individual training establishment.

This philosophy will continue because the low to middle level management is usually drawn from within the system using rigid selection guidelines with no account being considered as to whether the applicant can actually perform the role or duties based on prior knowledge or merit available to the selection panel. In recent times, senior management has been considered from outside the TAFE system however most appointments are still from within the TAFE management pool.

Despite this, the fact that the classrooms are an autonomous environment, many are open and flexible places that are bringing about change. This is often the individual lecturer’s himself or herself wanting to change and bring about greater relevance and renewed interest in their subject areas. The influences are coming from changes occurring in industry and the support available to TAFE. Changing social and environmental expectations including youth culture has led many to experiment with new technologies. Many traditional methods, while comfortable and secure for many staff, are starting to distance themselves from their students. This has been recognised by a number of individual staff members and evidence suggests that these members are having a greater impact on industry and returns on investment.

The Becta (2005) article outlines some assumptions and beliefs for the ICT maturity model. These beliefs include:

• Organizations share common concerns about reliability, sustainability and return on investment.
• A continuous process of review across all of an organization will promote continuous improvement.
• While organizations are different, in general their development follows a rational pattern.
• The cumulative effect of a number of small, incremental changes can lead to a qualitative change in how organizations operate.
• While change is continuous, there are clear plateaus with well-defined characteristics.
• Increased organisational maturity leads to increased organisational effectiveness.

Becta (2005) has also identified five levels of maturity, which are:

• Localised use, where individual teachers innovate in their uses of ICT, but those innovations are limited by existing organisational practices and are not transferred or sustainable in the longer term.
• Internal coordination, where a degree of sharing of assets and resources developed and individuals’ uses of ICT are managed in line with an overall school plan.
• Process redesign, where the organization moves beyond automating existing approaches and begins to apply ICT more systematically to redesign processes.
• Network redesign and embedding, where the redesigned processes become part of the essential, day-to-day working of the school and management processes have been in place to ensure their reliability.
• Redefinition and innovative use, where the technology is used to offer new “learning services” in new ways to “new” learners.

Experience in the TAFE system suggest that ICT use has reached the first level in many areas but the internal coordination at level two is still a long way off. This is despite TAFE strategic directions suggesting an adoption of more widespread ICT use. This comes about because of the divide between the more technocratic view of ICT by senior management and the reformist, holistic views held by the more innovative lecturing staff trying to implement ICT into their classes.

In summary, the forces of equilibrium that maintain the present system include:

• Government policies.
• Accountability to stakeholders.
• Staff experience and initiative.
• Resources available.
• Funding.
• Assessment criteria,
• Training packages.
• TAFE culture.
• Management drawn from within the system and selection based on how well they interview rather than prior knowledge or merit of the applicant.

The forces that help promote change, which includes ICT, are:

• Changes occurring in industries that TAFE support with training.
• Changing social and environmental expectations.
• Youth culture.
• Rapid changes in ICT’s being occupied by students.
• Staff willingness to change and adapt.

All these forces have an impact on why TAFESA operates the way it does and will continue to do so for the future. Of critical importance is whether TAFESA will survive in its present form in the longer term with all these forces impacting it. It is doubtful that this will occur and so either a freeing up of forces such as funding and resources together with selection processes open for staff who are innovative, responsive to changing influences and can maintain a passion and drive for their role, or a divide will develop and fracture the effectiveness of TAFE’s longer term sustainability.


Bibliography:

Weick, K (1982), Administering Education in Loosely Coupled Schools Phi Delta Kappan, June, pp 673 – 676.

BECTA, (2005), ICT Maturity recovered from http://www.becta.org.uk/leaders/leaders.cfm?section=4&id=4590#lev