An alternative approach to educational planning based on a conceptual framework of the educational system as dynamic: A theoretical study

This dissertation applies dynamic systems theory to conceptualizing an alternative approach to educational planning. Four decades of educational planning endeavors have spawned a plethora of literature critical of the results, intentions, and knowledge base of educational planning. Much of the debate has concentrated on methodological issues ignoring the underlying theoretical knowledge base itself of social systems as orderly, predictable systems in which change basically follows the laws of linearity. Educational planning in the form of the expansion of schooling as a vector for economic growth has been largely based on such an equilibrium system model. This model, however, fails to consider three crucial factors: (1) the dynamic, nonlinear system behavior in a far-from-equilibrium system; (2) change resulting from nonlinear feedback relationships; and (3) the range of possible behaviors possible in dynamic far-from-equilibrium systems under turbulent environmental conditions.