Climate crisis, school leadership and critical systems thinking: Reconnecting action and consequence

The climate crisis indicates the need for profound change in schools and other educational establishments, in order to meet institutional zero carbon targets and to educate young people towards careers and lives which embed commitment to a sustainable world. Systems are required to achieve this, and yet it is precisely the operation of complex systems which created the crisis, by separating human agency from adverse consequences. The research explores aspects of this deep contradiction in the path towards more sustainable schools and schooling. Leaders describe the complex interconnected systems in which their schools are embedded and highlight the limits to their agency. Critical systems thinking is proposed, in which perceived boundaries are disrupted and the links between action and consequence can be remade.