Creating shared meaning around ‘Education’
10 February 2020, Kuwait City: All throughout 2019 we were told by our community that the most pressing issue in Kuwait was the state of education. Everyone we spoke to, be it youth, our stakeholders from the private sector or our peers in the civic space—wanted to work on creating a stronger educational culture. We engaged educators, designers, and student leaders and change makers across sectors to join the Collective Impact Coalition (CIC), and they are now working to create shared meaning and objectives for reform. We chose Collective Impact as our tool because it is driven by the values of inclusivity, collaboration and transparency, which we believe are a powerful force in addressing community needs.
Big questions about equity, engagement, and what the future holds for our youth are being asked. How do we create those spaces where students love to learn, and are co-creators in the learning experience? How can we make sure that education is equitable, effective, relevant, and creative? We looked for risk-takers, innovators, complex thinkers, dreamers, and people who care deeply about creating just and compassionate institutions of learning.
Over the last nine months, the coalition has been able to identify and define its common agenda, key priority areas and working groups. Our next step will be to create shared measurements, which will enable us to collect much-needed data, identify the most strategic interventions moving forward, as well as to assess the impact of the coalition’s overall efforts. We will be engaging the wider community in this process, to ensure that our work remains grounded in the needs and experiences of our stakeholders. By focusing on inclusion and participation, we also hope to spark innovative and out-of-the-box ideas that can lead to long-term systems change.
To find out more about the CIC, contact our Program Lead Eleanor Burton Al Issa at programs@envearth.com.
