Systemic Service In Schools

Schools are systems. Messy, complex, wonderful systems. It makes for good viewing if you were from the outside looking in, with all its ebbs and flows, its people and its procedures, its rooms and its roles in the surrounding community. But on the inside, it can be relentless – still glorious, but unforgiving. In schools, we may see the system ticking one day, and come to a complete stop the next. We may see a month of uneventful lull, followed by another month of raucous mayhem. It’s no surprise that this can be the nature of schools; as systems, they have many components, links, drivers and impacts, feedback loops, and indicators of progress or stagnation. And like any system, it takes a lot of brainpower to map it and even more to understand how it may behave when something in it shifts.?

Service learning as a system component

So what happens when we add a pivotal ingredient into the mix – meaningful and authentic community action through the curriculum? Make this fundamental shift and see how it ripples. Some components in systems don’t have much of an effect on the rest of the system should they change, and some components don’t shift much when they are acted upon by others. But you can bet that authentic service learning in the classroom is not one of these. And whether a school is simply dabbling in service learning, or whether it is a fully embedded program, we may see large-scale effects with its presence.

Service learning drivers

So how does service get into the curriculum in the first place? Well, there are multiple aspects in schools that may give rise to it. The most common I have seen is driven by small groups of teachers who have a passion for making an impact by empowering students to take informed and empathetic action through their subject’s curriculum. But teachers in a position such as this may feel that they are acting alone – a pioneer in a sea of still ships – and doubly so if they are not working in the same department or grade level as other like-minded colleagues. Another driver of service learning may be the students themselves, which is absolutely wonderful and terrifying at the same time, as students who recognize a learning need as profound as this and vocalize it are most likely at a point where they are desperately attempting to make meaning of their classroom content. At least you will know that when they do advocate for themselves and their learning, whatever comes next can be incredibly authentic. One more driver, and the one that would have the highest impact overall, would be having the vision, mission, and values of the school align with the type of learning we would like to see – learning that fosters social re-constructivists and equips students to contribute to a better world. In this situation, we would see curricular service being advocated for, supported logistically and monetarily, and systemically embedded by the administration and carried out wholeheartedly by faculty, with appropriate personnel hired and experts consulted to help the dream become a reality. This situation is where we see the system go haywire, in a good way.?

Service learning impacts

How does service learning play with other system components? The spinoffs are endless. Service that is articulated, celebrated, and embedded in school culture can and will drive wholescale system changes that can likely result in systemic sustainability. Think of the benefits it could give to aspects such as student and teacher purpose, community connection, identity and sense of belonging, the school’s sphere of influence in local (or even global) action, leadership, and even well-being. For example, one may see service embedded in the curriculum inspiring students to extend upon their learning in class and establish service groups, councils, or committees that tackle pressing problems of our time. Knowing how to map issues, collaborate to ideate, communicate ideas, unpack deep concepts, trial solutions, curate feedback, adapt to change and setbacks, and use their voice, are all highly important skills that students need in a rapidly scaling and complex world. And what better way to sharpen their craft than in a school system that allows for a bit of mess (and, of course, all the learning that comes along with that)?

Leverage for service learning

Now where do we start and what can we do? All systems have components that interact with one another. First, try this, then see what happens with that. Doesn’t work? Try something else, watch its effect. Experimenting with service to see how it gels with the system is a great way to test hypotheses. What you are looking for are indicators that help you measure the change. Think about how the system behaves once you disrupt it – Is it moving? How much? How do you know? What does that mean? These indicators are going to give you a story of the type of system you are dealing with and which parts of it are ripe for improvement. Where in the system could you apply the smallest amount of effort or intervention, for the largest amount of impact, on the most amount of other system components? This is your ‘low-hanging fruit’. This is your leverage point. This is what you can control. This is where you must act.