About Us

Theory of Change

There are 3 billion young people living in an increasingly difficult world – a world of accelerating volatility, complexity and hyperconnectivity – exploding population, migration and automation – and intensifying social, economic and environmental problems.

To thrive together in the modern world, we can no longer afford to do what we have always done, or be blindly compliant. We cannot rely on centralised decision-making or an elite few to command the rest. Everyone shapes the world – Everything we do has consequences, and every consequence causes a response. Everyone should understand their influence on the world and become empowered to make positive change throughout their lives. Becoming empowered as a changemaker is a lifelong process of becoming equipped with (and inclined to use) a complex array of deeply connected knowledge, skills, attitudes and values – qualities like empathy, self-awareness, curiosity, creativity, and thoughtfulness. Becoming a changemaker means (bold) empowering the whole person for the whole world. Academic attainment is not enough and cannot be our primary measure of success in education.

To empower the whole person for the whole world, it is essential to provide a wide range of empowering learning experiences throughout childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Empowering experiences should be provided in schools but schools cannot do it alone. It takes many actors to shape such experiences -families, friends and peers, health and social workers, educators and school leaders, employers, policy makers, culture-makers, the media and many more. To provide empowering experiences to everyone, we need to bring about new learning ecosystems where all these actors work together to develop whole and empowered persons.

To create empowering learning ecosystems, everyone must play their part, but a few people will always lead the way: (bold) Change Leaders are those who pioneer systemic innovations and transformations and who establish new norms. Change Leaders around the world are now organising themselves into vibrant communities, and collaborating in teams to bring about empowering learning ecosystems everywhere.

Some Change Leaders specialise as Weavers, helping other Change Leaders align, collaborate and increase their systemic impact. Weaving is a complex role that involves nurturing communities and organising teams; building capacity and curating knowledge; catalysing conversations and growing demand. Weavers and weaving are essential to creating learning ecosystems.

The GCL is committed to helping Weavers and Change Leaders become more aligned, collaborative and systemic. We do this by:
1. Building communities and teams of Weavers and Change Leaders.
2. Building capacity for effecting ecosystemic change through learning journeys, exchanges, and knowledge co-curation.
3. Building conversations and demand for ecosystemic change.

By helping each other in these ways, The GCL aims to foster the worldwide emergence of learning ecosystems that empower everyone to contribute to a better world.

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What We Do

Weaving Institutional Partnerships. We inspire and empower Change Leaders to become more aligned, collaborative and systemic. We address the need for Change Leaders to work in teams within (and between) organisations – forging collaborative partnerships that have major systemic impact.

Prototypes

 

The main purpose of GCL Collaborative is to support the creation of city, district and national learning ecosystems that will empower people of all ages – young people in particular. In 2018, 22 GCL teams will commence or continue experiments to grow such ecosystems in different regions of the world. If your team is already working on creating ecosystemic education, or if you are interested in launching an experiment, please contact [email protected] to discuss how to join.

Learning Journeys

 

In 2018, we will organize several local and international education & training programs that will support the capabilities and will enhance teams of Weavers and Change Leaders. If you are interested to become an organizational partner of a program in your region, or if you are interested in developing the capacity of your team with our programs, please contact [email protected]

Research and Best Practices

 We partner with research institutions and think tanks that enhance our collective understanding of instruments and processes that catalyze and steer transformation of educational systems. We are also interested in documenting, cataloguing and promoting practices that create empowering learning experiences for young people – or support the emergence of learning ecosystems, including best practices of weaving. If you have an ongoing project or an opportunity for new research that is relevant to our needs, please contact [email protected] to discuss opportunities.