{"title":"A review of Systems Theory for Pragmatic Schooling: Toward Principles of Democratic Education","authors":"S. Beeson","doi":"10.29173/CMPLCT26008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/CMPLCT26008","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43228,"journal":{"name":"Complicity-An International Journal of Complexity and Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84118677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Students learn best when teachers get out of the way. Unfortunately, university classrooms continue to be intensely teacher-centric, are driven by the teacher’s agenda and calendar, and embrace simple models rather complex alternatives. These simple types of learning environments frustrate students’ development of the risk-taking and choice making confidence they need in the workplace. Bain (2004) makes the point that environments embracing choice as a priority, welcoming risk taking, and nurturing students who make mistakes, are better at preparing students for professional success. In this paper, we intend to provide context to the conversation about how learning-risks and agency impact and promote the individual growth of the student when the teacher gets out of the way. Combining a Rapid Assessment Process (RAP) (Beebe, 2001) informed by Action Research (AR) (Stringer, 2007; Schon, 1983; Argyris, 1993) we devised an experiment to determine if a university course would invite more student growth when the environment changed from being teacher-centric with highly structured assignments and critical assessments, to one that embraces the tenets of complexity theory. The purpose of this approach was an attempt to challenge the status quo; to show how complex interactions between risk-taking, agency, learning culture, teacher-facilitator-mentors, peers, coursework, and outcomes are important to students’ preparation for successful professional work. To accomplish this we experimented within a software development course at a large university in the northwestern United States and found students appeared more prepared to move on to the professional workplace when they had experienced risk taking and agency in a learning environment based on complexity theory precepts.
{"title":"Getting out of the Way: Learning, Risk, and Choice.","authors":"Lee S. Barney, Bryan D. Maughan","doi":"10.29173/CMPLCT24198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/CMPLCT24198","url":null,"abstract":"Students learn best when teachers get out of the way. Unfortunately, university classrooms continue to be intensely teacher-centric, are driven by the teacher’s agenda and calendar, and embrace simple models rather complex alternatives. These simple types of learning environments frustrate students’ development of the risk-taking and choice making confidence they need in the workplace. Bain (2004) makes the point that environments embracing choice as a priority, welcoming risk taking, and nurturing students who make mistakes, are better at preparing students for professional success. In this paper, we intend to provide context to the conversation about how learning-risks and agency impact and promote the individual growth of the student when the teacher gets out of the way. Combining a Rapid Assessment Process (RAP) (Beebe, 2001) informed by Action Research (AR) (Stringer, 2007; Schon, 1983; Argyris, 1993) we devised an experiment to determine if a university course would invite more student growth when the environment changed from being teacher-centric with highly structured assignments and critical assessments, to one that embraces the tenets of complexity theory. The purpose of this approach was an attempt to challenge the status quo; to show how complex interactions between risk-taking, agency, learning culture, teacher-facilitator-mentors, peers, coursework, and outcomes are important to students’ preparation for successful professional work. To accomplish this we experimented within a software development course at a large university in the northwestern United States and found students appeared more prepared to move on to the professional workplace when they had experienced risk taking and agency in a learning environment based on complexity theory precepts.","PeriodicalId":43228,"journal":{"name":"Complicity-An International Journal of Complexity and Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89838227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"But... What about my epistemological foundations","authors":"Raquel Isabel Barrera Curin","doi":"10.29173/CMPLCT22973","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/CMPLCT22973","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43228,"journal":{"name":"Complicity-An International Journal of Complexity and Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84725157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hybrid creatures as complicating visions of early childhood","authors":"Linda Knight, H. Rayner","doi":"10.29173/CMPLCT24242","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/CMPLCT24242","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43228,"journal":{"name":"Complicity-An International Journal of Complexity and Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.29173/CMPLCT24242","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72533206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Complicity readers are invited to “pick up” this special issue dedicated to early childhood education where they feel most drawn, circling back and forth, and/or iteratively making connections. But we hope you start here. Not because this is somehow a beginning, but because it might act as a middle that teases out emerging themes, while it resists resting at final meanings. Sellers ' work with rhizomatic analysis speaks to the importance of defying beginnings and instead of working generatively with middles which might open up vocalities for seeing the complex work of children’s learning. We view children as competent, capable of complex thinking, curious, and rich in potential. They grow up in families with diverse social, cultural, and linguistic perspectives. Every child should feel that he or she belongs, is a valuable contributor to his or her surroundings, and deserves the opportunity to succeed. When we recognize children as capable and curious, we are more likely to deliver programs and services that value and build on their strengths and abilities. (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2014, p. 6)
{"title":"It Doesn’t Matter Where You Start – But Where You Start Matters…","authors":"R. Khattar, Winifred Hunsburger","doi":"10.29173/cmplct24240","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/cmplct24240","url":null,"abstract":"Complicity readers are invited to “pick up” this special issue dedicated to early childhood education where they feel most drawn, circling back and forth, and/or iteratively making connections. But we hope you start here. Not because this is somehow a beginning, but because it might act as a middle that teases out emerging themes, while it resists resting at final meanings. Sellers ' work with rhizomatic analysis speaks to the importance of defying beginnings and instead of working generatively with middles which might open up vocalities for seeing the complex work of children’s learning. We view children as competent, capable of complex thinking, curious, and rich in potential. They grow up in families with diverse social, cultural, and linguistic perspectives. Every child should feel that he or she belongs, is a valuable contributor to his or her surroundings, and deserves the opportunity to succeed. When we recognize children as capable and curious, we are more likely to deliver programs and services that value and build on their strengths and abilities. (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2014, p. 6)","PeriodicalId":43228,"journal":{"name":"Complicity-An International Journal of Complexity and Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83793723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
My story begins with an observation of a child. Watching him, I was challenged as I attempted to understand his play. JH’s play and his engagement of the materials around him always occurred in silence. He did not verbally share his play with me and at times I did not understand the thoughts behind his exploration. I quickly came to wonder if I could not understand his play, how could I, as his educator, support and extend his learning?
{"title":"Complexities in Multiple Perspectives","authors":"A. Stannard","doi":"10.29173/CMPLCT24244","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/CMPLCT24244","url":null,"abstract":"My story begins with an observation of a child. Watching him, I was challenged as I attempted to understand his play. JH’s play and his engagement of the materials around him always occurred in silence. He did not verbally share his play with me and at times I did not understand the thoughts behind his exploration. I quickly came to wonder if I could not understand his play, how could I, as his educator, support and extend his learning?","PeriodicalId":43228,"journal":{"name":"Complicity-An International Journal of Complexity and Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73890753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The move: Reggio Emilia‐inspired teaching","authors":"J. Wood, T. Thall, Emily Caruso Parnell","doi":"10.29173/CMPLCT24241","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/CMPLCT24241","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43228,"journal":{"name":"Complicity-An International Journal of Complexity and Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76773922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper presents findings from an eleven-year ethnographic study which describes how three children used different sign systems to become literate, to define who they are and to construct their literate identity. They each engaged with literacies in powerful and life transforming ways. Each child used multiple literacies to learn, understand and create meaning more fully; using their motivated interest in a preferred literacy to scaffold their learning of another literacy. In analysing this rich literacies use I have come to understand that literacies are complex in their conception and use and that all sign systems (e.g. art, dance, reading, writing, videogaming, etc.) operate using common semiotic principles. Sign systems as literacies are multimodal, meaning-focused and motivated; they involve specific social and cultural practices which differ depending on site and community. During every literate act the children in this study made extensive use of the semantic, sensory, syntactic and pragmatic cuing systems to make meaning, regardless of the literacies used.
{"title":"Multiple Possibilities: The Multi-literate Lives of Three Children","authors":"J. Wood","doi":"10.29173/CMPLCT23172","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/CMPLCT23172","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents findings from an eleven-year ethnographic study which describes how three children used different sign systems to become literate, to define who they are and to construct their literate identity. They each engaged with literacies in powerful and life transforming ways. Each child used multiple literacies to learn, understand and create meaning more fully; using their motivated interest in a preferred literacy to scaffold their learning of another literacy. In analysing this rich literacies use I have come to understand that literacies are complex in their conception and use and that all sign systems (e.g. art, dance, reading, writing, videogaming, etc.) operate using common semiotic principles. Sign systems as literacies are multimodal, meaning-focused and motivated; they involve specific social and cultural practices which differ depending on site and community. During every literate act the children in this study made extensive use of the semantic, sensory, syntactic and pragmatic cuing systems to make meaning, regardless of the literacies used.","PeriodicalId":43228,"journal":{"name":"Complicity-An International Journal of Complexity and Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87129470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this conversation rhizoanalysis is introduced as a way of processing through an assemblage involving research methodology, generation of data and analytical possibilities entwined within. As a research methodology, rhizomethodology (Author, 2009) is a way of putting the Deleuzo-Guattarian philosophical imaginary of rhizome (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) to work; it is a way of working (with) data, complexly. With/in/alongside this methodological approach, the rhizoanalysis becomes the inquiry of the research, happening throughout the whole research process. The analysis is not a constant thing relegated to a place of its own, rather, the rhizoanalysis as ‘some of rhizome’ (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, p. 9) happens throughout. With/in/through processes of thinking rhizome in flux, working rhizome (im)provis(at)ionally is an ongoing experiment with and exploration of my own thinking. Rhizoanalysis (dis)continuously (e)merges with/in/through every dimension of the thinking, ebbing and flowing with/in/through matters of always already becoming so that writing (about) rhizoanalysis is also affected by writing (the) methodology and doing (the) rhizoanalysis; nothing was/is separate or linear in the thinking or writing up~down of the research project drawn on here. Rather, there was/is an ongoing intermingling of data, methodology and analysis with theorising the literature and practicing the theory, each becoming the other(s).
在这次谈话中,根分析被介绍为一种通过研究方法、数据生成和分析可能性交织在一起的组合进行处理的方式。作为一种研究方法,根茎方法学(Author, 2009)是将德勒兹-瓜塔里对根茎的哲学想象(deleuzo -Guattari, 1987)付诸实践的一种方式;它是一种复杂的处理数据的方法。有了这种方法论方法,根茎分析成为研究的探究,贯穿于整个研究过程。分析并不是一个固定的东西,而是作为“一些根茎”(Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, p. 9)进行的根茎分析。/ /通过思维过程粉末在变化,工作粉末(im)保留(在)维是一个正在进行的试验和探索我自己的思考。根茎分析(dis)不断地(e)与思维的每一个维度融合在一起,在/在/通过/总是已经形成的事物中起伏,因此,关于根茎分析的写作也受到写作(方法)和做根茎分析的影响;在思考或写下来的研究项目中,没有什么是独立的或线性的。相反,数据、方法和分析与文献理论化和理论实践不断交织在一起,彼此相互影响。
{"title":"…working with (a) rhizoanalysis…and working (with) a rhizoanalysis","authors":"Marg Sellers","doi":"10.29173/CMPLCT23166","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/CMPLCT23166","url":null,"abstract":"In this conversation rhizoanalysis is introduced as a way of processing through an assemblage involving research methodology, generation of data and analytical possibilities entwined within. As a research methodology, rhizomethodology (Author, 2009) is a way of putting the Deleuzo-Guattarian philosophical imaginary of rhizome (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) to work; it is a way of working (with) data, complexly. With/in/alongside this methodological approach, the rhizoanalysis becomes the inquiry of the research, happening throughout the whole research process. The analysis is not a constant thing relegated to a place of its own, rather, the rhizoanalysis as ‘some of rhizome’ (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, p. 9) happens throughout. With/in/through processes of thinking rhizome in flux, working rhizome (im)provis(at)ionally is an ongoing experiment with and exploration of my own thinking. Rhizoanalysis (dis)continuously (e)merges with/in/through every dimension of the thinking, ebbing and flowing with/in/through matters of always already becoming so that writing (about) rhizoanalysis is also affected by writing (the) methodology and doing (the) rhizoanalysis; nothing was/is separate or linear in the thinking or writing up~down of the research project drawn on here. Rather, there was/is an ongoing intermingling of data, methodology and analysis with theorising the literature and practicing the theory, each becoming the other(s).","PeriodicalId":43228,"journal":{"name":"Complicity-An International Journal of Complexity and Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89698626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Efforts to support early childhood workforce stability over many years, and across many national contexts have had limited success. Research and policy attention appears to be shifting to ways of supporting the sustainability of the early childhood workforce, and, ways that educators’ experiences in their work environments might be implicated in these issues. The purpose of this paper is to explore the complex interrelations between educators’ work environments and their experiences, as an entryway for thinking differently about workforce sustainability. A rhizoanalytic approach is used to explore one educator’s experiences in her work environment, through readings of visual, textual and affective data. The readings of (im)possible ways of being an educator shaped by this work environment, are then used as prompts for thinking differently about workforce stability and sustainability. The paper concludes with calls for an approach to supporting workforce stability and sustainability, that is based on the recognition of the interrelatedness and mutual interests of children, educators, families and governments.
{"title":"Early Childhood Educators' Experiences in Their Work Environments: Shaping (Im)possible Ways of Being an Educator?.","authors":"T. Cumming","doi":"10.29173/CMPLCT23068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.29173/CMPLCT23068","url":null,"abstract":"Efforts to support early childhood workforce stability over many years, and across many national contexts have had limited success. Research and policy attention appears to be shifting to ways of supporting the sustainability of the early childhood workforce, and, ways that educators’ experiences in their work environments might be implicated in these issues. The purpose of this paper is to explore the complex interrelations between educators’ work environments and their experiences, as an entryway for thinking differently about workforce sustainability. A rhizoanalytic approach is used to explore one educator’s experiences in her work environment, through readings of visual, textual and affective data. The readings of (im)possible ways of being an educator shaped by this work environment, are then used as prompts for thinking differently about workforce stability and sustainability. The paper concludes with calls for an approach to supporting workforce stability and sustainability, that is based on the recognition of the interrelatedness and mutual interests of children, educators, families and governments.","PeriodicalId":43228,"journal":{"name":"Complicity-An International Journal of Complexity and Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84434043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}