Method and Complexity in Educational Sciences (original) (raw)

This text introduces the special issue of "Complicity" on "Method and Complexity in Educational Sciences" (2013, vol. 10, no 1/2). Starting with a discussion around the etymology of the word 'method', this text briefly discusses the evolution of research methods (from reductionist to 'post-qualitative' methods) and question two recent trends: (1) the on-going challenge of the normative dimension of research methods and the recognition of the contextual and contingent nature of any scientific inquiry; and (2) the increase of ‘disorder’ produced by the multiplication of paradigms, methods and strategies of research available. ‘Disorder’ reentered in the arena of research methods after centuries marked off by systematic attempts to exclude it. In the contemporary context, what is at stake is the capacity to lead an ongoing effort to organize the heterogeneous forms of order and disorder, which are constitutive – in complementary, contradictory and antagonistic ways – of any forms of inquiry, teaching or exposition approach. From this perspective, method is about the capacity to complexify the modalities that define one’s ‘pursuit of knowledge’. This text concludes with a presentation of the contributions featured in this special issue.