Key Messages of a Whole-Town, Place-Based, and Complex Systems-Oriented Educational Intervention Program for 8- to 14-Year-Olds

• In Event: Systems Thinking From Different Vantage Points: PreK-12

Abstract

Improving social mobility is one of the key targets of many educational initiatives across the World. Most of these educational initiatives take a complex systems approach with goals of immediate progress with young people and long-term outcomes including system change.
Utilizing its process, progress and system evaluation data in this paper we focus on a whole-town, place-based and complex systems oriented educational intervention program in south of England which aimed to improve lives of 8 to 14 year olds implementing 58 projects across 24 schools in the local area. In this paper, we present key aspects of immediate and long-term outcomes of this complex educational intervention in addition to key mechanisms and barriers of system change.

Authors

• Suna Eryigit-Madzwamuse, University of British Columbia

• Rosie Gordon, University of Brighton