Systems Theory for Pragmatic Schooling: Toward Principles of Democratic Education: Toward Principles of Democratic Education

by C. Cunningham

Overview

Writing for educators and education leaders, Cunningham shows that combining a philosophy of pragmatism with thinking about education as systems can illuminate challenges in contemporary schooling and provide practical solutions for creating a democratic education.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137449320
Publisher:	Palgrave Pivot
Publication date:	11/20/2014
Series:	The Cultural and Social Foundations of Education
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	142
File size:	283 KB

About the Author

Craig A. Cunningham is Associate Professor of Advanced Studies in Teaching, Educational Foundations, and Technology in Education at National Louis University, Chicago, USA.

Table of Contents

1. The Schooling We Have 2. The Nature of Nature 3. Systems 4. The Complexities of Schooling 5. Learners and Learning 6. Teachers and Teaching 7. The Schooling We Need 8. Epilogue

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"With remarkable insight, Cunningham realizes that John Dewey's pluralistic, situational, holistic, emergent, transactional perspectivalism influenced as it is by Darwinian naturalism and biological functionalism that rejects the organism versus environment dualism is an excellent place to start for those wishing to integrate complex systems theory into the field of education. We will not have real school reform until the reformers reform their thinking. Cunningham's book is a great place to start." - Jim Garrison, Professor of Philosophy of Education, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA

"Cunningham's core concept, 'Systems Theory,' may sound technical and forbiddingly abstract but it is anything but that. The book is consistently well-written and accessible. It raises timely and challenging questions about education, and casts them in a clear-eyed idiom that invites the reader to think. I commend the book to all who care about the present and future prospects of our nation's schools." - David T. Hansen, Weinberg Professor in the Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education, Columbia University, USA

"Cunningham brings Dewey's naturalism in conversation with insights from systems theory in order to raise some probing questions about contemporary schooling. Clear, accessible, eloquent and passionate." - Gert Biesta, Professor of Educational Theory and Policy, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, and author of The Beautiful Risk of Education (2014)

"A breath of fresh air in an era of stale schooling! Cunningham gives us valuable suggestions to build on diversity, professional choice, interdisciplinary collaboration, and yes joy in education." - Nel Noddings, Lee Jacks Professor of Education Emerita, Stanford University, USA, and author of Education and Democracy in the 21st Century (2013)

Editorial Reviews

Craig Cunningham provides a detailed and accessible text dealing with Dewey, systems theory, and a notion of schooling that contrasts with much of what goes on in the name of education in the contemporary United States. … his book is the most accessible introduction to systems theory, not only in education, but in the wider social science literature as well. It is an excellent book for use in the classroom.” (Richard Quantz and Deron Boyles, Educational Theory, Vol. 67 (1), 2017)

From the Publisher