Developing Systems Citizens

Gary Obermeyer, Sunday Apr 25, 2010, 06:30 pm

A virtual colleague recommended that I read a chapter by Peter Senge, "Education for an Interdependent World: Developing Systems Citizens."  It is one of 10 chapters by notable systems thinkers in the book: Tracing Connections: Voices of Systems Thinkers. 

I read it this weekend, and experienced feelings of both optimism (about the urgent need for the fundamental changes proposed) and pessimism (about the inertia built into the education system).

In "Developing Systems Citizens," Senge says: 

"We are not preparing students for the world of today, or the world that teachers have grown up in; we are preparing students for a world that we can barely imagine. Education is the one social institution with a 50-year plus time horizon. […] That is why education is always the key to the future direction of a society."

That quote is pretty self-evident, but coupled with this one, it sets the stage for the practical (and doable) approaches that Senge advocates in the balance of the chapter.  

"…kids in school sense the significance of the moment.  More than ever before in history, today's young people grow up with an awareness of the world.  They know about climate change.  They know about our addiction to fossil fuels.  They know about the persisting gap between rich and poor. The are often in direct communication with friends in other countries, and they know about the struggles of the world's cultures to live respectfully with one another.  This is why they are disengaged when education does not address the imbalances that will shape their future, and why they thrive when it does." 

The balance of the chapter describes fundamental change that are necessary, and illustrates with stories of actual practices:

• Systems Thinking at Work in Classrooms (as far back as 1988)
• Authentic Youth Engagement (in real world problems)
• Rethinking Schools as Learning Communities (and part of teachers' daily lives)
• Extension of Learning Communities (into the larger community)
• Education for Sustainability (making systems citizens real)

As I look at the list of practices above, I can't help thinking about the implications for school/district accountability.  I imagine how different the role of school or district leader could be if the accountability system were measuring these practices.  I see potential for the school leader's work to be much more rewarding with greater student and community engagement. 

I came up short when I asked myself, "What is keeping us from making the changes that are so clearly needed?"

Then, I re-read another passage from the Senge chapter:

"When education is driven by incessant pressures to perform on standardized tests, get good grades, get into the right college, with the goal of a good job and lots of money, then education reinforces the consumerism and economic orthodoxy the drive the present global business system.  When education is oriented around deeper questions of human and social development, it can contribute substantially to the larger needs of a society needing desperately to reorient its priorities for a different future.  In this sense, education is a natural leader in these time of "great turning," when the industrial age is dying and, as Vaclav Havel put it, "something new, still indistinct, is struggling to be born."

It's not such a simple matter after all.  We're talking about a sea change in thinking - not just about education - but, about the whole of our social order. 

Clearly, this is a controversial proposition.  Those with the most power in the current order are most likely to resist the changes that Senge advocates.  Still, in any social movement, there have got to be some places/communities that are leading the way.  

I'd like to know where they are.

Gary

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