Creativity through Complexity: Identifying and Using Shadow Networks in Teaching The Merchant of Venice

This article uses complexity theory's concept of ‘shadow systems’ to explore innovative ways of teaching Shakespeare, particularly The Merchant of Venice. Using data drawn from observations at a secondary school in Sydney, Australia, and interviews with two secondary teachers, this article aims to consider how embracing ideas which emerge from the unauthorised and often subversive ‘shadow network’ of a classroom environment can result in creative, independent, engaged learning. I use Ralph D. Stacey's theoretical framework and Bourdieu and Passeron's work on the legitimate to suggest that the tension between the legitimate and the shadow networks can create a space of ‘impotential’, as defined by Tyson Edward Lewis.