Conceptualising a reflexive framework for leaders of opposites in diversity : language complexity at higher education institutions

Abstract

This investigation provides two new reflexive frameworks. The first is a reflexive framework of opposites which interprets the dynamics of opposites in terms of five levels of interpretation: meaning, structure, power, the other, and dynamic balance. The second, a reflexive framework of diversity, interprets the dynamic balance of three oppositional perspectives on diversity: separation, disparity, and variety. In terms of this specific study, these two frameworks reveal the dynamics of imbalance in the current state of languages at public higher education institutions (HEIs) and provide leaders with insight and direction to realise equality between languages at public HEIs. Leaders from other disciplines can apply these frameworks in combination or separately to various complex social contexts. This metatheoretical conceptual study is grounded in reflexive interpretation. The conceptualisation segment of the study sets out to discover the context of leadership in complexity. Reflexive frameworks of opposites and of diversity are then conceptualised through methods of differentiating and integrating. The illustrative segment of this study explains these frameworks for utility and sufficiency. In discovering the context of language diversity at public HEIs, numerous considerations are expounded and contradictions explicated. This context serves as data for illustrating the conceptualised frameworks. Through reflexive interpretation, the data are interpreted by an open play of reflection across three levels of the reflexive framework of diversity and across five levels of the reflexive framework of opposites.