Dynamics of a Scholarly Life: Conversational Complexity in Pursuit of the Mysterium Tremendum

• In Event: 30.047 - Echoes of God's Laughter: Entertaining the Generative and Generous Gifts of William E. Doll, Jr.

Abstract

Purpose
The corpus of a scholarly life seldom follows a linear path. The meanderings and cycles of thinking ebb and flow as thinking matures and is transformed by contexts and experiences. Seldom do we have an opportunity to reflect on these paths that reveal both origins and connections within a scholarly opus. The purpose of this paper is to provide such a perspective of the life and work of William Doll.
Perspective
Complexity theory provides the lens through which Doll’s work is examined. Even as Doll’s work has ebbed and flowed through the chaos and complexity literature, the unfolding of his scholarship can be traced as a complex adaptive system. As such, the system has particular drivers that include a passion for teaching and commitment to transform the curriculum field. Underlying dynamics of his work include sensitivity to initial conditions, recursive dynamics, and transformational processes.
Inquiry Mode
An inquiry web (Author, 2016) provides the scaffolding for exploring the complexity of Doll’s scholarship (see Figure 1.) As a mode of philosophical inquiry grounded in complexity theory, the inquiry web traces Doll’s work through beginnings in history and process philosophy, to an exploration of post-modernism and complexity theories, to ultimately evolve an approach to curriculum that reveals the Mysterium Tremendum of the teaching and learning relationship.
Data
Much of Doll’s work has been summarized and compiled in the recently published text edited by his wife, Donna Trueit (Doll & Trueit, 2012). Using the Inquiry Web to examine his work begins by tracing his explorations of Dewey and Whitehead. As pragmatic and process philosophers, the seeds of complexity can be traced through Doll’s work to key notions of relationship, process, and transformation.
Post-modern structures are another organizing structure for understanding Doll’s scholarly work. Through his explorations of and writings about Piaget, early in his career, and later his explorations of chaos and complexity theories, post-modernism provides a perspective of curriculum that, through a complexity lens, supports emergence as vital to the dynamics of teaching and learning. His seminal work, A Post-Modern Perspective On Curriculum (Doll, 1993) connects post-modernism with process philosophy while introducing educators to complexity thinkers such as Prigogine. Through these chaos and complexity perspectives, recursive dynamics re-define the curriculum as relational, rich, recursive and rigorous – the four R’s.
The teaching and learning/teacher and student relationship emerges from the dynamic curriculum process as an evolving, complex conversation. Seeded by rich resources, teacher and student are afforded opportunities to play-with ideas. Openness to learning becomes a focal point of his post-modern curriculum as academic pursuits reveal the Mysterium Tremendum, the mysterious energies that drive an intellect.
Results
Seldom is the evolution of one’s work so compatible with the driving forces of one’s scholarly pursuits. There is a “double-bind” relationship between the evolution of Doll’s scholarship and the purpose of his efforts to create a dynamic curriculum that engages the Mysterium Tremendum. There is much to learn about the man and this process as we explore the dynamics of Bill Doll’s scholarly life.

Author

• M. Jayne Fleener, North Carolina State University