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Education for Sustainable Development in Further Education pp 143–156Cite as

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Complexity Theory and Emergence: Contributions to ESD

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Abstract

This chapter aims to enable the reader to understand and reflect on the ideas of complexity theory and emergence and apply them to developing practical approaches to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The chapter begins with a theoretical explanation of complexity and emergence and then introduces Doll’s (1993) 4 Rs approach (Richness, Recursion, Relations and Rigour) to provide a practical framework for working with these ideas. It ends with a case study of student teachers developing ESD in their curricula using Heron and Reason’s (2001) co-operative inquiry approach and a complexity approach incorporating the 4 Rs model. Reflective, critical thinking and research tasks are provided throughout the chapter for those who want to explore the concepts and practical ideas in more depth.

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Further Reading

  • Doll (1993) provides, introduces, the possibilities offered by complexity-informed approaches to education and connects these to the work of theorists such as Piaget and Dewey.

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  • Davis and Sumara (2006) provides a straightforward introduction to complexity thinking and education.

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  • The Journal of Educational Philosophy and Theory published a special volume in 2008 (Vol. 40 No. 1) exploring complexity theory and educational research. It provides articles on: complexity theory and education (Mason 2008a and b), complexity and truth (Radford 2008), Foucault ‘as a complexity theorist’ (Olssen 2008), human research and complexity theory (Horn 2008) and the student as subject (Osberg and Biesta 2008).

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  • Biesta (2013) provides a challenging discussion of democratic possibilities of adopting complexity thinking in education.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plymouth University, Plymouth, UK

    Sarah Chave

Authors
  1. Sarah Chave
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Education, Plymouth University, Plymouth, United Kingdom

    Denise Summers

  2. Institute of Education, Plymouth University, Plymouth, United Kingdom

    Roger Cutting

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© 2016 The Author(s)

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Chave, S. (2016). Complexity Theory and Emergence: Contributions to ESD. In: Summers, D., Cutting, R. (eds) Education for Sustainable Development in Further Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51911-5_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51911-5_10

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-51910-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-51911-5

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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