ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to examine the concepts of general systems theory as they apply to family and school functioning, with particular reference to the interaction between them when problems of an educational nature arise with children. Since H. J. Aponte’s seminal paper advocating the family-school interview, attempts have been made to explore children’s problems in the dual context of family and school although not all of them approach the subject from a systems perspective. Educationists have also moved from the belief that all problems reside within the individual to consider how pupils’ behaviour is affected by the particular educational establishment of which they are part. A paradoxical instruction was given to a family where the parents repeatedly complained they had tried every possible way of controlling their children, but without success. The chapter outlines the theoretical thinking that has evolved in parallel about families and schools from a systems viewpoint.
