Call for Chapters

Handbook of Research on Improving Educational Institutions through Systems Thinking

http://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/1442

Proposals Submission Deadline: July 30, 2014 (Extended to September 3, 2014)Full Chapters Due: November 30, 2014

EditorScott J. Warren, University of North Texas, USA

IntroductionFor release in the Advances in Educational Marketing, Administration, and Leadership (AEMAL) Book Series.

Series Editors: Siran Mukerji (IGNOU, India) and Purnendu Tripathi (IGNOU, India)

ISSN: 2326-9022

The Advances in Educational Marketing, Administration, & Leadership (AEMAL) Book Series strives to provide publications that address all these areas and present trending, current research to assist professionals, administrators, and others involved in the education sector in making their decisions.

Systems thinking and theory in the area of learning/teaching have been at the forefront of identifying dysfunction and making positive change in educational systems. Early work by Urie Bronfenbrenner on understanding educational spaces has helped us understand both the ecological systems of classrooms and whole schools. This led to important work by Bela Banathy in the early 1990s with his views of educational systems and three analytical models that have become commonly used in instructional research to understand high levels of complexity in systems. Later work in systemic thinking came from C. Larry Hutchins and Peter Senge with additional models for seeking to solve difficult problems by understanding educational systems not only by their parts, but also as a functional whole. Charles Reigeluth at Indiana University continued their work with his Decatur School project, an attempt to employ systems thinking in education to improve a failing school system. Systems thinking helps educators and researchers examine difficult problems with no single correct answer by looking at the different, interacting parts (i.e. political, social, economic, etc.) as

a means of first understanding a system's constituent parts (functional and not), then working with stakeholders to improve the system. Given the complexity of problems facing school systems at every level, it is time to renew our field's focus on using systems thinking, theory, and change, to bring about transformation in learning environments at every level. Senge's remain, but are largely focused on business training rather than other forms of formal education. Since the 1990s, most writing in this area has been in journals and has been sparse. Major texts by Banathy and Hutchinson are now out of print and there are few available texts on the subject focused exclusively on educational systems and related research.

This edited book will provide a clear picture of systems thinking research, especially focused on institutional change. These can come from areas such as education, theory, instructional design, and educational research reports, methods, and others. It is intended to act as a handbook for systems thinkers in the field seeking to employ assorted methods for engaging in analysis, research, theoretical development, and systemic change in schools. Educational systems thinking is the analysis learning or teaching systems of different levels of complexity with a goal of developing understanding of their constituent parts as well as their functional wholes as a means of solving difficult problems that create dysfunction and lead to poor learning outcomes. Beyond those authors that submit based on our solicitation, we will also ask living experts in the field of educational systems to provide chapters or a preface to the edited book.

ObjectiveThe mission of this book is to both re-introduce the important concepts of educational systems thinking and explore educational research findings, methods, and associated projects from recent decades. As the major books in this area are no longer in print and were written in the 1980s and early 1990s, it is important for those teaching systems to have a comprehensive text that covers the major concepts and findings from important projects. The hope is that it will increase the research output in the areas of systemic change and bring systems thinking back to classrooms and stakeholders in educational systems from early childhood through adult learning.

By collecting the important research cases, and current research surrounding systems thinking and theory in a single volume, the book should help put this topic back at the forefront of educational research and theory at a time when the problems we face in the field have never been more complex. Beyond education, providing readers with concepts that deal with complexity and chaos theory should benefit an area such as information science by giving them a different way to think about designing databases, analyzing data, and presenting it in such a way as to improve understanding.

Target AudienceThe book will mainly be used by academics and in masters and doctoral level courses at universities. It will focus on education, but should also be relevant in information science, business, sociology, cognitive science, library science, and other fields.

Recommended TopicsContributors are welcome to submit chapters on the following topics relating to research, methods, underlying theories of systems thinking analysis and implementation, and other related topics from the broad field of education:

Historical evolution of systems thinking and research in education Historical foundations of research on educational systems Challenges from history in educational systems research Research cases on projects conducted in communities and schools Research methods for exploring systems thinking in education Theoretical principles of systems thinking in support of systems research Methods for studying educational systems Research cases from adult learning in higher education Research cases from adult learning in corporate training Studies of broad educational systems such as schools, colleges,

corporations Analyses of the influence of systems thinking in policy Research on learning organizations Research-based principles for employing systems thinking in education Meta-analyses of research studies on systems thinking, implementation,

etc. Research studies on global efforts to systemically improve education Critical studies of educational systems, classrooms, and systemic

development Studies of emancipatory activities in assorted educational systems Foucauldian and Chomskian analyses of political principles underlying

educational systems

Submission ProcedureContributors are invited to submit on or before July 30, 2014, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission, priorities, structure and format of his/her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by September 30, 2014 about the status of their proposals and chapter guidelines will be sent accordingly. All submitted chapters are subject to double blind reviews. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

All proposals should be submitted through the "Propose a Chapter" link at the bottom of this page.

PublisherThis book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the "Information Science Reference" (formerly Idea Group Reference), "Medical Information Science Reference," "Business Science Reference," and "Engineering Science Reference" imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visitwww.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2015.

Important DatesJuly 30, 2014: First Proposal Deadline (New! September 3, 2014)September 30, 2014: Notification of proposal acceptance November 30, 2014: Full chapter Submission February 15, 2014: Review Results Returned to Authors March , 2014: Revised Chapter Submission May 15, 2014: Final acceptance Notifications April 15, 2014: Submission of Final Chapters May 30, 2014: Final Deadline

InquiriesDr. Scott J. Warren Associate Professor of Learning Technologies College of Information University of North Texas 3940 N. Elm, Suite G150, Denton, TX, 76207 Telephone: -940-765-2799 E-mail: scott.warren@unt.edu