“An important goal of fostering global competencies in students is to develop a deep understanding of the cultural, political, demographic, and social environments that surround students locally and globally. This context must also be considered throughout the transformation process.”

Situating Change: Understanding Context & Starting Points  

Change in the public sphere needs to account for the context in which change is taking place. Understanding the cultural, political, professional, demographic, and social environments in which change is occurring helps create and communicate the vision/philosophy, adjust the pace of change, and assess and reassess the starting point of change (a continuously moving target) (e.g., Batras, Duff, & Smith, 2016). Cultural norms need to be considered and ideally integrated, especially when ideas for the proposed changes come from other systems (Kuipers et al., 2014). For example, Quebec’s use of the phrase “educational childcare system” and its relationship to the province’s family policy (2017, p. 11) recognizes the social context of significant provincial support for families, a context in which Québécois likely take great pride.

Situating the change is critical to its engagement and mobilization. Fullan (2010) argues that there is no way of achieving whole-system reform if the vast majority of people are not working on it together. That can be achieved only when the “vast majority” come together with agreed-upon values and vision. In other words, the ability to get large numbers of people to work on something together is greatly enhanced if this work aligns with their context.

Another cornerstone of understanding context is recognizing the strengths within a system so that they can be retained and mobilized in the new paradigm. A province or territory with high levels of expertise and dedication among its educators, for example, will be well-served to build on this capacity. Proceeding as if the expertise does not exist would not only be wasteful but it would also set back change efforts by creating resentment and resistance among educators and their allies.

The starting point for change is in the effort to understand the context, and it is no less important at very granular levels than it is at system-wide levels. Involving and engaging all players in the system across multiple domains of change is critical. Whether the action is to “encourage interdisciplinary work,” “recognize the value of traditional instructional approaches when they are done well,” “involve parents, students, and teachers in determining guidelines for safe accessibility to the Internet,” “co-develop alternative rubrics,” “engage school board members and key stakeholders in policy design,” or “capture and share the excitement and energy occurring in successful schools” (Milton, 2015, p. 17), the assumption is that strength, capacity, and energy form the starting point.

Situating Change Worksheet

For more information, and to consult the references indicated above, please click here to download the pan-Canadian systems-level framework on Global Competencies.