Understanding Educational Complexity

Brad Kershner, Ph.D. (2018), Boston College, is a school leader and independent scholar. His research, teaching, and writing cover a wide range of interdependent topics, including education, leadership, parenting, race, technology, metamodernism, integral theory, meditation, complexity, and developmental psychology. Some of his public lectures are available on YouTube (Dr. Brad Kershner). You can learn more about his work and access recordings of his guided meditations on Patreon (www.patreon.com/bradkershner).

"5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for any educator looking to expand their horizons & navigate our age of complexity."- Customer Review by Trevor, teacher and instructional leader, on Amazon“A masterpiece of big picture thinking that is also firmly rooted in rich descriptions of leadership practice. Brad Kershner, a proven teacher and school leader himself, is among the very first to portray how complexity theory can illuminate what it is like to lead schools in times of rapid and turbulent change.” – Andy Hargreaves, Professor Emeritus, Boston College, author of Professional Capital, Sustainable Leadership, and Uplifting Leadership“Dr. Kershner has written an immensely important book, not just for educators, but for anyone interested in how to think in a more complex and adequate way about organizations, learning, and culture. This is one of the best uses I have seen made of Integral Theory, providing a path breaking application, demonstrating the power of truly comprehensive frameworks. All school leaders should read this book, and most sociologists and philosophers as well.” – Zachary Stein, author of Social Justice and Educational Measurement and Education in a Time between Worlds“If education is about growth in knowledge in a wide and deep sense, shouldn't the educational systems, cultures, and practices be informed by the best possible maps of the different fields of knowledge and their interrelations? Moreover, if education is about psychological growth and the development of the entire personality of children, youth, and adults, shouldn't education follow the steps of the best developmental psychology, and align with our knowledge of how the human mind and personality learns, grows, and prospers? In today's world, neither of these two things is true. Education-as-we-know-it is informed by rich academic and research traditions of pedagogy, but not by developmental psychology, by systems perspectives, or by a holistic theory of the fields of human knowledge. [..] Brad Kershner offers us this fundamental upgrade in his book. Well-read in growth and development, the varieties of systems theory, and holistic meta-theories of knowledge, he ventures into sensitive and detailed case studies of American schools and projects—with the gaze that only the experience and ethos of a teacher who truly cares about children can grant—and unpacks their potential. No single blueprint is offered, but the rich timbre of commentary, reflection, and explication opens doors and pathways to an entirely new world of education. [..] Of all theorists in the interrelated fields of development/systems/metatheory, Brad Kershner is, to my knowledge, the foremost in his grasp of schooling and the teacher's perspective. Of all teachers and educational theorists, he is the foremost theorist in said fields, able not only to apply them but to synthesize and comment upon their limitations and uses. And these fields can and will reshape the future of education. Indeed, they must. And society cannot transform to sanity and sustainability without a fundamental reform of education. For this reason, I believe that Brad Kershner's book plays an indispensable role in the future of society as a whole. It is a rare and impressive achievement that marries the teacher's heart to the theorist's mind.” – Hanzi Freinacht, author of The Listening Society, Nordic Ideology, and The 6 Hidden Patterns of History“True reform in any school community involves structural changes which emerge from shifts within each human participant. New ways of being dance with new ways of doing, forming new narratives about the community. Understanding Educational Complexity is the rare book that is able to shine light on such complexity. In these pages are deep lessons drawn from the experiences of a true reformer—someone who is able to form and reform their own ideas about a subject. Dr. Kershner uses concrete examples to show how an adult learner who celebrates the process of change has a greater impact than a leader who views reform as a discrete set of policies or practices.” – Nadav Zeimer, author of Education in the Digital Age

• PrefaceList of Figures1 The Complexity of Everything1 Two Schools, Two Principals, Myriad Challenges2 Wicked Complexity and Integral Theory2 Complexity Leadership1 Distributed Leadership2 The Complex Systems View3 Jeffrey Jackson School: Repetitive Reform and the Slow Process of Adaptive Change1 Culture, Climate, and Collaboration2 Distributed Leadership: Consistency and Structured Collaboration3 Instructional Leadership: Principal Presence in the Classroom4 Reform Is in the Eye of the Beholder4 Saint Catherine’s School: Collective Urgency at the Edge of Chaos1 DREAM BIG: Creating a Common School Culture2 Distributed Leadership: Creating Structures for Organizational Learning3 Instructional Leadership: Challenging and Supporting Teachers4 Guiding Emergence through Challenge, Support, and Balance5 Case Study Summary: Contextualizing Processes and Outcomes5 Perpetual Learning in an Integral Ecology1 Post-Postmodern Pluralism: Integrating Perspectives on Leadership and Change2 Subjective Realities: Understanding the Spectrum of Perspectives3 Social Realities: Surfacing System Infrastructures and Ideological Influences6 Methodological Hindsight: Reflections on Systems Thinking, Integral Theory, and Educational Research1 Fostering and Assessing Development in Complex Systems2 Plea for a Post-Postmodern Paradigm of Practice3 Positionality as a Kosmic AddressPostscript: Phronetic Social Science and Methodological MetacognitionReferences