Recommended Study Sequence

Ecology of Learning is an applied experiential inquiry that engages with personal, social and environmental dimensions of change. This unit works with the notion that learning is a creative process that draws reflection and invites comment; such learning 'feeds back' into experience. The unit focuses on the conditions, relationships and environments within which learning occurs. These can best be appreciated through considerations upon the complex, interconnected webs of being and knowing that underpin individual and social life.

This unit explores the rich theoretical and practical dimensions of leadership under today's accelerated dynamic changes. The unit inquires into the context of leadership while asking what kinds of leaders global society needs, what metaphors from the new paradigm of complexity, organisational management, social ecology and lifelong learning inform the science and art of leadership, and what historical or contemporary individuals embody leadership practice. Ethical and philosophical aspects of leadership are also in the focus of the unit.

The unit explores the contested nature of philosophical explanations, and allows for their re-interpretation through Complexity Theory. It introduces and explores the concept of multi-attractor interactions, such as selected mathematical concepts, social systems, ways of knowing and human identity.

This unit explores the influence of sense of place and sense of community on the capacity of individuals and groups to engage in successful intercultural communication and negotiation. In particular, it focuses on case studies in which indigenous Australians have managed their relationships with non-indigenous communities, organisations, and government agencies. The unit examines: comparison of Euro-Australian notions of landscape and place with Aboriginal Australian notions of 'country' and identity; the growing complexity of senses of belonging, intersecting identities and community affiliations; specific case studies of cultural interfaces; and useful ideas for the management of intercultural interfaces.

To explore ecological feminist perspectives highlighting links between power, gender, and the social construction of knowledge and ethics. Themes include Western and indigenous conceptualisations of nature and the body; ecofeminism as standpoint epistemology and ethics; bio politics and reproductive structures; relations between ecofeminism and other postcolonial struggles; philosophical debates around essentialism and materialism; tensions between ecofeminism and more dominant but unreflexive social movements.

Many ancient and contemporary spiritual tradition and practices emphasise humans an integral part of 'the living earth'. This becomes manifest in a variety of symbols, images and stories, which hold a common respect for the earth and its generative powers, celebrating it as the source of life, community and culture. In this context global threats to the environment can be seen as symptomatic of the human failure to recognise the sacredness of Earth and Nature. In this unit the principles of interconnection that underpin 'social ecology' will be extended into the understandings implicit in ecology and spirituality.

Ecopsychology is rare among fields of therapy in that is posits a relationship to the external world, in the form of the physical environment, as central to its practice. That environment is more often lamented than celebrated, hence the dis-ease. This highlights ecopsychology as a field of social, political and cultural critique as much as a healing practice. This unit applies the principle of systemic, relational, contextual understanding implicit in ecopsychology beyond the therapeutic. In doing so it considers cultural histories, wellness, embodied knowledge, emotional consciousness, ecological sustainability, activism communities, biocentrism and ways and means of cultural change.

This unit explores discourses relating to citizenship and globalisation. Global citizenship is explored and theorized through conceiving of three dynamically interlinked spheres of interest: The social and political (including, for example, legal, economic, educational, health); The personal (relating to subjectivity, personal identity, national identity and sense of place); The material (nature, 'built' and natural environments).

This unit asks students to reflect upon imagination and its use in research, inquiry, and social action. It challenges students to devleop a personal understanding of imagination and to apply this imagination to the development of creative responses to personal and social concerns. Underlying this exploration is a challenge to students to reflect upon the relationship between form, content and communication, 'objectivity' and 'subjectivity', 'fiction' and 'non-fiction', 'the arts' and 'the artist', 'mediums' for most effective communication, imagination as an analytical tool, and an expressive device, imagination as a means for understanding and realising goals.

This unit provides an opportunity for students to carry out an independent research project that is closely related to the themes and content of Master of Arts (Complexity, Chaos and Creativity) (or Master of Arts - Social Ecology). Approval to take this unit must be obtained from the course adviser.

This unit introduces students to the new Paradigm of Complexity as an insightful holistic perspective for understanding and dealing with the escalating social complexity. Complexity and Chaos theories are introduced as new conceptual and practically useful frameworks for working with socio-ecological realities (this includes also placing the paradigm of complexity in a broad philosophical framework). The following major concepts of Chaos and Complexity theories are introduced and discussed: nonlinear dynamics; phase space; emergence; self-organisation; fractals; strange attractors and repellers; butterfly effect; bifurcations; self-organising criticality; edge of chaos. Applications of complexity to areas of students' interest will be emphasised.

In recent literature lifelong learning has three critical goals - educating for: a skilled and productive workforce; personal growth and fulfilment; and active participation in a democratic society. This unit examines the implications of whole of life and lifespan learning for those involved in education and learning for people of all ages. The unit critiques current structuralist educational approaches which place barriers between educational sectors and discourage flexible transitions. It examines appropriate approaches to curriculum, educational structures, teaching methodologies and applications of learning. It also critiques the emerging concept of lifewide learning which stresses ongoing diversity and holism in curriculum.

This unit will provide students with insight into performance from an ecological perspective. It will incorporate a study of performance as a medium of 'transformation', performance anthropology, performance as embodied process, performance as communicative action and performance as a knowledge and/or learning system. The study will be undertaken both through the study and the experience of performance. In developing their projects students will be expected to draw on community experience of performance.

This elective unit provides students with an intensive on site experience and understanding of issues of place and culture, with emphasis on traditional and contemporary Aboriginal art, through a three week field trip to Central Australia during the first session break in June. Students stay on several Aboriginal settlements, attend art and culture workshops in and around Alice Springs, take a five day trip to Uluru National Park, and spend a week at Hamilton Downs learning about ethnobotany, art and desert sense of place. Assessment is based on a final report and class participation. It has an additional fee of $2,250 payable in full by the end of March to cover airfare, accommodation, travel, food and local tuition costs.

The unit is designed to enable students to (using social ecology framework) select a topic for investigation, define achievable research goals, and design and plan a research program based on familiarity with a range of qualitative methodologies (eg; phenomenology, hermeneutics, heuristics, grounded theory, biography, ethnomethodology, case study, narratology, action research, collaborative inquiry, transpersonal research), select appropriate ones, conduct a focused literature search, write a critical review of literature relevant to the topic and the chosen methodologies prepare an ethics application, conduct a pilot project and write a 'publication quality' report of the work.

This course provides course members with broader awareness and greater understanding of the way in which interaction with the natural environment affects their professional and personal lives. It develops a deeper understanding of sense of place through a combination of direct experience, intellectual engagement and personal reflection. Students select a place of personal and professional significance, visit weekly, and document their developing understanding of place from an experiential and conceptual perspective.

The unit is designed to enable students to (using a social ecology framework) conduct a research investigation, employing usually two or more qualitative methodologies (eg; phenomenology, hermeneutics, heuristics, grounded theory, biography, ethnomethodology, case study, narratology, action research, collaborative inquiry, transpersonal research, prepare an ethics application, and write a 'publication quality' report of the work.

This unit introduces students to the Science and Art of Self-organization - an insightful holistic inquiry into dynamics of human and ecological complexity with practical applications to Health, Management, Ecology and Pedagogy. The unfolding of life is driven by an inherent urge towards self-organization. By understanding the ways this urge manifests: its origin and characteristics, its stimulators and impediments, catalysts and inhibitors, factors which support, sustain, impede, or block its inward and outward realizations, we learn how to ride its dynamics and apply their creative power in different fields of activities.

Transformative Learning (TL) occurs when we cross significant thresholds of understanding (also awareness, empowerment, vision, values, consciousness, imagination, competence, commitment). It is the product of interactions between our drive to develop and the changing contexts within which we live. Because it involves critical reflection and 'testing', it is usually associated with adult learning. This unit provides opportunities to examine theories and practices associated with TL (within oneself and society); and its potential role in change towards personal wellbeing and meaning, social justice and peace, and ecological sustainability. It aims to develop competencies of educators and change agents in supporting TL.

This unit will enable students to critically explore social, cultural and personal meanings and constitutions of 'community'. This exploration will occur through readings and reflection by the students on communities using a 'case study' approach. Our aim is to understand present practices with a view to using what is currently useful and moving beyond the present.

This unit invites students to consider more deeply the manner and effectiveness of their written communication. It is important in the development and refinement of existing skills and the appreciation of the relationship between language, learning and social process. It is presented through a synthesis of critical, creative and applied approaches to written communication. Students attend a residential and a mid session workshop and maintain contact with staff and peers as they undertake the writing process. Peer group discussion is an important part of the course. Assessment includes a major writing project, peer and self assessment and a critical analysis of readings.

This unit introduces and explains Social Fuzziology - a new interdisciplinary branch of human knowing which explores the fuzziness inherent in human understanding and dealing with social complexity, and Narratology - study of human stories as a holistic approach for research into complexity of interactive human dynamics. The unit shows how to apply Social Fuzziology and Narratology in dealing with conflict, human and environment health, management, learning, education, organizational development, and other social issues and processes.

This unit focuses on the application of the concepts, principles and approaches of Complexity and Chaos Therories for managing organisational dynamics under conditions of criticality - at the edge of chaos. The major concepts of Complexity and Chaos are discussed in the practical context of organisation development.