Eco-Complexity Discourses

Focus

Understanding ecologies (of lifeforms, ideas, complex systems, etc.) as dynamic, learning phenomena

Principal Metaphors

  • Knowledge is … scope of possibilities
  • Knowing is … viability-maintaining functioning
  • Learner is … an ecosystem
  • Learning is … evolving; selecting, blending, and refining possibilities
  • Teaching is … designing experiences (orienting, juxtaposing)

Originated

late-1900s

Synopsis

Eco-Complexity Discourses is a sub-category of Coherence Discourses. It is an umbrella term that reaches across perspectives on learning that refuse separations of human from nature, material from transcendent, and part from whole. Across Eco-Complexity Discourses, learning is understood as synonymous with evolution.

Commentary

Different Eco-Complexity Discourses attend to, grapple with, and prompt different issues – and so it doesn’t make much sense to attempt a general commentary. There are few robust criticisms of Eco-Complexity Discourses, as most negative remarks are anchored to deep-seated metaphysical assumptions that rely on such dichotomies as human/natural, part/whole, and material/transcendent.

Map Location



Please cite this article as:
Davis, B., & Francis, K. (2021). “Eco-Complexity Discourses” in Discourses on Learning in Education. https://learningdiscourses.com.


⇦ Back to Map
⇦ Back to List