Reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education

On Tuesday 12th April, at 5 PM (CET)  Dialoghi delle Cattedre UNESCO with the Municipality of Lucca will present the UNESCO report on new educational approaches on the YouTube channel of the Municipality of Lucca. Lucca, also included in the world network of Unesco Learning Cities since 2020, is the first Italian city to have formally adopted the report and to present it.

In addition to the Councillor Vietina, participants to the event will include Enrico Vicenti, Secretary general of the Italian National Commission for UNESCO, Domenico Simeone, Director of the UNESCO Chair in Education for Human Development and Solidarity among Peoples – Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Alessandra Nardini, Regional Councillor for Education, Training, University and Research, Sobhi Tawil, Director of the Future of Learning and Innovation Team at UNESCO Paris, Fernando M. Reimers, Professor of International Education – Harvard Graduate School of Education,
and Abdelbasset Ben Hassen, President of the Arab Institute for Human Rights. The meeting is moderated by Annateresa Rondinella, Focal Point Lucca Learning City. The concluding remarks are entrusted to Vincenzo Buonomo, Dean of the Pontifical Lateran University and Director of the UNESCO Chair on the Future of Education for Sustainability and Raúl Valdés-Cotera, Team Leader of the Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) at UNESCO Hamburg. Translations will be made by Claudia Fini and Tessa Wiechmann.

The aim of the Report is to rethink education and shape the future through a global debate focused on rethinking knowledge, education and learning in a world of increasing complexity, uncertainty and precariousness. The main actors indicated by the Report are teachers, governments, civil society, young people, students, cities and universities.

Starting from the contents of the New Social Contract for Education, the meeting aims to provide some ideas for cross-cutting thinking, aimed precisely at the categories of individual actors. The question to look for an answer is “how can education build the future?”. The proposal derived from the new UNESCO Report captures the need to provide knowledge and innovation to create sustainable, peaceful futures characterized by social, economic and environmental justice. In this context, discussion and reflection on roles, approaches, pedagogical, relational, methodological and governance, curricula and educational structures will be encouraged. Structured workshops for working groups will be created from this first meeting, where specific areas of dialogue, evaluation and sharing of best practices will be developed.