Complexity Theories in Education SIG News—October 2023 Greetings, MENTORSHIP SPRINT To foster collaboration and innovation in complexity informed educational research, we are pleased to announce the Mentoring Sprint opportunity for graduate students that will begin in January 2024 and will culminate in a work-in-progress style poster presentation during our SIG programming at the Annual Meeting of AERA in Philadelphia in April 2024. Learn more and apply at https://tinyurl.com/Sprint2024, by December 1st, 2023! Complexity SIG faculty members and graduate students, please consider participating! To learn more, please join us for A “Sprint” Presentation by Hande Fernerci on Monday, November 20th, 2023 at 6:00pm (please see the attached flyer). To apply as either a student or faculty mentor, please the attached flyer. Call for Nominations for the 2024 Outstanding Paper on Complexity Theories in Education Research The Complexity Theories in Education Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) invites nominations for the 2024 Outstanding Paper on Complexity Theories in Education Research. This AERA-sanctioned annual award is for one or more scholars who author/co-author a single paper presented at the AERA Annual Meeting. The focus of the award is to recognize a contemporary, significant scholarly contribution to theoretical, methodological, or empirical complexity-informed educational research. Complexity-informed educational research embraces theories, methods, and epistemologies that are based in complex dynamic systems. It includes but is not limited to perspectives that frame educational phenomena and the appropriate methods of conducting research on such phenomena as including linear and non-linear, contextually sensitive, dynamic, interdependent, reciprocal, irreducible, and/or chaotic components. Complexity-informed research can use qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methodologies and can focus on one or more units-of-analysis, including individuals, groups, or nested systems in a variety of educational settings. The intended audience for the paper can be educational researchers, practitioners, and/or policymakers. A successful nominee will receive recognition by the SIG in the form of a certificate and a $50 honorarium. To receive the honorarium, the recipient(s) must attend the SIG business meeting sponsored by the Complexity Theories in Education SIG at the 2024 AERA Annual Meeting.
Updated Website and Essential Literature Series We had many ideas come out of our meeting in Chicago earlier this year! To facilitate these ideas, we welcome Dr. Robin Anderson, North Carolina State University, and Dr. Kelly Mckie, University of Delaware, as our SIG’s new webmasters! We are incredibly excited to point you towards are newly updated website that can be located here: https://complexityed.weebly.com/. Some of the highlights include:
The beginning of the Essential Literature Series! By popular demand, this series seeks to provide different perspectives from different complexity theories in education researchers across different fields of inquiry. We are delighted that our inaugural Essential Reading List contribution has been provided by Dr. Matt Koopmans, Mercy University! Look for additional top 10 lists to come every 2-3 months! Our next contribution will be coming in November from Dr. Joanna Garner, Old Dominion University!
All our past seminars covering a wealth of different methods and perspectives for those seeking to conduct research through a complexity lens.
Information about the sessions and papers presented at the 2023 AERA conference.
Archived newsletters.
SIG leadership, and
How to become a member and contribute funds to support graduate students to attend AERA 2024.
Upcoming Webinar Series: Call for Presenters We are excited to announce a new interactive webinar series that will present recommendations and best practices to help members learn how to present, frame, and advocate complexity research. Topics for this "How-To" series include:
How-to talk about complexity to skeptical colleagues
How-to advocate for complexity research
How-to apply complexity theory to real-world settings
Please email [email protected] to let us know if you or someone you know should lead one of these sessions. Emma Bullock Complexity Theories in Education Chair Associate Professor of Mathematics Education Sam Houston State University
Dr. Emma P. Bullock Associate Professor of Mathematics Education Graduate Coordinator, MA in Mathematics Office 439G
Department of Mathematics and Statistics College of Science and Engineering Technology Sam Houston State University Huntsville, TX 77341 [email protected] Office: 936-294-3816 Preferred pronouns: she/her
President, Southwest Educational Research Association (SERA) Board Member At-Large, Mixed Methods International Research Association (MMIRA) Chair, Complexity Theories in Education Special Interest Group (SIG), American Education Research Association (AERA)