Knowledge management: Challenges in curriculum design amid knowledge explosion
Sharaf Rehman
Abstract
This essay focuses on three areas. Firstly, it describes the changing role of universities and the faculty, secondly, it defines knowledge management within the academic context, and thirdly, it describes the application of knowledge management in curriculum design.
Keywords: Knowledge acquisition, Knowledge management, Changing role of a university, Curriculum design.
Academe in Transition
Among the numerous changes that have ensued in the process of transition from the agricultural age to the digital age, one is that of function and role of the universities. The preliminary purpose of universities was to provide instruction in philosophy, logic, rhetoric, ethics, and religion. Young men (and some women) that attended these institutions came from affluent families and as such these young learners were not likely to seek gainful employments at the end of their university education. Universities were, in the true sense of the term, in knowledge management business. Universities saw themselves as beacons of enlightenment and insight, not suppliers of diplomas that serve as union cards for various professions.
The working classes that needed and sought jobs learned their trade or craft through the process of apprenticeship. Members of these lower classes did not attend universities. They went to trade schools or technical institutes. It is apparent that in our present time the initial purpose of the universities has become faded if not been forgotten.
As societies moved from aristocratic cultures to egalitarian and industrialized nations the need for formal training in professions such as medicine, law, engineering, and farming became necessary. Initially, the responsibility of preparing the skilled professionals in these areas was assumed by trade schools. As late as 1920, universities in the United States taught poetry not pottery, ethics not electronics, and mathematics not mechanical engineering. Our institutions of higher education no longer have such luxury; today our universities' smorgasbord offers college credit for the auto repair, break dancing, surfing, French pastry, and managing small businesses.
Economic reality for most university students of today is such that they are going to need and look for jobs in specific trades. As a result, they seem to have no use, appetite or patience for the arts, philosophy, and literature. Students come to the institutions of higher education, not for enlightenment but to prepare for trades.
Henceforward, the universities have transformed into trade schools, and professors are dubbed as trainers, facilitators, and mentors. Focus is no longer Plato’s Republic or Homer's Iliad but the corporate cultures of Google and Microsoft; heroes of the Greek mythology have been replaced by Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Martha Stewart, Paula Dean, and Donald Trump. The faculty members that can teach the “in-demand” skills are retained and rewarded.
The shift is neither good nor bad. It is what the global economy dictates. Species living in water learned to swim or they died out; species living on land learned to walk and run or got consumed by bigger and stronger creatures. Big business runs the global economies; the educational institutions produce the workforce for these corporations. Survival is still the name of the game.
Will the trend reverse? Unlikely. Will there be a time when knowledge for its own sake is viewed as valuable? It's doubtful. The current thinking of a typical university student is: How does any particular set of courses help me in obtaining and/or retaining a job? And this is the tail that has wagged the institutions of higher learning. The new mission of the universities is to produce employable individuals. Universities are ranked in terms of their graduation rates and average starting salaries of their graduates. Read as: an understanding of megapixels is valued more than appreciating the Mona Lisa.
Although the universities do not openly admit in their mission statements, but more and more of the institutions are being run as businesses. Terms such as Total Quality Management, Lean Operations, Rightsizing, Outsourcing, and Meeting the Customers' Needs are no longer uncommon among the university administrators. Students are seen as paying customers and efforts of recruiting students are beginning to resemble the battles for larger market shares fought by the likes of soft drink makers, automobile producers, cosmetic industry, insurance companies and financial institutions. Businesses that cease to be profitable, are shut down. Many of the liberal arts universities in the United States are facing shutdowns.
Universities have begun to make claims that they are offering the best value for the investment (tuition dollars); the return on investment is promised in comparison tables and charts with starting salaries of their recent graduates. Faculty are hired, promoted and retained using criteria that add value to a campus. This is done either through research and publishing potential or a track record for attracting grants and external funding to an institution. Faculty's priorities have shifted from teaching to publishing and seeking outside funds. While these changes are taking place on campuses, the human knowledge base is increasing exponentially. It is estimated to double every five years.
Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management (KM) is a term that came into vogue in the 1990s. Consulting companies that offered to assist the business institutions in gathering, acquiring, disseminating, and protecting their corporate knowledge, devised it. The two decades, the 1970s and the 1980s were a testing time for corporate America. American auto industry, steel industry, earth-moving equipment manufacturing and many other industries suffered great losses.
During the era of mergers and acquisitions,