Emergent Innovation in Systemic Programme Design: Retrospective Reflections on the Development of a Student-Centred Masters in Systems Thinking

Our theory of education, based on a systemic understanding of the subjective and intersubjective construction of knowledge, is that students are motivated to study what is most meaningful to them. Meaningfulness is grounded in the students' prior experiences, which are highly diverse. Also, the contexts and anticipated futures of students are different from those of their lecturers, so students mostly have a better understanding than staff of what is relevant to them. Our paper discusses the process of using this theory to inform a fundamental redesign of the MA Management Systems degree at the University of Hull. Several conflicts arose during the redesign process, and constructively engaging with them led to emergent innovations that made a significant difference to the programme. We take a view on the programme's outcomes and shortcomings before concluding with some lessons for the design of future systemic education programmes.