The Fantasies of Systems Thinking in Education

I was first introduced to the concept of Systems Thinking during the pandemic of 2020 through a close friend who would soon pass away the following year. We consumed and discussed Systems Thinking blogs and podcasts during our long-distance romance through phone conversations, texts, email, & Facetime video calls. It was a scary time in the world, but the ground seemed fertile for an overhaul across many global industries. The ideas and concepts put forth by many leading voices in the Systems Thinking world were fresh and truly exciting. I was grounded by appreciating the beauty of interdependence modeled in our Earth's ecosystems and planetary processes as a basis for how our human societies should function. Exploring the merits of inclusive equality that honors each participant's ability to contribute to a better whole was fascinating. In this essay, I honor the discussions we shared and explore the application of those concepts in education. 

In this article on Getting Smart guest author and educator, Dagan Bernstein explores the idea of cultivating a "regenerative culture" in classrooms. Bernstein shared with his readers all the possibilities unlocked by re-imagining a world where more of earth's citizen's could be appreciated for their “uniqueness” instead of excluded or other'd. I imagined a global community that was less ridden with addiction and depression among learners who cannot learn in traditional, structured classrooms. Learners challenged by traditional learning structures can experience the dopamine-inducing learning when allowed to follow their curiosities and interests; what other possibilities could be then unlocked within them? Instead of being left behind as a “throw away” individual who cannot keep up, learners in affirming learning experiences can feel welcome to participate in service to society; such experiences foster a life-giving culture in education. Full of intoxicating faith, many proponents of change in education invite teachers to imagine what possibilities might be unlocked in such a culture. 

Bernstein imagines that if Regenerative Cultures were supported in education, more learners would be able to blossom into their evolutionary potential and experience 'becoming'. His ideas suggest that our society - comprised of learners who are taught to interdependently navigate the world - would benefit from mimicking the diversity of our planetary processes on the principle that differences are integral components of a healthy human ecosystem. The reasoning is that, surely , if the seas and forests benefit from a diverse ecosystem of plant and animal life, so could our human world. Systems Thinkers across the globe encourage us all to imagine what our societies are missing out on by not fostering the diversity of learning, the diversity of knowing and the diversity of ‘being’ in our education system. Systems Thinkers like Dagan Bernstein encourage us to imagine with them, to make friends with the emerging questions and to make friends with the possibilities. Is this because right now there isn't much data-driven research to show what Regenerative Cultures in classrooms can produce related to accredited academic achievement? 

Lack of data be damned, Bernstein hopefully points to the work of Carol Stanford in her series of articles on "The Regenerative Paradigm for Education" and echoes her 5 Principles that contribute to Regenerative Learning. They are:

• Learner Agency

• The idea that learners are not developing persons but whole persons emerging.

• The idea that learners can teach themselves.

• The idea that learners learn through participation and observation.

• The idea that learning happens in small groups.

Carol posits that a Regenerative Learning environment employing all 5 of those principles is evidence of a truly decentralised classroom that has broken free from most of the limitations of traditional classroom structure. To wrestle the decentralised classroom free from the remaining pesky entanglements of traditional classroom structures would be to wrestle it free from the limitations of physical location and of a pre-determined learning time period. In such a decentralised classroom, the use of asynchronous, immersive, and online learning have the opportunity to shine. This sounds an awful lot like homeschooling to me; from that perspective, I can authoritatively speak. 

I am the product of a decentralised classroom and of independent learning- I was homeschooled.

From my participation in online discussion rooms on the topic of homeschooling, I have deduced that many critics of homeschooling feel like this education model falls short of regenerative learning ideals. Critics feel like homeschooling certainly pertaining to the 5th principle Carol Sanford posits in her "Regenerative Paradigm for Education" article; the principle that learning happens in small groups. In my opinion, it is because observance of this Regenerative Learning principle that homeschool as one of the first models of a decentralised, regenerative learning experience, was an over-correction of the traditional classroom structure. As Systems Thinkers continue to imagine how to foster Regenerative Culture in education, there are other over-corrections that I am concerned about.

In decentralising the classroom, the risks associated with removing the teacher as an authority figure is one area of overcorrection that Systems Thinkers overlook. Aside from a child learner's relationship with their guardians, a child learner's relationship with their teachers is an important one that establishes a trust in authority. I understand that many young learners who cannot learn in traditional classroom structures have often experienced trauma with traditional teachers; once removed from the traditional classroom structure, how does a learner begin to repair trust with leadership in education? How are they prepared for college classrooms & traditional lecture styles of teaching? How will they perform as citizens in response to community and government leaders? Because Systems Thinking circles are still in the hypothesizing phase of reasoning, I understand why there isn't much data to support how their education ideals play out in other areas of students' lives. However, we are still running the risk of over-correcting by removing a student-teacher trust relationship in service of fostering the student's "becoming."

Another area of overcorrection that System Thinkers overlook in decentralising the classroom is the same one that proponents of homeschooling often overlook: the area of equipping the parents to support their learners' emergence. As in the homeschool world, many parents and community leaders strictly focus on the big picture and the long-term social and academic benefits of personalized learning. Very seldom, if at all, have I read mention of how Systems Thinkers advise parents to co-evolve with their embodied, unique child emerging into a world of conformity. How will the life-long learning of parents be fostered to support these alternatively schooled children emerging into adulthood with very unique views? In what ways will the Design Thinking and the Growth Mindset encouraged by Systems Thinkers in education be incorporated into the home life so that both the parent and child can co-evolve as compatible adult friends & equal participants in society? I think it's an overcorrection to simply prepare the child for the world of the future without principles for how parents can prepare to meet them there.

A final area of overcorrection that System Thinkers overlook in decentralizing the classroom is how fostering so much independent thinking impacts a student’s ability for teamwork and , specifically, team sports. So many sports that afford students a collegiate athletic scholarship involve the ability to think with a group. Without any warm data and analytic metrics provided from coaches, Systems Thinkers have not yet been able to show the impact of decentralised and regenerative learning on athletic achievement in team sports. Because sports are a huge source of scholarship for many under-served communities, I wonder how these learning strategies play out on the field. Are these learners able to respect the leadership of their coaches and to think with their teammates towards a common goal? Heavily relying on athletic scholarships, can under-served communities afford to hope with Systems Thinkers that their ideals will pan out as the shot clock runs down?

In summary, there are many things that are fascinating about the hopeful ideas of systems change in education. There are many things that feel restorative about fostering regenerative cultures in our learning experiences in the classroom. There is a ton of theories about decentralization that are mesmerizing to ponder regarding each learner's potential for self-actualization, emergence and becoming. However, in all of their imagining and their idea generation, I hope that Systems Thinkers will theorize and hypothesize with the risk of overcorrection in mind as they strive towards data-driven solutions.