UNESCO recently published this report “Renewing the Social contract for Education: Directions for Change”.
This report calls for courageous, visionary, and collaborative leadership at all levels. School leaders are positioned as key agents in renewing the social contract for education—by fostering inclusive, future-ready schools that serve as engines of equity, sustainability, and innovation.
To read the full report you can download it here.
If you are interested in a summary, you can read below:
Alignment: UNESCO Report & Free to Flourish Vision
There is strong alignment between the key messages of this report and the key messages of our Free to Flourish Vision for Learning in Lutheran Education.
1. Adventurous
- Free to Flourish: Learners are called into the adventure of exploring the unknown, with curiosity, creativity, and a sense of wonder. Learning is playful, challenging, and responds to individual needs. Communities are safe, transformative, and collaborative.
- UNESCO: Advocates for futures thinking, scenario planning, and preparing learners for complexity and uncertainty. Calls for learning environments that foster curiosity, creativity, and courageous exploration.
Alignment: Both see learning as an active, exploratory journey where students and educators embrace change, take risks, and co-construct knowledge.
2. Compassionate
- Free to Flourish: Learning develops compassion, selflessness, and advocacy. Learners engage in open dialogue, are aware of inequity and bias, and act in service. Communities are ethical, inclusive, and grounded in love and justice.
- UNESCO: Emphasises justice-oriented, inclusive pedagogy; calls for education to repair past harms, foster equity, and empower learners to advocate for themselves and others.
Alignment: Both prioritise compassion, inclusion, and advocacy, aiming to nurture learners who are aware of and act on issues of justice and equity.
3. Purposeful
- Free to Flourish: Learning is essential to humanness; learners are nurtured to live and act purposefully, discovering their gifts and what matters to them and their communities. Purposeful learning is participative, dialogic, and empowers contribution to human and ecological flourishing.
- UNESCO: Calls for education that is meaningful, participatory, and empowers learners to shape their identities and contribute to sustainable futures.
Alignment: Both see education as a means for learners to find purpose, shape identity, and make a positive impact on the world.
4. Relational
- Free to Flourish: Emphasises interconnectedness, belonging, and deep relationships—with God, others, and all creation. Learning is deeply relational, nurturing discernment and connection. Communities are places of belonging, collaboration, and reconciliation.
- UNESCO: Stresses the importance of community, collaboration, and learning beyond the classroom. Advocates for education as a common good, built on relationships and shared responsibility.
Alignment: Both recognise that flourishing happens in relationship—with others, with community, and with the world.
Actionable Recommendations for Learning Communities:
- Champion Futures Thinking: Embed scenario planning and long-term visioning in school improvement processes.
- Lead Ethical Technology Integration: Involve teachers in EdTech decisions; prioritise digital equity and student well-being.
- Empower Teachers: Advocate for professional autonomy, invest in ongoing development, and create platforms for teacher leadership.
- Drive Curriculum Innovation: Lead efforts to make learning more inclusive, interdisciplinary, and justice-oriented.
- Foster Community Partnerships: Expand learning beyond the classroom through partnerships with local organisations and families.
- Model Collaborative Leadership: Build distributed leadership teams and participate in professional networks.
- Promote Student Agency: Involve students in decision-making and empower them as co-creators of their learning environment.
- Engage in Research and Reflection: Encourage action research and evidence-informed practice within your school.
1. Why renew the Social Contract for Education?
- The world faces unprecedented challenges: climate crisis, AI disruption, widening inequality, and social division.
- Education is seen as the key lever for shaping just, inclusive, and sustainable futures—but only if fundamentally transformed, not just reformed.
- A new social contract for education must repair historical injustices and unleash education’s transformative potential for all.
2. Key Directions for Change
Futures Thinking and Long-term Vision
- Move beyond short-term policy cycles; adopt anticipatory, long-term planning.
- Use scenario planning to prepare for demographic shifts, environmental stress, digital transformation, and changing labor markets.
- Leadership implication: Principals should foster a culture of futures thinking in their schools, encouraging staff and students to anticipate and shape change rather than react to crises.
Human-Centered Technology Integration
- Technology must support—not replace—human relationships in education.
- Teachers’ voices are essential in decisions about EdTech and AI; technology should be a tool for equity, not a driver of privatisation or exclusion.
- Leadership implication: Principals should ensure technology adoption is intentional, ethical, and inclusive, with robust teacher involvement and ongoing professional development.
Supporting Teachers as Agents of Change
- Teachers are central to educational transformation but face global challenges: low status, poor conditions, and shortages.
- Teacher agency, professional autonomy, and involvement in policy are critical.
- Leadership implication: Principals must advocate for improved working conditions, invest in teacher development, and create structures for teacher voice in school decision-making.
Renewing Pedagogy, Curriculum, and Assessment
- Shift towards reparative, justice-oriented, and inclusive pedagogies.
- Curriculum and assessment should foster critical thinking, collaboration, and capabilities for sustainable development.
- Leadership implication: Principals should lead curriculum renewal efforts that prioritise care, justice, and inclusion, and support innovative assessment practices.
Building Lifelong and Life-wide Learning Societies
- Learning should extend beyond formal schooling—into cities, public spaces, and digital environments.
- “Learning cities” and community partnerships can drive inclusivity and well-being.
- Leadership implication: Principals should build partnerships with local organisations and leverage community resources to expand learning opportunities.
Rethinking Educational Leadership
- Leadership must be adaptive, collaborative, and future-oriented.
- Governments should professionalise and support school leaders, decentralise decision-making, and foster middle-tier leadership.
- Leadership implication: Principals should develop distributed leadership models, empower staff, and engage in networks for shared learning and innovation.
Inclusive Research and Higher Education
- Research should address injustices, engage diverse knowledge systems, and inform policy and practice.
- Higher education must be a public good, accessible and relevant to all.
- Leadership implication: Principals can foster a research culture in schools, encourage action research, and build bridges with higher education institutions.
3. Foundational Principals
- Right to Education Throughout Life: Must be protected and reimagined in the digital era.
- Education as a Common Good: Requires participatory, democratic governance and collaboration across all stakeholders.
Kim Powell
Learning Leader: Innovation
