Practicing complexity in teacher development research: a call to action and a caveat

We begin with the recognition that teacher development is complex, a recognition that has found its way into more and more educational theorising but has still not impacted empirical research in a significant way. Here we argue by example that forms of complexity theorising can be usefully employed both to frame empirical studies and to analyse data in ways that reveal rather than reduce the complex reality of teacher education and development, and we encourage other empirical researchers to take on this challenge. In the process, we foreground – and model as empirical researchers – Michel Alhadeff-Jones’ admonition that those who would employ complexity theory to investigate educational practice should take care to “follow the recursive feedback loops and dynamics” characteristic of that theory. Only by rendering the practice of research itself “as a learning process that does not require the reduction of antagonisms and the complementarities” can researchers remain open to the fullness of the findings regarding education that complexity theory makes possible.