Schools as Drivers of Change

Coordinated by the University of Eastern Finland, the project is missioned through practical experimentation in 5 schools from different countries to create guidance and best practice to secondary schools from across Europe wishing to engage in the process of becoming a “school as a driver of change”.

The education NEEDS to give the young generation the competences, skills and capacity to live and learn and work in the globalised 21st century.

As solidly demonstrated by research and by the EU Commission secondary school needs fundamental change: from traditional classroom and teacher- oriented education to real-life based open schooling through which the young students acquire the capacity to act in society, to take initiatives and to manage constant change. In short this is called capacity to agency, capacity to be “change agents” (OECD).

Such agency cannot be taught in traditional classrooms, but only acquired through deep engagement in real-life- time challenges in the students’ local and global communities.

This project assumes that achieving such agency can only happen to the extent that THE SCHOOL ITSELF BECOMES A DRIVER OF CHANGE. Hence, during the project schools create basic eco-systems of community collaborations for the students to tap into when engaging in learning through becoming change agents.

Learning through becoming a “change agent” includes all the challenges, as well as resources, the student needs to develop such skills, competences and capacity.