TB872: Bawden and transforming worldviews
Note: this is a post reflecting on one of the modules of my MSc in Systems Thinking in Practice. You can see all of the related posts in this category.
This post focuses on the arguments made by Richard Bawden in his two chapters of the book Social Learning Systems and Communities of Practice. As I will show, his understanding and foregrounding of ‘worldviews’ is central to this.
In Chapter 3, which was originally written in 1999, Bawden (2010) sets the stage by illustrating the journey that faculty at the Hawkesbury School of Agriculture underwent. Shifting from a production-centric to a focus on “responsible rural development,” they also moved from a teaching approach to one focused on learning, and from a paradigm they realised was reductionist to one much more holistic.
The chapter highlights the challenges involved in transformation at both the individual and community levels, with Bawden identifying the “tensions of difference” within the sub-systems making up the overall learning system. These tensions, he believes, are crucial to the effectiveness of critical learning systems in community development. Bawden criticises prevailing non-systemic models of development as being inadequate in addressing the complexities and uncertainties of modern life. Not only are they deterministic and materialistic, but they are individualistic, leading to community disintegration and a deficit of trust.
The way forward, Bawden argues, is to transform communities into learning systems which are capable of adaptive learning. He proposes a synthesis of ‘inspirational’ and ‘experiential’ learning to allow meaning to emerge, with an integrated model which weaves these elements together. Bawden then concludes the chapter with a list of practical considerations for those seeking to establish, develop, and/or evaluate learning communities.
Moving to Chapter 6, which was written specifically for the edited collection, Bawden (2010b) reflects on his experiences at Hawkesbury, focusing on the collective beliefs of the faculty. He discusses worldviews specifically and how they influence systemic action. This chapter is much more focused on issues around wellbeing, ethics, and the growing climate crisis.
Bawden transitions from talking about theoretical issues to more practical applications, ending with a discussion on the global and systemic nature of contemporary challenges. Whereas in the previous chapter, Bawden spoke of “critical learning systems” in this one he explicitly talks of “Critical Social Learning Systems” (CSLS), defining this as “a group of people that have decided to collaborate in order to seek systemic improvements to some messy complex situation that together they regard as critically problematic” (Bawden, 2010b, p.94). “In other words,” he says:
a CSLS is a collection of individuals who agree to act together as a coherent group of people who are prepared to ‘collectively learn their way through’ an issue that they all agree is problematic in some way or another to them all. They accept that in addition to learning all they can about that issue as ‘the matter to hand’ as the prerequisite for taking informed action to improve it, they will also address, and respond to two other ‘levels of learning’ as they proceed: In essence they will be learning in three dimensions concurrently. So even as they are investigating the matter to hand they will also be critically reflecting on the processes of learning that they are bringing to bear: their ‘meta-learning’. These
Bawden (2010b, p.94)
reflections will include (i) their own impressions on the actual processes that they are using to generate shared knowledge and understanding from their experiences, (ii) how they are testing the quality or validity of that knowledge, (iii) how they are designing plans for action in the face of the knowledge that they are generating and decisions that they are beginning to formulate in response, and (iv) how they might actually put those plans into action for change. In this manner, they are seeking improvements in the way that they are learning even as they go about that learning.
Central to Bawden’s argument is the concept of worldviews: mental models that shape our interactions with the environment, influence our sense-making processes, and serve as the context for our judgments and the foundation of our moral compass. He emphasises the transformative potential of worldviews, questioning whether our cultural perspectives leave us equipped to handle life’s complexity. In fact, he wonders whether we are even aware of our own worldviews.
Worldviews, according to Bawden, comprise “personal presuppositions” about the following:
(a) the nature of nature (or ontology, philosophically speaking),
Bawden (2010b, p.96)
(b) the nature and origins of the universe, of life itself and, especially, of the spiritual essence of mankind (or cosmology),
(c) the nature of knowledge (or epistemology) and
(d) the nature of human nature especially as it relates to motivations, dispositions
and values, especially ethics and aesthetics (or axiology).
By recognising and transforming our worldviews, Bawden believes that we can better address the “complex messiness” of today’s challenges. Although this transformation must take place on an individual level, it is also crucial that it happens collectively: a communal shift towards reflective, adaptive, and holistic learning systems.
References
- Bawden, R. (2010). ‘The community challenge: the learning response’. In Blackmore, C. (ed.) Social learning systems and communities of practice. London: Springer. pp.89-101. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-133-2.
- Bawden, R. (2010b). ‘Messy issues, worldviews and systemic competencies’. In Blackmore, C. (ed.) Social learning systems and communities of practice. London: Springer. pp.89-101. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-133-2.
Image: DALL-E 3
