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Teacher Beliefs as a Complex System: English Language Teachers in China pp 13–41Cite as

Approaching Teachers’ Beliefs from the Perspective of Complexity Theory

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Part of the book series: English Language Education ((ELED,volume 4))

Abstract

The chapter discusses the key concept of teachers’ beliefs by elaborating its definition, categorisation and its relationship with practice and contexts. Informed by complexity theory, the chapter regards teacher belief as a complex system consisting of substructures of beliefs, practices, and contexts as well as studys the interrelations between the different types of beliefs and different components of teachers’ belief systems. The chapter also engages in a critical discussion of Borg’s framework (Borg 2006) and identifies issues that current research has not dealt with. The chapter then develops both theoretical and analytical frameworks for studying teachers’ belief systems in the context of educational reform by combining complexity theory, interpretivism and ecological theory. It is argued that these theoretical perspectives complement each other and provide a holistic and dynamic research perspective.

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  1. School of Foreign Languages, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, P.R. China

    Hongying Zheng

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Zheng, H. (2015). Approaching Teachers’ Beliefs from the Perspective of Complexity Theory. In: Teacher Beliefs as a Complex System: English Language Teachers in China. English Language Education, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23009-2_2

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