Imagine opening the doors of your home, finally free from the loneliness that has stopped the world, but then feeling a sense of disconnection from humanity. That’s how we felt coming out of the first COVID lockdown of 2020. Adrift for months in the digital sea of social media, watching the changing seasons through the window and endlessly staring at a screen, we were all searching for connection with others. Yet, the post-COVID world has seen the creation of ever-widening echo-chambers. Socio-cultural divides, rising income inequality leading to resentment and unrest, the escalation of environmental effects caused by climate change and the consequent rise of climate deniers, the global spread of the “us versus them” mentality, and a continued decline in trust in institutions. Therefore, we felt the need for a collective reaction against this polarization. After all, it is an issue that affects us all.
Systems scientist Peter Senge said that “sharing knowledge does not mean giving something to people or getting something from them. This applies only to information sharing. Knowledge sharing happens when people are genuinely interested in helping each other develop new capacities for action.” Organizing knowledge sharing initiatives and connecting people from diverse backgrounds are the tools we need to address the global challenges that affect us daily. We need to give ourselves the time and space to learn from each other.
Significant ideas, movements and inventions that have made progress possible for the human race have been based on the principles of openness, collaboration and knowledge sharing. For example, the development of the Internet, which has revolutionized every aspect of our lives-the way we communicate, connect and build relationships-was made possible by these principles. ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the precursor to the Internet as we know it, was founded on a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing among scientists and a noncommercial ethos focused on decentralization and openness. On these same principles, Tim Berners-Lee, in 1989, created the World Wide Web and made it available to all for free. If you are reading this from a digital device, it is this culture and the people who embodied its principles that make it all possible.
The decision to cultivate a culture of knowledge sharing often stems from a deeply rooted belief in human prosperity and well-being. It creates a sense of community and connection, uniting individuals across geographic and cultural boundaries in a shared commitment to the common good. We saw how this came to life in Teach For India, where a group of young people, working with students, challenged the idea that saw children as passive recipients of knowledge and reinvented the meaning of excellent education. They insisted on intergenerational partnerships in which students themselves have the power and opportunity to improve the systems that affect their education, their communities and their futures. Through the principles of knowledge sharing and collaboration, this idea has spread through the Teach For All global network, taking root in contexts thousands of miles from India. Today, children in Teach For Zimbabwe teacher-fellow classrooms are designing and leading projects to combat the negative effects of climate change and food insecurity in their communities. In Teach For Romania classrooms and communities, students are addressing bullying in their schools through deep collaboration with teachers, parents and communities. Globally, Teach For All has established its first youth-led Student Leader Advisory Council in the belief that all children have the potential not only to navigate the world they will inherit, but also to lead it.
We have seen over and over again in our collective history how knowledge sharing enables greater progress, greater equity and greater opportunity for more people. Change begins when we refuse to accept the status quo that favors competition over collaboration and the logic of silos over community.
Although we know this, we continue to live in a world where knowledge sharing to promote education is severely limited. Take a moment to think about our current educational systems. Our students spend most of their learning time working individually. Our teachers are isolated in classrooms with little time or incentive to collaborate with their fellow teachers. Our schools are working tirelessly to demonstrate their impact and secure continued funding to keep the doors open, leaving little room for sharing best practices.
In 2021 in Italy, nearly one in four students dropped out of school or finished school without acquiring the minimum basic skills; moreover, implicit dropout, although declining slightly (to 9.7 percent) in 2022, is more than double for learners from less advantaged families and nearly quadruple for learners whose background data are not available. As we leave the United Nations Annual General Assembly (UNGA) and attend the Teach For All global conference in Nairobi, Kenya, one thing is clear: the fourth Development Goal, which aims to “ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education that leads to relevant primary and secondary education and effective learning outcomes,” has not yet been achieved and we are far behind schedule. Education is the only way to find solutions to global challenges, and knowledge sharing is the only way to improve education globally. In Italy, this lag translates, on the one hand, into the alarming percentages of students who leave high school without the necessary average skills in mathematics and text comprehension, while, on the other hand, we record high percentages of young people who, having left school too early, do not study, do not find work, and do not train to obtain the skills necessary to find future employment (NEET). The causes of this situation are many, including often inadequate investment, missed reforms, and few incentives for change within the education system. However, it is important to emphasize that it is in the leadership of young people that we can find the medicine to cure a sick world, and the more young people work together, the more promising the future.
We need to rethink the purpose of education. We need to consider the possibility that knowledge sharing is not simply something “nice,” but a “must-have.” It not only offers short-term solutions, but has the power to create long-term systemic changes. Young people have experienced the same period of isolation as the rest of the world. The only difference is that they experienced this moment of world change at a time in our social development when we needed connection and community the most. They came back from that isolation hungrier than ever to share, collaborate and learn together. The world needs to tap this potential. Young people must have the opportunity to see firsthand the impact of knowledge sharing and harness their leadership potential to create the future we all desire.
As we look ahead to the Teach For All Global conference in Nairobi, one thing is clear: We must continue to cultivate the principles of openness, collaboration and knowledge sharing. It is on this foundation that young people will be able to access the essential leadership skills they need in an increasingly uncertain world. Excellent education is how we solve global challenges, and knowledge sharing is how we improve education on a global scale. We believe that it is in the leadership of young people that we will find the missing piece, and the more we show young people the value of collaboration, the more promising our future will be.
The article Global knowledge sharing can transform Italy’s education system comes from TheNewyorker.
