Systems Theory

Context

The fundamental point of departure in understanding a system is to understand its context. The context provides the boundary conditions for what can transpire in the system. A classroom is a community, but its dynamics cannot be understood without considering the climate and organization of the school as a whole. If teachers feel isolated in their classrooms and the climate makes teacher-to-teacher conversation about children difficult, teachers will be less competent as instructors than they could be. The school climate and school organization—one teacher, one class—sets a boundary condition on competence.

One important corollary of this principle is that if a particular community appears in some degree puzzling to an observer—why, for example, do teachers appear sullen when they meet with parents?—it is necessary to go to the next conceptual level and ask what wider environment gives shape to the character of the parent-teacher relationship. Perhaps taxpayers recently voted down a school bond offering, making it difficult for the teacher's union to bargain for more pay, so that many teachers consequently blame parents for not supporting the bond offering. When doing a systems analysis, one does not conceptually break the system up into its parts and ask why one teacher is angry with one parent. Rather than analyzing the system, it is necessary to think synthetically and to situate the system in its wider environment.

The role of context is readily apparent in small communities where residents depend on a particular economic activity for their livelihood. The habits of living in a fishing community, where husbands go out to sea for a month at a time, differ greatly from the practices of a farming community. The widest context can explain the smallest details. Houses overlooking the sea in New England fishing towns come equipped with a widow's watch on the second floor, where the wife once stepped out to watch ships returning from their expeditions. Without understanding how a fishing community makes its living, the small porch jutting out from the second floor is mystifying.

...