Abstract
I believe that the Industrial-Age education system that has spread around the world in the past 150 years will change dramatically in the coming decades.
The work described here was only possible because of the many pioneers of the systems thinking movement in public education and the founders of the more recent SoL Education Partnership – Burlington, Vermont; Murphy School District in Pheonix, Arizona; the Hewlett-Woodmere District in Long Island, New York; the E3 Initiative and the Washington Sustainability Education Association; Sustainable St. Louis; Jaimie Cloud of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education; and Lees Stuntz of the Creative Learning Exchange, dedicated to fostering networks of collaboration among systems thinking educators. A special thanks also to Linda Booth Sweeney, who has served as coordinator of the Partnership in its formation and now supports capacity building and research in several of the sites. See the Creative Learning Exchange http://www.clexchange.org , The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education http://www.sustainabilityed.org, ISEE Systems http://www.iseesystems.com , and The Waters Foundation
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
http://www.sustainabilityed.org, ISEE Systems http://www.iseesystems.com, and The Waters Foundation.
- 2.
Many have argued that the industrial age ended decades ago, as the world of smokestacks and mass production was replaced by that of bits and bytes. But this confuses shifts in dominant technologies with shifts in the underlying values and processes that defined the industrial age. More steel is produced in the world today than ever before. So, too, are more automobiles produced and more coal burned. Indeed, shifts in dominant technologies are a defining feature of the industrial age, what Lewis Mumford and others called the “Age of the Machine.” See “The Myth of the Machine, Vol. 1: Technics and Human Development,” New York: Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich 1967.
- 3.
In 2007, Oxfam estimated that the costs to the world’s poor of adapting to global climate change (including costs due to loss of crops, spread of tropical diseases, and migration) exceeded $50 billion. (see http://www.oxfam.org) This figure is expected to rise sharply in the coming years.
- 4.
SoL (the Society for Organizational Learning – http://www.solonline.org) is a network of individuals and organizations who work together around the world for systemic change. The SoL Education Partnership focuses primarily on communities within the US where educators, local businesspeople and government, and youth organizations are working together to create a climate for continuing innovation toward educating systems citizens.
- 5.
STELLA and ITHINK are products of ISEE Systems, Hanover, New Hampshire: http://www.iseesystems.com
- 6.
See “Tracing Connections: Voices of Systems Thinkers,” forthcoming (2010).
- 7.
See, for example, Diana Fisher, “Modeling Dynamic Systems: Lessons for a First Course,” available at http://www.iseesystems.com. In this book, Fisher shares examples of remarkable student work that includes college and post-graduate level work done by high school students versed in systems modeling tools.
- 8.
The idea of “generic structures” is a cornerstone of systems education and ranges from simple dynamic structures like delays that arise in virtually all social systems (and confound decisionmakers expecting immediate results from their actions) to more involved structures like “aging chains” which arise in diverse settings from demographics to product life cycles.
- 9.
For examples of students developing their own simulation models see D. Fisher, “Modeling Dynamic Systems: Lessons for a First Course”, Second Edition, available from iseessystems.com
- 10.
References
Federico, C., Cloud, J., Byrne, J., & Wheeler, K. (2009). Kindergarten through twelfth-grade education for sustainability. Accessed 23 July, 2009, from http://www.sustainabilityed.org/what/education_for_sustainability/documents/K12Chapter.PDF
Hall, E. (1980). Beyond culture. New York: Doubleday.
Hall, E. (1988, Spring 12–14). The drive to learn. Santa Fe Lifestyle.
Quaden, R. A., Ticotsky, A., & Lyneis, D. (2009). The shape of change. Accessed 23 July, 2009, from http://www.clexchange.org
Sandow, D. (2006). Murphy School District’s learning communities. Piper Foundation research paper. Phoenix, Arizona: Virginia Piper Charitable Trust.
Senge, P. (2000). The industrial age system of education. In P. Senge, N. Cambron-McCabe, A. Kleiner, T. Lucas, & B. Smith (Eds.), Schools that learn (pp. 27–58). New York: Doubleday.
Senge, P., et al. (2008). The necessary revolution: How individuals and organizations are working together to create a sustainable world. New York: Doubleday.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Senge, P.M. (2010). Education for an Interdependent World: Developing Systems Citizens. In: Hargreaves, A., Lieberman, A., Fullan, M., Hopkins, D. (eds) Second International Handbook of Educational Change. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 23. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2660-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2660-6_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-2659-0
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-2660-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)