The Transformative Potential of Social Innovation for, in and by Education

Abstract

One of the most important challenges for our society is how we view and organise learning and education. To respond to this challenge the European Commission stimulated a debate in order to generate forward-looking policy ideas. A specific topic addressed is the likely future development and importance of social innovation in education. The basis for this paper is a specific foresight study investigating future trends in education and supporting elements, especially with regard to the Europe 2020 strategy and the ‘Future of Learning’ agenda. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to provide a vision of the future of social innovation in education and derive implications for the education system and policy.

Keywords:

• Education
• social innovation
• foresight
• lifelong learning
• education policy
• scenario development
• transformation
• digital technologies

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge and are thankful for the many constructive contributions by Karl-Heinz Leitner, Robert Kalcik (AIT), Lorenz Lassnigg, Mario Steiner and Stefan Vogtenhuber (IHS, Vienna) who were partners in the project team.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The study called “Prospective Report on the Future of Social Innovation in Education” was commissioned by the European Commission, DG Education, Youth, Sport, and Culture in 2019.

2 https://ec.europa.eu/education/education-in-the-eu/european-education-area_en

3 https://ec.europa.eu/education/events/forum-on-the-future-of-learning_en

4 Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics