Past Program

Democracy is stagnating or declining in many parts of the world and conflict is increasing. The spread of misinformation continues to rise, leading to an erosion of trust, which was particularly egregious during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many societies and communities are becoming increasingly polarized and fractured, with new fault lines emerging along identity lines.

K-12 and higher education has an important role to play in addressing these issues. Schools can normalize democratic practices, help young people develop the skills and the mindset to understand the difference between fact and opinion, and help them learn how to disagree agreeably, or find points of contact and empathy. As momentum around a global education transformation agenda continues to build there is a unique opportunity to rethink the role education can play in supporting citizens with the skills and behaviors to thrive and live harmoniously in our complex 21st century societies.

The hybrid program built new insights and aggregated perspectives and experiences from relevant sectors, areas of expertise, and regions. Thematic working groups prepared recommendations for action. Participants:

EXPERIENCED

• A candid, safe and open exchange with peers under the Chatham House Rule.
• Time and space to disconnect and reflect from a wider ecosystem perspective.

GAINED

• Connection to an active international community of outstanding leaders working on this topic.
• Inspiration and learning from across the world and foresight into directions for future work.
• Relationships for coalition building across organizational, professional and national boundaries.
• Access to a vast network of Salzburg Global Fellows working on similar pursuits.

GAVE AND RECEIVED

• Promising practices, and drawon the group’s collective intelligence and experience to tackle challenges you face and leverage important opportunities.
• Opportunities for peer mentoring on ways to incubate, replicate, adapt and scale good practices.

The program addressed a wide range of key questions, including:

• How can education normalize and support democratic practices?
• How are schools and universities helping students develop critical thinking skills to distinguish between fact and opinion?
• How does the experience of school help students develop their own sense of identity?
• What are the skills needed to disagree agreeably?
• What might a curriculum for activists look like?
• Does language learning help with the development of empathy?
• Which systems are already offering models for the future?

Salzburg Global Seminar’s Education for Tomorrow’s World programs bring together cross-sector and intergenerational change-makers to tackle complex challenges. This program involved policymakers, civil society, researchers, school leaders, youth leaders, innovators and stakeholders from around the world who are engaged in civic and civil education.

All images are available for download. Please credit Salzburg Global Seminar/Christian Streili. Unwatermarked images are available on request.

During the program, assistant professor of communication studies in the Faculty of Human Sciences at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa and Salzburg Global Fellow Jessica Roberts delivered the 2023 Salzburg Global Center for Education Transformation Lecture. The lecture was kindly supported by the US Embassy in Vienna.