Keeping afloat: how ACE organisations adapt in uncertain times

Abstract

This paper reports on research exploring the adaptiveness of providers within the NSW Adult and Community Education (ACE) sector. It examines how a number of ACE centres understand and apply adaptiveness and considers the contexts that they operate within. The research, sponsored by the NSW Board of ACE, sought to identify how ACE centres adapt in the context of substantial changes in their operating environment over recent years. The literature on adaptiveness is replete with overlapping and interacting terminology such as ambidexterity, agility, learning-centred, generativity, resilience, and sustainability, to describe an organisation’s responses. The different ways organisations respond to change can be seen as falling within one of five approaches - co-ordinated, planned change; reactive change; disaster recovery; pre-emptive response to a changing environment; and sustainability over time. How then might we understand the concept and practice of adaptiveness as it applies to ACE providers, especially given the often competing expectations placed on centres by their clients and their funding providers? The researchers developed a model of distinct but overlapping factors - Knowledge, Culture, Strategy and Resources - and conducted interviews with a selection of ACE leaders and community stakeholders. Drawing on this framework the paper outlines ways the providers are adapting within the constraints of current funding arrangements.