Compassionate Systems
Research interests
The aim of our research projects in this field is to help nurture the development of young people who can engage with complexity, embrace diversity, and develop compassionate, collaborative approaches to addressing real-world challenges and issues.
The research builds on a history of innovation at Woodleigh in the areas of personal, social-emotional, and service learning. We are supported in this work through our partnerships with the Center for Systems Awareness and MIT Systems Awareness Lab, and the expert guidance of their founders, Dr Peter Senge and Dr Mette Boell.
Woodleigh’s leadership in the field of Compassionate Systems supports the development of an educational environment that nurtures staff and student wellbeing, innovative thinking, effective problem solving, and active citizenship.
Research questions
The Woodleigh Institute helps generate, support, and curate research that guides thinking and practice at Woodleigh School and is shared with the wider education community. Research projects in the field of compassionate systems at the school are aligned by the key research questions set out below and conducted through cycles of action learning to ensure they have a direct, positive impact on student learning and staff professional practice.
How can systems thinking and systems sensing help prepare young people for life and citizenship in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world?
How might we deepen our understanding of the relational spaces in which we live and how shifts in these spaces can lead to the transformation of students, staff, and the wider school community?
How might we cultivate the conditions for purposeful systems change in education?
The Woodleigh Institute offers learning programs in the field of Compassionate Systems and is part of a wider network of schools and organisations leading this work in Australia and internationally.
