In this paper I draw on (Prigoginian) complexity theory to argue that one way to overcome the logical difficulties associated with normative education in multicultural societies is to engage the logic of emergence (Osberg, 2005; Osberg and Biesta, 2007) which, for the purposes of this paper, can be understood as a kind of normative force (in that it guides in a way that is non-arbitrary) which is nevertheless non-normative (in that it has no predetermined rules or standards). In this regard, the logic of emergence can be understood as a kind of “non-normative normativity.” In making my argument I first explain how the logic of emergence can be understood as a critique of deterministic or “object-based” forms of logic. I understand object-based forms of logic as those underpinned by the idea that processes can be understood in terms of rules operating within named boundary conditions. Such processes necessarily move towards (pre)determined outcomes. This enables me to show how emergentist logic, which operates in the absence of named boundary conditions (Prigogine, 1997, Prigogine and Stengers, 1984), facilitates the notion of “non-normative normativity.” I then show that it is possible to use the logic of emergence to understand education itself in terms of this “non-normative normativity.” In order to do so, I argue that it is necessary to overcome “object-based” assumptions operating in three “dimensions” of the education project. The three dimensions in question are the dimensions of knowledge, selfhood and culture which have long been theorised in object-based terms. For example it has been assumed that knowledge is objective, transferable and measurable, that the self is an individual psyche that can be understood and that culture is something that can be perpetuated (or not). While there have been various attempts to incorporate non-object-based theories of knowledge into educational discourse (e.g. constructivism, which has moved away from an object-based or representational understandings of knowledge) these, for the most part, are able to comment only on the learning process itself, not on normative issues around what should be learned. I would argue that it is not possible to overcome the problematics of normative education simply by removing the normative impetus of education (which reduces education to “mere” learning). It should be remembered that education is not simply about learning anything, but about learning certain things. Education tries to ensure that people acquire the right kind of knowledge and the right kind of selfhood – and of course judgements about the relative desirability of certain kinds of knowledge and selfhood are culturally bound. It is in this regard that education is a fundamentally normative project and must be understood as taking place at the intersection of discourses about knowledge, selfhood and culture. As such it can be argued that education can be adequately theorised only at the intersection of discourses about knowledge, selfhood and culture. It is for this reason that I argue that in order to develop an emergentist theory of education which is able to overcome the logical difficulties associated with normative education in multicultural societies it is necessary to theorise all three dimensions in emergentist (or non-object based) terms simultaneously.

This is a theoretical paper which draws its inspiration from Prigoginian Complexity Theory and the notion of strong emergence.

A theoretical tool which is able to overcome some of the logical difficulties associated with normative education in multicultural societies.