ABSTRACT
Complexity theory is growing in usage among educational researchers. We can point to several recent books (Davis and Sumara 2006; Mason 2008 a; Osberg and Biesta 2010), a journal (Complicity, inaugurated in 2004), an annual international conference dedicated to complexity studies in education, an annual meeting of a special interest group in complexity at the American Educational Research Association, and various special issues of educational journals featuring complexity studies (e.g. Mason 2008 b,c; Osberg 2008). While its uptake is most evident in curriculum studies and school pedagogical writing, complexity theory also is beginning to appear in adult education and higher education (Karpiak 2000; Cutright 2001; Haggis 2007) and has become popular in workplace and vocational education, particularly organizational development and training (Kauffman 1995; Stacey 2005) and professional education (McMurtry 2010). This popularity is evident across the social sciences. In explaining the ‘turn’ to complexity, Urry (2005) noted that it is not surprising, given that complexity characterizes the global conditions of trade, migration, communications (and, we might argue, education) with the ever-evolving interconnectedness of ideas, processes and organizations and the tangled proliferation of technology-mediated networks.
