Thought Pieces

People oftentimes ask, What becomes of children after they graduate Opal School? I imagine it’s a question that comes up in all of your schools – learning environments that prioritize community and connection, the social-emotional and the intellectual, creativity and expression, empathy and agency, conflict and beauty, democracy and citizenship.

For the past 38 years, Ashoka has been committed to identifying the most innovative ideas and dedicated social entrepreneurs and organizations that address social problems. Ashoka Fellows go beyond tackling symptoms and aim at underlying systemic causes of social challenges. In the last five years, Ashoka has elected 194 Fellows that are active in Europe. This study features Europe’s most crucial social challenges and it reflects the ways in which the Ashoka social entrepreneurs approach them. It also details the patterns of innovation that these different approaches highlight and their relevance for the broader European public agenda.

Fewer young people today experience the empowerment of education through conventional schooling alone. But when they engage with a range of resources within a broader community, charged with the power of social interaction in the connected world, learners of all ages, temperaments, and aptitudes can seize greater opportunities that better meet their needs. As learners around the globe seek both the technical skills of doing and knowing, and the soft skills of management, critical thinking, and many others, the holistic approach suggested by ecosystems challenges conventional education hierarchies and decision making.

The Fridays For Future (FFF) climate strike by high school students may well be one of the most important, yet hardly covered stories by the US media today. During the week of March 15th alone, 1.6 million strikers were counted across 125 countries. This environmental movement to reduce carbon emissions was started by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg in late 2018. In the meantime, a discussion has ensued among politicians in Germany about whether it is the right thing for students to take to the streets instead of the classroom on Fridays.

The expectations we place on teachers are high and growing. We expect them to have a deep and broad understanding of what they teach, how their students learn, and of the students themselves. But our education systems are not keeping up. Most schools look much the same today as they did a generation ago, and teachers often don’t have the opportunities to develop the practices and skills required to meet the diverse needs of today’s learners. 

Anyone who pulls the organization in new directions must look inward as well as outward. Leo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist, famously wrote, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

It seems reasonable to claim that humanity’s highest aspiration and deepest purpose is to thrive, and that thriving is synonymous with optimizing our collective wellbeing.

A reader asks: Not knowing what tasks will be automated or what future jobs will look like, how should schools prepare students now?

Ashoka is looking for leading social entrepreneurs who not only deliver direct services and provide immediate alleviation of needs but also work to change mindsets and systems in order to address root causes of a problem with a long-term perspective.

I was enjoying a stimulating conversation with the CEO of a medium sized and fast growing company about leadership effectiveness. “So what’s happening with your leadership team?” I asked him, sensing an edge of disappointment in his voice.   He reflected for a moment. “Well, they’re all terrific individually: focused, dedicated and competent in their areas; but they sit in their offices all day and don’t talk to each other” he replied…

Because the rate of change has been accelerating exponentially since at least 1700 (a mathematical fact), society is now very probably at a profound tipping point. In a world where everything is changing, everyone must become a changemaker. And everything must be organized very differently. No person, no society can afford to fall behind in grasping this.

20 years later, these articles point to what’s next. Curated by Ashoka, we plumb the data gathered in a more recent extensive study comprised of survey and interviews conducted by Ashoka over the past year and validated by LUISS University in Rome.

Three unique roles social entrepreneurs can play in driving community action and civic change.