Blane Després is assistant professor of education at the University of British Columbia - Okanagan.

• 1 Foreword2 Introduction3 Open Systems Theory and System Dynamics: The Twin Pillars of Transformational Change in School Districts4 Chaos Theory and the Sciences of Complexity: Foundations for Transforming Education5 Using Systems Thinking to Improve Twenty-First Century Schools6 School Improvement: A Systemic View of What's Missing and What to Do about It7 The Crucible of Reform: The Search for Systemic Leadership8 Leadership and the Self-Organizing School9 Strange Attractors in School Leadership10 Shared Accountability: An Organic Approach11 Exploring the Shape of Change: Utilizing the Power of System Dynamics in K-12 Education12 Culture, Chaos and Complexity: Catalysts for Change in Indigenous Education13 Expanding the Space of the Possible: Understanding Knowledge, Learning, and Teaching as Nested and Recursively Elaborative Processes14 Conclusions and Continued Beginnings: Application of the Systemic Factors Inventory Analysis Matrix

Blane Després has assembled a forceful, instructive and imaginative collection. It is given to the skilled and productive identification of systematic elements at work within what otherwise seems to be the blooming buzz of factors that affect school reform. Within this approach lies much hope for realizing and sustaining better schools.

Blane Després is assistant professor of education at the University of British Columbia - Okanagan.

• 1 Foreword2 Introduction3 Open Systems Theory and System Dynamics: The Twin Pillars of Transformational Change in School Districts4 Chaos Theory and the Sciences of Complexity: Foundations for Transforming Education5 Using Systems Thinking to Improve Twenty-First Century Schools6 School Improvement: A Systemic View of What's Missing and What to Do about It7 The Crucible of Reform: The Search for Systemic Leadership8 Leadership and the Self-Organizing School9 Strange Attractors in School Leadership10 Shared Accountability: An Organic Approach11 Exploring the Shape of Change: Utilizing the Power of System Dynamics in K-12 Education12 Culture, Chaos and Complexity: Catalysts for Change in Indigenous Education13 Expanding the Space of the Possible: Understanding Knowledge, Learning, and Teaching as Nested and Recursively Elaborative Processes14 Conclusions and Continued Beginnings: Application of the Systemic Factors Inventory Analysis Matrix

Blane Després has assembled a forceful, instructive and imaginative collection. It is given to the skilled and productive identification of systematic elements at work within what otherwise seems to be the blooming buzz of factors that affect school reform. Within this approach lies much hope for realizing and sustaining better schools.

Blane Després is assistant professor of education at the University of British Columbia - Okanagan.

• 1 Foreword2 Introduction3 Open Systems Theory and System Dynamics: The Twin Pillars of Transformational Change in School Districts4 Chaos Theory and the Sciences of Complexity: Foundations for Transforming Education5 Using Systems Thinking to Improve Twenty-First Century Schools6 School Improvement: A Systemic View of What's Missing and What to Do about It7 The Crucible of Reform: The Search for Systemic Leadership8 Leadership and the Self-Organizing School9 Strange Attractors in School Leadership10 Shared Accountability: An Organic Approach11 Exploring the Shape of Change: Utilizing the Power of System Dynamics in K-12 Education12 Culture, Chaos and Complexity: Catalysts for Change in Indigenous Education13 Expanding the Space of the Possible: Understanding Knowledge, Learning, and Teaching as Nested and Recursively Elaborative Processes14 Conclusions and Continued Beginnings: Application of the Systemic Factors Inventory Analysis Matrix

Blane Després has assembled a forceful, instructive and imaginative collection. It is given to the skilled and productive identification of systematic elements at work within what otherwise seems to be the blooming buzz of factors that affect school reform. Within this approach lies much hope for realizing and sustaining better schools.