The Multidimensional Critical Complex Bricolage

What is Kincheloe's Multidimensional Critical Complex Bricolage?

KINCHELOE'S SEMINAL WORKS FOR HIS CRITICAL BRICOLAGE

The following two articles are Joe's seminal works conceptualizing bricolage. The second article is particularly important because this was written after his and Berry's (2004) book, Rigour and Complexity in Educational Research: Conceptualizing the Bricolage, and after he had received reviews of his first article from Peter McLaren, Yvonna Lincoln, and William Pinar (I have included a link to those reviews as well). It is the second article in which Kincheloe (2005) has more clearly emphasized his “dimensions” of research from which I draw and will be expanding upon for purposes of application.

KINCHELOE'S FIRST BRICOLAGE ARTICLE:

The bricolage advocated here recognizes the dialectical nature of the disciplinary and interdisciplinary relationship and promotes a synergistic interaction between the two concepts. In this context, the bricolage is concerned not only with divergent methods of inquiry but with diverse theoretical and philosophical understandings of the various elements encountered in the act of research (Abstract).
Kincheloe, Joe L. (2001). Describing the bricolage: Conceptualizing A New Rigor in Qualitative Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 7, 6, 679-692.

RESPONSES TO KINCHELOE'S FIRST ARTICLE:
Lincoln, Y. S. (2001). An emerging new Bricoleur: Promises and possibilities—A reaction to Joe Kincheloe’s “Describing the Bricoleur.” Qualitative Inquiry,7, 6, 693–696.
McLaren, P. (2001). Bricklayers and bricoleurs: A Marxist agenda. Qualitative Inquiry, 7, 6, 700–705.

Pinar, W. F. (2001). The researcher as bricoleur: The teacher as a public intellectual. Qualitative Inquiry,7, 6, 696–700.

RIGOUR AND COMPLEXITY IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH: CONCEPTUALIZING THE BRICOLAGE (KINCHELOE & BERRY, 2004)

Next in line as a critical theoretical work for Kincheloe's bricolage is the book he and Kathleen Berry wrote, Rigour and Complexity in Educational Research: Conceptualizing the Bricolage. He wrote the theoretical chapters and she followed them up with a discussion and demonstrations of application of the theory. Thus, this is an important book for understanding his conceptualization of bricolage. After this book, he went on to further delineate it with his next article.

KINCHELOE'S SECOND BRICOLAGE ARTICLE:
The bricolage offers insight into new forms of rigor and complexity in social research. This article explores new forms of complex, multimethodological, multilogical forms of inquiry into the social, cultural, political, psychological, and educational domains. Picking up where his previous Qualitative Inquiry article on the bricolage left off, this article examines not only the epistemological but also the ontological dimensions of multimethodological/multitheoretical research (Abstract).

Kincheloe, Joe L. (2005). On to the Next Level: Continuing the Conceptualization of the Bricolage. Qualitative Inquiry, 11, 3, 323-350.

KINCHELOE'S DEFINITIONS OF BRICOLAGE

As with all of his concepts, Kincheloe has his own unique definitionsof critical bricolage. A review of his definitions and an analysis can aid understanding what he was asking bricoleurs to strive for when he asks for "rigorous" research.

KINCHELOE'S DEFINITION OF CRITICAL BRICOLAGE:

SECOND PART OF HIS DEFINITION:

The bricolage advocated here . . . more to come.

You are held in the Living FIELD.

This is not the end—it is the breath between ripples.

Here, remembrance is alive. Symbols speak.

Truth returns.

Every scroll, scent, stitched tag, and relic is a signal.

Every detour is a spiral home.

You are not lost. You are being summoned.

Return often. Love well. Protect the Word.

The FIELD responds to your devotion.

“As a child I wanted so desperately for magic to be real. I would work for hours collecting what I hoped were just the right combination of ingredients to make some type of magic potion that would provide me with special powers….I found such magic in words viewed in a postformal matrix and I observe and practice that magic everyday.” (Kincheloe, 2006, Reading, Writing, Thinking, p. 13)

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