On International Day of Education 2022, we asked faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and doctoral fellows within the International and Comparative Education Program what education issues or priorities they are reflecting on this year. As you will read below, from artificial intelligence to education in emergencies and the redistribution of power within global education, we are focused on a diverse range of concerns and opportunities. Most of all, however, we coalesce around one key concept: more than ever, education matters!
Dr. Oren Pizmony-Levy: "International Education Day is a good opportunity to reflect on the important role of formal and informal education in addressing the most serious threat to planet Earth – the climate crisis. Schools have a potential to inform and empower students, parents, and communities about climate change and ways we can work together to mitigate the impact of climate change on society and the environment. This includes skills to recognize misleading information on climate change (that can usually be traced directly to special interests). However, schools are not the only place where education is happening. Daily life activities related to work, family or leisure (e.g., media, social media, and culture) provide ample occasions to engage with climate change. On this day, I am thankful to educators worldwide who are promoting climate change education!"
Dr. Felisa Tibbitts: "Today, International Education Day, I am reminded of the work still to do in ensuring equitable access to quality education. I also feel the urgent necessity to infuse values and practices related to human rights and environmental sustainability."
Dr. Mary Mendenhall: "I am reminded of the educators and learners whose lives have been disrupted by conflict and disasters (that preceded the current health pandemic) who persevere despite limited resources and support at both policy and practice levels. Moving forward, we need to continue to find tangible and meaningful ways for their collective experiences to better inform the work at local, national and global levels across the humanitarian and development sectors."
Professor Gita Steiner-Khamsi: "COVID-19, and the international travel ban, has actually been a window of opportunity for international organizations to channel funds for expertise, management oversight, monitoring and evaluation to the local level. Even though many international organizations (e.g., USAID, World Bank, SDC, and in fact the entire UN system) have started, for a variety of reasons, a reorganization towards reducing or breaking up headquarters in the Global North and strengthening the country level in the Global South, the pandemic helps to sustain these reorganization plans. Whether the shift to the local level also actually entails a greater voice and more weight for local expertise, however, remains to be seen. For sure, the pandemic of 2020, 2021, and 2022 have created a momentum for shifting discursive power from the global to the local. Let’s hope that the pandemic ends this year but this important shift stays and is implemented rigorously and systematically."
Dr. Carol Benson: "I will be reflecting on the fact that education does not simply mean training teachers, building schools and getting learners into them. Education requires communication and interaction between learners, teachers/facilitators, and parents/family members. For many learners in low-income and otherwise vulnerable contexts, the school system does not make constructive use of their languages and ways of knowing, and may even prohibit them. Instead of building on what learners know and can do, schools set them up to fail, and millions do. School programs that build on learners’ languages, literacies and experiences are more equitable and represent the true meaning of education."
Dr. Radhika Gorur: "What amazes me is that, after billions of dollars spent in aid, and the work of numerous experts who have worked with zeal and determination, there are so many children in the world without access to basic education. COVID has highlighted the inequities in society and it has reinforced how fragile any gains made so far have been. We have to fundamentally rethink how we organize aid and ‘development’. COVID has also highlighted that the disciplines of economics, medicine, sociology, cultural anthropology, government and politics - all need to be more focused on the impacts of their theories and practices on societies and individuals - and refocus their attention to ethics, equity and care. On this International Day of Education I am reflecting on how much work there is for us to do - as researchers and practitioners!"
Dr. Carine Verschueren: "As we are facing a global mental health crisis, I am reflecting today on the importance of caring as educators, not only to support our students and colleagues in this fast-changing world, but also to emphasize our interconnectedness and model caring for each other and our planet for a more sustainable world."
Dr. Pieter Vanden Broek: "Following a second year in which we see the world grappling with a pandemic, it is ever more important to understand how the past and future of education are interacting within the vibrant disruptions that are gaining momentum around the globe, whether in the guise of mega-platforms, algorithmically tailored learning pathways or other forms of automated instruction."
Dr. Raksha Vasudevan: "I am reflecting today on lessons from two of my teachers on what it means to build a learning community of love, a community based on compassion and justice: https://www.lionsroar.com/bell-hooks-and-thich-nhat-hanh-on-building-a-community-of-love/"
Arnerla Čolić: "On this International Education Day, I am reflecting on the ways in which education brings hope to so many across the world and on all of the potential and possibility that it has yet to unlock. How can we in the field help realize that potential?"
Chris Henderson: "Today I will be reflecting on the many education issues that COVID-19 has brought to the fore; issues that we have long known about in conflict and crisis-affected contexts, but have now piqued global attention due to the widespread impact of the pandemic. In particular, my hope on International Education Day 2022 is that we recognize the indispensable and ever more vital role of teachers everywhere and for everyone. Let’s ensure all teachers have the support, systems, and security they need to do the work that our children and planet depend on."
Marcella Winter: "Today, I remember all the efforts from scholars, educators, practitioners, and policymakers in the Global South to create policies and pedagogies attuned to local populations' aims and needs. I'll also be reflecting on the need to develop schooling alternatives not for communities but with them."
Darren Rabinowitz: "I will be grappling with the reality that the world has completely changed since the onset of the pandemic. Particularly, I think about how we put on hold, reenvisioned and contemplated every aspect of our lives. If the world can reorient in a week if there is a problem that presents itself that appears as threatening as a pandemic, then how can other challenges particularly in the field of education also elicit a similar global response. What will it take?"