Transcript Using the Complexity Theory as a comprehensive learning

Using the Complexity Theory as a
learning/teaching tool in developing postgraduate students’ understandings of IKS
N Govender
(Edgewood Campus)
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African studies and IKS and Cultural
Astronomy in Science Education
Complexity Theory (CT)
Networks- CT and IKS
Concepts of CT applied to education and IKS
Implementation of CT in IKS in PG courses
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The humanities and social sciences (HSS)
Charter contributes to the need to strengthen
the role of IK in development of society
(SACHSS, 2011).
IK contributes to equity, decolonization,
historical and cultural appreciation and to
sustainable living. Research contributes to
developing African scholarship.
PG students perspective –develop an organic
view of IKS using Complexity Theory
CT aims to promote a holistic understanding
of knowledge as a shared responsibility
sharply compared to ‘knowledge in pieces’
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Traditional, cultural, local and community
knowledge- produced and owned by local
people-passed on from generation to
generation, through practice and oral
channels
IKS- custodian of indigenous and
endogenous languages, of cultural
formations lost and re-created in the striving
for the disenfranchised majority.
Aims to construct an African modernity,
proud of its past and mindful of its historical
entanglements.
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IKS Policy is relatively new (2004) -approved
by Cabinet in 2004
National Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Office (NIKSO) -Department of Science and
Technology in 2006
Offerings of BA honours and MA in IKS and
PhD approved by SAQA and introduced in
2010 offered at UNW/Limpopo/Venda-to
critically analyze methodologies , policies and
protocols for conducting research in
indigenous communities.
Discussions and draft documents of UG
degree in IKS at UKZN
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Complexity theory -change, evolution and
adaptation-in the interests of survival-a
combination of cooperation and competition
(Battram, 1999; Morrison, 2002).
Steers away from cause-and-effect models,
reductionists, etc to understanding
phenomena, with organic, non-linear and
holistic approaches.
It focuses on relations within interconnected
networks as significant communication
devices (Wheatley, 1999)
Sante Fe Institute Consortium (SFIC)
Networks are images or structures
identified as organizations or architectures
that are studied by network theorists.
 Nodes cluster into larger nodes
and so on. In 3-dimensions, a hairball
should be imagined.
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The nodes are not basic units but subnetworks in themselves as they link to
one another to form hubs.
Most of the nodes (agents at any level of
organization) are with its closest
neighbours-complex system is local.
The presence of a scale-free
organization in a phenomenon like IKS
indicates it is likely to be complex
Figure 2 IKS COmplexity.docx
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Complexity Thinking (CTh) reflects both
‘thinking and acting’- a practical dimension to
‘complexity theory’. Davis and Sumara (2006)
argue that educational research is compatible
with CTh
Educational activities are deeply embedded in
IKS -‘normal daily activities of learning and
interacting with the environment’.
Story-telling in oral traditions have blended
learning outcomes to develop significant
educational and social outcomes such as
listening skills, group participation, knowledge
of and relationships in the environment and moral
and social values
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Complexity thinking in the social world
recognizes that, and in much of reality
including biological reality, that “causation
is complex” (Byrne, 1998, p. 20).
The outcomes are determined by multiple
causes and the resulting effect is not
usually the sum of separate effects.
In CTh there is, thus, a dynamic
relationship between the “being” and its
environment; they change each other
(Battram, 1999).
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One is a member of a web of life, relations
and networks (Capra, 1996).
One cannot consider the “being” without
considering its environment; the emphasis
is on collective, relational behaviour and
holism rather than on isolationism and
individualism.
The whole is greater than the sum of its
parts, and these parts interact in dynamical,
multifarious ways, thereby producing new
realities, new collectivities and new
relations.
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Complexity and IKs T & L Figure 3.docx
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It is educationally useful to examine the sorts
of conditions of emergence of complexity
thinking in systems in IKS as systems on the
“edge” of equilibrium are always negotiating
the boundaries of stability and anarchy.
For example the boundaries of science and IK
are always transforming and new imaginative
and creative ways are constantly search or
created, for example, rural women in
cooperative markets now using cellular
technology to conduct sales and purchases
and savings etc.
Some concepts comprising of a set of
complementary pairs such as
 specialization (the tension between internal
diversity and internal redundancy),
 trans-level learning (enabling neighbour
interactions through decentralized control),
 enabling constraints (balancing randomness
and coherence) (D & S, p. 136).
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The conceptual issues in CTh permeate other
discourses and interrelationships in IKS, such
as interdisciplinary areas, integration of
science and IKS, methodological trends and
integration of theory and practice issues.
Collective knowledges
-IKS, science,
technology
Environment
Society
Individual IKS
experiences
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A versatile cognitive tool for learning /teaching
IKS–allows to see the microscopic from
macroscopic, to seek the links, the weaving
paterns, differentiate between the foreground for
focus and give attention to background.
CT can be used for an overview understanding of
IKS, planning research.
Challenges: What are there limitations in applying
CT to IKS? Should we be using scientific
frameworks to understand IKS?