Environmental Studies Faculty and Staff Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2013
Keywords
Transformative inquiry, Panarchy
Abstract
Pre-service teachers face a complex educational context and Transformative Inquiry is a useful approach for negotiating this terrain. We interpret the movement of students via the adaptive cycle put forth in panarchy theory as they engage in the inquiry process through ‘winter counts’, a Plains First Nation tradition, as expressions of their understanding. These image-based expressions demonstrate the emotional, mental, spiritual and physical movement students have made within their inquiry. Panarchy theory moves beyond interpreting systems using simplistic equilibrium models and acknowledging the more complex and dynamic set of equilibria that describes transformation in ecological, social, and economic systems and considers the multiple complexities of systems thinking while providing insight into how change occurs as a constantly adaptive cycle process. Used sparingly within social sciences until recently, we argue it as particularly relevant for seeing Transformative Inquiry through Indigenist and interconnected lenses.
Publication Title
Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education
Volume
10
Issue
1/2
Required Publisher's Statement
Complicity is an open access (free to all readers), peer-reviewed journal that publishes original articles on all aspects of education that are informed by the idea of complexity (in its technical, applied, philosophical, theoretical, or narrative manifestations). The journal strives to serve as a forum for both theoretical and practical contributions and to facilitate the exchange of diverse ideas and points of view related to complexity in education.
Recommended Citation
Stanger, Nicholas; Tanaka, Michele T. D.; Tse, Vanessa V.; and Starr, Lisa J., "Winter Counts as Transformative Inquiry: The Role of Creative Imagery as an Expression of Adaptive Change" (2013). Environmental Studies Faculty and Staff Publications. 21.
https://cedar.wwu.edu/envs_facpubs/21
Subjects - Topical (LCSH)
Teachers--Training of; Environmental education--Activity programs; Winter counts; Environmental sociology; Transformative learning
Genre/Form
articles
Type
Text
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Comments
Complicity is affiliated with the Chaos and Complexity Theories Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association, and acknowledges their support.