The Pragmatics of Educational Systems Design: A Critical Examination

The author critically examines educational systems design (ESD) through the lens of pragmatism. Examining ESD through a lens of pragmatism draws to the foreground issues related to Banathy's (1991, 1996, 2001) idealized systems design for social and societal systems. The author addresses the complex and dynamic nature of systems design, focusing on the systemic processes in which user-designers are continually challenged to inquire, communicate, and consider choices, and make design decisions concerning the nature of the system being designed. The power of social systems design (SSD) lies in the ability to consider the ideal image of a social and/or societal system, critically and pragmatically in relation to creating a new system that will contribute to the evolutionary betterment of society and a sustainable future for humankind. Following an introduction, the author examines pragmatism. Then the author applies a lens of pragmatism, critically, to examine educational systems design in relation to generating change and creating the ideal educational system. The author then argues the pragmatics of educational systems design, concluding the paper with final reflections on ESD as a process.     

Exploration of the significance of values in the design of educational systems

In recent decades, there has been increased awareness of the need for systemic change in education. In systemic change, it is of the greatest importance that stakeholders examine and clarify their individual values and articulate shared values and state them clearly. This is necessary because values underlie visions, guide choices, decisions, and actions made in the course of design and, eventually, serve as practical tools in evaluating a system and its programs. This study explores the importance of articulating values in the design of educational systems. Given the importance of the clarification of values consented to by stakeholders and the lack of previous in-depth studies, the paper concludes that it is urgent to develop systemic and comprehensive value categories to aid in articulating core values and to serve as guidelines for applying these values in educational systems design.     

The Impact of Bela H. Banathy's Research on an Educational Scholar-Practitioner

This remembrance is a narrative of how Bela H. Banathy's work involving the idealized design approach to educational change mediated and informed the author's attempt to understand the complexity of educational change. In addition, commentary is provided about the influence on the author's students of Banathy's ideas regarding systems thinking, design culture, design conversation, conscious evolution, and evolutionary guidance systems.     

Opportunity Initiated Systems Design

This paper proposes a design theory of how opportunities might be used to facilitate change within a system, particularly an educational system. Opportunity Initiated Systems Design (OISD) is a system design model that retains the values and goals of Idealized Systems Design (ISD) yet incorporates other models of systemic change to form a simpler, more practical theory of systems design. Traditional barriers to ISD are discussed, used as the basis for describing suggest an alternative theory of systems design. The paper articulates the values and goals of OISD and outlines a theory of OISD. The six phases of OISD are presented, including specific guidelines for implementing OISD. Limitations of OISD and implications for further research are discussed.     

Boulding's typology elaborated: A framework for understanding school and classroom systems

The scope of current educational reform themes is wide. Power is shifted from central governments to local, from administrative office to school site, from principal to teachers, from teacher to students. This is hopeful because traditional reform efforts have been counterproductive. These new themes parallel a worldwide paradigm shift from viewing relationships as monocausal and top-down regulating to interactive and self-regulating. The new themes are also problematic because resulting reform efforts are conflicting, proposing either control or flexibility, which increases harmful out-comes. This paper elaborates Boulding's typology of system complexity drawing from education and related disciplines. The elaboration unifies conflicting perspectives and explains why school reforms fail. Agency in change is clarified. The change model that results highlights system adjustment capacities and specifies both control and flexibility: control of morphostatic subsystems for maintaining access to resources of time, materials, equipment, and energy; and flexibility in morphogenic subsystems for learning, growth, and differentiation.     

Participatory Design and Technologies for Sustainable Development: an Approach from Action Research

This paper explores the relevance of the action research for design of technological solutions that lead to both systemic sustainable development and active involvement of the community. The paper shows how this idea was implemented in a project for water resource conservation with educational institutions of rural areas in Colombia. Through the use of technology, a reduction in water consumption increases in awareness about the use of this natural resource, and the active involvement of the community were sought. Additionally, social processes related to the conservation of natural resources were addressed through a socio-technical approach for analysis and design. During the application of the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), the participants and researchers created technological prototypes that allowed to: 1) give visibility to the community’s initiatives, and 2) save water in the households. This paper focuses on the importance of the design process of innovative solutions for social and environmental issues through the participative approach of action research.

     

A Systemic Framework to Develop Sustainable Engineering Solutions in Rural Communities in Colombia

In several rural areas in Colombia there is a serious lack of water quality supply. Thereby the problematic situation is understood as complex one that involves stakeholders with pluralistic interests, multiple variables and requires the development of sustainable and suitable solutions. In order to address this issue, this paper proposes an integration of engineering design framework (CDIO) with a systemic approach. Particularly the approach emphasizes on systemic elements such as autonomy, systems within systems, cooperation between stakeholders and cause effect relations; it also proposes a previous observing phase for engineering design framework. Thus the proposed systemic framework aims to generate projects that improve living conditions in rural communities and promote the production of knowledge between the stakeholders to ensure sustainability in the long term. To illustrate the proposal, this work contains a case study that discusses a project carried out by a research team—Ingenieros Sin Fronteras Colombia—in a rural district near to Colombia’s capital. The experience, which involved and benefited 16 families in the community, provided strong evidence to support the proposed framework. The paper concludes with a discussion about the replication of this proposal in other contexts.     

Film Use to Promote Understanding in Change and Diffusion of Innovation

The paper explores cinematic films as a pedagogical tool to promote critical thinking and student discussions in a doctoral-level learning, design, and technology seminar course at a major U.S. research university. These discussions focused on systemic change and systemic thinking concepts. The authors offer evidence from the literature that supports films’ power as a visual metaphor and neurocognitive stimulator to promote development of new perspectives in graduate students on case studies through articulation, reflection, and explanation of their thought processes on change and diffusion of innovation. There are theoretical, political, social, and technological issues that create tensions during any systemic change effort. The goal of using film in this seminar is to equip students with the requisite skills, theoretical frameworks, and interpersonal experiences needed to address these issues within organizations and communities. The change expected from systemic thinking is for students to think more deeply about the interconnectedness of systems and the importance of bottom-up change efforts that consider the perspective of all stakeholders.     

How Systemic Inquiry Releases Citizen Knowledge to Reform Schools: Community Scorecard Case Studies

Despite the relevance of systemic practice for repairing broken public systems, documented instances where it empowers marginalised groups en masse to be action researchers are rare. Public school systems that fail to educate millions of pupils are ripe for systemic inquiry. Using evidence, this article identifies conditions under which such inquiry fosters school system accountability and increases pupil learning. By tracing the emergence of a type of community scorecard practice called Citizen Voice and Action (CV&A), it explains how and why marginalised groups use CV&A’s systems-enhanced participatory research to engage with and reform unresponsive public systems. It also shows how soft systems thinking and further action research enhanced scorecard methodology. Brief case studies of CV&A use in Ugandan primary schools illustrate and explain how communities reform schools by using CV&A to systematically foster accountability. Discussion identifies how processes free them to create and use systemic knowledge. This theorising helps explain conditions under which systemic inquiry into school and other public systems is being generalised and scaled up.     

A FORMAL SYSTEMS APPROACH TO SOLVER DESIGN—HILL CLIMBING METHOD WITH PUSH DOWN STACK

This paper presents a formal approach to design of a solver of an intelligent managementinformation system and its implementation. The approach implies set theoretic modeling based on thegeneral systems concepts and implementation in the extProlog. There are research efforts which attack(optimization)problems using the set theory and logics.Furthermore, they use logic programming languages for their implementation. Although their methodslook quite similar to the approach of this paper, there are clear differences between them. This paper isinterested in exploration of the solving system rather than algorithms. The paper first presents a design and implementation procedure of a solver. Then, classificationof problems is discussed. The least structured class of the classification is the target of this paper. Adata mining system is an example of the class. Formal theories are derived for the design procedure assuming the least structured case. A solvingstrategy,which is called a hill climbing method with a     

A Model for Design of Human Activity Systems

A background is given to the common failures of management information systems and the authors' view of the causes behind these failures. There seems to be a lack of effective methods for analyzing information requirements. Different scientific methods are discussed as to their propensity for analyzing the information requirements. The importance of the systems design approach instead of the system improvement approach is emphasized. The concept of Human Activity Systems is discussed and an analysis of the interdependence of the soft and hard parts of these systems indicates that an integrated view is necessary. A methodology based on a systemic and systematic analysis of the information requirements in an organization is proposed. This methodology focuses the settings of the decisions on all levels in organizations and also indicates organizational discrepancies and information imbalances. The methodology can be regarded as a dynamic, learning system.     

Thinking and Acting Systematically About the Anthropocene

To overcome the many difficulties facing our planet during the emergent Anthropocene epoch, it has become incumbent on human beings to practice systems thinking. This paper addresses this requirement in three ways. First, it identifies debates about the meaning, historical background, and scope of the Anthropocene that a clearer understanding of systems theory could help redirect to better effect. Second, it analyzes suggestions for practical efforts to deal with the crises to which system theory could contribute more effectively, both in terms of geoengineering and of cosmopolitan global citizenship. Third, it engages with emergent issues of praxis in terms of human psychological and social systems for which we need to extend, explore, and exploit systems thought in new directions if we are to have any realistic hope of dealing successfully with the crises. Specifically, while assigning causation to the complex human-triggered disruptions to earth’s systems and finding technical solutions to them require classic systems theory, it is also becoming obvious that to heal the rifts in the earth’s system, we must address the emotional bonds (and repulsions) that govern human systemic relationships, especially as refracted through the concept of resilience. Only in this way, it is argued, can we recreate a sustainable earth system as a web of transactions between humans and with the rest of their planet.     

A conversation on guidelines for the process of facilitating systemic change in education

The International Systems Institute held its sixth annual conversation at Asilomar on November 14–19, 1993. At that meeting, seven participants self-selected themselves into a conversation group that met intensively over 4 days to develop some guidelines or principles for the process of facilitating systemic change in education. This is a report on how that group functioned and what it produced. The trigger questions addressed included: What are the major stages in the systemic change process? Can you do systems design with only a part of the “system”? How important isscale (e.g., number of people, schools)? What is an educational system? Can you use the same design process in any culture? How can one best create the idealized design? What are the major goals, obstacles, guidelines? Can we design the process without knowing the product? and Are there big differences between working within the system and outside the system? A large portion of the effort focused on guidelines for facilitating the first two phases of the systemic change process: preparing for design and designing the new system.     

Designing a Management System for a Rural Community Development Organization Using a Systemic Action Research Process

This paper describes the first phase, 'finding out', of a systemic participatory action research intervention in the management systems of a rural community development organization in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The aims of the intervention were to (a) improve the management system of this organization, and (b) evaluate the usefulness of particular systems methodologies for the improvement of management systems of organizations involved in community development in under-resourced rural contexts. The second phase, "implementation," needs to be completed and thoroughly evaluated before any final conclusions can be drawn about the suitability of the chosen systems framework for Third World type rural contexts. However, the second phase is, at the time of writing, underway and all indications are that an interpretive ('Soft') Systems Methodology, combined with insights from a more functionalist ('hard') approach (with methods chosen through a Critical Systems Thinking framework) holds much promise for participatory systemic interventions in these contexts.     

Systems inquiry in education

The aim of this paper is to highlight the current inadequacies of contemporary education and then to outline a methodological approach by which we can redesign and implement an educational system that is more appropriate to the postindustrial/information age in which we now live. A brief discussion of an application is given in order to exemplify the proposed systemic approach.     

SPECIFYING AGENT-ORIENTED E-COMMERCE SOFTWARE AS ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES

1. Introduction The meteoric rise of Internet andWorld-Wide-Web technologies has createdovernight new application areas for enterprisesoftware, including e-commerce applications.These areas demand software that is robust, canoperate within a wide range of environments,and can evolve over time to cope with changingrequirements. Moreover, such software has to behighly customisable to meet the needs of a widerange of users and sufficiently secure to protectpersonal …     

The South African One Thousand Schools Project and Stephens' Quality Wheel

This paper describes the development of a qualitative educational initiative in South Africa: the One Thousand Schools Project. This multiagency initiative is headed by the Independent Development Trust (IDT), a nongovernmental organization. The project soon experienced issues of complexity, however, due to, first, the number of partners involved and, second, the scope of the project: qualitative educational improvement within 1000 schools that were discriminated against under the historical segregated educational system. Seeking an approach to guide the project the IDT opted for Stephens' Quality Wheel, an educational model whose objective is to achieve systemic improvement via coordinating three key educational elements: the agents; conditions for improvement; and a guiding set of educational goals and principles. This paper considers the project's use of Stephens' model, highlighting the insights gained by the project, but also the limited nature of its systemicity. Finally, an inherent tension which was experienced in the project and thereby identified in the model is debated.     

Transforming Adult Learning Through Critical Design Inquiry

Marching toward the 21st century, there are not only drastic changes in global economic and political development, but also in technological advancement and ecological evolution. All of these are intertwined with one another to shape national and societal development in various areas. In the milieu of education, these changes exert great influence on the way we perceive learning and instruction, this in turn calls for a paradigm shift in the way we design learning and instruction. Consequently, calls to critically examine the way we have been designing our learning and instruction have gained more and more attention in the past decade. Since design could help in realizing our visionary ideals, and transforming these ideals into innumerable learning and working contexts, we need to probe into how our learning and instruction could be more creatively and powerfully designed. The author contends that most learners, through the process of critical envision and enaction, could learn to design their own learning, either independently or collectively, through the cultivation of design capacities. In this paper, the author first presents the historical analysis of the theoretical foundations of instructional design, and then takes a critical approach to examining the alternative possibilities of instructional design. Based on the critical perspectives of design, she develops the critical design inquiry by integrating the richness of contemporary critical thinking into that of systems thinking and design thinking. To make the critical design inquiry an educational praxis, rather than just another design theory, the author takes a participatory and collaborative approach to design with a group of adult students. The critical design approach aims at enlightening the adult learners’ inner systems revolution and enriching the outer learning environments through collaborative design engagement. In the final section, the author explicates how the confined roles of instructional designers could be conceptualized through the critical design inquiry.     

Collaborative Project Management: A Systemic Approach to Heavy Equipment Manufacturing Project Management

Quite often over the last decade, heavy equipment manufacturers are trying to improve their project management performance with the use of effective project management methods. However, the challenges encountered aren’t isolated problems and a systemic approach is required. This paper exemplifies how a systemic approach can be applied to heavy equipment manufacturing project (HEMP) management, through of a multifaceted vision. The findings present in the paper are based on a two-year case study in a metallurgic equipment manufacturing enterprise in China. Based on the analysis of HEMP management problems and the contributions on systemic approach application in project management, the paper enriches existing theory by: (1) interpreting the HEMP management system with the top-down disassembly method; (2) developing the collaborative project management approach with a systems view highlighting the project characteristics management and inter-departmental collaboration; (3) making suggestions for systemic approach application in project management. For practitioners and researchers, the findings are particularly meaningful for manufacturing project management and systemic approach application.     

Systemic praxis in the education of the agricultural systems practitioner

This paper describes the context and the systemic experiential theories that have informed the praxis of educating agricultural systems practitioners. The praxis has involved a process of action research with students and with clients in farming and other rural community organizations. The praxis encourages learners to bring a range of methodologies of inquiry to bear upon problematic issues, contingent upon the nature of such issues. Informed by a number of different theories, and by reflecting on our own work, an earlier model of a nested hierarchy of systems of inquiry has been reconstructed to become a more useful guide to educational strategies: Each contingent methodology can now be seen to have its own learning, meta-learning, and epistemic learning dimensions. A key to enriched learning for responsible changes in agriculture and rural development lies in the facilitation of the consciousness of, and competency at, such a systemic pluralism of methodologies.