Chapter 6: Systems Analytic -- Introduction

Systems Analytic -- Introduction

The scholarly models for theorizing of Canadian educational policy are limited. The most current and all-encompassing resource in respect of Canadian educational policy theorizing is found in the work of Manzer (1994). Manzer’s work provides a rudimentary theoretical base for comparative systems research in the setting of the analysis in relation to liberal democratic ideology. My research is guided by a theory framework that is critical in orientation, utilizing critical theoretical methodology to guide the interpretation of the data, to theorize Canadian public education policy as it reveals itself through the data.  Critical theory borrows from Marxist theory where conflict rather than functional explanations of social forms predominate. In order to provide a background to the theory framework I look at the development of analytical Marxism reviewing some of the issues raised in analytical Marxism in respect of the positions of Callinicos and Giddens. Analytical Marxism is a western Marxism. It provides an alternative theoretical framework to the frame of liberalism in examining social systems.