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In this study, we are collaborating with county offices, districts, and state agencies across the state of California to develop transdisciplinary approaches for researching the unfolding “Compassionate Systems” change processes in K-12 schools, as led by our implementing partner the Center for Systems Awareness. Home to the largest K-12 system in the United States, the State of California offers a rich research landscape for studying systems change, with complex layers of policy and administration, from state and county to districts and schools, including community programs, individual educators, students, school leaders and parents.
Over the past six years of the Center for Systems Awareness and MIT’s work in California, many education leaders and practitioners have cited transformational change in the day-to-day operations of their system, as well as positive effect on their personal wellbeing and relationships. The evidence of these changes, however, have largely been anecdotal to date and demand more rigorous study. This research area seeks to generate evidence-based approaches that can inform existing and future education interventions and systems change efforts, increasing the effectiveness of such efforts to make institutions of education, whether classroom or out of school, more equitable, just, and nurturing spaces for human growth, achievement and wellbeing.
We thank our supporters who made this research possible:
We are invested in supporting adolescents’ mental health and agency, and understanding how we can better support young people in education. Through a grant from the MIT Jameel World Education Lab, the MIT Systems Awareness Lab developed a pilot study of a global action-learning community anchored in the Compassionate Systems framework led by the youth development team at the Center for Systems Awareness and advised by Dr. Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl, the NoVo Foundation Endowed Chair in Social and Emotional Learning and Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
This early stage project informed the development of a Youth Ambassadors program at our implementing partner the Center for Systems Awareness. The project had two goals, first the creation of a group of students in a school site who are trained in the Compassionate Systems framework and who design and lead projects that tackle complex social problems in their school or community. The second component is the collaboration of all students from all sites in a global action-learning community of peers. This global community allows students to gain perspective on how complex world problems are viewed indifferent cultural contexts and to initiate projects with international reach.
