Education is Too Complex to Simply be Complicated: Repellors, Attractors, and the Interconnectedness of Things

Abstract

Our classrooms exist in a reality of increasing interconnectedness, cultural and societal boundary shifts, and readily available (mis)information. This reality thrusts learners and the classroom into a diverse arena where our collective and individual demographics influence and impact those around us, how we grow to understand “others,” and understand who we are in that context. It is in this context that exists an opportunity to conceptualize a new model to make explicit the complex, dynamic, self-similar relationships, and emergent contexts in which we operate within the classroom ecosystem. This ecosystem is one that is connected in complex and dynamic ways, understandable only through holistic analysis. While the classroom, the individual agents that comprise it, and a myriad of other aspects or properties of the greater system all contribute to the classroom experience, none of them independently defines the system, controls the behaviors of it participants, or dictates the trajectories of learning that occur within it. It is conceptualized that within the complex system that is a classroom, there exists phenomena that influence and direct the learning trajectories of the class and its individual students. It is further believed that some plenary amongst these influencing phenomena are attractors and repellors. The main question this research intends to answer was, “What are the distinct types and behaviors of attractors and repellors that exist in the classroom context when viewing that classroom as a complex system?” This research not only confirmed that classrooms operate and exist as complex systems but also affirmed existing research pertaining to the identification of attractors and repellors. More importantly, however, this research expanded the definition and articulation of the behaviors of attractors and repellors. This research more clearly identified and articulated these behaviors in the context of classroom dialogs that occurred over the duration of a semester long course. Further, this research demonstrated the development of additional methods for identifying and evaluating complex systems qualitatively.