Big Change, Lego Foundation and the Brookings Institution have launched the global Big Education Conversation initiative at the United Nation’s Transforming Education Summit in New York.
“This is such an exciting opportunity for young people to be the true drivers of change! The Big Education Conversation platform will allow us to take control of the conversation on education and help shape the global education agenda.”
Inés Yábar, aged 26, from Restless Development
On Friday 16th September, Eloïse Haylor from Big Change and Inés Yábar from Restless Development joined a team of youth facilitators for the first live global Big Education Conversation with over 500 people. Youth leaders and activists, policymakers, civil society organisations and education Ministers, came together to mark the beginning of Big Change’s ultimate aim to inspire one million inclusive conversations to transform education.
Many countries have education systems that do not work for all children or fully prepare them for their futures. The Big Education Conversation (BEC) supports people and communities around the world to come together to talk about what education is really for and to generate ideas and commitments to change. Conversations about the purpose of education are important in transforming education systems, as shown in countries as diverse as Portugal, Scotland and Egypt. They help different groups, like students, parents, educators, and government leaders, to come together, discuss their beliefs and hopes, and develop a shared vision for education in their community or country.
“I have become convinced that putting power in the hands of students to drive their own purpose in education is one of the most important changes in education during our time.”
Franco Mosso, Enseña Perú
In our global research “A New Education Story: Three Drivers to Transform Education Systems” together with RewirED, Teach for All, HundrED, OECD, and others, we identified Purpose as one of three drivers for transforming education systems. This means redefining the goals and outcomes of the system, and must include involving the public and communities, and especially young people, in defining the new purpose, as well as revealing and challenging the shared assumptions blocking transformation through inclusive and supported dialogues.
For the past three years Big Change, working with Whole Education and other partners, has been developing and testing the Big Education Conversation in England. As well as playing a key role in the global initiative as a founding partner, Big Change is the lead partner for Big Education Conversation in England, linked to its ambitions to empower young people and the public to set a new direction for learning. We are keen to build a network of BEC partners who will lead and support activity in a range of contexts locally, regionally and nationally.
Everyone can take part:
Visit the global website www.bigeducationconversation.org to take the global survey, access conversation resources and add your conversations to the global map.
The materials are published in English, Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Swahili. They will be available in all UN languages by the end of 2022.
Follow the Big Education Conversation on social media #BigEdConversation #MillionConversations
For more information or to contact the team email: info@bigeducationconversation.org