Term of Award
Spring 2014
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)
Document Type and Release Option
Dissertation (open access)
Department
Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
Committee Chair
John Weaver
Committee Member 1
Marla Morris
Committee Member 2
Daniel Chapman
Committee Member 3
Reta Whitlock
Abstract
It was once thought that small influences could not have a large impact on a grand scale. However, in the 1960s Edward Lorenz discovered that very small disturbances in weather conditions could have a great effect on huge weather systems. With an understanding of chaos theory, which posits that everything matters, I argue that a life based on the lessons of a theology inspired by postmodernism can provide a lens through which to see and act in this chaotic world. By living by this belief, the ability to give the true gift, which is an impossibility and is always to come, becomes meaningful. Curriculum studies allows for many wide ranging topics to be discussed and because of its wide ranging influence it is the avenue through which creating positive change in the world could occur. Inspiring, or even more specifically, resacralizing education is a mission to awaken the spirit, passion, love, creativity, and imagination that has for so long been deadened to standardization, test scores, and the factory model teaching.
Recommended Citation
Jones, Thomas B., "Chaos Theory, Theology, and Curriculum: Striving Towards the Impossibility of the Gift" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1115.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1115