"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"--
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.
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.
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 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.
A collection of scholarly essays, Complexity Theory and thePhilosophy of Education provides an accessible theoreticalintroduction to the topic of complexity theory while consideringits broader implications for educational change. Explains the contributions of complexity theory to philosophyof education, curriculum, and educational research Brings together new research by an international team ofcontributors Debates issues ranging from the culture of curriculum, to theimplications of work of key philosophers such as Foucault and JohnDewey for educational change Demonstrates how social scientists and social and educationpolicy makers are drawing on complexity theory to answer questionssuch as: why is it that education decision-makers are so resistantto change; how does change in education happen; and what does ittake to make these changes sustainable? Considers changes in use of complexity theory; developedprincipally in the fields of physics, biology, chemistry, andeconomics, and now being applied more broadly to the socialsciences and to the study of education
This book explains why complex systems research is important in understanding the structure, function and dynamics of complex natural and social phenomena. It illuminates how complex collective behavior emerges from the parts of a system, due to the interaction between the system and its environment. Readers will learn the basic concepts and methods of complex system research. The book is not highly technical mathematically, but teaches and uses the basic mathematical notions of dynamical system theory, making the book useful for students of science majors and graduate courses.
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.
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.
Transforming Education challenges the current global orthodoxy that ‘educational transformation’ can be achieved through a step-by-step implementation of centralised, performance-based strategies for school improvement. Complex responsive processes theory is utilised in an original way to critique leadership myths and explore the alternative, deeper meanings of educational transformation. The theory opens up new forms of understanding about how ordinary practitioners negotiate the meanings of ‘improvement’ in their everyday practice. It is in the gap between the emergence of these local interactions and the predetermined designs of policy-makers that educational transformation can be lost or found. This book is an essential read for education professionals and students interested in the fields of complexity, education policy, leadership and management.
