ecent debates revolve around transforming education rather than simply reforming education systems. As recently as the June UNESCO Transforming Education Pre-Summit, main stage events highlighted the importance of listening to young learners about what the future of education should look like. Yet even when we as a broad policy maker and educator community acknowledge the need to give young people agency in deciding the future of education, too often those young people remain on the sidelines. They play a small role in the conversation rather than having a seat at the decision-making table and a meaningful opportunity for co-creating their future.
At Salzburg Global Seminar’s Education Futures: Shaping a New Education Story program—hosted in May 2022—this working group imagined best-possible future education systems and what needs to be done to get there. The group agreed that to go where no education system has gone before, requires to dream boldly. Central to this dream for the group is the idea that we must ensure every child develops the capacities to flourish—and doing so requires we empower young learners to choose their own fates.
Imagining A Better Future into Being
Hence, futures thinking—considering what a best-possible set of future education systems might look like—was at the heart of the work. To accomplish this, we utilize the Three Horizons model, first conceptualized by the International Futures Forum. The Three Horizons model encourages to think about three discrete points in time:
● Horizon 1 - Today, where certain systems, norms, and ways of thinking about the world hold ascendance. Some of these are productive and good and some have effects we can identify as being unproductive in reaching a future we want. In the first horizon we can also identify the beginnings of disruptive trends - new ideas, new norms, new technologies—which may help bring about the future we want.
● Horizon 2 - This is a transition period where some legacy systems are departing and some disruptive trends are becoming more mainstream. Both of these upend embedded ways of doing things which can be painful, and those disruptions should be anticipated and mitigated to the extent possible.
● Horizon 3 - This is a putative future state where we’ve largely achieved the main traits of the best possible education systems of the future.
In discussing what traits of the first horizon are harmful and what traits we think ideal systems of the future could hold, the group arrived at a pair of connected insights. First, many of the issues with our systems today arise from external sets of norms (being a good citizen, being a great worker, excelling at certain quantitative understandings of knowledge) being imposed on learners. Moreover, education systems are exclusive, inequitable and leave out a large section of learners entering the education system as first-generation school goers. Education is defined by a narrow set of outcomes such as academic excellence or attainment of jobs leaving out the immense potential of education to create and shape societies of the future. Education is outmoded and is no longer serving our societies and the planet with its complex challenges.
Empowering Young People to Imagine Their Own Future
We’re afraid for our children. But if you ask young people, they’re optimistic. They acknowledge life is not a zero-sum game and are willing to take on life. So, what if we challenge fears of change? What if we bust age hierarchies? What if we do not compare but collaborate? If we all work together, we all win.
The best possible future set of education systems, we have come to believe, will be largely defined and co-created by young people themselves. Our job, at best, is to identify the required infrastructure for accessible and empowering education which can be shaped by young people in different cultural contexts to best suit their needs.
To realize this third horizon, incremental improvements aren’t enough. We need to transform education, not only for, but with young people. Giving learners more power is at the heart of education system transformation.
Some disruptions are already underway in this transition period. New models of learning are emerging and led by young people. These include movements to save our planet, new ways of learning using technology, and new ways of being together through peer learning platforms. Every continent has schools designed to give power to learners over their own development.
Some governments are recognizing student agency as part of their policy of teaching and learning. Yet, young people are embracing change much faster than we adults can.
Youth-centered transformation isn’t new, but to date it hasn’t gone nearly far enough. Despite best intentions, adults are dictating the conditions of reform on behalf of youth. What we need instead is a youth-guided change.
Shaking the World
The Education Minister of Sierra Leone shared at the Transforming Education Summit in Paris how important it is to “believe in young people.” Sierra Leone is putting its money where its mouth is with the launch of its Youth Advisory Group—which gives young learners a direct say in education system design.
This is an encouraging program, and it resonates with what this working group agreed is a best-practice approach to empowering young learners to be in control of what their education future looks like. To build trustful relationships we need to stop dictating or even leading youth. What if instead we created forums that youth will own and create for themselves and us? With this goal in mind, this working group advocates for (and is exploring the launch of) an initiative to create these forums and help bring young changemakers to a larger stage.
This initiative would create spaces in which young people are empowered to exercise their own agency and leadership. They will be enabled to become change makers at nearly any age by being given resources, safety, and the time and space to envision and discuss they changes they want. For purposes of that discussion, this initiative would create platforms for young learners to speak their truths from in front of already established education stakeholders.
Those stakeholders include parents, teachers, school administrators, academics, community leaders, and policy makers. It is the belief of this working group that when given the opportunity to listen to young learners in a meaningful environment, stakeholders will start to see how much they can learn from and trust these young change makers. This in turn will prompt more established stakeholders begin to listen and bring these younger perspectives into play.
These forums will scale led by young people and one day be all over the world. These forums will give current powerholders the vision for education and thus for societies of the future. The more we, as adults, listen, the more we will learn about our role in creating a world where all young people can thrive. In listening, we can work with young people to transform education that works for them.
What if we allow ourselves to dream idealistically and crazy with young people leading this dream? You must imagine a future before you can create it. This initiative is radical and upends traditional—even evolving—ideas of education. It will Shake the World.
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“Shake the World” for a Young Learner-Focused Education Transformation
Photo by Hudson Hintze via Unsplash.
September 23, 2022
A working group report from Salzburg Global’s Education Futures program writes that the best possible future of education systems will be largely defined and co-created by young people themselves. This will truly “shake the world” of education.
R
ecent debates revolve around transforming education rather than simply reforming education systems. As recently as the June UNESCO Transforming Education Pre-Summit, main stage events highlighted the importance of listening to young learners about what the future of education should look like. Yet even when we as a broad policy maker and educator community acknowledge the need to give young people agency in deciding the future of education, too often those young people remain on the sidelines. They play a small role in the conversation rather than having a seat at the decision-making table and a meaningful opportunity for co-creating their future.
At Salzburg Global Seminar’s Education Futures: Shaping a New Education Story program—hosted in May 2022—this working group imagined best-possible future education systems and what needs to be done to get there. The group agreed that to go where no education system has gone before, requires to dream boldly. Central to this dream for the group is the idea that we must ensure every child develops the capacities to flourish—and doing so requires we empower young learners to choose their own fates.
Imagining A Better Future into Being
Hence, futures thinking—considering what a best-possible set of future education systems might look like—was at the heart of the work. To accomplish this, we utilize the Three Horizons model, first conceptualized by the International Futures Forum. The Three Horizons model encourages to think about three discrete points in time:
● Horizon 1 - Today, where certain systems, norms, and ways of thinking about the world hold ascendance. Some of these are productive and good and some have effects we can identify as being unproductive in reaching a future we want. In the first horizon we can also identify the beginnings of disruptive trends - new ideas, new norms, new technologies—which may help bring about the future we want.
● Horizon 2 - This is a transition period where some legacy systems are departing and some disruptive trends are becoming more mainstream. Both of these upend embedded ways of doing things which can be painful, and those disruptions should be anticipated and mitigated to the extent possible.
● Horizon 3 - This is a putative future state where we’ve largely achieved the main traits of the best possible education systems of the future.
In discussing what traits of the first horizon are harmful and what traits we think ideal systems of the future could hold, the group arrived at a pair of connected insights. First, many of the issues with our systems today arise from external sets of norms (being a good citizen, being a great worker, excelling at certain quantitative understandings of knowledge) being imposed on learners. Moreover, education systems are exclusive, inequitable and leave out a large section of learners entering the education system as first-generation school goers. Education is defined by a narrow set of outcomes such as academic excellence or attainment of jobs leaving out the immense potential of education to create and shape societies of the future. Education is outmoded and is no longer serving our societies and the planet with its complex challenges.
Empowering Young People to Imagine Their Own Future
We’re afraid for our children. But if you ask young people, they’re optimistic. They acknowledge life is not a zero-sum game and are willing to take on life. So, what if we challenge fears of change? What if we bust age hierarchies? What if we do not compare but collaborate? If we all work together, we all win.
The best possible future set of education systems, we have come to believe, will be largely defined and co-created by young people themselves. Our job, at best, is to identify the required infrastructure for accessible and empowering education which can be shaped by young people in different cultural contexts to best suit their needs.
To realize this third horizon, incremental improvements aren’t enough. We need to transform education, not only for, but with young people. Giving learners more power is at the heart of education system transformation.
Some disruptions are already underway in this transition period. New models of learning are emerging and led by young people. These include movements to save our planet, new ways of learning using technology, and new ways of being together through peer learning platforms. Every continent has schools designed to give power to learners over their own development.
Some governments are recognizing student agency as part of their policy of teaching and learning. Yet, young people are embracing change much faster than we adults can.
Youth-centered transformation isn’t new, but to date it hasn’t gone nearly far enough. Despite best intentions, adults are dictating the conditions of reform on behalf of youth. What we need instead is a youth-guided change.
Shaking the World
The Education Minister of Sierra Leone shared at the Transforming Education Summit in Paris how important it is to “believe in young people.” Sierra Leone is putting its money where its mouth is with the launch of its Youth Advisory Group—which gives young learners a direct say in education system design.
This is an encouraging program, and it resonates with what this working group agreed is a best-practice approach to empowering young learners to be in control of what their education future looks like. To build trustful relationships we need to stop dictating or even leading youth. What if instead we created forums that youth will own and create for themselves and us? With this goal in mind, this working group advocates for (and is exploring the launch of) an initiative to create these forums and help bring young changemakers to a larger stage.
This initiative would create spaces in which young people are empowered to exercise their own agency and leadership. They will be enabled to become change makers at nearly any age by being given resources, safety, and the time and space to envision and discuss they changes they want. For purposes of that discussion, this initiative would create platforms for young learners to speak their truths from in front of already established education stakeholders.
Those stakeholders include parents, teachers, school administrators, academics, community leaders, and policy makers. It is the belief of this working group that when given the opportunity to listen to young learners in a meaningful environment, stakeholders will start to see how much they can learn from and trust these young change makers. This in turn will prompt more established stakeholders begin to listen and bring these younger perspectives into play.
These forums will scale led by young people and one day be all over the world. These forums will give current powerholders the vision for education and thus for societies of the future. The more we, as adults, listen, the more we will learn about our role in creating a world where all young people can thrive. In listening, we can work with young people to transform education that works for them.
What if we allow ourselves to dream idealistically and crazy with young people leading this dream? You must imagine a future before you can create it. This initiative is radical and upends traditional—even evolving—ideas of education. It will Shake the World.
