Foucault as Complexity Theorist: Overcoming the problems of classical philosophical analysis

This article explores the affinities and parallels between Foucault's Nietzschean view of history and models of complexity developed in the physical sciences in the twentieth century. It claims that Foucault's rejection of structuralism and Marxism can be explained as a consequence of his own approach which posits a radical ontology whereby the conception of the totality or whole is reconfigured as an always open, relatively borderless system of infinite interconnections, possibilities and developments. His rejection of Hegelianism, as well as of other enlightenment philosophies, can be understood at one level as a direct response to his rejection of the mechanical atomist, and organicist epistemological world views, based upon a Newtonian conception of a closed universe operating upon the basis of a small number of invariable and universal laws, by which all could be predicted and explained. The idea of a fully determined, closed universe is replaced; and in a way parallel to complexity theories, Foucault's own approach emphasises notions such as self‐organisation and dissipative structures; time as an irreversible, existential dimension; a world of finite resources but with infinite possibilities for articulation, or re‐investment; and characterised by the principles of openness, indeterminism, unpredictability, and uncertainty. The implications of Foucault's type of approach are then explored in relation to identity, creativity, and the uniqueness of the person. The article suggests that within a complexity theory approach many of the old conundrums concerning determinism and creativity, social constructionism and uniqueness, can be overcome.     

Complexity and Educational Research: A critical reflection

Judgements concerning proper or appropriate educational endeavour, methods of investigation and philosophising about education necessarily implicate perspectives, values, assumptions and beliefs. In recent years ideas from the complexity sciences have been utilised in many domains including psychology, economics, architecture, social science and education. This paper addresses questions concerning the appropriateness of utilising complexity science in educational research as well as issues relating to the ways in which complexity might be engaged. I suggest that, just like all human endeavour, approaches to research emerge out of discursive communities and can be understood as self‐organising, dynamic and emergent over time. In this formulation, complexity represents one such newly emergent approach. I argue that it is important that researchers partake in critical and reflective discourse about the nature of education and conceptual frameworks, as well as about impacts and legacies of utilising complexity, so as to participate in and influence the ongoing emergence of educational endeavour. I conclude by suggesting a series of caveats for researchers considering using complexity in educational research.     

Philosophical Remarks on Nelson Mandela’s Education Legacy

In this article, I reflect on Nelson Mandela’s (Madiba, the clan name of Mandela) education legacy. I argue that Madiba’s education legacy is constituted by three interrelated aspects: firstly, an education for non-violence guided by deliberation, compassion and reconciliation; secondly, education as responsibility towards the Other; and thirdly, education that cultivates a ‘community of thinking’. Educational philosophy and theory would be richly informed by the compelling education legacy bequeathed us by Nelson Mandela.     

Adverse Childhood Experiences Among MSW Students

This study examined the extent to which age, education, and practice experience among social work graduate students (N = 184) predicted cognitive complexity, an essential aspect of critical thinking. In the regression analysis, education accounted for more of the variance associated with cognitive complexity than age and practice experience. When age and direct practice experience were controlled for, education accounted for 6% of the variance in cognitive complexity. Results suggest that education experience may play a more important role in social work student cognitive complexity than age or practice experience. Implications for social work education and assessing student cognitive development are discussed.     

复杂性理论的启示:管理学研究需要多元化方法

介绍了复杂性理论研究的主要哲学原则,比较了实证主义、后现代主义与复杂性理论的本体论与认识论原则,讨论了复杂性理论原则如何能被应用到社会科学尤其是管理学中,提出关于管理学诸多研究方法的再评价问题.研究结论是管理学研究中需要发展多元化研究方法.     

旅游动力系统的状态与权变管理

将旅游动力系统概要地划分为直接动力系统和间接动力系统,具体分析了旅游动力系统内涵的层次性,提出了针对旅游动力系统状态应该采取的管理政策。     

风险投资战略在科研项目投资中的应用

分析了国内环境和风险投资业的发展．根据Li—Yorke定理推论出风险投资项目存在混沌．根据风险投资业和科研项目投资的共同特点提出了可以运用于高校科研项目投资管理方面的战略是：为实现短期的最大超额利润和最小风险,投资数量少、质量精、规模较大的项目．据此,提出高校科研项目投资应抓住机遇、加速发展,加强多元化投资、强化实时控制的战略转型．     

Transformation of complex movements from policy to practice – a discourse analysis of Swedish physical education teachers’ concepts of moving

ABSTRACT

Background: How teachers enact policy has been of significant interest to educational scholars. In physical education research, scholars have identified several factors affecting the enactment of policy. These factors include but are not limited to: structural support available for teachers, provision of professional development opportunities, the nature of the policy, and the educational philosophies of the teachers. A recurring conclusion drawn in this scholarship is that official documentation and teachers’ work often diverge, sometimes in profound ways.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how physical education teachers in Sweden describe their enactment of policy regarding the concept complex movement, which features in the latest Swedish curriculum.

Methods: Interview data were generated with six specialist physical education teachers. Three questions guided the interviews: What is complex movement? What is not complex movement? And, can you give examples from your teaching of complex movement? Data were analyzed using a discourse analytic framework. Meaning was understood as a production of dialectical relationships between individuals and social practices. Two key concepts were utilized: intertextuality, which refers to the condition whereby all communicative events, not merely utterances, draw on earlier communication events, and interdiscursivity, which refers to discursive practices in which discourse types are combined in new and complex ways.

Results: We identified three discourses regarding the teachers’ enactment of policy: (1) Complex movement as individual difficulty, (2) Complex movement as composite movements, and (3) Complex movement as situational adaptation. Several features were common to all three discourses: they were all related to issues of assessment; they suggested that complex movement is something students should be able to show or perform, and; they left open room for practically any activity done in physical education to be considered complex.

Discussion: Three issues are addressed in the Discussion. The first concerns the intertextual nature of the teachers’ statements and how the statements relate to policy and research. The second concerns the way that knowledge, and specifically movement knowledge, becomes problematic in the teachers’ statements about complex movement. The third concerns more broadly the language used to describe the relationship between policy and practice.

Conclusions: We propose that modest levels of overlap between teachers’ discursive resources, policy, and research is unsurprising. In line with earlier research, we suggest that the notion of ‘enactment’ is a more productive way to describe policy-oriented practice than notions such as ‘implementation’ or ‘translation’, which imply a uni-directional, linear execution of policy.     

Defining,assessing, and developing creativity in sport: a systematic narrative review

ABSTRACT

Research on creativity in sport is gaining momentum, due to a growing interest from coaches and academics in developing strategies to increase unpredictability in individual and collective behaviour which may allow teams to gain an important advantage over their opponents. The purpose of this paper was to conduct the first systematic narrative review of the literature on sporting creativity, critically synthesising 51 years of published research (1967–2018) and proposing avenues for future research. Six databases were used, and 48 documents met search criteria. The findings are organised in four categories: (a) defining creativity, (b) correlates of creativity, (c) assessing creativity and (d) developing creativity. Creativity definitions and assessments have privileged thought processes over the ability to act. A distinction is warranted between creativity about sport and creativity in sport (in action) and aligned assessment methods. The literature does not support a single strategy for the development of sporting creativity but does support its trainability. Evidence of the effectiveness of programmes for the enhancement of sporting creativity is growing but is still limited. Furthermore, while it is recognised that coaches have a pivotal role in the development of sporting creativity, research involving them is still scarce.