I'm pleased to see that SEEd is trying to think about the social change models it uses and how to make change happen, and Ann Finlayson sent round a thoughtful email the other week about a range of related matters, asking for comments.
It was her last point that I responded to. Ann said:
I like the Nudge story about how the government realised that the take up of loft insulation was low until they realised it was about clearing lofts not resistance to insulation itself. Once they helped people clear their loft, it became much easier and take up of insulation increased. It would be great if we could find that loft clearing story for ESD!
Here's my response:
Ann, … you wonder what the loft clearing story is for ESD. Well, I suppose that:
the loft might be – the curriculum
the insulation – ESD
the clutter – much of what's taught already
On the other hand, you could think that:
the loft is – the school
the insulation is – new values, vision, mission, etc
the clutter is – inappropriate teacher and school leader attitudes
But then you might see:
the loft as – society
the insulation as – new purposes for education
the clutter is – our entrenched view that schools need to serve economic goals
So, which of these (or perhaps others I might have mentioned) is it?
It seems obvious that educational interventions are never straightforward processes, particularly in schools, where externally-determined, discipline-based curriculum and examination systems tend to militate against innovations of an integrated, cross-discipline nature that ESD (etc) demands. Such curricula and examinations are necessarily hard to influence and embody an inescapable dilemma: the higher in a system hierarchy you intervene, the more people are covered by the change. However, the deeper in the hierarchy you work, the greater the likelihood that what you plan will happen. Deciding where to intervene (and how) depends on a range of contextual and contingent factors that are often locally-specific. I think of this as Catch-21.
For me, two things stand out: [i] as a field / movement / tendency we remain uncertain about which goals to pursue, and hence where to make the most telling interventions; and [ii] whilst social marketing does work in well-defined contexts, we should not expect it to translate well to complex human systems.
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Respond