Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education
Not a member yet
271 research outputs found
Sort by
Complexity, Methodology and Method: Crafting a Critical Process of Research
No full textThis paper defines a theoretical framework aiming to support the actions and reflections of researchers looking for a ‘method’ in order to critically conceive the complexity of a scientific process of research. First, it starts with a brief overview of the core assumptions framing Morin’s “paradigm of complexity” and Le Moigne’s “general system theory”. Distinguishing ‘methodology’ and ‘method’, the framework is conceived based on three moments, which represent recurring stages of the spiraling development of research. The first moment focuses on the definition of the research process and its sub-systems (author, system of ideas, object of study and method) understood as a complex form of organization finalized in a specific environment. The second moment introduces a matrix aiming to model the research process and nine core methodological issues, according to a programmatic and critical approach. Using the matrix previously modeled, the third moment suggests conceiving of the research process following a strategic mindset that focuses on contingencies, in order to locate, share and communicate the path followed throughout the inquiry
The Complexity of Transdisciplinary Literature Reviews
No full textThe transdisciplinary literature review is an opportunity to situate the inquirer in an ecology of ideas. This article explores how we might approach this process from a perspective of complexity, and addresses some of the key challenges and opportunities. Four main dimensions are considered: (a) inquiry-based rather than discipline-based; (b) integrating rather than eliminating the inquirer from the inquiry; (c) meta-paradigmatic rather than intra-paradigmatic; and (d) applying systems and complex thought rather than reductive/disjunctive thinking
Winter Counts as Transformative Inquiry: The Role of Creative Imagery as an Expression of Adaptive Change
No full textPre-service teachers face a complex educational context and Transformative Inquiry is a useful approach for negotiating this terrain. We interpret the movement of students via the adaptive cycle put forth in panarchy theory as they engage in the inquiry process through ‘winter counts’, a Plains First Nation tradition, as expressions of their understanding. These image-based expressions demonstrate the emotional, mental, spiritual and physical movement students have made within their inquiry. Panarchy theory moves beyond interpreting systems using simplistic equilibrium models and acknowledging the more complex and dynamic set of equilibria that describes transformation in ecological, social, and economic systems and considers the multiple complexities of systems thinking while providing insight into how change occurs as a constantly adaptive cycle process. Used sparingly within social sciences until recently, we argue it as particularly relevant for seeing Transformative Inquiry through Indigenist and interconnected lenses
Different Images of Knowledge and Perspectives of Pedagogy in Confucius and Socrates
No full textConfucius and Socrates, two cultural icons of the East and West, both declared they did “not know,” which, however, held different concepts for them. First, I will critically examine their dialogue teaching practices to analyze the implications of “knowing" and “not knowing.” Second, I will explore the different images of knowledge and visions of pedagogy each held
Turbulence, Perturbance, and Educational Change
No full textWhile scholarship on educational change has long accepted that disruptions to the status quo are an essential part of the change process, disruption has never been more central to planned change than it is in the current political context in the USA, where legislation has mandated school closure, reconstitution, and turnaround as required remedies for schools failing to produce annual student achievement gains required by government. We are also unfortunately hampered by the imprecise language that surrounds complexity- based theories of educational change. Words such as perturbance, turbulence, and disruption all have gained currency lately, but meanings are unclear and overlapping. This essay seeks to lend some clarity to the debate by defining turbulence as the perception of forces in an organizational environment with the potential to disrupt current modes of operation. This is distinguished from perturbance which is defined as the social process of actors coming together to adjust organizational practice to fit with the changing environmental context. The case is argued that sensible reformers ought to be fostering perturbance while minimizing the harmful consequences of excessive turbulence
Beyond Teaching Methods: A Complexity Approach
No full textA complexivist perspective to teaching critiques the commonplace teaching "methods" and illuminates alternative approaches to teaching and teacher preparation. Focusing on system growth, the mutual influence of systems on one another, and nonlinear connectedness of systems, this paper defines four important components to teaching: A need for mutual influence among teachers, students, the content being taught and the curriculum; enculturation into a scholarly community; reflection on the part of teachers and students; and a need for teacher improvisation. The implication of these components for teacher preparation is then examined
Educating far from Equilibrium: Chaos Philosophy and the Quest for Complexity in Education
No full textIt would be futile, John Dewey argued in 1902, to think that we have to choose between child-centered, progressive education and traditional, subject-matter-oriented approaches. Calling for adaptivity, he stressed that we need the act of balancing the one with the other. The tendency in current educational policy to lean in favor of traditional, disciplinary modes of control appears to lose sight of this need. The aim of this paper is to reconnect to the task of maintaining a balance between educational freedom and structure, using a variety of theoretical resources such as complexity science, and the philosophies of Deleuze and Guattari, Schiller, and Nietzsche. Based on these resources, the authors also discuss Steiner Waldorf education as an example of how educational practice may approach, and integrate the significance of chaos in the form of a “virtual pedagogy”
Curriculum Studies Based on Complexity Science
No full textComplexity science is in the forefront of contemporary scientific development; its rise and development triggered the breakthrough and innovation of methodology in scientific research. Curriculum is a complex adaptive system. Complexity curriculum research also includes nonlinearity, uncertainty, self-organization and emergent properties
