Research Methods in Education What is complexity?

Description

For Laplace and Newton, the universe was rationalistic, deterministic and of clockwork order; effects were functions of causes, small causes (minimal initial conditions) produced small effects (minimal and predictable) and large causes (multiple initial conditions) produced large (multiple) effects. Predictability, causality, patterning, universality and ‘grand’ overarching theories, linearity, continuity, stability, objectivity, all contributed to the view of the universe as an ordered and internally harmonistic mechanism in an albeit complex equilibrium, a rational, closed and deterministic system susceptible to comparatively straightforward scientific discovery and laws.

From the 1960s this view has been increasingly challenged with the rise of theories of chaos and complexity.

Complexity theory has entered the world of social sciences and is providing not only a significant challenge to existing research methods, but is suggesting alternative ways of conceiving the world and, thereby, of researching it (c.f. Morrison, 2002; 2003). Here we outline some key features of complexity theory, and tease out its implications for educational research.

Original URL

http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415368780/A/ch1doc.asp

http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415368780/A/ch1doc.asp