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Blane Despres. (Ed). (2008). Systems Thinkers in Action: A Field Guide for Effective Change Leadership in Education. Toronto: Rowman & Littlefield Education. 276 pages. ISBN: 978-1-57886-659-5 (hardback); 978-1-57886- 660-1 (paperback)
Systems Thinkers in Action is the tenth book in a series that focuses on leadership and systemic school improvement. Editor of this volume, Blane Després, is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education, Trades Technology of the University of British Columbia at Kelowna. The series editor, Francis Duffy, is also a contributor to this volume. Author of Leadership and Sustainability: Systems Thinkers in Action, Michael Fullan (2005) has written a brief introduction to this book which suggests that the volume "will provide immediate payoff for those looking for something more powerful to inform approaches to school and system improvement" (p. viii). No doubt, the intent of Systems Thinkers in Action, Després's field book, is to extend the field of thought on the concepts of systemic thinking and leadership.
Després frames a series of scholarly articles around the belief that the organization of schools and schooling is complex, thus requiring leaders within these organizations to be capable systems thinkers. Rationalizing the need for this text, Després suggests two reasons. First, scholarly attention to exploring the links between systems thinking, complexity, or chaos theories and education has been scant. This volume addresses this point through its eighteen contributors' abbreviated versions of the elements of complexity sciences and systems thinking, or through their interpretations of school phenomenon using a complexity theory metaphor.
The second stated reason for the volume is to provide the "neophyte" or "practiced critical systems thinker" (p. x) with a field guide. Despres...