Wickedity and Complexity in Educational Research: A Workshop to Spark Transformational Scholarship on Education Systems

Session Type: Workshop

Abstract

To cultivate equitable education systems for the 21st century, educational researchers must grapple with ill-structured, wicked problems—high-stakes, transdisciplinary, dilemma-rich issues that are enmeshed with sociocultural systems and devoid of singular, permanent solutions. By nature, wicked problems manifest properties of complex dynamic systems, including linear and nonlinear processes, contextual sensitivity and intrinsic dynamics, and interdependence among constructs and processes at individual and collective units-of-analysis. Led by an esteemed group of educational researchers whose work in complexity will spark the audience to consider new theoretical and methodological frames for their work, this innovative workshop session will focus on generating strategies for conceptualizing and promoting equity in educational systems by considering wickedity and complexity in systems of school leaders, teachers, and students.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Complexity Theories in Education

Participants

• Emma P. Bullock, Sam Houston State University

• Gwen C. Marchand, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Christopher Edmund Trombly, Southern Connecticut State University

• Avi Kaplan, Temple University

• Matthijs Koopmans, Mercy College

Papers

• Wickedity and Complexity in Educational Research: A Workshop to Spark Transformational Scholarship on Education Systems - Joanna K. Garner, The Center for Educational Partnerships

Discussants

• M. Jayne Fleener, North Carolina State University

• Helena J. M. Pennings, University Medical center Utrecht