Educational Ecosystems for Societal Transformation - An Interview with Pavel Luksha

The global education system has been long criticised for its inability to adapt to the changing needs of society.

The Si London Hub had the pleasure of interviewing Pavel Luksha, a global thinker, change catalyst, and facilitator, who has been working towards systemic social innovations in education. This interview is just one part of a series of interviews and workshops on our Educational Challenge where we bring together those interested in fostering systemic change in the education sector.?

According to Luksha, the current education system either reproduces the current society or fosters a new society. However, our current system has built-in protections that make it difficult to effect change on a wide scale. This is one of the motivations that the Si London Hub is working towards setting up a new 'educational lab' to address some of the leverage points.?

In our interview, Luksha explains how the education system serves various degrees of relevance, depending on the needs that exist in current nations. For instance, there have been discussions on increasing PISA scores. PISA is the OECD metric that evaluates participating countries' education systems by analysing 15-year-olds' scores in reading, mathematics and science. This is one example of how the system is geared towards preparing individuals for examinations and careers.?

Disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are now encouraging educational institutions to adapt, now that AI can write academic essays within seconds.

We now have no choice but to ask ourselves "how might we foster a socio-cultural transformation in the educational system that develops new mindsets"??        

For example, there is a current need to learn empathy and collaborate better, transforming whom we are, not just learning new skills. There are, unfortunately, many disparities between us and the planet and within society as a result of growth, which is not distributed equitably. The fourth revolution presents an opportunity to expand opportunities and start reinventing the system.

Luksha sees the concept of education as much broader than the schooling and higher education systems. In other words, it should be something that is present in every layer of society. He acknowledges that takes place in a variety of contexts, for example within the family unit, with friends, by oneself and whilst travelling. Therefore, there is a need to make it more explicit, including the potential to learn together. There is also a need to start thinking of learning environments, which presents an opportunity to build learning ecosystems. New projects and educational approaches are needed to foster educational ecosystems.

Luksha describes the concept of 'weaving' which is the practice of interconnecting people, projects, and places in synergistic and purposeful ways.?This is a pro-active movement that takes place in the concept of a 'weaving lab' where the purpose of the collaboration is to enact systemic change. He acknowledges that this requires new leadership and involves all types of learning environments where a range of community stakeholders are working together to shape the system to support lifelong learning journeys.?He also describes 'learning for driveability which fosters collective flourishing and is difficult to imagine in an institution that fosters lifelong learning. However, learning providers can work together to strengthen their relationships between each other instead of operating in isolation.

The future of education will involve a huge wave of new innovations that are starting to come in now. Education is becoming more holistic, involving more collaboration and empathy. AI has the potential to disrupt education, providing opportunities for learning providers to reinvent themselves and discover their purpose in this new educational ecosystem.

From all of us here at the Si London Hub, we are grateful and have been inspired by Luksha's insights. The Educational Challenge offers a unique opportunity to be part of the movement towards creating a new educational ecosystem. We invite you to join us and become part of the movement that will help shape the future of education.?

Join the journey to explore a systemic change in education!?

Our next event in this?#educationchallenge?is going to be a workshop around Rethinking Education Systems with the Iceberg Model, it will be held on 30th March 30th at 3 pm UK time

Event Details: https://bit.ly/3JzEazb

You can read the paper here:?https://bit.ly/3ILNFuz