Understanding Educational Complexity

Understanding Educational Complexity presents in-depth case studies to explore the interdependence of educational research, practice, and policy, and offers frameworks for understanding how the intractable dilemmas of education reflect and embody the social, cultural, and developmental patterns of society.

"Our ability to understand and improve the field of education depends upon our ability to understand human development, culture, and society. We cannot understand what is happening in schools unless we understand the context in which schools exist. Through meaningful stories of school leadership and critical reflections on theories of complex systems, this book offers a framework for understanding how the intractable dilemmas of education reflect and embody the social, cultural, and developmental patterns of society. From the concrete dilemmas of school leadership to the abstract vistas of integral meta-theory, this book is a guide to understanding how it all fits together, and how to encourage the holistic growth of students, teachers, leaders, and educational systems"--

This book explores the contributions, actual and potential, of complexity thinking to educational research and practice. While its focus is on the theoretical premises and the methodology, not specific applications, the aim is pragmatic--to present complexity thinking as an important and appropriate attitude for educators and educational researchers. Part I is concerned with global issues around complexity thinking, as read through an educational lens. Part II cites a diversity of practices and studies that are either explicitly informed by or that might be aligned with complexity research, and offers focused and practiced advice for structuring projects in ways that are consistent with complexity thinking. Complexity thinking offers a powerful alternative to the linear, reductionist approaches to inquiry that have dominated the sciences for hundreds of years and educational research for more than a century. It has captured the attention of many researchers whose studies reach across traditional disciplinary boundaries to investigate phenomena such as: How does the brain work? What is consciousness? What is intelligence? What is the role of emergent technologies in shaping personalities and possibilities? How do social collectives work? What is knowledge? Complexity research posits that a deep similarity among these phenomena is that each points toward some sort of system that learns. The authors’ intent is not to offer a complete account of the relevance of complexity thinking to education, not to prescribe and delimit, but to challenge readers to examine their own assumptions and theoretical commitments--whether anchored by commonsense, classical thought or any of the posts (such as postmodernism, poststructuralism, postcolonialism, postpositivism, postformalism, postepistemology) that mark the edges of current discursive possibility. Complexity and Education is THE introduction to the emerging field of complexity thinking for the education community. It is specifically relevant for educational researchers, graduate students, and inquiry-oriented teacher practitioners.

This title focuses on complexity thinking in the context of physical education, enabling fresh ways of thinking about research, teaching, curriculum and learning. Written by a team of leading international physical education scholars, the book highlights how the considerable theoretical promise of complexity can be reflected in the actual policies, pedagogies and practices of physical education.

Complexity theory has become a major influence in discussions about the theory and practice of education. This book focuses on a question which so far has received relatively little attention in such discussions, which is the question of the politics of complexity.

Interest in complexity theory, a relation of chaos theory, has become well established in the business community in recent years. Complexity theory argues that systems are complex interactions of many parts which cannot be predicted by accepted linear equations. In this book, Keith Morrison introduces complexity theory to the world of education, drawing out its implications for school leadership. He suggests that schools are complex, nonlinear and unpredictable systems, and that this impacts significantly within them. As schools race to keep up with change and innovation, he suggests that it is possible to find order without control and to lead without coercion. Key areas: * schools and self-organisation * leadership for self-organisation * supporting emergence through the learning organisation * schools and their environments * communication * fitness landscapes This book will be of interest to headteachers and middle managers, and those on higher level courses in educational leadership and management.

Teacher professionalism in changing times -- Professional identities : teaching as emotional work -- Commitment as a key to quality : variations in teachers' work and lives -- A capacity for resilience -- Teachers' professional learning and development : combining the functional and attitudinal -- Learning as a school-led social endeavour -- The importance of high quality leadership -- Understanding complexity, building quality

"This volume, the result of four years of work performed by the combined research groups of Utrecht University (Faculty of Humanities) and the HU Utrecht University of Applied Sciences (Faculty of Education), focuses on the central theme of ‘Normative Professionalization’. Drawing on a wide variety of scholars including Hannah Arendt, Gert Biesta, Harry Kunneman, Donald Schön and Chris Argyris, and engaging with professionalism, ethics, virtue and morality, this book builds the argument that learning to deal with complexity supports not only education but the personal development of teachers and the improvement of society and democracy as well. This volume presents research on a broad range of topics such as worldview education, co-teaching, moral authorship, traditional-reform perspectives on education, the discourse on citizenship, teacher education, and the question how to link religion and education. The research chapters explain the theoretical lenses and methodological approaches which have been employed to get a grip on complexity. The results have been interpreted in light of the concepts of horror complexitatis, amor complexitatis and dolor complexitatis. Guided by detailed research accounts of worldview descriptions provided by students and teachers, this framework has been enriched with the notion of a passio complexitatis. In the concluding chapters, the book advocates for an improved balance between the normative and instrumental professionalization of teachers, in order to create space for the improvement of pedagogical relations and processes and to reintroduce the moral dimensions of education. The claim throughout this book is that allowing for complexity in education – even going so far as to embrace it – is vital for the improvement of education, and a prerequisite for more authentic relationships (on the micro level) and the maintenance of a well-functioning democracy and a balanced society (on the macro level). This book is of interest to researchers and educators who are interested in normative professionalization, to qualitative and practice oriented researchers, to teachers and managers in primary, secondary and professional education, and to the wider public which is concerned with the significance of education for the development of a stable and sustainable society."