A Systematic Review of Critical Systems Thinking (CST) in the Education Field: Gaps and Opportunities for Systemic Change Toward Racial Equity

Abstract

Amid persistent systemic racism, society is interested in changing education systems toward racial equity. Education law and policy play a critical role in these efforts. Given this context, we conducted a systematic review to examine the use of critical systems thinking (CST) in education, a tradition that can aid researchers studying education law and policy issues that implicate racial equity in education. We found CST has been scarcely used in the field of education but, when used, it has been used to advance social justice concerns. We identify the applicability of CST in education and the opportunities that still exist for researchers to integrate CST in their critical work examining systemic racial inequity.