The Center’s approach proceeds from the premise that any effort to analyze or effect shifts towards the conditions of equality and full participation requires an understanding of the multi-level system dynamics that produce and have potential to reduce inequalities.
This approach emphasizes the importance of mapping, analyzing, and mobilizing change across multiple levels within a given ecosystem—from individual-level capacity building to cross-institutional networking, and from program strategies to state- and national-level policy—in order to make tangible progress towards the vision of full participation within and of institutions.
The multi-level framework provides an analytical tool to understand and connect practices and interventions operating at the various levels that must be engaged in order to produce meaningful, sustainable, and scalable change. Starting from the micro-level, many programs intervene at the level of the individual student, to help understand options, form goals, develop a plan of action, identify resources, cultivate relationships, solve problems, and enable follow through. Those interventions operating at the level of the individual confront barriers and challenges, some of which are rooted in decisions and practices dictated by people and policies higher up in the organization or in the larger ecosystem of the organization.
Many problems presented initially as personal or individual issues turn out to be rooted in policies, organizational practices, or systems affecting broader groups. By engaging in a form of root cause analysis informed by multi-disciplinary research, researchers and practitioners can identify problematic patterns that are amenable to systemic intervention where there are opportunities and people situated to provoke change.
