Structure of Knowledge

Newman (1999) talks about periods of disorganization being forerunner to higher levels of organization and consciousness. This concept can be extended to what is occurring in education, nursing and health today where there is a disruption in the organization of knowledge distribution that will lead to a need for reorganization. This idea follows Kuhn's ideas of disorganization and chaos before the reorganization in a paradigm shift. Is it possible that with all of the disorganization in nursing and education today, we are in the disorganizational phase of structural revolution? Perhaps the nursing and educational leaders are correct in the assumption that the electronic revolution is producing a shift in paradigm for their disciplines. If so, this is a very exciting time to be in these fields. However, the disorganization of ways to structure knowledge and create ways of knowing in these fields are only precipitated by Internet access and ejournals. There is only a paradigm shift if we truly are changing our way of knowledge acquisition and conceptualization of boundaries and reality by evolving to another level of organizational structure.