RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

34 THE NATURE OF INQUIRY
and arising from, a specific topic or centre
of interest (a ‘strange attractor’). Individuals,
families, students, classes, schools, communities
and societies exist in symbiosis; complexity theory
tells us that their relationships are necessary,
not contingent, and analytic, not synthetic.
This is a challenging prospect for educational
research, and complexity theory, a comparatively
new perspective in educational research, offers
considerable leverage into understanding societal,
community, individual, and institutional change;
it provides the nexus between macro- and
micro-research in understanding and promoting
change.
In addressing holism, complexity theory suggests
the need for case study methodology, action
research, and participatory forms of research,
premised in many ways on interactionist,
qualitative accounts, i.e. looking at situations
through the eyes of as many participants or
stakeholders as possible. This enables multiple
causality, multiple perspectives and multiple
effects to be charted. Self-organization, a
key feature of complexity theory, argues for
participatory, collaborative and multi-perspectival
approaches to educational research. This is not to
deny ‘outsider’ research; it is to suggest that, if it
is conducted, outsider research has to take in as
many perspectives as possible.
In educational research terms, complexity
theory stands against simple linear methodologies
based on linear views of causality, arguing for
multiple causality and multidirectional causes and
effects, as organisms (however defined: individuals,
groups, communities) are networked and relate at
ahostofdifferentlevelsandinarangeofdiverse
ways. No longer can one be certain that a simple
cause brings a simple or single effect, or that a
single effect is the result of a single cause, or that
the location of causes will be in single fields only,
or that the location of effects will be in a limited
number of fields.
Complexity theory not only questions the values
of positivist research and experimentation, but
also underlines the importance of educational research
to catch the deliberate, intentional, agentic
actions of participants and to adopt interactionist
and constructivist perspectives. Addressing complexity
theory’s argument for self-organization,
the call is for the teacher-as-researcher movement
to be celebrated, and complexity theory
suggests that research in education could concern
itself with the symbiosis of internal and external
researchers and research partnerships. Just as
complexity theory suggests that there are multiple
views of reality, so this accords not only
with the need for several perspectives on a situation
(using multi-methods), but resonates with
those tenets of critical research that argue for
different voices and views to be heard. Heterogeneity
is the watchword. Complexity theory not
only provides a powerful challenge to conventional
approaches to educational research, but
also suggests both a substantive agenda and a set
of methodologies. It provides an emerging new
paradigm for research (see http://www.routledge.
com/textbooks/9780415368780 – Chapter 1, file
1.1.doc).
Feminist research
It is perhaps no mere coincidence that feminist
research should surface as a serious issue at the same
time as ideology-critical paradigms for research;
they are closely connected. Usher (1996: 124),
although criticizing Habermas for his faith in
family life as a haven from a heartless, exploitative
world, nevertheless sets out several principles of
feminist research that resonate with the ideology
critique of the Frankfurt School:
acknowledging the pervasive influence of
gender as a category of analysis and
organization
deconstructing traditional commitments to
truth, objectivity and neutrality
adopting an approach to knowledge creation
which recognizes that all theories are
perspectival
using a multiplicity of research methods
acknowledging the interdisciplinary nature of
feminist research
involving the researcher and the people being
researched