Insights From Complexity: A Literacy Initiative Through the Lens of Complexity Theory

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Roundtable Session: Using Complexity Theory Toward a Deeper Understanding of Educational Processes

Abstract

Through the lens of complexity theory, the interconnectedness of agents within a district system illuminates the activities and structures within the system design that facilitate or hinder meaningful change. This qualitative study uses a phenomenological approach to advance complex systems theory, allowing a multi-dimensional exploration of the fundamental attributes of the system. Interactions of participants within the system are examined via interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). When examined through the lens of complexity theory, the structures of the literacy initiative and the relationships between elements of the system and its processes were shown to have operated within a “top-down” educational directive, resulting in “bottom-up” resistance.

Authors

• Mary Kathryn Hudson, Louisiana State University

• Renee M. Casbergue, Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge