I have let go of the purpose of this research to be "to get the qualification". As long as i follow the instructions enough when writing it up, I shall get over 40% and why should I let a good research project be ruined by the constraints of a university module? I figure if the module is good - and why shouldn't it be? - it will accommodate good research.I am also letting go of pleasing work.
And so, to my research purpose...
Scratching and chewing what it is i am curious about, it comes down to this. Indications from fellows, AWARD itself and its Steering committee and donors suggest that an alumnae association/scheme/initiative1 could be useful. When I think about that from my Systems Thinking in Practice perspective, i start seeing blobs of people in trajectories, and in relationships, and with shared purpose and meanings. There is a large dollop of CoP theory there then. But also i feel there is something wider, the supra system of CoP if you like, which is social learning2 , which can be conceptualised as a learning system. The other image that comes into my mind, from Complexity thinking is that of systems far from equilibrium and near equilibrium and the energy that goes into keeping a structure in its shape, or shifting it to a new shape.
The other thing I got from TU812, and have just been reminded of by reading the Ulrich paper, is the importance of design.
Add to this, my values and beliefs that I don't want to impose my ideas on others.
Every time i looked at the Thing i want to research, i found myself in normative mode. I want to form a COP, I think a COP would be useful for our fellows when they finish the fellowship, I think they are already in a CoP though they dont know it themselves. At the same time, I know that CoPs are notoriously difficult to set up successfully.
Anyway, all these trajectories are now coming together in the following
my research project is a system to explore design principles that have the potential to support a successful alumni system in the context of the AWARD Fellows by:
- reading CoP literature
- reading societal learning literature
- case studies of other fellowship programs
- identifying design principles
- discussing design principles with fellows, colleagues and other stakeholders
- drawing up a list of Most Desirable and Feasibile design principles
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1. actually perhaps we could call this an Alumnae System as i do perceive it as a collection of entities working together for a purpose
2. Note that when i say "social learning", I do not mean collective learning but "societal learning" in the sense coined by Woodhill, Guijt and Bawden as learning that makes a difference in society. I see society in the terms of Stafford Beer that its purpose is to create what it creates. If you want it to create something different, people have to do different things and doing different things implies learning.