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Béla H. Bánáthy

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Prof. Bela H. Banathy, president of the IFSR in 1994

Béla H. Bánáthy (Gyula, Hungary December 1, 1919- Chico, California, 4 September 2003), was an Hungarian linguist and systems scientist and professor at the San José State University and the University of California.

Biography

Bela Bánáthy was born in 1919 in Gyula, Hungary. He was a graduate student at the Hungarian Royal Academy in 1940. He then served as an officer of the Hungarian Army at the faculty of the Hungarian Royal Academy. As a volunteer he also served on the National Council of the Hungarian Scout Association. In 1942 he married Eva. When the Red Army approached Budapest in 1945, his family fled to Austria in refugee camps. He worked there as minister for refugees for the World Council of Churches and head of a school for refugees. In 1951 he went with his family to the US.

During the 1950s Bánáthy worked at the US Government's Army Language School in Monterey, California, where he chaired the Hungarian Department. In that time he furthered his interest in leadership development for youth which he had nurtured in Hungary. In 1958, he started an experimental leadership development program in the Monterey Bay Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. As part of his master degree as San José State University, he wrote a thesis titled "A Design for Leadership Development in Scouting" [1]. This paper described the founding principles of the White Stag program, which was later adapted by the National Council as the defacto method for teaching junior leader training[2]. Bela also taught in Sunday School and was on the Board of his church.

In the 1960s and Bánáthy started teaching at San José State University. In 1963 he completed his master degree in psychology, and in 1966 he received a doctorate in education from the University of California in Berkeley.

Further in the 1960s and 1970s Bánáthy was a teacher at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a director at the Far West Laboratory for Research and Development in San Francisco, where he directed over fifty research and development programs focusing on education and systems research. He designed many curriculum projects and several large scale complex systems, including the design and implementation of a Ph.D. program in educational R&D for UC Berkeley.

In the 1980s he developed a systems science program of the Saybrook Graduate School, and established the Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center. He later worked at the International Systems Institute (ISI), a non-profit, public benefit scientific and educational corporation in Carmel, California, USA.

He coordinated over twenty international systems research conferences held in eight countries, including the 1994 Fuschl conversation. He was president of the International Federation of Systems Research in 1994. He was also honorary editor of three international systems journals: Systems Research and Behavioral Science, The Journal of Applied Systems Studies, and Systems. He was on the Board of Editors of World Futures, and served as a contributing editor of Educational Technology.

Bánáthy was the founder of the White Stag Program, a youth leadership development program for the Hungarian Scouting organization.

Work

Banathy worked as a systems and design scientist, as educator, and as author. Since the 1950s his focused on the application of systems and design theories and methodologies in social, social service, educational, and human development systems.

Literature

Bánáthy authored several books and hundreds of articles. For example:

  • 1968, Instructional Systems, Fearon Publishers.
  • 1972, A Design for Foreign Language Curricula , D.C. Heath.
  • 1973, Developing a Systems View: The Systems Models Approach, Lear Siegler Fearon Publishers.
  • 1985, with Kenneth D. Bailey et al. (ed.), Systems Inquiring: Applications, Volume II of the Proceedings of the Society for General Systems Research International Conference. Seaside, CA: Intersystems Publications.
  • 1991, Systems Design of Education, Educational Technology Publishers.
  • 1992, A Systems View of Education. Englewood Cliffs: Educational Technology Publications. ISBN 0-87778-245-8
  • 1992, Comprehensive systems design in education: building a design culture, in: Education. Educational Technology, 22(3) 33-35.
  • 1996, Designing Social Systems in a Changing World, Springer ISBN 0-306-45251-0
  • 1997, A Taste of Systemics, The Primer Project, 2007.
  • 2000, Guided Evolution of Society: A Systems View, Springer ISBN 0-306-46382-2

About Banathy

See also

  1. ^ A Design for Leadership Development in Scouting 1963. Monterey Bay Area Council
  2. ^ Historical Origins of the National Boy Scouts of America Junior Leader Training http://www.whitestag.org/history/historical_background.html Retrieved July 16, 2008
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