Dialogic and the Emergence of Criticality in Complex Group Processes

Abstract

This article suggests how Paulo Freire’s ontology of subjective reality is influenced through nonlinear and non‐deterministic perspectives of a world of open and irreversible rather than dynamically conservative systems. By problematizing the relationship of critical theory to complexity theory, we are able to generate an epistemology of criticality that recursively makes meaning out of our descriptions of human interaction. This epistemological challenge leads us to interpretive analyses that identify recursion as a catalyst for emergence in critical group dynamics in education. Equally, educators who are confronted with far from equilibrium environments can utilize the concepts of connected knowing, thematic investigation, dialogic, and interdisciplinary teams to reflect critically on the limiting aspects of near equilibrium conditions, contrasting them with the potentially transformative qualities of complex systems.