New Social Contract and Teachers
UNESCO, International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, Education International (EI), the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the International Commission on the Futures of Education
To ensure that education best helps us build peaceful, just and sustainable futures, a set of cultural shifts are needed. This panel discussion aimed to advance and exchange knowledge on how to create the conditions to support teachers to transform education. It advanced the transformation agenda by highlighting the key elements, within and beyond the formal education system, needed for the transformation of education and for a new social contract for education to be collectively built.
Panelists discussed topics such as:
- Strengthening of education as a public endeavor and common good, especially in light of the diversification of educational actors and the displacement of education into domestic spaces,
- Prioritizing student and teacher wellbeing, particularly in relation to accountability regimes and high-stakes standardized testing found in many education systems globally,
- Expanding the role of the teacher, who is now often expected to be social worker, climate activist, health provider and more,
- Supporting families in their own effort to ensure educational success, and the ways this crosses with the need for decent work, work/life balance, and equity of access to education,
- Connecting learners to employment and a variety of viable and dignified lifepaths (TVET, apprenticeships, alternative learning paths)
- Advancing relational and human-centered education in a digital world
Speakers: Mr Pasi Sahlberg, Professor of Education (Australia); Ms Elisa Guerra, member of the International Commission on the Futures of Education; Ms Li Andersson, Minister of Education, Finland; Teacher Union Leader; Employer Association representative.