Conference Agenda

This panel - titled “Leading the Future of Learning Together”, examines how education system leaders can cultivate spaces for meaningful dialogue, research exchange, and practical partnership development while enacting a coherent theory of change grounded in Pasi Sahlberg’s work on transformational leadership. Drawing on Sahlberg’s Strategic Leadership Framework, the session foregrounds three school‑level leadership imperatives; thinking ahead, delivering within, and leading across; as a way of organizing both the panel’s contributions and its aspirations for impact. In doing so, the panel positions international collaboration not simply as an exchange of ideas, but as a deliberate strategy for system transformation oriented toward equity, community, and shared responsibility for creating a “great school for all students.” Dennis Shirley’s analysis of successful future facing international networks significantly deepens and extends Sahlberg’s theory of change by specifying how thinking ahead, delivering within, and leading across can be enacted through five mutually reinforcing “new imperatives of educational change” (Shirley, 2019).

The current global climate demands, perhaps more than ever, that we consider how to contextualize research, derive actionable meaning from literature, and foster robust educational dialogue between nations, policymakers, and system leaders. This proposal outlines an international panel bringing together the diverse perspectives of educational leaders from Finland, Canada, Australia, and Norway, systems that are each grappling with the future of learning while maintaining a dual focus on excellence and equity. Framing their work through Sahlberg’s theory of change, panelists will explore how strategic leadership can connect policy vision, local innovation, and cross‑border learning into a coherent pathway for lasting change.

Key outcomes

The panel will explore the following themes as concrete expressions of the Strategic Leadership Framework and as pathways for translating research into action:

• Insight sharing (Thinking ahead): How participating nations use research‑informed foresight to shape education policy, anticipate emerging challenges, and craft sustainable narratives about the future of learning (Sahlberg, 2011).
• Strengthening professional networks (Delivering within and leading across): How system leaders and researchers collaborate on joint initiatives, including networked professional learning, co‑designed interventions, and reciprocal school partnerships, to encourage deep knowledge transfer and capacity building.
• Policy dialogue (Thinking ahead and delivering within): How each system responds to pressing challenges; such as inequality, workforce instability, and digital disruption; while maintaining a commitment to long‑term system health rather than short‑term fixes (Hargreaves, 2009).
• Research collaboration and translation (Delivering within): How cross‑cultural studies on pedagogy, wellbeing, and learning can be embedded into system routines, enabling schools to act as sites of inquiry that inform policy and practice across borders.
• Cultural understanding and global citizenship (Leading across): How education systems design student, teacher, and leader exchanges that foster mutual understanding, global citizenship, and shared responsibility for the future of democracy and public education (Sahlberg, 2011).

These outcomes are intended to demonstrate how a clearly articulated theory of change can anchor international collaboration, ensuring that joint work is cumulative and transformational rather than episodic or symbolic.

By synthesizing diverse perspectives across policy, research, and practice, this panel invites a generative space for sustained international collaboration grounded in a shared theory of change. Drawing on the Strategic Leadership Framework, the session positions thinking ahead, delivering within, and leading across as mutually reinforcing dimensions of transformational leadership that can guide education systems toward more equitable, community‑oriented, and future‑ready forms of schooling. This session provides a forum for education systems in Finland, Canada, Australia, and Norway to learn from one another, co‑construct solutions to shared challenges, and collectively shape the future of teaching and learning through intentional, strategic, and internationally connected leadership.