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These are just some of the questions our team of researchers, practitioners and community members are asking.
The MIT Systems Awareness Lab is dedicated to the rigorous scientific study of long-term, transformative, and ongoing “systems change in the making,” with a focus on the field of education. We view human or social ‘systems’ as complex, dynamic social realities shaped equally by tangible artifacts like formal structures, policies and metrics and intangible and largely implicit mental models – habits of thought, feeling and action. From this view, systems change arises only as entwined change of both. This complex unfolding of “outer” and “ inner” change presents many research challenges and opportunities.
The Lab seeks to explore and develop transdisciplinary methods by which to document, measure, and analyze how such change processes appear, grow, and evolve over time. In public education, this includes studying how local (school and community) change efforts interact with county- and state-wide efforts to embody and support or impede coordinated change across levels. In particular, we seek to develop a rigorous methodology to study “generative social fields,” an emergent research construct that focuses on shifts in how people think and work together to shape school and work climates that fosters collaboration, flourishing and well-being, where people feel seen and safe, and can more effectively innovate to create the meaningful outcomes they desire.
We think of systems change not as a static or one time process, but rather as an ongoing, iterative, living and evolutionary process of deepening awareness at the levels of self, relationships and wider systems. Our research seeks to understand systems change processes in this ongoing sense of movement, reflection, learning and growth, capturing data through the stories, lived experiences, and outcomes for individuals and communities in the journey of systems change.
The complexity of studying the profound interconnections of these layered systems requires cutting edge approaches, utilizing tried and tested methodologies as well as experimenting with new modes of inquiry and understanding.
