Systemic Change

With a clearer sense of the ways that society has changed and how our schools perhaps have not, we can start to think carefully about what this has to do with systems thinking and systemic change. To clarify here, systemic change is a process of analysis in which a broad or global view is taken so that all kinds of implications can be considered at once. Typically systemic change, unlike piecemeal change, asks the system to change all (or at least many critical subsystems) at once. The process continues and improves as we learn about the process itself, which, within social systems change, tends to focus on shifts in power, encouraging democracy and empowering those typically disenfranchised (such as learners who gain control, responsibility, and initiative associated with their own learning systems).