Abstract
Systems theory is one way to anticipate key issues to bridge the gap between idea and reality, policy and implementation. As a key purpose of this book is to examine access strategies and policies in order to develop positive system level change, there is a need for theoretical interrogation of systems. As a starting point, a key framework is Bronfenbrenner’s (The ecology of human development. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1979) well-recognised ecological theory of systems used in developmental, educational and community psychology, where he distinguishes a range of different system level interactions, ranging from microrelations in the immediate setting to meso-, exo- and macrosystem levels. Key strengths in Bronfenbrenner’s (The ecology of human development. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1979; Developmental ecology through space and time: a future perspective. In: Moen P, Elder G, Luscher K, Bronfenbrenner U (eds) Examining lives in context: perspectives on the ecology of human development. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp 619–647, 1995) systems focus are discussed.
A neglected achievement of Bronfenbrenner (The ecology of human development. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1979) was to secure a focus in psychology on background systemic conditions and to develop at least an initial framework for their interrogation; it is a view of the importance of background conditions, not so much as necessary conditions, but as key supportive conditions. This interpretation of Bronfenbrenner through the lens of key silent conditions for causal impact in a system paves the way for the further step of identifying structural indicators to scrutinise specific key system conditions for access to education. The structural indicators may amplify key previously silent system background conditions. Major limitations to Bronfenbrenner’s (The ecology of human development. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1979) framework of concentric nested systems of interrelation are discussed in relation to system change. A range of important objections to systems theory, in particular by Jarvis (Globalisation, lifelong learning and the learning society: sociological perspectives. Routledge, London, 2007; Democracy, lifelong learning and the learning society: active citizenship in a late modern age. Routledge, London, 2008), are considered. A more dynamic framework of inclusive systems theory is needed to go beyond Bronfenbrenner; this would not deny that an inert, alienated system tends to render the individual passive within it. A framework of inclusive systems theory for education recognises, like Bronfenbrenner, the potential of reciprocal interaction between an individual and the system and subsystems within which he/she is involved. The framework of structural indicators as conditions for change in relation to access to the education system which are being sought to be developed in this book is one avenue towards concretising a systems level approach in practice and for policy.
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Notes
- 1.
As Schwarz (2007) noted, system sciences are essentially rooted in four fields, namely, cybernetics (Wiener 1948; Foerster 1984), general systems theory (Bertalanffy 1968), Prigogine’s far from equilibrium living systems (1984) and non-linear dynamics, i.e. chaos theory (e.g. Lorenz 1963). The general systems theory (Bertalanffy 1968) movement recognised the existence of systems in various disciplines and postulated general principles and laws that apply to them (see also Capra 1982; Downes 1993). It advanced the development of subtypes of system sciences such as Miller’s (1978) living systems theory or Luhmann’s social systems theory (1984).
- 2.
Moving beyond conceptions of the signifier (idea) and signified (thing) in language, Lévi-Strauss’ structuralism echoes that of linguist Saussure in interrogating differential contrasts between terms rather than seeking meaning in an isolated term. It differs from other kinds of structuralism, such as that of Althusser (1971) in sociology and Piaget (1971) in psychology.
- 3.
- 4.
In the language of psychology, this feature of Bronfenbrenner’s work is a commitment to ecological validity. Concerns with ecological validity arise elsewhere in psychology, where observations in a laboratory or clinical context may not generalise beyond the artificial setting in which the findings were observed (Neisser 1976).
- 5.
Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) emphasis on ‘phenomenological’ aspects of systems, nevertheless, is not a ‘predilection’ for existential-phenomenological approaches (p. 22).
- 6.
Williams et al. (1993) describe the formation of institutional culture, where culture is the commonly held and relatively stable beliefs, attitudes and values that exist within an organisation. They define an attitude as a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner to a given object or idea.
- 7.
See also Holford et al. (2008) on social control aspects of some lifelong learning approaches.
- 8.
Fromm (1957, 1980), for example, represents a humanistic psychology tradition that, in contrast to Maslow (1970) and Rogers (1961), fully interrogates deficits and problems in human experience and behaviour while also giving strong emphasis to positive human potential. Fromm’s humanism has been influential in adult education, via Freire’s (1972) conception of the banking model of education where information and knowledge is possessed; Freire explicitly derives his critique of banking education from Fromm’s account of an alienated Having mode of relation, in contrast with a Being mode of existence.
- 9.
Teubner’s (1989) position is clearly unsustainable, unless through equating law simply as force. For example, Kelsen’s (1945) General Theory of Law and State recognises that the basic norm of a legal system, from which other legal norms are derived, is created by an act of will and is not a conclusion from a premise based on an intellectual operation. Similarly, another major jurisprudential thinker, Hart’s (1961) foundational ‘norm of recognition’ underpinning the legal system amounts to a recognition that this is merely assumed to be valid rather than justified intellectually. These are just some examples of how a self-contained, autonomous legal system of norms, procedures and practices is a logical chimaera; it is governed by power relations and is not a deterministic process, contra Teubner’s portrayal of the legal system.
- 10.
The organic systems framework developed in Downes (1993) and Downes and Downes (2007), as a pedagogy of the ‘processed’, precisely critiques the passive processing of the individual into an inorganic educational system, thereby sharing much of the concerns outlined above by Jarvis regarding conformity in an inorganic, mechanistic system.
- 11.
In doing so, it is not being claimed that a mechanical system is in the Durkheimian (1893/1984) sense of a societal relation based on the features of repressive law and solidarity by similarities, nor that an organic system is based on ‘cooperative’ (p. 98) law as restitution and solidarity arising from the division of labour and assumptions that individuals are different from one another. A more detailed examination of the relation of an inclusive systems theory framework to Durkheim’s tripartite distinction is beyond the scope of this argument. Suffice to highlight for current purposes three important limitations to Durkheim’s (1893/1984) functionalism. These include the following: its minimising of a role for individual agency in the ‘determinate system’ of a society ‘with a life of its own’ (Durkheim 1893/1984, p. 39); his characterization of societies as ‘primitive’, ‘savage’ and ‘the very lowest societies’ (Durkheim 1893/1984, p. 92) as being an example of a Western ethnocentrism common in psychology and sociology (see also Brickman 2003); and lack of feminist critique of the division of labour described by Durkheim (see also Fraser (1987)).
- 12.
See also Greene (2003) on a potential for change focus in developmental psychology. At an ontological rather than epistemological level, Kearney (1992) observes that Heidegger’s Being and Time (1927) involves a shift from an Aristotelian privileging of actuality towards a privileging of possibility as truth claims. A further feature here that is worth noting is that systems theory does not necessarily privilege continuity over discontinuity; Prigogine’s (1984) systems theory account, for example, highlights the features of what he terms ‘dissipative structures’. In Kuhnian (1962) language, it allows for paradigm shifts where the frames of reference change.
- 13.
It is important to note that a dynamic systems theory is not what Lyotard (1984) would call a metanarrative purporting to be a total explanation or exclusive truth; it is but one lens or narrative to examine the issues of system level change for access to education.
- 14.
Bronfenbrenner (1979) offers a cursory examination of power in his account of dyadic relations and the shifting ‘balance of power’ (pp. 57–58), as well as regarding social role expectations as contexts of human development.
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Downes, P. (2014). Conceptual Framework and Agenda: Beyond Bronfenbrenner (1979, 1995) to Interrogation of Blocked Systems via Structural Indicators. In: Access to Education in Europe. Lifelong Learning Book Series, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8795-6_3
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