Cross-sectoral perspectives on education - UNESCO Global Education Meeting 2024
NORRAG is proud to contribute to the background paper for the UNESCO Global Education Meeting taking place in October 2024 in Fortaleza, Brazil. The contribution introduces the section on cross-sectoral perspectives on education, focusing on how education can offer solutions and accelerate progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The world today faces new and complex challenges—ranging from climate change and technological upheavals to rising authoritarianism and global inequities—that affect education systems across the globe. NORRAG’s contribution explores how education can transform and adapt in this rapidly changing world to meet these challenges head-on. You can read the contribution below.
How can education contribute solutions and accelerate progress towards other SDGs?
The world in 2024 is not the same as the world in which the SDGs were adopted. It brings new challenges, notably in sustainable development, financing for development, international peace and security, youth and future generations, and global governance.[1]
Each of the five challenges discussed in this section – climate and environment; peace and human rights; science, technology, innovation and digital transformation; gender equality; health and nutrition – influences education systems across various contexts. While education itself contributes significantly to solutions that can accelerate progress towards resolving the challenges, these are persisting, if not worsening. Climate change, crises and rapid technological development, for example, are producing shocks and threats that need particular attention from outside of education. The world is already likely to miss the 1.5 ºC target for climate action. Current configurations of artificial intelligence (AI) and social media technologies threaten young people’s mental health, increase polarization, misinformation and violence, and use exorbitant amounts of natural resources, thus fuelling conflicts and the climate crisis. And growing authoritarianism compromises human rights and gender equality, access to quality and equitable education, and teacher autonomy and safety.
In this context, the Commission on the Futures of Education advises that ‘knowledge and learning are the basis for renewal and transformation’.[2] Safe and inclusive educational environments, as well as peace education, can promote conflict resolution and human rights. An education that cultivates an ethical and critical approach to science, technology, innovation and digital transformation can help address digital divides and marginalization.
How does education need to transform and adapt to the rapidly changing world today?
Accelerate progress towards all ten SDG 4 targets to help fulfil education’s potential to overcome global challenges,[3] without over-promising and over-burdening it with solving all problems alone.[4]
Use contextual, locally produced research and evidence to improve education-related decisionmaking.[5] The current approach to the use of research evidence has led to two broken feedback loops between researchers and decision makers, and between global supply and regional/national demand. It is now necessary to move beyond global evidence syntheses to increase locally relevant evidence and synthesis; improve relationships between evidence users and producers; implement systemic rewards and requirements for countries, regions and globally; build regional bridges between the global and local levels; and mobilize resources and coalitions to support the use of research and evidence.
Recognize that education always conveys values and attitudes towards social, economic and environmental issues – even those unintended – and thus promote values and attitudes that contribute to solving these challenges. According to UNESCO’s International Commission on the Futures of Education, education systems often ‘reproduce and perpetuate the very conditions that threaten our shared futures’.[6] They can also transform them. Just as quality education can build peace in people’s minds and therefore be life-saving, educational materials can also foster prejudice and intolerance. Likewise, while quality education can increase social mobility, education systems can also perpetuate socio-economic hierarchies. Finally, a quality education can allow girls to be healthier and more independent, although educational establishments can also be the locus of sexual and other violence and inequities. Professionals in other sectors recognize that more than any other sector, education has the potential to transform attitudes and behaviours in ways that will accelerate progress on their own challenges. A quality education promotes critical literacy; it develops curious minds and innovative people who seek to influence their world positively.
Address power structures for equity, justice and peace. Transforming education systems must transform power structures that enable and entrench unequal social hierarchies.[7] Transforming education systems requires transforming power relationships.[8] This means challenging the more powerful members of societies, who benefit most from the reproduction of entrenched and unequal social hierarchies. Such a transformation requires a deep understanding of the problem, based on contextually relevant data and evidence to design pertinent solutions.
What are the key levers of acceleration towards SDG 4 to unlock the transformative power of education?
Starting from where we currently stand regarding actual progress and challenges in education globally (rather than an idealized notion of where we would like education to be) the key levers to unlock the transformative power of education include more and better investment and infrastructure; effective cross-sectoral partnerships; meaningfully involving young people in decision-making; investing in transformative educators, curricula and content, pedagogies and relationships; and assessing progress on the following goals:
Higher, more equitable and more efficient investment by governments, and public and private donors in:
- developing transformative education-sector plans, policies and disaggregated data systems
- research and evidence that is contextually relevant, and locally produced and used
- redistributive national and local budgets, placing a burden to pay on those who are able
- a sustainable global tax regime to support increasing national budgets[9]
- financing mechanisms that that put outcomes, equity and quality first
- systemic leverage points that would unlock the effective achievement of all SDGs[10]
- key levers for transformational educational priorities (detailed below)
Building effective cross-sectoral partnerships: The latest research identifies five pathways to partnership effectiveness – goal setting and attainment, value creation for partners, collaboration inside the partnership, impact on affected populations, and influence on institutions and collaborations outside the partnership.[11] Keeping these central to discussions and negotiations when establishing cross-sector collaborations will set them up for success at the outset, and for monitoring and learning throughout. Working productively with other sectoral professionals requires identifying their mutual effects, contributions and investments in diverse contexts, and making the case for collaborative, co-funded and co-led work.
Building safe, resilient and sustainable facilities and surrounding environments, protecting individuals and addressing cross-sectoral priorities: From schools to ministries, infrastructure should be protected from physical[12] and digital[13] attack, and quickly rebuilt if damaged. Public procurement procedures should include educators and avoid predatory procurement, pricing and government capture by one firm, especially in educational technologies. Government and school policies and practices should provide an environment that is safe, supportive of marginalized and vulnerable populations, and sustainable. Infrastructure should also directly address the needs of learners and teachers, ensuring accessibility, eliminating gender-related barriers, and providing safe spaces for all. Additionally, infrastructure should address cross-sectoral priorities (such as combating gender-based violence, promoting community reconciliation and reconstruction, providing school meals and enhancing technology skills).
Involving young people in decision-making at all levels of the education system: Improving youth engagement – at the school, community, district, national and international levels – will yield systemic impacts to achieve Future Actions 34 and 35 of the Pact for the Future (‘Youth and Future Generations’ pillar)[14] and SDG 4 more generally. Involving youth as partners in decision-making increases the chances that decisions will be accepted and integrated into their daily lives. Research shows that engaging youth, especially from marginalized communities, fosters positive development, motivation, and ownership. Moreover, when youth participate in policy, curriculum and school governance, they gain valuable skills like critical thinking, problem-solving and communication.[15]
Investing in transformative educators, curricula and content, pedagogies and relationships: Investing in educators means supporting their professional development, socio-emotional and physical safety and well-being, and ensuring they have appropriate (and implemented) work contracts, conditions and pay. Quality educators who are treated as such are more likely to work in ways that support students’ right to quality education. Teachers who are empowered and protected from violence can empower and protect their students.
Ensuring quality educational content, including curricula and digital and analogue teaching materials, supports learners and teachers, education administrators and managers, and other stakeholders to examine, challenge and change attitudes (based on age, disability, ethnicity, gender, rural/urban, migration or socio-economic status, etc.) that harm individuals, society, environment and prosperity. Place equity and relevance at the core of educational transformation, considering contemporary challenges across all subjects to develop the knowledge, skills and values that will help everyone reach their fullest potential, interact with others respectfully, and engage meaningfully with their environment while building social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Using participatory, relational and collaborative pedagogies stimulates a love of learning and creativity; builds technical and critical literacies; and supports equity, health, inclusion, innovation, peace and sustainable consumption. Teaching that is technology-led or from instructional scripts is less successful at building the skills and competencies required for transformative change.
Fostering positive relationships between teachers and learners, teachers and parents, and schools and homes supports cognitive development and learning, and socio-emotional well-being for all. Positive school-community relationships allow schools to become hubs for intergenerational learning and community-building. International, regional and local collaborations among all education stakeholders promote learning and knowledge exchange, along with values of openness and equity. Pre-service teacher training should include such positive relationship-building; in-service mentoring can also contribute to fostering positive school environments.
Assessing and monitoring progress allows education stakeholders to measure what they treasure, rather than treasure what can be measured: People feel accountable for what is monitored, and therefore what is monitored should reflect the key challenges. Monitoring should empower education stakeholders to actively ‘test–learn–adapt’, so that data collection can help improve practices and outcomes.39 Disaggregating data by factors of marginalization (e.g. age, disability, ethnicity, gender, location, migration or socio-economic status, and others that are locally relevant) allows tracking progress in equity and inclusion throughout the key levers described above.
[1] United Nations Summit of the Future. 2024. Pact for the Future – Revision 3, 30 August. 2024. https://www.un.org/en/summit-of-the-future/pact-for-the-future-revisions
[2] UNESCO International Commission on the Futures of Education. 2022. Reimagining Our Futures Together: A new social contract for education, p. 126. Paris, UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707
[3] J. D. Sachs, G. Schmidt-Traub, M. Mazzucato, D. Messner, N. Nakicenovic and J. Rockström. 2019.Six transformations to achieve the sustainable development goals, Nature Sustainability, 2(9), pp. 805–814. https://www.jeffsachs.org/s/Sachset-al-2019_Six-Transformations-to-Achieve-the-SDGs.pdf
[4] D. Soltys and D. Orynbassarova. 2013. Delivering Environmental Education in Kazakhstan Through Civic Action: SecondWave Values and Governmental Responses. Environmental Values. 22(1), pp. 101 – 122. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23460964
[5] G. Steiner-Khamsi and M. V. Faul, with C. Baek, A. Numa Hopkins and K. Iwabuchi. 2022. Improving the use of evidence for education planning, policy and practice: A study commissioned by UNESCO. Paris, UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000388747
[6] UNESCO International Commission on the Futures of Education. 2022. Reimagining Our Futures Together: A new social contract for education, p. 11. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707
[7] See, for example, recent GEM Reports on technology (2023) and non-states actors (2022)
[8] Ibid.
[9] United Nations. 2022. Transforming Education Summit Call to Action: Financing Education, New York, United Nations.
[10] Using World Bank data, Laumann et al. 2022. found that in the Global South, SDG4 is ranked as the most important of all SDGs to achieve the full SDG agenda.
[11] L. B. Andonova, M. V. Faul and D. Piselli (eds). 2022. Partnerships for Sustainability in Contemporary Global Governance: Pathways to Effectiveness. London, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003148371
[12] Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. 2023. https://protectingeducation.org/
[13] M. West. 2023. An Ed-Tech Tragedy? Educational technologies and school closures in the time of COVID-19. Paris, UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386701.locale=en
[14] United Nations Summit of the Future. 2024. Pact for the Future – Revision 3, 30 August 2024. https://www.un.org/en/summit-of-the-future/pact-for-the-future-revisions
[15] Youth.gov. 2024.