02. Compassionate Systems Framework

[In]Distinct Chatter

Listen to the principal of the British School of Jakarta, David Butcher, share his school's journey into the MIT Compassionate Systems Framework since 2018. As shared on the linked MIT site: "In education, where interest in social and emotional learning (SEL), mindfulness, and systems thinking is growing, we find both an opportunity and a need to develop models of thinking and teaching that prepare students to better understand and respond to the systems to which these issues belong. We draw from established SEL models, together with developments in the emerging field of complexity science and the study of systems, to establish a framework—what we call a “compassionate systems” framework—for building a cognitive and affective foundation for global citizenship. This framework conceptualizes compassion as an essentially systemic property of mind: to cultivate compassion is to be able to appreciate the systemic forces that influence people’s feelings, thoughts and actions." Does this framework work with any curriculum? Where might a school or a larger ecosystem begin, if it wanted to engage in this kind of work? Does it work with inquiry-based approaches only? How about with direct instruction? This and much more in episode 2!