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IB Systems Transformation

Leadership for just and sustainable futures

A future-facing model for education

Young people today are faced with some of the most complex challenges in human history: a global climate crisis, the rise of artificial intelligence, and economic, social, and political volatility on every continent. With the pace of change only accelerating, the world of work will look vastly different in the years ahead.

We believe that educational innovation is the most powerful way in which we can equip students to become catalysts for change and leaders in crafting the world of tomorrow. This is why we are proud to be one of four schools around the world tasked by the International Baccalaureate Organization to co-develop and pilot IB Systems Transformation: Leadership for just and sustainable futures.

This 300-hour transdisciplinary course—which launched its pioneering cohort of students in August of 2025—replaces two Standard Level courses in the Diploma Programme, and is also on offer as a standalone IB course to students choosing Mulgrave’s Enriched Pathway. The development of IB Systems Transformation is central to the IBO’s multi-year review of its entire Diploma Programme, and will likely be scaled globally by 2030.

What do Students Learn?

Students in IB Systems Transformation are introduced to systems thinking as a framework for approaching complex problems. Over two years, they learn to use new tools, language, and protocols to sense, probe, and respond to complexity in the real world. New systems thinking skills are brought to life through six transdisciplinary Core Curricular topics:

  • Complex Adaptive Systems
  • Constructing and Deconstructing Narratives
  • Theories and Practices of Power
  • Ethics and Ontologies
  • Data Processing and Analysis
  • Sustainable Leadership

In addition to this, students gain insight into five distinct Impact Areas (Health, Food, Biodiversity, Energy, and Governance), which become lenses through which they design safe-to-fail interventions in an attempt to nudge real, local systems toward greater justice and sustainability.

IB Systems Transformation Curriculum Updated

 

How do Students Learn?

Experiential education, project-based learning, and seventh-generation thinking serve as the pedagogical and philosophical pillars of IB Systems Transformation. In this course, students regularly extend their learning beyond the walls of the classroom: over the course of two years, students spend more than 60 hours on multi-day ‘Immersions’, local day trips, and curated engagements with relevant experts in the field.

In the classroom, IB Systems Transformation is discussion-based, collaborative, and multimodal. Students are asked to think critically as they make their way through complex and often unfamiliar material. System mapping exercises, case studies analyses, simulations, and presentations are all used as formative assessment to help students develop critical skills and competencies.
 

How is the Course Assessed?

IB Systems Transformation: Leadership for just and sustainable futures is evaluated solely through coursework, meaning that students do not sit a cumulative exam at the end of two years. As a ‘dual award’ course, it utilizes the conventional DP 1-7 grading scale, with marks doubled for a comprehensive total out of 14 (e.g., 8/14, 10/14, 12/14).

Consistent with the DP framework, IB Systems Transformation features a balanced assessment model: 50% of the course is externally evaluated by IB examiners, while the remaining 50% is internally assessed by course instructors and subsequently moderated by the IB.

The four IB assessment components include: a collaborative project in Year 1; a unique ‘case study day’ completed synchronously with other schools; an individual project in Year 2; and the curation over two years of an Impact Portfolio, culminating in an oral defense.

Systems Transformation News

SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION DEEP DIVE
SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION DEEP DIVE

We hosted an engaging information session on our pioneering IB Systems Transformation course. Dr Jenny Gillett, Assessment Design Lead and Senior Curriculum Manager at the IB Organization, was also in attendance to provide valuable insight into the global significance of the course. Dr Gillett emphasised that the IB considers Systems Transformation their flagship project as they review and update their curriculum, viewing it as essential to ensure courses are future-fit and relevant for students.

CONNECTING THEORY TO THE REAL WORLD
CONNECTING THEORY TO THE REAL WORLD

Our IB Systems Transformation course has given students great opportunities to engage with real-world complexities. We recently hosted two incredible guest speakers - and proud Mulgrave parents - Rona Datta, Senior Policy Analyst at Health Canada’s Office of the Chief Data Officer, and Souvik Mitra, Investigator at BC Children's Hospital and Neonatologist at BC Women’s Hospital (pictured). They provided a deep dive into the interconnected flow and challenges within government and healthcare systems. 

CHINATOWN STORYTELLING
CHINATOWN STORYTELLING

IB Systems Transformation students recently visited the Chinatown Storytelling Centre (CSC) as a culminating experience to their first unit of study: constructing and deconstructing narratives. The CSC is part museum and part community hub,  committed to sharing and celebrating the role of Chinese-Canadians in Canadian history. Prior to this visit, the cohort explored how dominant narratives are developed and sustained, and the role of counter-narratives in shifting the behaviour of complex systems.

SYSTEMS THINKING MEETS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
SYSTEMS THINKING MEETS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

Our four pioneering students of our groundbreaking IB Systems Transformation course touched down in Rivers Inlet to spend five days exploring a cornerstone question: what does it mean to lead for just and sustainable futures? 

Olli-Pekka Heinonen, IB Director General

Olli-Pekka Heinonen,
IB Director General

"Student engagement has strong positive impacts, not only on grades and scores, but also on student wellbeing. Many factors contribute to engagement, including ensuring that students find what they are taught and what they learn in school meaningful. This pilot, co-created by Mulgrave and the International Baccalaureate, will offer students opportunities to engage with today's many pressing issues while developing the skills and dispositions needed to effect meaningful change. The topics covered are real-life challenges for the future of young people, the pedagogical approach emphasises student agency, and experiential learning happens in teams. To connect the learning to local context with Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies makes this pilot especially important in creating competencies to address complex systemic challenges." — Olli-Pekka Heinonen, IB Director General