Access to High Quality Education in Pittsburgh — A Multi-Level Perspective Map
Process
When our group first started working the multi-level perspective map, we found it difficult to properly frame it in a way that made sense. We began by separating social practices into niches, regimes, and landscapes, moving from an analysis of social practices to a more macro-analysis of landscapes. As we began to map them, we found that a more holistic view of the problem was necessary. One that included a temporal axis for historical context was invaluable to shape our understanding of the forces at work to get us to where we are today. Anchoring our map this way allowed us approach the research and mapping in a more organized, grounded way.
Defining niche, regime, and landscape level areas while also establishing an accurate historical timeline proved to be challenging as well. Understanding that niches often evolve into regimes and regimes can evolve into landscapes proved challenging when creating a static map. It does not accurately represent the shifts and feedback loops present in a system like this, but we forged ahead with the timeline, believing that it would ultimately be clearer with historical grounding.
Towards a Historically Focused Map
Once we defined a historical timeline using “pre-industrial, industrial, and post-industrial” as our framework, we were able to rely on our group member who works for the Pittsburgh public schools as a an expert. We created a draft using her knowledge and our original wicked problem map as a starting point, but used secondary research to fill in gaps in our knowledge, especially from the pre-industrial period.
Once we had a draft created, we collaboratively researched, moved things, added our own arrows and points for intervention and deliberated over which were places for intervention. We disagreed often about where possible intervention points could be, as well as what constituted a niche, regime, and landscape, but in defending our positions to one another, things become much clearer. The historical context in the MLP mixed with the original wicked problem map lends some clarity to how socio-technical came to be and where the complexities arose from. It illuminated the importance of understanding history when envisioning the future.
Identifying Points for Intervention
Insights from this exercise really grew out of drawing connections between the niche, regime, and landscape levels of socio-technical systems. By mapping those connections, we were able to see what changes are occurring at the niche level now. In looking at our current context, we were able to see how we could take already developing niches and regimes and shift their influence and goals to making school governance more visible, harness Big Data to hold teachers, school districts, and entrenched educational patterns accountable, and use the rise of technology to initiate new, more diffuse ways of learning.
The MLP map shows complexities and feedback loops surrounding our key points for intervention, as well as the development from niche to regime to landscape historically. The case of standardized testing, to teacher accountability, to the rise in Big Data is a good example of how understanding the historical context can point to areas for change.
Key Findings
In the process of creating the MLP map, we found these key points for intervention:
- Harness “Big Data” in Education to tell a better story to the community of how schools are serving students, including what students are learning and how they’re using that knowledge after school ends to empower parents to rethink curriculum, school services, and instruction.
- Use the momentum of tech-ed initiatives to start a conversation about shifting the place-based nature of schools to one about equitable access to resources using technology, building on the positives of the cyber school and home school models.
- Make the political governance of school districts more visible to the community, and encourage accountability for long-term future planning by board members and community organizations
Through the process we also learned:
- Understanding history is important for envisioning a positive future
- Currently developing niches, and even regimes have the ability to create impactful change within a system
- Using technology and big data can help us reimagine what education could be rather than what it is.
- Harnessing already developing momentum at different points in the MLP allow us to gain the most from an intervention, because that momentum carries through the rest of the system.
Our MLP map reveals the “weak points” in the socio-technical-historical system that makes up access to high quality education in Pittsburgh. Complex interconnectedness and feedback loops that surround political governance, big data, and new technology initiatives allow us to attack the regimes that led to what schools have become, back-cast to what they were (with a critical eye), and imagine how they could be used to reimagine what could be.
