Why our current education system slows down systems change

… and how we can reverse this dynamic

At the moment we are talking a lot about the need for systems change, but often, systems seem to vehemently resist being changed. The resistance to change is an inherent characteristic of living systems, but human systems seem to have pushed this to the extreme, to the point where it inhibits us from appropriately adapting to change, decreasing the efficiency of the human system. I believe that education plays an important role in this. In this article I will explain why I believe that our current education systems slows down systems change and will give some suggestions how we can instead leverage the power of education to increase our ability to adapt our strategies to changes in the natural and technical environmental and improve our quality of life.

Limits to systems structure

To understand the influence of education on the ability of the human system to adapt to change, we first need to look at the boundary conditions within which system structure can develop. I have identified three main aspects, which together define the limits of system structure.

Natural limits:

• availability of resources, such as energy, materials and messages
• environmental conditions, like temperature and gravitational forces
• ecosystem services

Technical limits:

• access to and transport, storage and manipulation of resources and energy
• access to and transfer, storage, processing and interpretation of messages
• ability to interact with ecosystem services

Social limits:

• Paradigm: current understanding and view of the world and ourselves, goals, cultural values, traditions, rules, laws. These set the limits to how we are willing to interact with the natural and technical environment and define what systems structure we choose to implement. The education system is a part of the paradigm.

Feedback between limits

These three limits do not exist in isolation, but have a strong indirect influence on each other. In the past and now, the feedback loops are set up in a way that reinforces the current paradigm and limits the ability of the system to adapt to change:

• The current paradigm influences how we interact with and value the natural environment, how we use technology and what we research, and how and what we teach. Education is strongly influenced by the current paradigm and has often been used to reinforce it. How and what we teach tends to only change on a large scale when the paradigm changes (a).
• New technologies and scientific discoveries can trigger a change in paradigm, but the limits the current paradigm sets to research and the use of technologies reduces this possibility. Instead research can further reinforce the current paradigm (b).
• New technologies can make new discoveries possible (c) and new discoveries can be the basis for new technologies (d), but also this is limited by the current paradigm.
• The technologies we use have an impact on the natural environment and our scientific knowledge about nature influences how we interact with our natural environment (e).
• The natural environment can offer inspiration for technologies and triggers curiosity to research. If and where we choose to look for this inspiration depends on the current paradigm (f).

Overlapping limits and strategic drift

Because the paradigm limits the ability of the human system to adapt to changes in the natural and technical environment, strategic drift can occur:

At first, current knowledge and technological feasibility and the paradigm define limits for the system that lay close together. We try to structure the system within these limits, in a way that optimises quality of life (a).

Over time, the strategies that were efficient on relatively small time and spatial scales loose efficiency, due to economies of scale and impact on longer time scale processes in the natural environment. Because the loss in efficiency is relatively slow, taking place over multiple generations, we tend not to realise that the strategies are decreasing in efficiency, and we need to invest more and more resources and energy for the same output (b).

At the same time, we develop our scientific knowledge and technical abilities, but the paradigm does not keep up with the speed of development. Science and technology would allow the development of the system, new structures and strategies could be implemented, but the stagnant paradigm limits this development (c).

Therefore the natural, technical and social limits drift further and further apart.

Realignment

Eventually, the rift between science and technology, paradigm and efficiency becomes so large that some people realise that a change in paradigm is needed, but usually there are also people who will resist this change. Eventually, realignment takes place. The paradigm is adapted to include the new possibilities that science and technology offer and the new strategies are designed for high efficiency within the current context (a).

But without changing the feedback structure between limits, the drift continues after this adjustment (b).

Additionally in the past, little efforts have been made to regenerate the natural environment (c).

Change in feedback structures to reduce strategic drift

To reduce strategic drift and improve the ability of the system to adapt to change, the feedback structure between limits has to be changed. These are my suggestions. As promised, education plays an important role:

• Education: To increase the influence of the natural and technical environment on the current paradigm, we need to increase the feedback between the natural and technical environment and education (a) and strengthen the influence of education on the paradigm (b). We can achieve this by, instead of the older generation teaching the younger generation about what has worked in the past, focusing more on supporting self directed life long learning through interaction with and exploration of the world.
• Exploration: A change in the way research and development are funded and who can take part in these activities is needed to reduce the influence of the current paradigm on science and technology (c).
• Innovation: New scientific knowledge and technologies open up the possibility for new strategies. Sometimes these new strategies are difficult to imagine within the old paradigm, but they can exist within the technical and natural limits of the system. If designers, engineers and entrepreneurs dare to think and built solutions outside of the current paradigm, these new solutions can inspire a change in paradigm. It can be difficult to design solutions that are impossible within the current paradigm. Therefore suggestions of alternative paradigms by visionaries can help to design these new solutions. Additionally being able to question the status quo throughout our learning journeys makes it easier to think outside of the current paradigm (d).
• Cooperation: Observing the natural environment and identifying changes early gives us a better understanding of the indirect influence of our strategies on their own efficiency, through the impact on the natural environment. This way inefficient strategies can be identified and adapted more quickly, instead implementing strategies that allow us to support and benefit from ecosystem services (e).
• Regeneration: The knowledge we gain about the influence of our strategies on the natural environment can be used to avoid negative impact and instead identify possibilities for positive impact and ecosystem regeneration (f).

I believe that giving students more independence to choose how and what they want to learn and allowing them to interact directly with their environment, instead of only learning about it second hand, brings many benefits. The fresh eyes of a new generation, whose knowledge structures are not yet as strongly entangled with the current paradigm, will find it much easier to identify discrepancies between the natural and technical environment and the paradigm. The independence and creativity self directed learning has given them, allows them to suggest new strategies and paint the picture of a new paradigm. And the older generation, not seeing themselves as superior teachers, but continuing to learn throughout their lives, will be a lot more open to listen and respect their insights, combining them with their own wisdom.