Every school administrator refers to his or her "school system" but what does that term really mean? When real estate agents note that a certain community has a "great school system," what does that mean to prospective buyers and other community members?
Systems expert Peter Senge authored three books to help define systems and systems thinking: The Fifth Discipline (1990), The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (1994), and Schools that Learn (2000). He offers these definitions:
"A system is a perceived whole whose elements 'hang together' because they continually affect each other over time and operate toward a common purpose. The word descends from the Greek verb sunistanai, which originally meant 'to cause to stand together.' As this origin suggests the structure of a system includes the quality of perception with which you, the observer, cause it to stand together. Examples of systems include biological organisms, political entities, communities, industries, families, teams, and all organizations. You and your work are probably elements of dozens of different systems." (Fieldbook, p. 90)
"Within every school district, community, or classroom there might be dozens of different systems worthy of notice: The governance process of the district, the impact of particular policies, the labor-management relationship, the curriculum development, the approaches to disciplining students, and the prevailing modes of staff behavior. Every child's life is a system. Every educational practice is a system." (Schools that Learn, p. 78)
"It is the study of system structure and behavior; it is enriched with a set of tools and techniques that have developed over the past thirty-five years, particularly since the advent of powerful computers. People who have experience with systems thinking can act with more effective leverage that a 'short-attention-span culture' generally permits." (Schools that Learn, p. 78)
"The term 'systems thinking' has been used, in the last two decades, to refer to a confusing array of tools, methods, and practices. The Fifth Discipline and the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook may have contributed to some of that confusion, by referring to 'systems thinking' in inconsistent ways. There is, we now believe, a viable continuum of systems thinking practices, all with different degrees of rigor, different approaches, and different views of the nature of a 'system'" (Schools that Learn, p. 78).
Senge attempts to allay some of the confusion through his seven-step continuum of systems thinking:
System dynamics simulation. Feedback interactions are represented by nonlinear mathematical equations...since these equations are generally too complex for people to manipulate beyond a rudimentary level, system dynamics has depended on computer modeling and simulation" (Schools that Work, p. 79). Clearly, administrators would be wise to "think big, start small" due to the complexity of systems thinking, and an obvious place to begin is with the category of "system-wide thinking." The traditional breakdown of school systems into elementary, middle school (or junior high), high school and central office (or superintendent/business office/board) is not only easily recognizable by all stakeholders in the system, it is also expected. Consequently, one of the first places to begin the implementation of systems thinking is within the school district's administrative/leadership team.