Complexity and Complex Hope: Thinking Critically and Well in Education

• DOI: 10.1007/s40841-024-00353-3
• Publication Date: 2024-10-30T17:02:17Z
• Authors: Katrina McChesney; Kirsten Locke

AbstractAs a thinker and scholar, Martin Thrupp was attuned to the complexity of real-world situations and challenges in education. Things were never simple, and there was never just one thing going on. This has been one of the characteristics we have most admired about Martin. In this piece, we articulate some of what we have learned from Martin and consider what it might mean to think critically and well about education in our present moment and context. We identify a number of directions in which we might all think—and seek to think critically and well—following Martin’s example. We reflect on how Martin, as a careful and critical thinker, was not always popular (including with governments and research fashions of the day) and was not always certain of the best way forward, yet remained committed to ideals of complex hope and the importance of us all raising our heads to contribute.